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The Department of Political Science will host a lecture on Tuesday, March 24, examining the constitutional roots of America’s political divisions. Rogers M. Smith, a prominent scholar of American constitutional law and political thought, will present “America’s Conflicting Constitutional Visions: The Quest for Common Ground” at 4 p.m. in the Great Hall of Old Chapel. The lecture is open to all.

Smith argues that the nation’s political polarization often stems from competing interpretations of the Constitution, one traditionalist and one progressive. His talk will focus on how the Reconstruction Amendments—the 13th, 14th and 15th—contain elements of both visions and may offer a foundation for renewed national unity.

Smith is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and a former president of the American Political Science Association. His book, “Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History” (Yale University Press, 1997), won six book prizes and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history.

The event is part of the annual Dean Alfange Jr. Lecture in American Constitutionalism, established in 2005 by UMass Amherst alumni to honor longtime political science professor Dean Alfange Jr. The series highlights scholarship on constitutional law and American political thought.