WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2019-2020       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Understanding the 2020 Presidential Election
CSPL 399
Spring 2020
Section: 01  

In understanding the 2020 Presidential Election, students will learn how to read skeptically the political press and how to write critically about presidential campaign politics. Along the way, the course will touch on electoral history, political and social thought, public policy, media criticism, and much more. Students will read past examples of thought-provoking and influential commentary. They will read current coverage in the legacy press of the 2020 presidential election and come to class prepared to discuss the most important stories and issues of the week. Students will have the opportunity to learn about electoral politics and political writing alongside a veteran journalist. Students who have experience working for political campaigns will have a chance to share their knowledge and help the class incorporate their experience in a larger historical framework. They will have a chance to see their work published in the Editorial Board, the lecturer's daily politics newsletter. Students will attempt to do what political writers do in real-time: explain what's happening from a unique, particular, and informed point of view for the benefit of like-minded citizens seeking to achieve the ideal of self-government. In the end, the hope is that students see that campaign politics is simpler and more complex than it appears, but that neither is obvious without study, focus, and understanding.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS ALLB
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (EDST)
Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459