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| THE PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS & THE PUBLIC SOPHOMORE YEAR SEQUENCE The sophomore year sequence comprises a year-long set of four blocked courses drawn from history and political science. The sequence combines a rigorous, interdisciplinary investigation of public experience and civic culture in the United States with a practical experience in shaping public affairs. During the fall semester, students actively work on political campaigns, writing campaign strategy leading up to Election Day and offering analysis of the results. In the spring, the class chooses a legislative issue and travels to Washington to research that issue and to interview the relevant parties both on and off Capitol Hill. Taken as a whole, the four courses are designed to develop engaged and informed citizens who are imaginative and practical, reflective and effective, possessing vision and knowing how to exercise power, equally comfortable with political argument and political technique. COURSE DESCRIPTIONS Fall Semester HIST 408: Constructing the Public: America's Civic Culture POLI 246: Mass Media in Politics HIST 408: America's Civic Culture: The first part of the course focuses on the historical development and present condition of our civic culture. We begin by reading the work of several public intellectuals who have brought historical, philosophical, economic, political scientific, sociological and other approaches to the study of contemporary American politics. The idea is to engage students in arguments now going on, to ground our investigations in a concern with the here and now, and to show how indispensable rigorous, scholarly inquiry is to those arguments. The second part of the course traces the historical development of American civic culture with the help of student reports on outside readings in history, sociology, philosophy, economics and other disciplines. This part of the course explores the roots of the present in the past and, just as importantly, the roads not taken, the forgotten alternatives and buried possibilities as a means of enlarging and invigorating our political imaginations. POLI 246: Mass Media and Politics: This course examines the intersection between contemporary electoral politics and the role of the media in political and cultural affairs in the United States. The students volunteer in one of the presidential campaigns, travel to some part of the state of Ohio to campaign over a long-weekend, complete field reports on their experiences, prepare and present a campaign strategy to win Ohio for their candidate based on their study of the behavior and attitudes of Ohio voters. As part of this exercise, they produce a short, thirty-second political commercial. They also speak on WVXU on election night on various local, state and national races in which they have a particular expertise. Spring Semester HIST 300: Writing in Public POLI 328 Legislative Practice HIST 300: Writing in Public: This is a writing intensive tutorial designed to encourage students to develop philosophical, political, economic and historical perspectives on contemporary public issues and, second, to develop the skills of persuasive writing for a general public. The students will produce a portfolio of writings of different sorts (examples range from book reviews and review essays, analytical and research papers to letters to editors, press releases, policy statements, op-ed pieces). The idea is to do a good deal of writing in a variety of forms, some of which is related to the practical exercise in legislative politics which will include web-based and image-oriented communications. The course will feature four two-week presentations from faculty in diverse disciplines who will explore various approaches to contemporary public issues and various strategies of public communication. POLI 328: Legislative Practice: This course examines legislative politics and, more broadly, the various ways power in exercised in the contemporary U.S. In researching a specific issue and crafting a campaign designed to shape public opinion and the public agenda, the students will engage in policy research and policy-formulation, coalition-building, negotiation, organization, media relations, broadcast and narrowcast communications. The students will examine the issue in terms of local, state and national politics and will travel to both Columbus and Washington, D.C. Some past legislative issues include mass transit in modern urban centers, the proposal to reform the Social Security system, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Small Black Farmer in the American Southeast, and the municipal use of Eminent Domain for the renewal of cities. |
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First Year Courses |
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PPP Sophomore Year Course Sequence |
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PPP Junior Year Course Sequence |
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