PG 200 6 - The Practice of Politics: Argument, Agency and Activism

1.00

This course is designed to introduce students to the skills necessary for democratic deliberation. It is organized around three major themes, each of which will be explored through an experimental pedagogy, called Reacting to the Past. The Reacting to the Past pedagogy involves extended simulations, in which students take on various historical roles and collaborate to solve political problems. Each simulation is built around a major political theoretical text, and requires extensive background research. Throughout the three simulations, students gain an appreciation for the nitty-gritty details of political negotiation and activism. Along the way, explicit attention will be given to develop students’ speaking, arguing and writing skills. The simulations center on three important moments in political history: the re-creation of Athenian democracy following the Peloponnesian War, the aftermath of the French Revolution, and the debates surrounding India’s independence movement in 1945. The varied time periods and geographical locations provide a diverse set of political questions about the limits of democracy, the pace of revolutionary change, and the idea of the self-determination.