MCS Recipes Research Collaborative Student, Harley Rogers, Presenting Findings in New Orleans

Harley Rogers, a politcal science and Honors college student will present research alongside sixteen other students and twelve faculty members from the University of Maine Honors College in New Orleans at the annual National Collegiate Honors Council conference from November 6 – 10. Rogers is part of the MCS Policy Center’s research group the Margaret Chase Smith Recipes Research Collaborative.

The members of the MCS Recipes Research Collaborative analyze Margaret Chase Smith’s personal recipes as historical primary sources to learn more about her unique history and life. This interdisciplinary group of students and faculty members are passionate about food and interested in studying the role of recipes and cooking in politics and public life.

Rogers’s research compares the gendered expectations found in newspaper coverage of Margaret Chase Smith during her 1964 presidential primary run with more recent media coverage of Hillary Clinton’s presidential primaries in 2008 and 2016. Rogers notes that “despite the 60-year difference, both women faced commentaries on their sex and how it would negatively impact their ability to be president, despite both having years of experience in elected positions.”

Recipes and cooking played an integral role in the public life of Margaret Chase Smith and influenced her actions as a leader. Rogers notes that Smith would “frequently cook for other governmental officials on weekends and would send out recipes from her Senate office to constituents who asked for them.” She surmises that this was Smith’s way “subconscious or not, to maintain the expectations of women at the time.”

Rogers research poster for the event in New Orleans is entitled, “Female Political Campaigns: Just the Right Amount of Femininity” and can be accessed through the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center Research portal here: Margaret Chase Smith Recipes Research Collaborative Research. 

The theme for the conference in New Orleans is “Disrupting Education: Creativity and Innovation in Honors.” The conference program can be accessed here: Event Schedule. As with all academic conferences, the submission and selection process is highly selective. NCHC anticipates more than 2,000 students and faculty from all 50 states, as well as from the Netherlands, Great Britain, China, Qatar and Australia. The nonprofit NCHC supports and enhances honors education around the world. Member institutions total nearly 900 around the world. More information is available at: nchchonors.org.