To coincide with the 2018 midterm campaigns, this colloquium seeks to analyse these elections over time. Although presidential elections are the subject of extensive scholarly interest, midterm elections are comparatively neglected.

Focusing on a series of case studies, covering the period from Franklin Roosevelt to the present day, the colloquium explores how presidents interact with their parties during midterm campaigns (and how the “out-party” mobilizes support in the absence of a president as party leader), and of how midterms modify a president’s mandate.

Midterms and Mandates will take place on November 1-2, 2018, at the National Library of Scotland and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

The project is supported by the British Association for American Studies and the US Embassy in London.