“Black Feminist Politics,” Winter 2024, University of California, Irvine
Instructor
Department of Political Science/ Cross Listed with Gender & Sexuality Studies
This course draws upon a number of texts to think about the ways Black women seek to re-make themselves and the world, beginning with slavery and its afterlives–to Black girlhood, truth telling and political organizing with Black women at the center. We then turn to the Black feminist foundations of the Movement for Black Lives. While this course is constructed to build understanding of core concepts in Black Feminist Politics– including bodily autonomy, systems of domination, identity politics, and intersectionality, this course also offers a critical standpoint towards Black feminisms, asking how identity-driven political praxes both improve and/or challenge a diverse liberatory political project. That is, while we may find value in Black feminism in bringing the marginalized to the center of political advocacy, we will also ask in what ways identity can be used as either a boon or a cudgel in social movements.
“Introduction to Race and Ethnic Politics,” Winter 2024, University of California, Irvine
Instructor
Department of Political Science / Cross Listed with Chicano and Latino Studies
Course Description
Race is a central feature of American politics. It is impossible to understand America’s past and present without the context of race as a sociopolitical structure and the ways it is used to maintain power in the US. In this course, we will focus on social science readings that will provide an overview of the construction of race in America. Students will learn how race influences American politics and political behavior. We will focus on the question of and problems with building cross racial solidarity in the US.
Course Objectives
In this course, students will learn to read and critique the literature on race and ethnic politics.
Students will be able to define and write about key concepts in the race and ethnic politics literature in political science.
“Race, New Media, and Youth Movements for Justice,” Winter 2020, University of Chicago
Co-Instructor and Course Designed with David J. Knight
Lectureship awarded by the University of Chicago Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture
Cross listed with Political Science, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Media Arts and Design
Sponsored by the University of Chicago Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge
Course Description:
Although racial inequality is an enduring force in American society, new forms of activism--often facilitated by through new media--are changing the terms of political debate around issues of race, gender, power, and justice. From #BlackLivesMatter to #MeToo, sites of political struggle have become increasingly de-centered and accessible to a broader array of people. And as is often the case, youth from marginalized groups are at the forefront of these struggles, redefining what counts as political and how to conceive of important concepts like equity, community, and dignity. This seminar-style course explores the past and present conditions that give rise to these youth-led movements, drawing from multiple scholarly lenses, including political science, sociology, literature, performance, film, and visual culture. Specifically, the course explores how young activists and cultural workers, who often identify as people of color, women, queer, and/or undocumented, draw on legacies of activism whilst making political claims using media, art, technology, or other nontraditional forms of participation. The course will engage various formats of political and cultural work, considering how intersecting forms of inequity and differing levels of access affect the shape and scope of participation in both institutions and popular culture. Students will learn by engaging critically with social movement theory, as well as through presentations from media and movement practitioners.
“The Practice of Research” Summer 2018, University of Chicago
Preceptor for Mellon Mays Summer Research Training Program
Course Description
This seminar is designed teach students from multiple theoretical and methodological backgrounds in political science how to produce a polished research proposal and introduce them to the various components of conducting research. Throughout the course students will focus on developing the skills to conduct successful academic research, including: forming a viable research question, framing your problem, locating your project within the literature, developing an argument, utilizing appropriate methods, and articulating the significance of your proposed study. By the end of the course students will not only have a complete draft research proposal but also a strong set of skills that can be used for conducting future academic research.