Political-science and history professors throughout Iowa, New Hampshire, and even in states without early causes and primaries, are mining the real-life political lessons of the 2008 election season for class assignments, projects, and reading lists.
In Iowa, Rachel P. Caufield, an associate professor of politics and international relations at Drake University, has made the 2008 presidential race a key topic in her honors class about satire.
Her students, for instance, have examined political cartoons involving the candidates as well as talk-show host Stephen Colbert’s brief dabbling in the presidential race.
“The goal is to get students to think analytically about the methods, forms, and function of satire as a form of political communication and rhetoric,” Ms. Caufield said.
Every four years, the University of New Hampshire offers a course devoted to studying the state’s traditional first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
The history course, being taught this semester, includes discussions of what presidential campaigns are doing right and wrong, their workings behind the scenes and how voters react to them, according to The New York Times. Students also quiz guest speakers.
Students are required to read and watch coverage of the presidential race and study books on the New Hampshire primary and politics. Many students also volunteer for campaigns, according to the newspaper.
English professors are getting into the act, too. At Pennsylvania State University at University Park, Diana Gruendler required students in her honors English composition course to submit 30-second video questions to YouTube in advance of tonight’s Republican debate, according to The Daily Collegian, the student newspaper.
As they did with a Democratic debate earlier this year, YouTube and CNN are seeking questions for the Republican candidates from the public and will select about 40 questions from the thousands that have been submitted to ask during the event.
Ms. Gruendler told the newspaper that the assignment fit in with her course’s central theme — “Democratic Democracy.” It also, she said, “taught students the power of the word and was a perfect opportunity to engage students in politics and to teach them that they have a voice.”
