In light of current COVID-19 restrictions on large in-person gatherings, seminars will meet on Mondays from 12:45-2pm Eastern Time via Zoom. Sessions are open to all members of the Yale community.

Session 1 (October 4): Defining Critical Political Science Pedagogy

What is critical pedagogy? critical political science? a critical political science classroom? How does an aspiration towards critical pedagogy prompt us to rethink our existing teaching practices?

Speakers

Daniel Martinez HoSang (Yale) and Karuna Mantena (Columbia)

Readings

• Adom Getachew and Karuna Mantena, “Anticolonialism and the decolonization of political theory,” Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory (forthcoming).
• Loren Kajikawa and Daniel Martinez HoSang, “Pedagogies of Music, Politics, and Race in US Music Studies”, in Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the 21st Century, eds. Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol J. Oja (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2021), 287-309.

Session 2 (October 25): Centering the Margins

Why have some topics (e.g. race, gender) come to be considered marginal to the study of politics? How, and to what ends, can we center such topics in our teaching?

Speakers

Dara Strolovich (Yale) and Kalindi Vora (Yale)

Readings

• Dara Z. Strolovitch, “Invisible Ink: Intersectionality and Political Inquiry,” 1 Ind. J.L. & Soc. Equality 100 (2013), 100-113.
• Saiba Varma, Kalindi Vora, Keolu Fox, Suze Berkhout, and Tarik Benmarhnia, “Why Calls to Diversify Trial Populations Fall Short,” Med 2, 21-32 (2021), 25-28.

Session 3 (November 15): Questioning and (Re)creating Canons

What role do (and ought) canonical texts/authors play in political science education? How can we teach canonical texts critically? How can we create new canons? 

Speakers

Robbie Shilliam (Johns Hopkins) and Shatema Threadcraft (Vanderbilt)

Readings

• Robbie Shilliam, “Political Behavior,” in Decolonizing Politics: An Introduction (Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2021).
• Shatema Threadcraft, “Making Black Femicide Visible: On Instersectional, Abolitionist People-Building Against Epistemic Oppression,” Philosophical Topics (forthcoming).

Session 4 (December 6): Democratic Pedagogy

What might it mean to teach political science democratically? How can we co-create curricula and pedagogical practices with our students? How can democratic pedagogy serve a democratic society?

Speakers

Lucia Hulsether (Skidmore) and Brandon Terry (Harvard/Yale)

Readings

• Lucia Hulsether, “The Grammar of Racism: Religious Pluralism and the Birth of the Interdisciplines,”Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 86:1 (2018), 1-41.
• Brandon Terry and Tommie Shelby, “Martin Luther King, Jr. and Political Philosophy,” in To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., eds. Tommie Shelby and Brandon M. Terry (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018), 1-15.
• Cornel West, “The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual,” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 2 (1993-1994), 59-67.