Government (GOVT)

Program Goals:

Government Program Goals

• Students will learn to recognize the diverse forms of power that characterize various political systems and appreciate the factors that affect the exercise of political power. (Practiced)
• Describe African countries position in the global economy and global governance and identify the strategies African governments and societies use to change their position.
• Distinguish difference types of governance, economic activity, ethnic relations, gender relations, and international relations across African countries and formulate plausible explanations for this regional diversity.
• Compare and contrast the mechanisms of colonization and colonial governance across Africa and distinguish their differential impact on African countries over time.

International Relations Program Goals

• Students will learn to recognize the diverse forms of power that characterize various political systems. (Practiced)
• Compare and contrast the mechanisms of colonization and colonial governance across Africa and distinguish their differential impact on African countries over time. Distinguish difference types of governance, economic activity, ethnic relations, gender relations, and international relations across African countries and formulate plausible explanations for this regional diversity. Describe African countries position in the global economy and global governance and identify the strategies African governments and societies use to change their position.

Government Program Goals

• Students will learn to communicate responsibly and effectively by constructing and presenting well-conceived and well-written arguments. (Practiced)
• Properly cite a variety of reliable sources and effectively deploy evidence and quotations to to back up claims and arguments in written assignments and oral presentations. Use precise and appropriate vocabulary in written assignments and oral presentations. Present more than one potential explanation when answering questions about political phenomena in Africa.

International Relations Program Goals

• Students will learn to communicate responsibly and effectively by constructing well-conceived and well-written arguments pertaining to political affairs. (Practiced)
• Properly cite a variety of reliable sources and effectively deploy evidence and quotations to to back up claims and arguments in written assignments and oral presentations. Use precise and appropriate vocabulary in written assignments and oral presentations. Present more than one potential explanation when answering questions about political phenomena in Africa.

Government Program Goals

• Students will learn to think critically by formulating alternative explanations for events and trends in the contemporary world. (Practiced)
• Present more than one potential explanation when answering questions about political phenomena in Africa. Compare and contrast the mechanisms of colonization and colonial governance across Africa and distinguish their differential impact on African countries over time. Distinguish difference types of governance, economic activity, ethnic relations, gender relations, and international relations across African countries and formulate plausible explanations for this regional diversity. Describe African countries position in the global economy and global governance and identify the strategies African governments and societies use to change their position.

International Relations Program Goals

• Students will learn to think critically by formulating alternative explanations for events and trends in the contemporary world. (Practiced)
• Present more than one potential explanation when answering questions about political phenomena in Africa. Compare and contrast the mechanisms of colonization and colonial governance across Africa and distinguish their differential impact on African countries over time. Distinguish difference types of governance, economic activity, ethnic relations, gender relations, and international relations across African countries and formulate plausible explanations for this regional diversity. Describe African countries position in the global economy and global governance and identify the strategies African governments and societies use to change their position.
• Students will become familiar with fundamental scholarship and cutting edge research in political science. (Practiced)
• Properly cite a variety of reliable sources and effectively deploy evidence and quotations to to back up claims and arguments in written assignments and oral presentations.

Government Program Goals

• Students will become familiar with fundamental scholarship and cutting edge research in political science. (Practiced)
• Properly cite a variety of reliable sources and effectively deploy evidence and quotations to to back up claims and arguments in written assignments and oral presentations.

Core Goals:

International Perspectives

• Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal. (Practiced)
• Identify one or more strongly-held assumptions about an African society, economy, or political system and collect reliable evidence that counters this assumption. Compare and contrast their own political activity and assumptions with that of citizens in one or more African country. Compare and contrast their power in global politics and economics with that of an African citizen with a relatively similar educational or familial background.
• Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives. (Practiced)
• Summarize the dominant scholarly frameworks for explaining African politics and critique them using at least one alternative framework developed in African academe. Draw on scholarly, literary, and popular sources from the continent to identify how lived experiences in African countries compare with dominant scholarly representations of African realities.
• Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one ethnic or national group and its experiences outside of the United States. (Practiced)
• Draw on scholarly, literary, and popular sources from the continent to identify how lived experiences in African countries compare with dominant scholarly representations of African realities. Compare and contrast their power in global politics and economics with that of an African citizen with a relatively similar educational or familial background.
• Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States. (Practiced)
• Draw on scholarly, literary, and popular sources from the continent to identify how lived experiences in African countries compare with dominant scholarly representations of African realities.

