FSEM1010-05.FSEM: Flashpoint Conflicts Amr.F15.Peschek,Joseph

Joseph Peschek

Document Type

Syllabi

School

CLA

Department

PSCI

Course Subject

FSEM

Course Number

1010

Course Section

05

Course Title

FSEM: Flashpoint Conflicts Amr

Academic Term and Year

Fall 2015

Credits

4.00

Area of Study

FSEM

Course Description

On issues from climate change to immigration, American politics today reveals deep and intensifying conflicts among both citizens and political leaders as to how problems should be understood and what, if anything, should be done. Growing numbers of both Republicans and Democrats not only disagree with members of the other party, but regard the other side as an actual threat to the country. At times different groups of Americans seem to inhabit parallel universes. In this course we will discuss and examine political conflict, difference, and polarization in American politics today. How real are these apparent conflicts? Is polarization deepening? What are the causes of flashpoint conflicts? Is conflict rooted in basic value differences among people, such as differences in religious views? Flashpoints politics will be explored by focusing on particular conflict-ridden issues: immigration, same-sex marriage, policing and criminal justice, attitudes towards Islam, taxation and spending, climate change, and economic inequality, among others. Through rigorous written and oral exercises, and by drawing on a wide range of multi-media sources of scholarly and popular analysis and information, students will demonstrate their ability to explain and interpret flashpoint conflicts.

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