PSCI 20718 - Race and Ethnicity in U.S. Politics

Course Credit: 1
RACE AND ETHNICITY IN US POLITICS This course draws from a diverse set of texts spanning the fields of political theory, American political development, and public opinion and voting behavior to convey the multiple approaches to the study of race in American politics. The course also incorporates important primary documents and multiple forms of media that center the lived-experience of leaders and activists involved in the pursuit of racial justice. The course begins by exploring how the social constructs of race and racial differences have been deployed for political ends throughout history. The course transitions into covering the history of social movements among communities of Color and their past and present struggles to secure social, economic, and civil rights. The latter half of the course explores the issues scholars face in measuring the concepts related to race and ethnicity empirically. Topics include the political behavior and public opinion of ethnic and racial minorities; racial and ethnic minorities in American political institutions as it relates to issues of representation; the intersection(s) of race and gender; and the challenges to building cross-racial political coalitions. By the end of the course students will have an understanding of how race can used be used as an analytical tool to understand political phenomena. [HSS]