[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Zo3QtoHpk&feature=youtu.be’]

While President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Gov. Mitt Romney, traded witticisms at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in NYC on Thursday evening, an appreciative audience at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts heard noted author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin speak about lessons learned from studying the American presidency.

Goodwin’s lecture was the opening presentation of the Edmund Fusco Contemporary Issues Forum, a program designed to bring outstanding scholars, leaders, and policy makers to the UConn campus.

Her appearance was timed to take advantage of news surrounding hotly contested political races on local, state, and national levels. During her time on campus, Goodwin also spent time talking with students and she participated in a book signing held immediately after her presentation.

Among Goodwin’s most noteworthy works are the Pulitzer-prize winning “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: the American Homefront During World War II” as well as biographies of Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln.