This course explores the landscape of opinion on a variety of political topics to develop an understanding about how the public thinks about issues and why they think the way they do. It also examines how peoples' opinions influence their behavior, and whether or not political leaders follow the "will of the public" or manipulate public opinion to achieve their own aims.

UMass Women into Leadership (UWiL) is a series of hands-on workshops designed to educate participants on the existence and causes of gender disparities in public service, to provide leadership training to prepare participants to enter public service careers, and to offer mentoring and networking programs to help launch public service careers.

Constitutional law on equality, which is referred to as equal protection, is negotiated through legal cases and public opinion. Drama and drama criticism provide opportunities to engage equality through performance and discussion in a public setting outside of the courts. Because it is distinctively expressive and characteristically engaging, drama and criticism offer an important sphere of commentary. The class will engage in at least one performance and visit the set of another.Readings draw on jurisprudence, law and society, and performance studies.

Constitutional law on equality, which is referred to as equal protection, is negotiated through legal cases and public opinion. Drama and drama criticism provide opportunities to engage equality through performance and discussion in a public setting outside of the courts. Because it is distinctively expressive and characteristically engaging, drama and criticism offer an important sphere of commentary. The class will engage in at least one performance and visit the set of another.

Overview of major approaches to the study of Latin American politics and survey of historical and contemporary democratic, populist, authoritarian, and revolutionary regimes. Special attention to local, national and global forces shaping development strategies and public policies; changing institutional arrangements and shifting discourses of domination; and, social movements and strategies of resistance among subaltern social groups and classes.

What is politics, really? To answer this deceptively simple question, students engage thinkers such as Aristotle, Weber, Arendt, and Schmitt; read about the evolutionary origins of politics among the primates; go out and "do politics;" and reflect on their own political awakenings.

Course description not available at this time.

Course description not available at this time.

This course introduces students to how the Supreme Court works as a legal institution, by examining landmark civil liberties decisions of the Court within their political and historical contexts. As an Integrative Experience course, this course also connects knowledge and skills from multiple sources, helps build oral communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills, and strengthens students' analytical understanding of how the Supreme Court works. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-POLSCI majors.

Where are politics in the spaces we go for leisure and play? Sports and politics have become increasingly intertwined over the past 40 years. Local, state, and federal governments, as well as non-governmental bodies like the NCAA, regulate who can participate in sports, and what standards players must meet to do so. But sports have also become the battleground for major political discussions around sex equity, racial inclusion, sexuality, physical ability, and drug testing.