Release date: Aug. 31, 2004

Course Explores Politics as Theater

Contact:
Elaine Justice, 404-727-0643, elaine.justice@emory.edu
Beverly Cox Clark, 404-712-8780, beverly.clark@emory.edu

As Republicans and Democrats go full throttle against each other to win the hearts of American voters, Emory University students in the course "Why all the Controversy? Rhetoric, Culture and the 2004 Election" are paying close attention to the drama, and analyzing the "scripts" each party follows to get across its messages.

Instructor Antonio de Velasco created the course with the 2004 election in mind as the perfect "theater" to observe and analyze the dramatic symbolism used in politics.

"This course analyzes the political spectacle we’re seeing right now and how messages are simplified for political effect. While symbolic imagery can be overlooked as an important dimension of American politics, it is those sound bites and images that shape political debate and become the issues that people talk about," says de Valesco, a doctoral candidate in Emory's Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts.

The reading list includes authors from the far right, such as Ann Coulter's "Liberal Lies about the American Right," and the hard left with Joe Conason's "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth." Students also will read books on the effects of the media, and use the Internet, newspapers and television to track current events. For a final paper, students will write a "citizen narrative" to describe what it was like to follow the election, and make sense of the messages.

"I want students to be equipped with a basic understanding of the rhetorical strategies that give political messages such cultural force in the United States. My hidden agenda, actually, is to get them deeply interested in politics so that they will become better and more sophisticated political critics," he says.

Other courses this fall that will use the national presidential election as a teaching tool include:

• Political Science 100: National Politics in the US
Taught by national elections expert Alan Abramowitz, this course is an introduction to American national government. It covers the constitutional framework of American government, the social and cultural context of American politics, as well as public opinion, parties, elections, interest groups, Congress, the presidency and the courts. Students will write a short paper analyzing the 2004 election.

• Political Science 347: The South in National Politics
Taught by Merle Black, the nation's leading expert on Southern politics, this course analyzes Democratic and Republican efforts in the South to gain control of the White House and Congress during the last half-century.

• Political Science 348: American Elections and Voting
Another course taught by Abramowitz, this seminar will examine the contemporary electoral process in the United States with special attention to the 2004 presidential election.

• Political Science 490S: U.S. Presidential Campaigns
This seminar examines U.S. presidential campaigns over time, emphasizing the nomination process, campaign strategies, the role of the press and the impact of technology. Attention also will be given to campaign financing and proposals for campaign reform. The course is taught by Wayne Anderson, adjunct professor in political science.

• History 488: JR/SR Colloquium: American Conservatism since 1945
Taught by Southern historian and assistant professor Joseph Crespino, this seminar explores the history of modern American conservatism, from 1945 to the present. Topics include conservative political theory, McCarthyism, the radical right in the liberal imagination, race and conservatism, and the contemporary legacies of conservative and anti-liberal movements.

For more political news, visit Emory's election news page.

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