Politics at Hampshire College

Politics
By focusing on a wide range of issues including women’s studies, international relations, public policy, government, labor history, political philosophy, legal studies, and racial injustice, the study of politics at Hampshire is interdisciplinary and all encompassing.

Politics can serve as the driving force behind a concentration, but may also supplement a larger project. From natural science students who will likely encounter issues such as environmental justice and socioeconomic determinants of public health at some point in their concentration to students of literature who analyze the political implications of a literary movement, politics seep into many Hampshire concentrations.

Political debate is also quite lively outside of the classroom as political activism thrives on campus.

Student Project Titles

 * The American Citizen
 * Corruption and the Composition of Government Expenditure: Addressing Causality and Substantive Significance
 * Encountering Devi: An Investigation of the Hindu Goddess Through Mythological and Political Contexts
 * Exceptional Subjects: Sovereignty, Liberalism, and the Politics of Race
 * The Impacts of Proportional Representation on Minority Party Politics in Germany
 * “Justice to Children, Loyalty to Women”: The Rhetoric of Maternalism in Women’s Progressive Era Reforms
 * Monsters, Melodrama & 9/11

Featured Faculty Profiles
Frank Holmquist Professor of Politics

Robert Rakoff Professor of Politics and Environmental Studies

Carollee Bengelsdorf Professor of Politics

Sample First-Year Course

 * Politics of Health Insurance

The U.S. is alone among the wealthy capitalist nations in not providing health insurance to all its citizens. In this course we will examine the reasons for this dubious distinction, focusing on Americans’ historic distrust of government, the power of important stakeholders in medicine and insurance, and the dominance of individualism in American political life and thought. We will examine the rise and decline of New Deal social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare, the increasing problems with employment-based insurance, and the conservative push for programs based on personal responsibility. We will assess a range of current policy alternatives including compulsory individual purchase, health savings accounts, expansion of Medicare, and universal coverage through a single government payer.

Sample Courses at Hampshire

 * Civil Society & the State
 * Conflict Resolution & Historical Analysis
 * Draft Resisters & Warriors: The Social Construction of Military Service
 * Environmental Policy in a Time of Globalization
 * Identity and Politics
 * On Derrida’s Politics
 * Political Islam in Comparative & Theoretical Perspective
 * Political Justice
 * Political Research & Writing
 * Politics of Health Insurance
 * Public Diplomacy
 * Topics in Contemporary Political Philosophy
 * Youth, Sexuality & Education

Through the Consortium

 * American Foreign Policy (UMass)
 * American Politics (MHC)
 * Art of Ruling (AC)
 * Civil Liberties (UMass)
 * Comparative Politics (MHC)
 * Intro to Political Thinking (SC)
 * Political Identities (AC)
 * Politics of Public Policy (SC)
 * World Politics (AC)

Facilities and Resources
The Hampshire-based Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies (PAWSS) is a multidisciplinary educational program designed to stimulate student and faculty interest in the study of critical international issues. PAWSS is a highly diversified program entailing the development of new courses, the sponsorship of public lectures and symposia, the publication of specialized resource materials, and the support of student internships.

Hampshire is home to the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program (CLPP), a national program that acts as a resource for the academic community. CLPP promotes the leadership and agenda of young women, presents a broad vision of reproductive freedom, and develops national strategies to be implemented at the grassroots level. These goals are executed through a reproductive rights conference that CLPP hosts on campus every spring. The program also organizes the National Young Women’s Day of Action and offers grants for summer internships through their Reproductive Rights Activist Service Corps. Its companion program, Population and Development, was created in 1986 to respond to the increasing globalization of women’s issues.

The annual Eqbal Ahmad Lecture series honors the teaching, scholarship, and activism of the late Eqbal Ahmad, a long-time professor of world politics at Hampshire College. The event has attracted many notable speakers such as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan; renowned professor and author of Orientalism, Edward Said; Palestinian doctor and recent candidate for the presidency of the Palestinian National Authority, Mustafa Barghouthi; as well as New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh who broke the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

The Law Program features a speakers’ forum that brings prominent legal practitioners and scholars from many parts of the world to give talks and lead discussions. In our Law Lunch series, informal gatherings are coordinated by a volunteer group of students and faculty who organize the talks and make tasty meals that help nourish the intellectual exchanges that take place. Recent Law Lunch topics include the exoneration of death row inmates through DNA testing, alternative juvenile justice models, human rights in Tibet, same-sex marriage and legal equality, reproductive rights of women of color, the establishment of constitutionalism in the new Eastern Europe, and the effects of the War on Terror on U.S. civil liberties. Lunches take place several times each semester and often feature students presenting their own law-related research and reports on their internships and field experiences. Students are welcome to suggest speakers and topics for Law Lunches.

Information Quoted From: http://www.hampshire.edu/admissions/politics.htm