“So What Does A Politics Major Learn?” – Many A Person I Meet

I would love to take the time to note that, yes, my degree is just Politics, nothing more, nothing less. No addition of Science on to the end. It appears a plain bagel, but there is a lot more to it than meets the eye initially.

The New American City:

A course focused strictly on using Atlanta as a learning tool to explore an assortment of city leaders, interests, functions, and responsibilities. Throughout the semester, we worked on understanding an array of city governance models/structures. But also how to communicate the strengths and weaknesses of local governance. There was also an emphasis on the intersectionality of several themes, such as economics, politics, business, non-profits, and local leaders. With that, I was also taught how to analyze areas such as Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and more, using Atlanta as a map to navigate.

Since I’m not a native of Atlanta, learning the history of the city and various communities that make it up was incredibly exciting. It made me appreciate my exploration of the town even more whenever I went out and made me happy to know the history behind the communities where I lived.

Roots To Reality:

The full title of this course, from the syllabus, is “Roots to Reality: From Movements to the Rise of Trap Queens in the ATL.” A Politics course where we examined the rise of Atlanta, but this time as an impressive political and leadership regime during the Civil Rights Movement. Continuing from the Civil Rights Movement, we examined the creation of Atlanta’s current day status of being “Black Hollywood.” Within looking at that timeline of history, there were intersections between race, class, politics, and leadership we explored.

While I enjoyed many aspects of the class, I thoroughly enjoyed researching and presenting on Atlanta’s Regime Politics being “remixed.” I took the Hip-Hop industry in Atlanta and viewed it as a coalition that transformed the city to be where it is today.

50 Shades Of Bey – Women, Leadership, & Pop Culture:

This class is still one that people cannot believe I took as part of my Politics course track for graduation. The timing of the course, Spring 2016, added an interesting dynamic to the class. The course built itself around exploring the leadership of women in pop culture and the ways they used their assets to “run the world” per se. We used Beyoncé’s career to navigate how she used her assets to disrupt an industry, primarily through using a unique, genuine voice.

Within the first few weeks of class, Beyoncé released “Formation” and days after its release performed a “controversial” half-time show during Super Bowl 50. Because of the public backlash/discussion, and writing for the school paper too, I wrote an article on the song and its importance for Black Women especially. The day they released the newspaper, my sorority sister (and also Editor of the Paper) brought a stack of copies to class to distribute. It was a random chance and occurrence, but somehow my professor got wind of the article and used it as a discussion tool for the class.

Black Feminist Thought:

Another Politics course specifically focused on the examination of the origin and prominence of Black Feminist Thought in the United States. Black Feminist Thought included studying the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality that leads to the perception, treatment, inclusion, and exclusion of Black women in society. The vast array of themes discussed were the “angry black woman,” colorism, identity politics, and feminism vs. womanism, to name a few.

In terms of my Politics course track, the course was incredibly defining for me, so defining I still thoroughly enjoy and am passionate about this topic even now. In the class, I used it as a platform to explore Black bodies’ exploitation in the media, but specifically through Reality TV, Memes, Music, and more. I also used the class as a platform to discuss sexual violence against Black women and girls and how that same category has to use their sexual agency to supplement income.

The American Dream:

This course was explicitly a “Seminar in Political Philosophy” and is one of the required courses on the Politics track. However, each semester they teach it on a different topic or issue, and the semester I took it, the focus was “American Dream or American Nightmare?” Immediately, the aim was on answering several questions: what that “dream” is, how to reach that “dream,” how to maintain that “dream,” and more. Most of the author’s theories are class-based, not race-based views on issues in society.

Since the class took place after an election season, it was interesting looking at how various candidates’ rhetoric from the campaign trail-related back to this “dream.” Focusing on their rhetoric meant examining, for example, their ability to highlight, what they assumed was, voter’s anger and disappointment in “America. Learning about a variety of constituents’ values regarding the “dream,” but how they went about trying to accomplish that goal too.

Gender, Culture, & Communication:

Occasionally, I took classes outside of my Politics track, which included dabbling in the Communications department, hence this course. Having already focused on both gender and culture intertwined, I was incredibly interested in adding communication to that intersection. The class explored the social and personal dimensions of all three topics and how each issue shapes, sculpts and creates our lives, structures, and practices.

What excited me most about the class was exploring theoretical approaches to gender, the cultural histories of women’s and men’s movements, and much more. I learned a lot about myself through the assignment of having to write a gender memoir. I further expanded my knowledge of gender by including gender acts and performance in a final paper and presentation. I used Janelle Monáe as a case study to explore gender acts and performance concepts, explicitly examining her album Dirty Computer.