The Kirwan Forum Series

Tom Schaller is the bestselling co-author of White Rural Rage and a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His work focuses on American politics with deep explorations into the inner workings of political parties, campaigns, and elections. He offers insight into how demographics such as location and race affect the kinds of leaders we elect and the impact they have on the nation. Schaller’s current focus examines polarization, the rising threats to American democracy, and what it takes to put the country back on track. 

Schaller is the author of four other books that explore politics, race, and culture. The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House and Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South are illuminating case studies into each of America’s major political parties. Common Enemies: Georgetown Basketball, Miami Football and the Racial Revolution of College Sports takes a historian’s view of the role race played in the popularization of college basketball. Schaller is also co-author of Devolution and Black State Legislators: Challenges and Choices in the Twenty-First Century.  

A former columnist for the Baltimore Sun, Schaller has published commentaries in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Republic, Politico, Salon, and American Prospect. He has been a guest on MSNBC, NPR’s All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation programs, The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS, The Colbert Report, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and is a periodic commentator on CBC Radio. He has given lectures on behalf of the U.S. State Department in over a dozen countries including Australia, Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Spain. He has taught courses on the U.S. presidency, interest group behavior, campaigns and elections, and political writing for nearly 30 years at UMBC. 

Paul Waldman is the bestselling co-author of White Rural Rage, a prominent political commentator, and an opinion columnist for MSNBC. His writing offers astute analysis of current events in American politics and elections, broader policy issues, and the media’s coverage of and influence on the entire political realm. He also pens The Cross Section on Substack, going beyond surface-level reactions to the daily political cycle to dig deep and better understand the cyclical relationship between what influences politics and how politics influence us. At the center of Waldman’s work is an ongoing exploration of the economic, social, and cultural undercurrents that shape our political world.  

Waldman is also the author of four other books on politics and the media, namely Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Can Learn from Conservative Success, The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories That Shape the Political World, Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn’t Tell You, and Free Ride: John McCain and the Media.  

In addition to his current role at MSNBC, Waldman has written for American Prospect, The Week, and most recently, the Washington Post where he wrote “The Plum Line” alongside Greg Sargent. He also co-hosts the Boundary Issues podcast where each episode unravels a major societal issue from misinformation and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to masculinity and political polarization. 

Dr. Aaliyah Baker is a faculty member in the Department of Educational Administration at The University of Dayton (Dayton, OH) where she pursues research, teaching, and scholarship in communities of practice and place. She began her career as a K12 teacher with the Milwaukee Public School system. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Multicultural Education from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Dr. Baker’s scholarship utilizes frameworks such as critical pedagogy, sociocultural theory, and critical race theory through an array of independent and collaborative research projects in local, state, national, and international forums. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, peer-reviewed books (including her recent forthcoming book, Pedagogies of Love: Homeschooling and Black Families’ Resistance to Racial Inequality in Schools), at national and international conferences, and publicly-engaged outlets. Dr. Baker’s research centers on an ethical commitment to uplifting marginalized perspectives and valuing human experience as knowledge. As an education ambassador and cultural exchange delegate, she traveled to Cuba with an interdisciplinary group of members from the National Association for Multicultural Education to foster a commitment to social justice. Dr. Baker serves as a faculty coordinator for the Moral Courage Project through the University of Dayton's Human Rights Center and faculty advisor and research chair to a diverse group of doctoral students who design, develop, and implement empirical studies focused on problems of practice as leaders in organizations. She practices interdisciplinary mentorship of graduate candidates in the fields of urban planning, public affairs, higher education academic affairs, criminal justice, and anthropology. Dr. Baker was named a Midwest Engaged Scholar of Campus Compact and a national founding member of the Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars (BFHES) Review Board of Scholars. She is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Urban Education. Dr. Baker is also the founder and owner of an educational consulting company through which she works to advance constructive dialogue around issues of race, identity, and culture and advocates for responsive practice in organizations. 

Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a historian, professor of history at Rutgers University, and main historical consultant and coexecutive producer for HBO’s The Gilded Age, whose work shines a light on racial injustice, slavery, and gender inequality. She is the author of Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, which was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Nonfiction and received the 2018 Frederick Douglass Book Award. A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught tells the story of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave who risked it all to escape the nation’s capital and reach freedom. Dunbar gives readers a glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in American history and the ensuing manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property. 

Dunbar’s most recent book, She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman, is a lively, informative, and illustrated tribute to one of the most exceptional women in American history whose fearlessness and activism still resonate today. Not only did Tubman help to liberate hundreds of slaves, she was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the Civil War, worked as a spy for the Union Army, was a fierce suffragist, and was an advocate for the aged. She Came to Slay is an accessible and modern interpretation of Tubman’s life that reveals little known facts about one of our nation’s true heroes. Dunbar’s first book, A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City, was published by Yale University Press in 2008. 

An accomplished scholar, Dunbar was named the National Director of the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH) in 2019, an organization dedicated to continuing the advancement for the study of black women’s history. In 2011, she also became the Inaugural Director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, a position she held until 2018. An in-demand speaker on the lecture circuit, Dunbar gives audiences an intimate look at the often-overlooked stories that make our country’s history so richly diverse.