Playing Politics

**this program will be offered again in the fall of 2016 and the winter of 2017 to coincide with the national election.

During 2012 Fall Quarter, we engaged with American politics, both local and national.  We followed the campaigns as they developed and culminated in the election.  We analyzed what the election results could tell us about the state of American politics.  Now, we enter a new, even more interesting phase.

The Winter Quarter of 2013 brings with it political transition and the consolidation of power, including the Inaugural Address of the next president, the start of a new US Congress, and the first 100 days. What do “lame duck” politicians hope to accomplish?  How do continuing politicians frame their plans for the future?  What can we, as an informed electorate, anticipate from the next political cycle?  Students who enroll in this program should expect to do independent research on current political events, participate in and analyze political rhetoric, conduct statistical analyses of polls and election results, and dig into the political theater that unfolds in real time. We will delve deeply into the use and construction of political power—how it leverages cultural trends and reflects the geography of the electorate.  We will examine how tactics of performance are employed to create images that have purchase on the political stage.  Rhetoric, “spin,” appeals to values, the invocation of class struggle, portrayals of the Constitution, bi-partisanship, race relations, gender rights—all of these will be part of our curriculum.  What roles do citizens play, particularly in relation to changing social and environmental realities, the Internet, popular culture and the media?  We will critique political events as they unfold in real time—with all the ploys, talking points, posturing, and damage control that goes with them.  And we will analyze plays, narrative and documentary films, and other forms of art and entertainment to determine how they have historically reflected or shaped political action and thought.