PSCI183

Description

One consequence of the growth of political polarization in America is that many Americans rarely encounter people with whom they disagree about politics. This is a class about how to have constructive political conversations and disagreements. In this class, we will study how and why political polarization and fragmentation have made it difficult for Americans to have meaningful encounters with people with different political views, and we will learn about efforts to overcome these difficulties, We will work to develop the ability to have political conversations with each other and with others in the Clark community - to become better listeners, to try to deliberate or disagree constructively, And we will develop skills in facilitating political discussions - we will study and practice ways to moderate political discussions, to pose questions to different audiences, or to create politically diverse communities. Although the course will be primarily about political discourse, the skills you learn here will be transferable to a wide range of difficult types of conversations and disagreements.