Intersectionality, Advocacy & Social Movements

This course examines the concept of intersectionality within the context of social movements and advocacy. Intersectionality theory, and the longstanding Black feminist literature that has shaped it over time, offer us an important framework for understanding (1) overlapping systems of oppression, (2) marginalization across identity characteristics, (3) how political institutions regulate the institutional lives of people differently by identity, (4) and the politics that are always underlying these outcomes. In this course we will think critically about social movements and grapple with the ways in which identity is politicized in these spaces through advocacy, activism, and institutional resistance. Throughout the course, we will examine how activists strategically leverage identity cleavages to advocate for issues and interests, and how these actions in turn shape politics, policy, and institutions.

Gender & Politics

This course focuses on the concept of gender as a fluid, performative, and normative aspect of people’s lives that regulates their access to policies, representation in government, daily encounters with others, interests and issues, and the politics that inevitably form around this identity and experiences. Gender is a salient identity that is constantly shaping social movements, activism, advocacy, policymaking, elections, cultural norms, distributions of power and resources, rights, and the law. Gender also intersects with other identities in ways that also shape these politics, and thus we are always approaching gender with an intersectional framework. In this course, we identify the role of gender within these types of nuanced political contexts to decipher its significance in shaping historical and contemporary life. Along the way, we will deconstruct and critique gender as a concept to better understand when and why it impacts political life—as well as its potential reconceptualize it.  

Inequality & Public Policy

This course focuses on the role of public policy in producing inequality in the American state. Taking both a historical and contemporary perspective, we will examine how various forms of policies are related to unequal distributions of power and rights, disparities among the population, oppression of marginalized groups, and inequities by gender, race, ethnicity, class, ability, and sexual orientation. We also examine public policy as a mechanism for addressing widespread inequalities in the United States. In this course, public policy’s dual role is revealed as we make sense of its powerful capacity to shape the institutional lives of people.

Identity, Interest Groups & The American State

Interest groups in the United States are a powerful group of stakeholders that influence public policy, politics, and representation. In this course, we examine how various interest groups intervene in the political process to represent different identity groups and how institutions respond to their demands. Along the way, we will learn about organizational strategy, tensions between coalitions and activist groups, motivations for forming interest groups, and how these outcomes change depending on historical context.