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This course focuses on current issues and developments in the United States. It discusses wide range of political, economic, cultural, and social problems with particular focus on the current administration of 45th president Donald Trump.
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the most important discourses in the current U.S. Throughout the semester, we will analyze and debate various essential challenges the U.S. society is facing today. Multiple media sources will be used for the analyses, which should also provide students with advanced orientation in U.S. media landscape. The course is taught in English and ends with a graded exam. Last update: Sehnálková Jana, Mgr., Ph.D. (10.09.2018)
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Upon successful completion of this course the student will be
Last update: Sehnálková Jana, Mgr., Ph.D. (10.09.2018)
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Each week, the students are given reading assignment, usually from various media, including The Economist, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times and many others. The reading assignment will be distributed via email or via website. Last update: SEHNALKO (23.09.2014)
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Since this class is partly a lecture and partly a seminar, lecture will provide main guidance by means of two-way communication; all theories will be underpinned by practical examples and opened to in-class discussions by students. The participants are expected to read assigned material, raise questions about the claims in the article, and discuss their findings in the class. Last update: SEHNALKO (23.09.2014)
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1. Attendance and active participation, including thorough preparation for each class: 10 + 10 %.Students are required to read the assigned texts thorough enough to contribute during class discussion. The texts will be available online on the course website or sent via email during the weekend before the class. Should you have any problems getting access to the texts by Sunday morning, let me know by email. Students are also expected to closely follow current events pertaining to US domestic and foreign policy. It is expected that the students will read at least one daily U.S. newspaper - e.g. the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Los Angeles Times. Each class will start with a brief discussion of the latest developments in U.S. foreign and domestic politics.
2. Group project: 40% Students are encouraged to create groups of two members for agroup project. Each group shall prepare an in-depth backgrounder on one of the presidential candidates, describing their position on key issues and controversies. The backgrounder presentation should be multi-media based - i.e. using text, links to videos, photos, newspapers articles, cartoons, etc. For the presentation, the students are encouraged to use official resources, such as White House website (www.whitehouse.gov), opinion polls (e.g. from Gallup, Rasmussen Reports, Democracy Corps, Pew Research), official statistics (www.census.gov), or other media (e.g. online newspapers, YouTube, Facebook, etc). All the backgrounders will be uploaded to a website. The students are encouraged to discuss their presentation on regular basis.
3. Final exam: 50% Last update: Sehnálková Jana, Mgr., Ph.D. (14.09.2015)
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Course Outline (Tentative – subject to change):
1. Orientation/Introduction
2. Media Landscape
3. Foreign Policy
4. U.S. Economy Under Donald Trump
5. Class in the United States
6. Racial Relations: BlackLivesMatter, Police Violence, Incarceration, War Against Drugs
7. Gun Rights: Major legislation, 2nd rights amendment debates, lobbying.
8. HealthCare/ ObamaCare Meaning of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act
9. Policy of Homeland Security Defending the U.S. from the inside, U.S. and terrorism, domestic terrorism, terrorism v. hate crimes.
10. Role of religion in the U.S. + other topics of interest Last update: Sehnálková Jana, Mgr., Ph.D. (30.09.2019)
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English, basic understanding of U.S. political system Last update: SEHNALKO (03.09.2012)
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