This dissertation is about how the political push for school prayer functions as an effort to ret... more This dissertation is about how the political push for school prayer functions as an effort to retrench conservative social power and a conservative political worldview via identity-based politics. The New Christian Right (NCR) mobilizes secularized arguments of equality, victimhood and parental rights to advocate for school prayer. The NCR mobilizes to include religion in a unique cultural institution (public education) involved in the training of future generations of American citizens. The NCR’s mobilization aims at preserving Christian social power and privilege with little-to-no attention paid to protecting religion qua religion—not just Christian faith—in America. The NCR, as a social movement, demonstrates how mobilization can inadvertently strip an identity-based movement of the core of its identity. The NCR employs arguments geared towards preserving privilege and not protecting the free exercise of religion. Their political goals gain voice, while concern for religious free...
Teaching Politics beyond the Book : Film, Texts, and New Media in the Classroom, 2013
1. Preface/Acknowledgements 2. Introduction-The Turn Towards Alternative "Texts" in the... more 1. Preface/Acknowledgements 2. Introduction-The Turn Towards Alternative "Texts" in the Classroom Literary Texts -Section Introduction- 3. Ancient Riches: Teaching Political Philosophy through The Bible (Robert M. Bosco) 4. Literature from the Global South: 'Uncharted' and Under-utilized Resources for the International Politics Classroom (Michael Kuchinsky) 5. Critical Pedagogy in Hard Times: Utopian Socialist Literature as a Means for Teaching Economic Crisis (Robert W. Glover and Daniel Tagliarina) Art and Visual Media -Section Introduction- 6. Laughing and Learning: Using Political Cartoons to Teach Politics (Joan Conners) 7. Graphic Novels in the Political Science Classroom (Kenton Worchester) Musical/Theatrical Media -Section Introduction- 8. Why Do Students Resist Hip Hop Studies (Travis Gosa) 9. Stirring the Melting Pot: Promoting Political Literacy through Music and Mixtapes (Shyam K. Sriram) 10. The Case is Submitted: Re-Enactment Theatre and U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments (Nina Kasniunas) 11. The Comparative Politics of the Zombie Attack (Steve Williamson) Film and Television -Section Introduction- 12. Knowing How to Curse: Learning Political Philosophy from Deadwood" (Paul Cantor) 13. The Politics in Pixar: The Underlying Messages of America's Animated Favorites (William J. Miller, Jeremy D. Walling, and Jill D. Miller) 14. American Students, African Conflicts, and Hollywood: The Advantages and Unintended Consequences of Using Film to Teach African Politics (Christopher R. Cook) 15. War and Peace on Film (Jeffrey S. Lantis) Internet a Social Media -Section Introduction- 16. Teaching Political Theory with Twitter: The Pedagogy of Social Networking (Ari Kohen) Conclusion
America, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is a Christian nation. Our history, t... more America, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is a Christian nation. Our history, traditions, and culture embrace acknowledgment of the existence of a monotheistic higher power. However, these venerated traditions have come under attack from a group of activist judges looking to secularize the American public realm, or so Scalia would have us believe. For Scalia, the rights associated with American citizenship are part of a system of ordered liberty, and thus first require self-discipline on the part of the potential rights-bearer. Religion, when fully acknowledged and respected in the public realm, is crucial to maintaining this self-discipline. Scalia believes that the loss of religion in the public sphere is the loss of a key institution for fostering self-discipline that allows for a system based on ordered liberty to flourish. Thus, Scalia’s Free Exercise Clause and Establishment Clause jurisprudence embody Scalia’s attempts to maintain religion’s role in the publ...
From fire hoses in the street to referendum campaigns, the New Right has had a multitude of appro... more From fire hoses in the street to referendum campaigns, the New Right has had a multitude of approaches to rights activism throughout its existence. These various responses show how the New Right has always been uncomfortable with rights and rights language. However, the New Right has become more accepting, even if still cautious, of rights as the usefulness of rights in American politics has been demonstrated again and again. In this paper, I examine one specific political arena where the New Right has come to embrace rights: religious rights. More directly, I study the mobilization of religious rights to counter efforts to increase tolerance towards the LGBT community in public schools through anti-bullying campaigns and Gay-Straight Alliance groups. My arguments proceeds through a content analysis of the discursive frames employed in support of these initiatives, as well as the New Right’s countermobilization of religious-rights rhetoric to attempt to prevent these initiatives. Th...
