In the weeks and months leading up to the 2012 election, the University of Kentucky and the College of Arts and Sciences held events to help students become more engaged with the political process. One such event, as detailed in another article, was a collective viewing of the second of three Presidential debates this season.
Fall of 2012 was the perfect time to conduct a class about American electoral politics - so it was taken up as the topic for Currents, a class offered to incoming Freshmen. The course explores the 2012 election from a variety of academic perspectives - including, but not limited to, philosophy, economics, history, and, of course, political science. In this podcast, five Currents students shared their experiences with the class.
The course, designed for first-year students, aims to facilitate high-level discussion in a nonpartisan manner and to explore how elections really work. The focus will span across historical data from past elections, such as voter demographics, important cultural issues such as religion, women's rights and civil rights, to the key challenges that the nation faces for the 2012 election.
The Center for English as a Second Language organized a discussion and viewing of the 2012 Vice Presidential debate, which gave students an opportunity to practice conversation and express their political opinions. In this podcast, students share some political insight, comparisons to politics in their home countries, and reactions to the debate. View the photos from this event here.
A large university setting like the University of Kentucky can often present difficulties in facilitating one-on-one interaction between international students and local students; however this exchange is very important. It allows international students to enhance their cultural experiences and English proficiency, and it provides domestic students with global perspectives. The University of Kentucky Center for English as a Second Language Department (CESL) works to facilitate these interactions, most recently through a joint-viewing of the first presidential debate.
In the 2008 election, young Americans voted in their largest numbers since the 1970's. With the 2012 election around the corner, the UK College of Arts and Sciences, with the support of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media (WRD) will present several events for UK students to become more informed about the election, specifically surrounding the second presidential debate.
What can we tell about future elections by observing the past? Political scientist Stephen Voss gives us a few examples from past elections - and analyzes some recent developments - in order to articulate the ways that electoral votes can slide from one place to another and disrupt the electoral trends of the past. From population shifts to industrial boom and bust, the United States is in a state of change, and so are its Presidential elections.
By the time this year's Presidential election rolls around, many voters will be as turned off as they are excited. Why? The constant presence of political ads that saturate almost every nook and cranny of the media market. But what makes these ads possible? The answer is the incredible influx of money into modern politics that is used to bludgeon as often as it is to persuade and inform voters.
