This country has long valued the freedom of the press. Presidents have routinely communicated directly with the public, relying on traditional outlets like the news conference and the White House press corps to share policy and answer questions from the media.
The 2018 Warren G. Harding Symposium will take an in-depth look into the often complicated history of presidential press relations and today’s “war on the media” as seen through the eyes of a working member of the White House press corp, Maggie Haberman.
Attracting attendees from throughout Ohio and from around the country each year, the Harding Symposium at Ohio State Marion will be held Friday, July 20th and Saturday, July 21st. The symposium features an opening reception, the annual presidential wreath-laying ceremony at the Harding Memorial, three workshop sessions with outstanding scholars, historians and journalists, and a concluding dinner program, as well as guided tours of the Harding Home & Memorial.
Symposium featured speaker Maggie Haberman is an American journalist who is a White House correspondent for The New York Times and a political analyst for CNN. She previously worked for Politico and the New York Daily News, where she was a political reporter. Haberman’s professional career began in 1996 when she was hired by the New York Post. In 1999, the Post assigned her to cover City Hall, where she became “hooked” on political reporting. She worked for the Post’s rival newspaper, the New York Daily News, for three and a half years, where she covered city hall. Haberman returned to the Post to cover the 2008 presidential campaign and other political races. In 2014, she became a political analyst for CNN and was hired by The New York Times in early 2015 to be a political correspondent for their presidential campaign coverage during 2016.
Other experts speaking at this year’s workshop event include, Sherry Hall, Harding researcher, historian and site manager for the Harding Home and Memorial and Dr. Nicole Hemmer, professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia Miller Center.
Hall is a native of Marion, Ohio and graduated from Heidelberg University with majors in both English and American Studies. She began her career in journalism as a reporter for The Marion Star, serving as city hall and police reporter, as well as the Sunday edition editor. She later served as copy editor and bureau chief at the Canton Repository, Canton, Ohio. In 2009, she was named manager of the Harding Presidential Site after eight years as coordinator of the site's education programs. Ms. Hall is the author of Warren G. Harding and the Marion Daily Star: How Newspapering Shaped a President.
Dr. Hemmer is an expert on the history of American politics and media, working on a wide-ranging set of projects, both scholarly and public. She works in the Presidential Recordings program, focusing on the Nixon administration and its media relations, and her broader scholarship focuses on the history of conservatism and media. Hemmer is also an active public intellectual, appearing frequently in print and on air. She is a contributing editor to US News & World Report, where she writes a weekly column on politics and history.
The Warren G. Harding Symposium is an academic, social, and cultural exploration of the life and times of America's 29th president. Held annually at The Ohio State University at Marion, The Symposium presents in-depth analysis and research by authors, historians, researchers and experts on the Harding Era and related areas of interest.For more information, please contact us at 740/725-6340, or visit us at go.osu.edu/harding
The Warren G. Harding Symposium is a collaboration between The Ohio State University at Marion, the Harding Home Presidential Site, the Ohio History Connection, Marion Technical College, the Marion Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Marion Public Library.