Program Goals:

Government Program Goals

• Students will learn to recognize the diverse forms of power that characterize various political systems and appreciate the factors that affect the exercise of political power. (Practiced)
• Students will be given a short quiz in introductory government courses that tests their recognition of influential theories of power; they will be given the same test during the first semester of their senior year; note will be taken of improvements (or lack thereof) in their ability to recognize major theories.
• Senior theses written by government majors will be read by members of the department faculty, who will evaluate the degree to which the papers demonstrate a clear recognition of diverse forms of power.
• Students will learn to communicate responsibly and effectively by constructing and presenting well-conceived and well-written arguments. (Practiced)
• Senior theses written for the department will be surveyed by members of the government faculty, who will determine the extent to which the papers exhibit a coherent flow, and also whether or not they contain fewer than five errors of grammar and syntax.
• Students will learn to think critically by formulating alternative explanations for events and trends in the contemporary world. (Practiced)
• At the conclusion of upper-division courses offered by the government department, students will submit at least two plausible research questions, based on material covered in that course, that can provide the basis for further exploration in subsequent classes.
• Senior theses submitted to the government department will be surveyed by members of the faculty to determine whether or not they offer two or more plausible alternative explanations for the research question at hand.
• Students will become familiar with fundamental scholarship and cutting edge research in political science. (Practiced)
• Senior theses submitted to the government department will be surveyed by the faculty, who will determine whether the papers cite the publications of at least six major scholars, whose work is pertinent to the topic at hand.
• Students will be given a short quiz in introductory government courses that tests their familiarity with fundamental scholarship in political science; they will be given the same test during the first semester of their senior year; note will be taken of improvements (or lack thereof) in their familiarity with classic and cutting-edge scholarship.

Core Goals:

