Teaching
Below is a short description and syllabus for my course, The Politics of US Social Policy. This upper-level course is designed for undergraduate students, though I can also offer the course to graduate students.
POLI:3150 -Â The Politics of US Social Policy
Semester: Spring 2023
This course will introduce students to the politics of social policy in the United States. Social policy is a contentious topic. It is at the center of fundamental debates relating to economic well-being and poverty, social justice, and inequality. We will discuss different risks that individuals face throughout life and why some risks are addressed by social policies while others are not. We will look at the policy making process in the United States, the reasons some policy alternatives are implemented over others, and the ways that social policies can feed back to shape politics in the future. During the course, we will study and learn to understand how interactions between political institutions, policy actors, the media, and the public influence the making of social policy in the United States.