Gender, Resurgent Nationalism & Masculinist Politics in the U.S. & Europe

**All Short Courses will take place on Wednesday, August 29 at the APSA 2018 Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.**

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Rude Politics and College Students’ Political Engagement

J. Cherie Strachan
1:30 pm – 5:30pm

This short course, sponsored by the Consortium for Intercampus SoTL Research (CISR) and the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) explores solutions for college students’ reactions to rude politics. College students’ disinterest in traditional political participation may result from increasing levels of political incivility in contemporary politics. Negative and polarizing political discourse since 2008 has been characterized by name-calling, interruptions, and yelling – on the campaign trail, in meetings with constituents, and even on the floors of our legislatures. If our students believe that participating in politics requires them to pick a side and join the brawl, it is little wonder some may be reluctant to engage in traditional politics. Further, while rude politics may suppress political interest across the board, these egregious examples of political incivility might have an especially chilling effect on women and minorities, both of whom may find it hard to envision themselves imitating these highly-visible, aggressive public figures.

It is important to determine whether rude politics squelches students’ political ambition and interest, as this reaction will make promoting political engagement on our campuses even more difficult. It may also suppress political science’s efforts to attract and train diverse future political leaders. This short course reviews preliminary results from a multi-campus on-line experiment assessing student reactions to rude political behavior. Students on participating campuses were randomly assigned to review videos of civil or uncivil political behavior prior to taking an on-line post-test questionnaire. During the short course, insights gained from their responses will be used to develop and recommend curricular interventions intended to re-engage young people in politics. Materials from this short course may also be used to persuade college administrators that additional efforts to promote civic and political engagement, and to fulfill higher education’s civic mission, must be undertaken in order to counteract the effect of incivility in the broader political environment.

**All Short Courses will take place on Wednesday, August 29 at the APSA 2018 Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.**

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Islam in Europe

Sam Cherribi
Full Day

Europe that has been swept by several dynamic forces of change: the de-consolidation of the European Union (Brexit) a massive influx of Muslim immigrants and refugees, and the rising voice of Islamic fundamentalism. The portents are clearly troubling—as evidenced by the murders of Pim Fortuyn and filmmaker Theo van Gogh, after which riots broke out, mosques were burned, and Muslims were openly reviled by the public and the media, in addition to the notorious Danish cartoons, the massacres of the journalists of Charlie Hebdo and the multiple terrorist bombings in Paris and Brussels.

Let’s start our European tour on April 30, 2013 at the abdication of the Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and the enthronement of her son the new King Willem-Alexander. The King was sworn in by the name of God Almighty and 90 percent of the members of Parliament of the first and second Chamber swore allegiance to the King in the name of God Almighty. Among the guests who were present was Sheika Moza of Qatar, wearing a high fashion black dress and very elegant headgear with no reference to Islam, and the “Queen” of Morocco, Lalla Selma, was repeatedly shown on TV with comments about her Rita- Heyworth-like un-Islamic outlook. Next day, the headlines of all the Dutch newspapers had a picture of with her “uncovered red hair” and her “beautiful dark green kaftan.”

Let’s continue our journey in the same week to Belgium where the State recognized Islam in the early 70s as an official religion and integrated the teaching of Islam in public school curricula. The Belgian minister of education appeared on TV that week, worried about young Muslim students who go to fight in Syria while they are still under the law of compulsory education. In French, Belgian and Dutch newspapers politicians and civil organizations worry about the increasing numbers of young Europeans of Islamic decent who are recruited or go voluntarily to fight against the Syrian regime. The Belgian Minister of Interior spoke to imams and Muslim community leaders about ways to stop this kind of recruitment, especially when a young student disappeared for months and was found in Syria. Some of the measures discussed would result in stripping the recruits of their Belgian citizenship.

This course, taught by a former European congressman and scholar of European and pan- Arab societies, politics, and media, provides a useful lens through which to examine the presence of Islam in European Societies.

**All Short Courses will take place on Wednesday, August 29 at the APSA 2018 Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.**

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Teaching About Political Violence Using Simulations and Games

Victor Asal
1:30 pm – 5:30pm

Simulations, role-play and games are increasingly becoming an important part of the dedicated instructor’s pedagogical repertoire. In terms of both classroom engagement and learning of skills and content, these methods can have a solid impact on students. Political violence is an area of international relations that especially lends itself well to the use of these techniques. This workshop will introduce participants to a number of short games, exercises, and mini-simulations that require little time and few resources to run successfully. We will play several of these games together, debrief them, and discuss the effectiveness of these techniques and ideas for further applications.

**All Short Courses will take place on Wednesday, August 29 at the APSA 2018 Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.**

• View more Short Courses
• Register for the APSA Annual Meeting