Race, Gender & Power

• Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze race and gender as socially constructed, dynamic identity categories related to systems of power and privilege. (Practiced)
• Students will be assessed with two examinations throughout the semester. These exams include essays responding to prompts that are designed to allow students to show practice critical thought. The first block of the course will discuss theories of representation. Such theories will then be empirically examined by reviewing political science books and articles that test those theories. These essays will allow students to consider theory and empirical evidence to critically evaluate the multiple meanings of representation and how they may or may not cohere with empirical research. Race, gender, and other socially constructed identities become central when understanding whether and how lawmakers represent their constituents and how their own perception(s) of their constituents. As such, many areas of public policy are racialized (or broadly, marginalized). It therefore becomes important to examine under what conditions dominant systems and the individuals within those systems become committed to issues of social justice. The course examinations, discussion leader role, and research term paper will collectively measure a student's continued understanding of the construct of marginal identities and how that impacts the likelihood to access dominant institutions.
• Students will analyze the ways in which race and gender intersect with other identity categories including sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, citizenship and nationality. (Practiced)
• Students will be assessed with two examinations throughout the semester. These exams include essays responding to prompts that are designed to allow students to show practice critical thought. The first block of the course will discuss theories of representation. Such theories will then be empirically examined by reviewing political science books and articles that test those theories. These essays will allow students to consider theory and empirical evidence to critically evaluate the multiple meanings of representation and how they may or may not cohere with empirical research. Race, gender, and other socially constructed identities become central when understanding whether and how lawmakers represent their constituents and how their own perception(s) of their constituents. As such, many areas of public policy are racialized (or broadly, marginalized). It therefore becomes important to examine under what conditions dominant systems and the individuals within those systems become committed to issues of social justice. This will elaborate on what issues actually get represented and how this relates the intersections of multiple identities and secondary forms of marginalization within marginal communities. The course examinations, discussion leader role, and research term paper will collectively measure a student's continued understanding of the construct of marginal identities and how that impacts the likelihood to access dominant institutions.
• Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship. (Practiced)
• Students will be assessed with two examinations throughout the semester. These exams include essays responding to prompts that are designed to allow students to show practice critical thought. The first block of the course will discuss theories of representation. Such theories will then be empirically examined by reviewing political science books and articles that test those theories. These essays will allow students to consider theory and empirical evidence to critically evaluate the multiple meanings of representation and how they may or may not cohere with empirical research. Race, gender, and other socially constructed identities become central when understanding whether and how lawmakers represent their constituents and how their own perception(s) of their constituents. As such, many areas of public policy are racialized (or broadly, marginalized). It therefore becomes important to examine under what conditions dominant systems and the individuals within those systems become committed to issues of social justice. This will elaborate on what issues actually get represented and how this relates the intersections of multiple identities and secondary forms of marginalization within marginal communities. The course examinations, discussion leader role, and research term paper will collectively measure a student's continued understanding of the construct of marginal identities and how that impacts the likelihood to access dominant institutions.
• Students will be able to engage with the intellectual and theoretical contributions of marginalized communities, and contrast them with dominant perspectives. (Practiced)
• Students will be assessed with two examinations throughout the semester. These exams include essays responding to prompts that are designed to allow students to show practice critical thought. The first block of the course will discuss theories of representation. Such theories will then be empirically examined by reviewing political science books and articles that test those theories. These essays will allow students to consider theory and empirical evidence to critically evaluate the multiple meanings of representation and how they may or may not cohere with empirical research. Race, gender, and other socially constructed identities become central when understanding whether and how lawmakers represent their constituents and how their own perception(s) of their constituents. As such, many areas of public policy are racialized (or broadly, marginalized). It therefore becomes important to examine under what conditions dominant systems and the individuals within those systems become committed to issues of social justice. This will elaborate on what issues actually get represented and how this relates the intersections of multiple identities and secondary forms of marginalization within marginal communities. The course examinations, discussion leader role, and research term paper will collectively measure a student's continued understanding of the construct of marginal identities and how that impacts the likelihood to access dominant institutions.
• Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location. (Practiced)
• Students will be assigned the role of discussion leader at least once throughout the course. The role of discussion leader will be to summarize, examine, and critique the assigned readings for that day and to pose questions to other students. This practice will give students the experience of what it is like to teach a course, organize information, and present it in a coherent fashion. Students will be assessed for their preparation, organization, and effective and responsible communication. In personal emails from the faculty member, the students will gain feedback on what was effective, what could have been improved, and also instill encouragement and gratitude. These discussion leader assignments will have students positioned in a role that allows them to elaborate on identities. Students are encouraged to use their own social location to position these ideas in a constructive and critical way.

General Education Goals:

Human Institutions & Behavior

• Recognize the difference between empirical, theoretical, and ethical questions regarding human behavior (Practiced)
• Students will be assessed with two examinations throughout the semester. These exams include essays responding to prompts that are designed to allow students to show practice critical thought. The first block of the course will discuss theories of representation. Such theories will then be empirically examined by reviewing political science books and articles that test those theories. These essays will allow students to consider theory and empirical evidence to critically evaluate the multiple meanings of representation and how they may or may not cohere with empirical research.
• Understand a model of human behavior, how it departs from the models of related disciplines, and what phenomena it is useful for explaining (Practiced)
• Student examination will ask students to elaborate on theories and empirical studies explaining the ways representatives act. These models are models of human behavior and are varied: psychological (social identity theory), economic (rational choice theory), and social psychological (social category theory), etc. So, students will be assessed in their exams their understanding of these different and diverse approaches to understanding why representatives behave the way they do. Students will also write an empirical research paper as the final project for this course. Students will need to rely on one or more theories of representative behavior to develop hypotheses as they relate to a research question. Finally, students will need to empirically test their hypotheses and further discuss how their finding inform such theories.
• Have a command of the basic concepts from one of the disciplines (Practiced)
• Students will write an empirical research paper as the final project for this course. Students will need to rely on one or more theories of representative behavior to develop hypotheses as they relate to a research question. Finally, students will need to empirically test their hypotheses and further discuss how their finding inform such theories.
• Apply basic findings from one of the disciplines (Practiced)
• Students will write an empirical research paper as the final project for this course. Students will need to rely on one or more theories of representative behavior to develop hypotheses as they relate to a research question. Finally, students will need to empirically test their hypotheses and further discuss how their finding inform such theories.
• Understand how theories of human behavior are tested scientifically (Practiced)
• Students will write an empirical research paper as the final project for this course. Students will need to rely on one or more theories of representative behavior to develop hypotheses as they relate to a research question. Finally, students will need to empirically test their hypotheses and further discuss how their finding inform such theories.
• Recognize that human behavior is affected by factors ranging from the psychological to the global (Practiced)
• Student examination will ask students to elaborate on theories and empirical studies explaining the ways representatives act. These models are models of human behavior and are varied: psychological (social identity theory), economic (rational choice theory), and social psychological (social category theory), etc. So, students will be assessed in their exams their understanding of these different and diverse approaches to understanding why representatives behave the way they do

