2012 Presidents’ Day Lecture

February 23, 2012 , 2:45 PM - 4 PM
Location: Raytheon Amphitheater, Egan Research Center
Organizer: Department of Political Science
Speaker: W.D. Kay, Associate Professor of Political Science
Contact: polisci@neu.edu

With literally thousands upon thousands of reproductions in almost every conceivable medium (from paintings to halloween masks) and venue (from framed portraits to coffee mugs), the faces of a number of our presidents could almost be said to have achieved an iconic status in American culture. The term “iconic,” however, is somewhat misleading, as quite often the treatment of the presidential visage is, to put it kindly, highly irreverent. In general, the views of past (and present) chief executives’ features, like “views” of their performance in office, is actually a reflection of the viewers’ time and circumstance. This multimedia lecture explores this phenomenon as it has developed throughout U.S. history.