Amidst contemporary economic instability, intellectuals and policymakers from diverse ideological... more Amidst contemporary economic instability, intellectuals and policymakers from diverse ideological backgrounds have called for a restructuring of capitalism’s institutional form.Yet this is a long-term project, involving not merely rebuilding the beleaguered financial sector and job creation. It will also involve attitudinal changes with regard to consumption, spending, and debt. In light of this, our society has opened an important intellectual window with regard to how we conceive of the market-driven vicissitudes of capitalism, and political science educators have inherited a tremendous pedagogical responsibility in enabling their students to conceptualize such changes. Building upon recent research in cognitive and educational psychology and our own classroom experiences, we argue here that utopian socialist thought potentially offers us a way to destabilize and de-center our settled understandings with regard to the proper economic order, an essential starting point to the post-...
This dissertation is about how the political push for school prayer functions as an effort to ret... more This dissertation is about how the political push for school prayer functions as an effort to retrench conservative social power and a conservative political worldview via identity-based politics. The New Christian Right (NCR) mobilizes secularized arguments of equality, victimhood and parental rights to advocate for school prayer. The NCR mobilizes to include religion in a unique cultural institution (public education) involved in the training of future generations of American citizens. The NCR’s mobilization aims at preserving Christian social power and privilege with little-to-no attention paid to protecting religion qua religion—not just Christian faith—in America. The NCR, as a social movement, demonstrates how mobilization can inadvertently strip an identity-based movement of the core of its identity. The NCR employs arguments geared towards preserving privilege and not protecting the free exercise of religion. Their political goals gain voice, while concern for religious free...
Teaching Politics beyond the Book : Film, Texts, and New Media in the Classroom, 2013
1. Preface/Acknowledgements 2. Introduction-The Turn Towards Alternative "Texts" in the... more 1. Preface/Acknowledgements 2. Introduction-The Turn Towards Alternative "Texts" in the Classroom Literary Texts -Section Introduction- 3. Ancient Riches: Teaching Political Philosophy through The Bible (Robert M. Bosco) 4. Literature from the Global South: 'Uncharted' and Under-utilized Resources for the International Politics Classroom (Michael Kuchinsky) 5. Critical Pedagogy in Hard Times: Utopian Socialist Literature as a Means for Teaching Economic Crisis (Robert W. Glover and Daniel Tagliarina) Art and Visual Media -Section Introduction- 6. Laughing and Learning: Using Political Cartoons to Teach Politics (Joan Conners) 7. Graphic Novels in the Political Science Classroom (Kenton Worchester) Musical/Theatrical Media -Section Introduction- 8. Why Do Students Resist Hip Hop Studies (Travis Gosa) 9. Stirring the Melting Pot: Promoting Political Literacy through Music and Mixtapes (Shyam K. Sriram) 10. The Case is Submitted: Re-Enactment Theatre and U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments (Nina Kasniunas) 11. The Comparative Politics of the Zombie Attack (Steve Williamson) Film and Television -Section Introduction- 12. Knowing How to Curse: Learning Political Philosophy from Deadwood" (Paul Cantor) 13. The Politics in Pixar: The Underlying Messages of America's Animated Favorites (William J. Miller, Jeremy D. Walling, and Jill D. Miller) 14. American Students, African Conflicts, and Hollywood: The Advantages and Unintended Consequences of Using Film to Teach African Politics (Christopher R. Cook) 15. War and Peace on Film (Jeffrey S. Lantis) Internet a Social Media -Section Introduction- 16. Teaching Political Theory with Twitter: The Pedagogy of Social Networking (Ari Kohen) Conclusion
America, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is a Christian nation. Our history, t... more America, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is a Christian nation. Our history, traditions, and culture embrace acknowledgment of the existence of a monotheistic higher power. However, these venerated traditions have come under attack from a group of activist judges looking to secularize the American public realm, or so Scalia would have us believe. For Scalia, the rights associated with American citizenship are part of a system of ordered liberty, and thus first require self-discipline on the part of the potential rights-bearer. Religion, when fully acknowledged and respected in the public realm, is crucial to maintaining this self-discipline. Scalia believes that the loss of religion in the public sphere is the loss of a key institution for fostering self-discipline that allows for a system based on ordered liberty to flourish. Thus, Scalia’s Free Exercise Clause and Establishment Clause jurisprudence embody Scalia’s attempts to maintain religion’s role in the publ...