Program Goals:

Government Program Goals

• Students will learn to recognize the diverse forms of power that characterize various political systems and appreciate the factors that affect the exercise of political power. (Practiced)
• Students will be given a short quiz in introductory government courses that tests their recognition of influential theories of power; they will be given the same test during the first semester of their senior year; note will be taken of improvements (or lack thereof) in their ability to recognize major theories.
• Senior theses written by government majors will be read by members of the department faculty, who will evaluate the degree to which the papers demonstrate a clear recognition of diverse forms of power.
• Students will learn to communicate responsibly and effectively by constructing and presenting well-conceived and well-written arguments. (Mastered)
• Senior theses written for the department will be surveyed by members of the government faculty, who will determine the extent to which the papers exhibit a coherent flow, and also whether or not they contain fewer than five errors of grammar and syntax.
• Students will learn to think critically by formulating alternative explanations for events and trends in the contemporary world. (Practiced)
• At the conclusion of upper-division courses offered by the government department, students will submit at least two plausible research questions, based on material covered in that course, that can provide the basis for further exploration in subsequent classes.
• Senior theses submitted to the government department will be surveyed by members of the faculty to determine whether or not they offer two or more plausible alternative explanations for the research question at hand.
• Students will become familiar with fundamental scholarship and cutting edge research in political science. (Practiced)
• Senior theses submitted to the government department will be surveyed by the faculty, who will determine whether the papers cite the publications of at least six major scholars, whose work is pertinent to the topic at hand.
• Students will be given a short quiz in introductory government courses that tests their familiarity with fundamental scholarship in political science; they will be given the same test during the first semester of their senior year; note will be taken of improvements (or lack thereof) in their familiarity with classic and cutting-edge scholarship.

Core Goals:

