How does who we are, including our gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality affect how we think about politics? If we’re allowed to participate in politics? If we turn out to vote? How we are treated by society? The class will take us through the exclusion of certain identities from politics through their path toward inclusion including representation in getting a seat at the table and whether that voice is heard.

This course will examine a breadth of issues related to identity and group politics: identity formation, including self-identification and how others form our identity; marginalization and exclusion, considering citizenship and suffrage; participation- how different groups participate and have been affected by institutional and social pressures; (under) representation- why members of several groups are still not numerically nor substantively represented in our political institutions. We’ll be examining these political processes through several different and intersectional group lenses, including women/gender, race, ethnicity, sovereignty, LGBTQ+