As part of a broad civics and liberal arts education, the main goal of this course is to provide students with the opportunity to increase their knowledge of US elections, US electoral demography, and the US political system.  In addition to a focus on the campaign(s) for the US Presidency in 2024, this course will explore the cultural, demographic, social, and spatial dimensions of the current US electorate, identify and examine important swing states and congressional districts in the race for control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, detail the stakes involved for control of these two governmental bodies, analyze image-making in and the visual culture of US political campaigns and elections, and detail the mechanics and mechanisms of US elections and US electoral cycles.  The main theme addressed in this course will be the dynamic of and dialogue between a particular cultural and social moment in US history and the course and outcome of US political campaigns and elections.  Additional themes that will be developed in this course include: the on-going diversification of the nominees put forward by US political parties; splits (within and without) in the ideology and positioning of the Democratic and Republican parties; and the evolving demography and political positioning of the US electorate.  In this regard, this course will look forward to and prepare students to analyze and grapple with the run-up to and results of the next US Presidential election on November 5, 2024.  As young adults whose lives, in many ways, will be shaped by the outcome of US elections present and future, the over-arching objective of this course will be to raise students’ civic awareness and underline the importance of US elections in articulating, defining, and reflecting the identity and future of America as a nation.

This course will both introduce and afford students the opportunity to develop and expand their knowledge of the history, both co-existential and conflictual, of Israel/Palestine.  Situated broadly within the context of the Middle East and beginning in antiquity with the emergence of three monotheistic religions in the Middle East – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, this course will focus initially on the Ottoman period (ca. 1500-World War One), World War One in the context of the Middle East, and the establishment of British and French mandates and the protectorates in the Middle East after World War One.  The middle part of the course will be devoted to the post-World War Two Middle East and this pivotal period in the history of Israel/Palestine.  Topics addressed here will include: the Cold War and US and Russian/Soviet interests in the Middle East; the Arab nationalist leader of Egypt Gamel Abd al-Nasser; the Suez Canal Crisis (1956); the Six-Day War (1967) and its aftermath; the Yom Kippur War (1973) War; the Camp David Peace Accords (1978); and the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990).  The latter part of the course will focus on the recent history of Israel/Palestine and place current events and warfare in the Middle East in geographical and historical context.  With an appreciation for the complexity, geo-politics, and spatial dimensionality of this topic, this course will look to engage with the history of Israel/Palestine at and across the local, regional, and international levels.  This course will, in a step-wise and iterative manner, equip students with the requisite knowledge to grapple with, navigate, and develop, with the necessary intellectual precision, a multi-perspectival understanding of the past, present, and future of Israel/Palestine.

Elective