Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: WHO SHOULD VOTE? A BIG QUESTIONS COURSE

Department: Humanities Division

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In 2020, Americans will celebrate the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment and the sesquicentennial of the Fifteenth Amendment. Both anniversaries make it seem like the history of voting rights is a story of continually expanding suffrage. But the humanities can help students understand the more complex reality. Contests over “Who Should Vote?” have existed since the nation’s beginnings and continue today, as people argue over the prevalence of voter suppression or debate whether to lower the voting age. Studying historical contests over this “Big Question” is important because they illuminate the contingency of democracy. Democracy did not always mean the same thing to earlier Americans that it does to us. Moreover, expansions of the right to vote for some groups have often occurred hand in hand with new restrictions on voting for others. The history of suffrage is not one of unbroken progress or decline, but instead of continuous protest and political struggle. By exploring how earlier Americans fought over the answer to “Who Should Vote?", students in this class will grapple with the meaning of American democracy itself.