Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: None. I am only offering my help as a discussant or a panel chair

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Party leaders and committee chairs should not be studied as separate leadership positions targeting different goals, but they should be juxtaposed as “parallel leaders” who have similar objectives and similar methods of meeting those objectives.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this paper, I will outline my concept of how an electric chair-history based on Michel Foucaul's notion of discourse, or better: of the dispositiv should look like. My idea is to analyze various discursive fields which do not cause the invention of the electric chair in the literal sense of the word, but make execution with electricity appear reasonable and logical within the cultural configuration of the late 19th and early 20th century. I defined the discursive fields, which are to be considered relevant for such an analysis of capital punishment because they shape the conditions of possibility for electric executing, by closely looking at the execution performance itself. A rapid, painless, technologically advanced death should be guarantueed that, moreover, even was intended to protect a human being sentenced to death from suffering that was deemed unnecessary and barbaric. Following from that, technology, medicine, gender, and the philanthropic movement seem to be the most important fields to me. The general idea of my approach is to incorporate a history of the death penalty into a broader cultural history of the turn of the century, or, to put it the other way round, to write a broader cultural history of the turn of the century with the electric chair as focal point. Thus, the interdependence of capital punishment, society, and culture can be shown. Of course, I will not be able to present an analysis of all these facets in twenty minutes. Yet, I have been working on this topic for a while and have published several essays and a book chapter on technological advancement and the sublime, on pain and medicine as well as on the execution performance itself. Thus, in the paper, I would like to present the general idea and the theoretical concept, some of the results from my analyses of technology and medicine, and then propose some ideas on the importance of 19th century-concepts of masculinity for the invention of the electric chair.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Recently, congressional scholarship that examines parties and committees focuses on two particular and separate time periods, the committee government era (approximately 1920-1970) and the party government era (approximately 1980-present). Scholarship has focused on the fact that committee chairs during the committee government era legislated largely independent of the party leadership as a result of the seniority system and party leaders during the party government era had renewed strength as a result of institutional reforms and homogenous membership. Scholars have long assumed these differences between party leaders and committee chairs during the different time periods but without systematic evidence. Few comparisons are made between the party leadership and committee chairs in each of these eras much less between the two eras. This paper will examine the differences between the two leadership positions overtime, comparing the committee chairs of 1920-1970 with party leaders of 1980-present.
This preliminary research tests the assumption that during the committee government era party leaders took a backbench to committee chairs and that during the party government era committee chairs take a backbench to the majority party leadership. I determine if there are significant differences between party leaders and committee chairs by examining who is most often in the winning majority on roll call votes. I compare the passed legislation with the leaders own position. I find differences between the party leadership and the committee chairs, but the differences are not as much as is often touted.