Bianca V. Vicuña, Ph.D.

Class description: In many ways, American politics is a competition between groups—between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, People of Color (PoC) and Whites, native-born and foreign-born, and the religious and the secular, just to name a few. But why do we choose to belong to some political groups rather than others? And why do we dislike some political groups so much, and others not at all? Finally, why are some group conflicts in American politics short-lived, while others are so enduring? These are some of the core questions addressed by this course. To that end, we will examine the psychological sources of group conflict and cooperation in U.S. politics. Students will learn how political groups are co-determined by individual choices as well as institutional practices.

Teaching Statement: I believe in equal opportunity in higher education. Because of this, I built in several grade buffers into my POL 163 class assignments to allow students to make mistakes while they acquire new skills without hurting their grades. For example, students are expected to write an original research proposal as the big writing assignment for the class. For many students, this is the first time they have to formally complete an academic piece of writing. Consequently, to help students successfully complete this assignment, I divided the assignment into smaller digestible chunks. I also schedule an in-class writing workshop with a writing consultant and I hold several in-class sessions where I give students detailed advice on how to complete the writing assignment. Most students do well on the course. About 78.43% of students obtained a B- or better and about 45.09% of the students obtained an A- or better as their final grade.