Samantha Frenkel-Popell

Samantha Frenkel-Popell
Undergraduate Fellow, 2021 History & Literature

Samantha is a 2021 CAPS Undergraduate Fellow, writing a thesis entitled “Analyzing Presidential Inaugural Speeches from Washington to Biden.”

Synopsis:
My History and Literature senior thesis is focused on the rhetoric of presidents in their inaugural speeches. Inaugural speeches set the tone for a presidency, and are unique in the fact that it covers all aspects of presidential purview: domestic policy, foreign policy quite literally the state of the nation. My project seeks to look at American inaugural speeches as an entire body of work, using several presidents as case studies to analyze patterns over time.