American state government more directly impacts Americans' daily lives than the federal government in Washington, DC. State governments provide education, roads, criminal justice, police, health care, welfare, infrastructure, technology policy, and more. This course uses the comparative method, comparing politics and policy across states to understand variations in state government across the states. Additionally, we spend about a third of our time homing in on Iowa, so we can better understand the government of the state we currently call home. Topics, both for cross-state comparison and for Iowa-focused discussion, include voting, elections, demography, political parties, public policy, legislatures, governors, the courts, and much more.
Note: I designed this course to teach about both the fifty states comparatively and the state in which I taught the course. The Iowa-specific portions of the course can be easily replaced with readings and instruction on any other state in which this course would be taught, or could be replaced with more readings and instruction on the fifty states collectively, if desired.
POLI 3110: Local Politics, course facilitator, fall 2024
POLI 1950: Introduction to Religion and Politics, discussion section instructor, spring 2025
POLI 1501: Introduction to American Foreign Policy, discussion section instructor, spring 2021
POLI 1100: Introduction to American Politics, discussion section instructor, fall 2020
POLI 7003: Advanced Methodology, guest lecturer on mapping in Stata, fall 2022, fall 2023
POLI 5001: Introductory Methodology, guest lecturer on Stata use, fall 2022
POLI 3150: Congressional Elections, teaching assistant, fall 2024