Time to talk about Trump at the Bushwakker Brew Pub

By Dale Johnson Posted: September 20, 2016 6:00 a.m.

Jim Farney will discuss the rise in Donald Trump's popular support. Photo: U of R Photography

With a little over a month until voting day in the United States, the popularity of Donald Trump will be discussed at Bushwakker Brew Pub on Thursday, September 22, starting at 7:00 p.m.

Dr. Jim Farney, an associate professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the U of R, will talk about Trump.

“I plan to talk about three major areas,” Farney says. “What has the history of the rise in Trump's popular support been and at what point should we have been able to see that he was going to be the Republican candidate?  What does political science tell us might be going on amongst voters?  And does this signal a historic transition in American politics?

Farney’s talk is entitled “Where did he come from?” and the subheading is “Trump at the limits of explanation."

“One of the big debates in social science is whether and how we can explain important events. Trump's successful candidacy is a clearly important event few people saw coming and I think it’s going to be interesting talking to a group of natural scientists to learn how they think of prediction – social scientists often take the natural sciences as a gold standard for these sorts of things, but I suspect biologists and physicists think about prediction differently and I'm very curious to find that out,” Farney explains.

The presentation is part of the Science Pub Series - a joint venture by the Bushwakker Brewpub and three faculties at the University of Regina: Arts, Engineering and Applied Science, and Science. The series was launched on a monthly basis in September 2011. Each session is led by a University of Regina faculty researcher and includes a 30 to 40 minute presentation and an open question and answer period.

Farney says it’s a different atmosphere than a traditional classroom.

“The couple of science pubs I've been to have been a lot of fun. I suspect the pub atmosphere has something to do with that, so I'm definitely looking forward to it.”

Admission is free, but there is room for only 50 people.

Event:        Trump: Where did he come from?
Date:         Thursday, Sept. 22
Time:         7 p.m.
Location:   The Bushwakker Brewpub – 2206 Dewdney Ave