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The purpose of this course is to give students an understanding of New York State government. The course will go over the formal structures of government - the executive, legislative & judicial parts as well as public authorities. The class will also cover how political parties, lobbyists, interest groups, and the media interact with government and shape public policy. Classwork will emphasize participation and teamwork. Written assignments will apply course concepts to the real world work of New York state legislators like bill sponsor memos and letters in support or opposition of policy.

 

PSC  PSC 300 m006 Black Feminist Politics

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This seminar critically examines key issues, assumptions, and debates in contemporary, post-civil rights Black Feminist thought, action, and behavior. As such, we will understand that Black Feminism is global and diasporic. We will begin with a survey and broad analysis of Black Feminist history and origins. We will pay particular attention to how Black Feminists make use of standpoint theory, Black nationalism, Black liberalism, liberal feminism, Black Marxism, and radical feminist thought. We will also investigate the simultaneity of race, gender, class, and sexual oppression and its relationship to power. This means that we will draw connections between Black Feminist models and contemporary queer and trans politics. In this course, we will also focus on Black feminist understandings of intersectionality, the history of this analytical frame, and how this framework has contributed to today’s politics. The particular questions we will analyze include but are not limited to the following: How do we evaluate Black movements and leadership using a Black Feminist lens? What is the relationship between racism, gender based oppression, homophobia, and classism in Black women’s lives? What forms of resistance do many Black women engage in? How do these decisions shape politics?

 

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PSC 300 m007 Politics of Academic Freedom

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Prerequisites: None

Course Description

 At no point during the last half century has there been a more important time to understand academic freedom (AF). In this class we will consider how AF works for faculty, students and institutions. While primarily focused on American AF, we will place it in a comparative context, both with respect to AF in other countries, and vis-à-vis similar privileges granted to other professions (e.g. lawyers, doctors) in the US. We will also consider how AF relates to broader free speech issues, and discuss whether there is a distinct argument to be made for a separate set of rights which give AF legal weight in the US context.

 The class will frame AF in the US as an “essentially contested concept,” with adherents of (at least) three distinct approaches: professional, epistemic, and critical.  We will discuss the application of these three approaches to research, teaching, intramural expression and extramural speech.

 We will consider different phenomena that plausibly pose challenges to AF, including internal constraints (e.g. actions by university administrators, as well as epistemic and non-epistemic norms) and external interventions (e.g. private philanthropy, state action, and social media commentary). While we will discuss contemporary events, the focus of the class will be on developing a rigorous framework for understanding the trajectory and impact of AF over time.What is academic freedom and why is it important for faculty in the United States to have the ability to teach, research and speak on a wide variety of topics, including controversial ones? Should faculty be fired for their social media posts? What rights do students have when it comes to academic freedom?  These are some of the main questions of this class. Universities are under pressure to think through what type of curricula, research, and speech they allow on campus from actors both on campus and off.  We will study different approaches to academic freedom - we think about the nature and meaning of that freedom, if it is necessary for professions to enjoy broad freedoms, and whether there are necessary limitations to that freedom (and if so, who decides?). We will consider the changes in academic freedom over time in the US and compared to other countries. 

 

PSC 300 m101 Policy Implementation

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