Jen Maxfield Ostfeld CC’99, JRN’00, a reporter for NBC New York and an adjunct professor of journalism at Seton Hall joins Larry Jackson, associate dean of academic affairs and director of the Center for the Core Curriculum, for a discussion about the 2024 election with insights from Core texts.

It has been described as the most important election of our lifetime. The 2024 election will long be analyzed — and debated — by pundits and historians. In the first installment of our Core Context-themed AlumniTALK, Jen Maxfield Ostfeld CC’99, JRN’00, a reporter for NBC New York and an adjunct professor of journalism at Seton Hall, joins Larry Jackson, associate dean of academic affairs and director of the Center for the Core Curriculum, for a conversation about the election. This discussion will consider what the 2024 election means for liberal democracy, what it reveals about a polarized nation, and how texts and ideas from the Core Curriculum can help us make sense of it.

The Core Context series brings together the expertise of Columbia College alumni with insights and ideas from the Core Curriculum. Inspired by the Core’s founders, who in 1919 launched a new model of education that would serve democracy by addressing “the insistent problems of the present,” the Core Context series will take on topics in politics and education, such as polarization, the dangers and promise of artificial intelligence, and the role of civil society in a democratic society.