Teaching

Introduction to American Government

Some things we do in class:

Use different conceptions of American political culture to structure a local "town hall"-style debate over accepting immigrants into a town
Write a constitution for a new country, debate the constitution's merits, and decide whether or not to ratify it (with the possibility of suggested amendments)
"Visit" a McDonald's and a Department of Motor Vehicles office to explore why bureaucrats do what they do
Create interest groups and try to get others to join
Take control of a state political party and develop a plan to maintain, solidify, and/or grow support
Syllabus, Fall 2016

Writing Intensive section:

Some things we do in class:

Understand the intricacies of the infield-fly rule
Look at the law and American legal system from both "law school" and social science perspectives
Create hypothetical civil cases and evaluate both their strategic litigation and black-letter law aspects
Petition the Supreme Court for certiorari and then decide whether or not to grant the writ
Syllabus, Fall 2017

Some things we do in class:

Evaluate the different ways social scientists study the presidency
Consider the nature of leadership and what makes a president an effective or ineffective leader
Model opposing White House advice structures in order to understand the benefits and drawbacks of each
Run stripped-down versions of the Democratic and Republican Party Iowa caucuses
Conduct an in-depth examination of the Electoral College, debate its relative merits and demerits, and explore possibilities of reform
During the fall of presidential election years, the Electoral College debate is open to the public Here's a link to the latest debate! It starts at the 3:38 mark on the video.
Syllabus, Fall 2017

Some things we do in class:

Replicate the Federalist-Antifederalist debate over the creation of the national judiciary
Eschew a course textbook in favor of reading full, unedited opinions
Build on the knowledge gained from the American Legal Systems course in order to make sense of the opinions
Apply Supreme Court doctrine to hypothetical cases from an advocate's, majority opinion writer's, and dissenting opinion writer's perspective
Syllabus, Spring 2017