Critical Analysis

• Students will critically analyze information and ideas. (Practiced)
• A midterm and a final examination will measure student's ability to think critically. These exams will be essay in format, which will present students with a hypothetical case in which they must use critical and analytical thought to apply doctrine and precedent to the hypothetical case. Also, a final term paper will more completely evaluate student's abilities to craft a legal argument and how it challenges, extends, or coheres with doctrine and precedent.
• Students will examine issues from multiple perspectives. (Practiced)
• A midterm and a final examination will measure student's ability to think critically. These exams will be essay in format, which will present students with a hypothetical case in which they must use critical and analytical thought to apply doctrine and precedent to the hypothetical case. Also, a final term paper will more completely evaluate student's abilities to craft a legal argument and how it challenges, extends, or coheres with doctrine and precedent. This further involves utilizing dissenting and concurring opinions that may be more convincing of an argument to the student who may then contend that a more proper understanding of constitutional analysis will be to apply those competing perspectives.
• Students will engage in an exploration of the relationship between past systems of knowledge and present scholarly and creative approaches within and across disciplines. (Practiced)
• A midterm and a final examination will measure student's ability to think critically. These exams will be essay in format, which will present students with a hypothetical case in which they must use critical and analytical thought to apply doctrine and precedent to the hypothetical case. Also, a final term paper will more completely evaluate student's abilities to craft a legal argument and how it challenges, extends, or coheres with doctrine and precedent. The historical development of this case history will be integral to understanding the Court's reasoning & reinterpretations of the Court's reasoning with new systems of knowledge (e.g., when scientific & essentialist understandings of race dominated the ideology of the Court versus contemporary social constructionist and critical perspectives of race. Precedent does not go away, but it may be reinterpreted or rejected due to new knowledge systems).
• Students will consider how our understanding of significant questions and ideas is informed by the critical, scholarly, and creative approaches through which we approach those questions and ideas. (Practiced)
• A midterm and a final examination will measure student's ability to think critically. These exams will be essay in format, which will present students with a hypothetical case in which they must use critical and analytical thought to apply doctrine and precedent to the hypothetical case. Also, a final term paper will more completely evaluate student's abilities to craft a legal argument and how it challenges, extends, or coheres with doctrine and precedent. Students will further perform case brief assignments to understand significant questions before the Court. These assignments will have students summarize and condense complex decisions in a coherent fashion. These assignments will offer insight into the Court's creativity (at times finding new rights not previously articulated by the Court) and critical approach to law.
• Students will develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information. (Practiced)
• A midterm and a final examination will measure student's ability to think critically. These exams will be essay in format, which will present students with a hypothetical case in which they must use critical and analytical thought to apply doctrine and precedent to the hypothetical case. Also, a final term paper will more completely evaluate student's abilities to craft a legal argument and how it challenges, extends, or coheres with doctrine and precedent. These hypothetical cases and the studied precedent address relevant and important political, constitutional, and ethical questions. Students will be positioned to critically examine these questions and the persons potentially adversely affected or relieved by the Court's decision. This means student will discern the important questions/issues, effective use information to craft an argument, and consider the ethical or moral implications of such reasoning.
• Students will engage as active participants in the College's intellectual community. (Practiced)
• Students in the 4 unit version of the course will actively engage with the intellectual community here at Mills College. The measurable criteria is the student engaging in oral argument before a three judge panel comprised of legal experts, lawyers, and judges. Students will present their argument in a public venue. Members of the campus community are invited to this event and be able to engage with constitutional argumentation and legal analysis.

General Education Goals:

Historical Perspectives

• Evaluate past events and trends from political, economic, artistic, cultural, philosophical, and social perspectives (Practiced)
• A midterm and a final examination will measure student's ability to utilize case history to reason through current hypothetical (though potentially very real) social and political problems. These exams will be essay in format, which will present students with a hypothetical case in which they must use critical and analytical thought to apply doctrine and precedent to the hypothetical case. Also, a final term paper will more completely evaluate student's abilities to craft a legal argument and how it challenges, extends, or coheres with doctrine and precedent.
• Recognize both differences and similarities between past eras and the present (Practiced)
• A midterm and a final examination will measure student's ability to think critically. These exams will be essay in format, which will present students with a hypothetical case in which they must use critical and analytical thought to apply doctrine and precedent to the hypothetical case. Also, a final term paper will more completely evaluate student's abilities to craft a legal argument and how it challenges, extends, or coheres with doctrine and precedent. Since the course understands the historical development of these doctrines, students will demonstrate their fluency with the distinctions of precedent as they relate to present issues.
• Critique existing analyses of earlier eras (Practiced)
• A midterm and a final examination will measure student's ability to think critically. These exams will be essay in format, which will present students with a hypothetical case in which they must use critical and analytical thought to apply doctrine and precedent to the hypothetical case. Also, a final term paper will more completely evaluate student's abilities to craft a legal argument and how it challenges, extends, or coheres with doctrine and precedent. Students can utilize these assignments to critique past opinions of the Court in order to more fully develop and refine their arguments. This involves reinterpreting precedent (e.g., gay rights issues before the Court have yet to make sexual minorities a suspect a class. But, students could critique this interpretation of precedent and provide an argument as to how the Court has done so.)
• Use critical tools to assess historical source materials (Practiced)
• The core of constitutional legal analysis is using past opinions, federal/state law, and the U.S. Constitution to apply them to new issues and questions. This ultimately means that students must apply critical analysis and logic to reason through facts and justify an end. The exams and legal brief assignments evaluate this core outcome. The reliance on previous opinions is central to this analysis. These historical source materials become the basis for argumentation. Finally, students in the 4 unit version will have to orally defend their positions utilizing these historical source materials to address questions regarding their arguments. Students in class will hear oral arguments before the Court in order to more fully appreciate the use of logic, rhetoric, and doctrinal analysis. This will then be put into practice in the Moot Court event.