“The Importance of Freedom of the Press," a live panel discussion, takes place from noon-1 p.m., Monday Sept. 17.

SUNY Empire State College’s Constitution Day event will be streamed live on ESC-TV.

Panelists include SUNY Empire faculty members Associate Professor Himanee Gupta-Carlson, Professor Ian Reifowitz, Professor Margaret Tally and graduate student Jennifer Redden-Grace.

About the Panelists

Himanee Gupta-Carlson, Ph.D.

Himanee Gupta-Carlson is an associate professor of Historical Studies with Empire State College. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a daily newspaper journalist. She currently teaches courses in contemporary American history, hip hop as a community-building practice and nonfiction writing. Her book, "Muncie, India(na): Middletown and Asian America," was published in March by the University of Illinois Press, and she has read from and presented widely on the book over the past spring and summer. She enjoys public speaking and connecting with groups. She and her husband own a small farm and sell produce, eggs and meat at two weekly farmers' markets in the Saratoga area.

Jennifer Redden-Grace

Redden-Grace's early career was spent in drama and arts education as a small business owner, operating Dancing with Grace Performing Arts Studio in Wolcott, N.Y., from 1997-2005, instructing more than 1,000 youths and adults in ballet, jazz, modern and contemporary dance techniques and leading community theater opportunities. The mother of two sons, now ages 22 and 23, she also spent many years as an active home-schooling advocate and organizer, volunteering as the artistic director for Vineyard Conservatory Learning Cooperative, a home-school co-op which served more than 50 families in her community.

As an operations director in the hospitality and entertainment industries, she has spent the last decade dividing her time between upstate New York and Martha's Vineyard on properties where she has managed accommodations as well as food and beverage divisions, overseen a summer festival with an average attendance of 70,000 and coordinated a charity event for wounded veterans called the "American Heroes Saltwater Challenge." In 2014, Redden-Grace returned to school as an adult learner pursuing a BA.S. in Public Affairs from SUNY Empire, which she completed in 2017, and is now in her second year as a student in SUNY Empire's School for Graduate Studies enrolled in the Social and Public Policy Program.

Ian Reifowitz, Ph.D.

Ian Reifowitz is a professor of history at Empire State College of the State University of New York. In 2014, he earned a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, and in 2009 received Empire State College’s Susan H. Turben Award for Excellence in Scholarship. He is the author of the forthcoming book, "The Tribalization of Politics: How Rush Limbaugh's Race-Baiting Rhetoric on the Obama Presidency Paved the Way for Trump"(Ig Publishers, 2019), and the author of "Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity" (Potomac Books, 2012).

He is a contributing editor at Daily Kos, and his articles have also appeared in the Daily News, Newsday, the New Republic, In These Times, Post-Star, Truthout, the Kyiv Post (Kiev), and on the main page at Huffington Post, among other outlets. His first book, "Imagining an Austrian Nation: Joseph Samuel Bloch and the Search for a Multiethnic Austrian Identity, 1846–1919," was published by East European Monographs and distributed by Columbia University Press in 2003. He has published a number of academic articles in The International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Journal of Jewish Identities, Nationalities Papers, and East European Quarterly, among other publications, as well as numerous book reviews and encyclopedia entries.

Margaret Tally, Ph.D.

Margaret Tally is full professor of Social and Public Policy at the School for Graduate Studies at ESC. She is the author of "Television Culture and Women's Lives: Thirtysomething and the Contradictions of Gender" (1995). She has also edited three book collections with Betty Kaklamanidou, "HBO's Girls: Questions of Gender, Politics, and Millennial Angst" (2014)," The Millennials on Film and Television: Essays on the Politics of Popular Culture" (2014) and "Politics and Politicians in Contemporary US Television" (2016), and has authored several articles and book chapters in the area of gender and popular culture. Her most recent book is "The Rise of the Anti-Heroine in TV's Third Golden Age" (2016).