2025 Bennion Teachers' Workshop to Focus on Presidential Elections, American Democracy

LOGAN — The Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at Utah State University will host its 26th annual Bennion Teachers’ Workshop June 2-6 on the Logan campus.

Damon Cann and Robert Ross, both faculty in USU’s Department of Political Science, will direct this year’s workshop theme, "Presidential Elections and the Future of American Democracy.” They will be joined by notable keynote speakers and public servants, including former Utah Congressman Rob Bishop and Terry Camp, vice president of public policy for the Utah Farm Bureau Federation.

Through interactive sessions and activities, participants will examine various reforms to the American electoral system that could refresh and strengthen it. The workshop will begin with an exploration of the development of presidential election processes, including the Electoral College, the party convention system, and current mechanisms for securing party nominations.

More than just evaluating the status quo, this workshop will focus on the limitations and challenges of the current system and possible reforms for improving it with activities and discussions to consider both a variety of options for reform — direct national primaries, ranked-choice voting and electoral college reform — as well as the political feasibility of such reforms.

A keynote address with Rob Bishop will be at 6 p.m. June 4, preceded by a meet and greet reception at 5:30 p.m. in the Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching & Learning Center’s Carolyn Tanner Irish Pavilion, room 201. Bishop, who formerly taught history and debate in Brigham City and Ogden before serving in Congress from 2003-2021, will share insights gathered from decades as a teacher and public servant. The keynote address and preceding reception are open to the public.

The Bennion Teachers' Workshop for the Perpetuation of Democratic Principles is made possible by an endowment to USU’s Mountain West Center for Regional Studies.

The endowment was created by Ione Bennion, a teacher and community activist, to "provide an atmosphere and the educational resources to explore the concepts upon which democracy is built, the conditions under which it flourishes, and the dangers to its existence."

Taught by Utah State University faculty and guest speakers who represent the latest scholarship, the workshops focus on giving in-service and pre-in-service teachers practical tools that they can use in the classroom.

To learn more, please visit the Mountain West Center website: https://www.usu.edu/mountainwest/bennion-workshop/index