Experts in the News

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CNN

Biden takes office without key cabinet picks confirmed

"What needs to happen isn't a distraction from the nation's business, it's an insurance policy to make sure that we have the kind of government and the strength of democratic institutions that we need so we can move forward without violence," Melody Barnes tells CNN.
Melody Barnes
Amanda Gordon delivering inaugural poem

What does unity look like?

On Wednesday, the UVA Democracy Initiative’s leaders, Co-Director for Policy and Public Affairs Melody Barnes and Co-Director for Academic Affairs Laurent Dubois, offered their take on President Biden's call for unity.
Caroline Newman
UVA Today
CGTN

Barbara Perry on Trump's last day in office

CGTN's Asieh Namdar and Barbara Perry, a Professor and Director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia, discuss U.S. President Donald Trump's last day in office.
Barbara Perry
NPR

Photos: Historic Inauguration Will Not Look Like The Past

The scaled-down Inauguration Day events represent a loss of what some scholars call "a civil religion" that binds people together, says Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. "When we don't have the serious parts of our [civil religion], the celebratory parts of that, it's like losing one's religion and ceremonies all at the same time," she says.
Barbara Perry