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Course Info for POLS - 207 - 01, Fall 2022
Class number: 2710 Title: COVID-19 and the Amer. State Department: Political Science
Career: Undergraduate Component: Lecture Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 29 Current enrollment: 29 Available seats: 0
Start date: Tuesday, September 6, 2022 End date: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: MW: 1:30PM-2:45PM, MECC - 232 Instructor(s): Laws, Serena
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Social Sciences Requirement
Note: This course is Methodologically Focused
Note: 15 seats reserved for first year students, 10 seats for sophomores, and 4 seats for juniors who have declared a POLS Major. No seniors unless by instructor permission.
Course Description:
The COVID-19 pandemic constituted a crisis in American governance. Policymakers addressed multiple challenges: balancing public health and the economy, battling misinformation, and equitably distributing treatments and vaccine. With weak national leadership, a complex web of federal, state, and local governmental bodies took distinct and often contradictory approaches. The crisis exposed and amplified existing strains in American society including inequalities in race, class, and gender, and deep political polarization. This course uses the COVID crisis as a case study to explore core elements of American politics including federalism, executive power, the media, the conflict between expertise and public opinion, and more.