From fire hoses in the street to referendum campaigns, the New Right has had a multitude of appro... more From fire hoses in the street to referendum campaigns, the New Right has had a multitude of approaches to rights activism throughout its existence. These various responses show how the New Right has always been uncomfortable with rights and rights language. However, the New Right has become more accepting, even if still cautious, of rights as the usefulness of rights in American politics has been demonstrated again and again. In this paper, I examine one specific political arena where the New Right has come to embrace rights: religious rights. More directly, I study the mobilization of religious rights to counter efforts to increase tolerance towards the LGBT community in public schools through anti-bullying campaigns and Gay-Straight Alliance groups. My arguments proceeds through a content analysis of the discursive frames employed in support of these initiatives, as well as the New Right’s countermobilization of religious-rights rhetoric to attempt to prevent these initiatives. Th...
Amidst contemporary economic instability, intellectuals and policymakers from diverse ideological... more Amidst contemporary economic instability, intellectuals and policymakers from diverse ideological backgrounds have called for a restructuring of capitalism’s institutional form.Yet this is a long-term project, involving not merely rebuilding the beleaguered financial sector and job creation. It will also involve attitudinal changes with regard to consumption, spending, and debt. In light of this, our society has opened an important intellectual window with regard to how we conceive of the market-driven vicissitudes of capitalism, and political science educators have inherited a tremendous pedagogical responsibility in enabling their students to conceptualize such changes. Building upon recent research in cognitive and educational psychology and our own classroom experiences, we argue here that utopian socialist thought potentially offers us a way to destabilize and de-center our settled understandings with regard to the proper economic order, an essential starting point to the post-...
"As educators, we employ a variety of “texts” in the classroom for the purposes of exposing stude... more "As educators, we employ a variety of “texts” in the classroom for the purposes of exposing students to narratives of injustice, political struggle, power and domination, and democratic contestation. Textbooks and lecture constitute one such text. Yet what is noteworthy in human history is the tremendous power of literature, film, and other forms of narrative to elevate our understanding of an injustice, of human suffering and humiliation, while igniting the desire to alleviate such societal shortcomings. The educational intent of such mediums is, almost by definition, less implicit than more traditional materials yet their power to move the “reader” is often more profound. Furthermore, as technological media proliferate, we potentially gain still more mechanisms through which to teach our students about their contemporary political realities.
Thus, literature, film, and new forms of media and technology present tremendous opportunities for teaching students about politics. Yet the concrete ways that we might utilize such “texts” within our classrooms remain under-researched in scholarship on teaching and learning. How might we structure our engagement with “non-traditional texts” such as literature, film, art, and new media in ways that maximize their potential to spur critical thinking and intellectual growth among our students? What challenges and obstacles accompany such pedagogical methods? These questions have yet to be dealt with in a systematic way, and in the absence of such systematic treatment, educators looking to embrace new mediums must deploy such strategies using a painstaking process of trial and error.
With these opportunities and gaps in mind, we are assembling an edited volume on the use of literature, film, and new media (broadly defined) in pedagogy of courses on political issues. Specifically, we are collecting chapter-length pieces that examine innovative and non-traditional “texts” within college and university classrooms including: literature, art, film, television, theatre and role-playing, music, as well as internet resources and social networking media. We envision this volume to be a compendium for those seeking to teach politics in new and engaging ways, utilizing novel texts and media in order to do so."
