‘The Presidency: Facing Constitutional Crossroads’

Michael Nelson is Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College and a senior fellow at the Miller Center. He has published multiple books, including Resilient America: Electing Nixon, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government, which won the Richard Neustadt Award for best book on the presidency published in 2014. Other recent books are The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776–2018, with Sidney Milkis (2020); The Presidency and the Political System, 12th ed.(2020); and The Elections of 2016 (2017). He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals such as the Journal of Politics and Political Science Quarterly, and in periodicals such as Virginia Quarterly Review, Claremont Review of Books, and Chronicle of Higher Education.

Barbara A. Perry is the Gerald L. Baliles Professor and director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where she co-directs the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored or edited 16 books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights and civil liberties. Perry has conducted more than 120 interviews for the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama Presidential Oral History Projects; participated in the Bill Clinton interviews; directed the Edward Kennedy Oral History Project; and co-directs the Hillary Rodham Clinton Oral History Project. She served as a U.S. Supreme Court fellow and has worked for both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate.

Russell Riley, co-chair of the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Program, is the White Burkett Miller Center Professor of Ethics and Institutions. He is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on elite oral history interviewing and the contemporary presidency. He has logged more than 1,500 hours of confidential interviews with senior members of the White House staff, cabinet officers, and foreign leaders back to the days of the Carter and Reagan Administrations.

Sean Theriault is a professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. Fascinated by congressional decision-making, he is currently researching the effect of interpersonal relationships within the U.S. Congress. He has published five books: Congress: The First Branch (with Mickey Edwards), The Great Broadening (with Bryan Jones and Michelle Whyman), The Gingrich Senators, Party Polarization in Congress, and The Power of the People. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the Friar Society Teaching Fellowship in 2009, UT Professor the Year in 2011, and the Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award in 2014. In 2012, he was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers.