Paul Starr, a Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar at Princeton University and the founding co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, will join Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for a virtual conversation on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
Starr and John Shaw, institute director, will discuss political tensions and contradictions in the United States and Starr’s new book, “American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now.”
The free, public discussion via Zoom begins at 10 a.m.; registration at paulsimoninstitute.org/events is required to view the conversation. Part of the institute’s “Understanding Our New World” discussion series, the event will also examine American democracy, the future of journalism, the forces reshaping modern political life and “how shifts in media, technology and political institutions are contributing to polarization and weakening democratic norms,” Shaw said. Starr will also talk about the importance of “rebuilding public trust in both media and civic institutions.”
Starr is “one of the most respected and incisive analysts of American politics and culture,” Shaw said.
“His new book provides profound insights about the fissures and tensions that are driving American politics and civic life. We are especially eager to learn more about this contention that Americans are a young and dynamic people, but the United States has become an old and static country,” Shaw said.
Starr is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and the Stuart chair in communications and public affairs at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. The American Prospect is a progressive magazine that Starr, Robert Kuttner and Robert Reich co-founded in 1990.
The author of several books, Starr won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for “The Social Transformation of American Medicine.” Starr’s latest book, published in October 2025, looks at the nation’s differing values and interests of contemporary America over the last seven decades. The choices of electing Barack Obama and then Donald Trump as president capture what Starr calls the American contradiction.
Starr earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and his doctorate in sociology from Harvard University. He previously taught at Harvard and was a senior adviser on health policy to the White House via the Department of Health and Human Services in 1993.
Attendees are encouraged to submit questions for Starr on the registration form or email questions to paulsimoninstitute@siu.edu.
More information, including a list of the institute’s upcoming events and past speakers and events, is available.