"As educators, we employ a variety of “texts” in the classroom for the purposes of exposing stude... more "As educators, we employ a variety of “texts” in the classroom for the purposes of exposing students to narratives of injustice, political struggle, power and domination, and democratic contestation. Textbooks and lecture constitute one such text. Yet what is noteworthy in human history is the tremendous power of literature, film, and other forms of narrative to elevate our understanding of an injustice, of human suffering and humiliation, while igniting the desire to alleviate such societal shortcomings. The educational intent of such mediums is, almost by definition, less implicit than more traditional materials yet their power to move the “reader” is often more profound. Furthermore, as technological media proliferate, we potentially gain still more mechanisms through which to teach our students about their contemporary political realities.
Thus, literature, film, and new forms of media and technology present tremendous opportunities for teaching students about politics. Yet the concrete ways that we might utilize such “texts” within our classrooms remain under-researched in scholarship on teaching and learning. How might we structure our engagement with “non-traditional texts” such as literature, film, art, and new media in ways that maximize their potential to spur critical thinking and intellectual growth among our students? What challenges and obstacles accompany such pedagogical methods? These questions have yet to be dealt with in a systematic way, and in the absence of such systematic treatment, educators looking to embrace new mediums must deploy such strategies using a painstaking process of trial and error.
With these opportunities and gaps in mind, we are assembling an edited volume on the use of literature, film, and new media (broadly defined) in pedagogy of courses on political issues. Specifically, we are collecting chapter-length pieces that examine innovative and non-traditional “texts” within college and university classrooms including: literature, art, film, television, theatre and role-playing, music, as well as internet resources and social networking media. We envision this volume to be a compendium for those seeking to teach politics in new and engaging ways, utilizing novel texts and media in order to do so."
Online database of interdisciplinary human rights syllabi and lesson plans, managed by interdisci... more Online database of interdisciplinary human rights syllabi and lesson plans, managed by interdisciplinary human rights scholars
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Thus, literature, film, and new forms of media and technology present tremendous opportunities for teaching students about politics. Yet the concrete ways that we might utilize such “texts” within our classrooms remain under-researched in scholarship on teaching and learning. How might we structure our engagement with “non-traditional texts” such as literature, film, art, and new media in ways that maximize their potential to spur critical thinking and intellectual growth among our students? What challenges and obstacles accompany such pedagogical methods? These questions have yet to be dealt with in a systematic way, and in the absence of such systematic treatment, educators looking to embrace new mediums must deploy such strategies using a painstaking process of trial and error.
With these opportunities and gaps in mind, we are assembling an edited volume on the use of literature, film, and new media (broadly defined) in pedagogy of courses on political issues. Specifically, we are collecting chapter-length pieces that examine innovative and non-traditional “texts” within college and university classrooms including: literature, art, film, television, theatre and role-playing, music, as well as internet resources and social networking media. We envision this volume to be a compendium for those seeking to teach politics in new and engaging ways, utilizing novel texts and media in order to do so."
Thus, literature, film, and new forms of media and technology present tremendous opportunities for teaching students about politics. Yet the concrete ways that we might utilize such “texts” within our classrooms remain under-researched in scholarship on teaching and learning. How might we structure our engagement with “non-traditional texts” such as literature, film, art, and new media in ways that maximize their potential to spur critical thinking and intellectual growth among our students? What challenges and obstacles accompany such pedagogical methods? These questions have yet to be dealt with in a systematic way, and in the absence of such systematic treatment, educators looking to embrace new mediums must deploy such strategies using a painstaking process of trial and error.
With these opportunities and gaps in mind, we are assembling an edited volume on the use of literature, film, and new media (broadly defined) in pedagogy of courses on political issues. Specifically, we are collecting chapter-length pieces that examine innovative and non-traditional “texts” within college and university classrooms including: literature, art, film, television, theatre and role-playing, music, as well as internet resources and social networking media. We envision this volume to be a compendium for those seeking to teach politics in new and engaging ways, utilizing novel texts and media in order to do so."