Think Tank grant: Profile of Gabrielle Sinnott

The current issue of Daaemen Today profiles senior Gabrielle Sinnott (History & Political Science, '19) in a cover story on Daemen's Student-Faculty Think Tank grants. Gabrielle has collaborated with Daemen faculty on two separate Think Tank projects, one of which focused around research related to The People's Forum on the American Presidency, part of the department's History & Politics Event Series, held on October 1, 2016. 

Design by Gabrielle Sinnott

The People's Forum on the American Presidencyfeatured renowned presidential scholars exploring the complicated history and memory of four American presidents: Thomas Jefferson, Grover Cleveland, Warren G. Harding, and Woodrow Wilson, whose historical reputations range from "great" to "awful," and whose legacies are complicated by issues that are seen quite differently now than in their own times.

For her Think Tank project, Gabrielle collaborated with professors Lisa Parshall and Penny Messinger to create the image used to publicize the event (shown above) and on a related research paper exploring the role of political caricature and political cartoons in shaping contemporary and historical perceptions of presidents. The event design features Jefferson and Wilson, who are generally ranked among America's best presidents, looking askance at Cleveland and Harding, their not-so-great companions who have joined Jefferson and Wilson on a revised version of Mt. Rushmore, while the people stand in judgement of all four. (Read more about The People's Forum in this blog post.)

Dr. Penny Messinger & Gabrielle Sinnott with drafts of the event design (above)

Read the full Daemen Today article about Student-Faculty Think Tanks grants here.