GCPL Newsletter - February 2026 

The GCPL enters the spring semester with strong momentum across both programming and fundraising. Interest in our upcoming Spring Seminar has been exceptional, drawing significant engagement from across the country and abroad and reinforcing the importance of the GCPL’s role in fostering thoughtful, civil dialogue on pressing political issues. At the same time, fundraising efforts for 2026 are off to a strong start, supported by continued donor commitment and new strategic outreach in both Washington, D.C. and the Bay Area. 

Response to the GCPL’s Upcoming Spring Seminar 
On February 26, the GCPL will be hosting its spring seminar, “Where’s the Party? Analyzing the Democratic Party’s Response to the Populist Challenge by Comparing it to Populism Responses in France and Italy.” The guest speakers will be Professor Brigitte Granville of Queen Mary University in London and Professor Franco  Pavoncello of John Cabot University in Rome. We have thus far received a very strong expression of interest in this seminar. After just one week of publicizing the event, we already have over 100 confirmed attendees, which in the past has taken much longer to reach this number of attendees.  

This interest is based not only among the immediate Hiram community, but also from individuals in other parts of the country, as well in certain countries in Europe. Given this level of interest, we thought it would be useful to extend our promotion/outreach, and to directly contact both the Democratic and Republican Party leadership in Ohio, to let them know about the seminar, so that they can advertise it among their members. 

Based on the feedback we’ve thus far received for this event, our view that it is essential that the GCPL host this conversation has been reinforced. A genuine, productive, civil conversation on this topic is clearly needed at this time in our country, and is truly hard to come by. 

If you would like to join our virtual seminar on February 26 via Zoom, please find more information and the link to register here.  

GCPL Fundraising 
GCPL fundraising for 2026 is off to a very good start. This funding comes from multiple sources, all of whom are individuals who have donated previously to the GCPL. These donations demonstrate the ongoing commitment of people who strongly support the GCPL and want to ensure its continued, robust growth so that it can continue to benefit the students in the program and the college as a whole. 

At the same time, the GCPL is actively pursuing multiple avenues of new fundraising sources. In this regard, we have recently had strategic fundraising meetings with friends of the program in both the Bay Area and in Washington, D.C.  

Also in this vein: on January 16, Professor Thompson was one of the speakers at a lunch discussion for leading Cleveland businesspeople on topics relating to US foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere and beyond. Several of the people who attended this meeting were clearly interested in the sorts of programming/topics which the GCPL focuses on, and we look forward to continuing our communication with them.


James Thompson, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science
ThompsonJA@Hiram.edu 

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