I am passionate about teaching and emphasize a student-centered approach to pedagogy.
I am regularly in touch with former students, so feel free to reach out to request a letter of recommendation. If you are a student that is interested in continuing education for methods (or if we have discussed it), email me.
Courses Taught (Instructor of Record)
- Campaigns and Elections
- Oregon State University, Fall 2024
- American Foreign Policy
- Oregon State University, Fall 2024
- Research Methods
- Oregon State University, Fall 2024
- Oregon State University, Winter 2025
- Oregon State University, Spring 2025
- Oregon State University, Summer 2025
- Introduction to American Politics
- Chapman University, Fall 2022
- University of Redlands, Fall 2022
- Oregon State University, Spring 2025
- Oregon State University, Summer 2025
- American Political Parties
- Chapman University, Fall 2021
- University of Oregon, Spring 2023
- The Media and U.S. Politics
- University of Oregon, Winter 2023
- California State Politics
- UC Riverside, Spring 2022
- Racial Politics in the United States
- UC Riverside, Summer 2020
- UC Riverside, Summer 2022
- University of Oregon, Spring 2023
- Oregon State University, Winter 2025
- Political Ideologies
- University of Oregon, Spring 2023
- University of Oregon, Winter 2025
- Foucault and Post-Colonial Theory
- UC Riverside, Spring 2021
- UC Riverside, Summer 2021
- University of Oregon, Winter 2023
- Oregon State University, Winter 2025
- University of Oregon, Spring 2025
Introduction to American Politics
This course is one of the best opportunities that I have had to discuss contemporary American politics with my students and to comprehensively work through the many processes and institutions that constitute our government. I found that my students, even non-political science majors, were particularly engaged with this course. We supplemented a textbook with contemporary articles or spent time discussing relevant ongoing issues. The syllabus included is for a semester.
I focused this course on theories of partisan attachment, exploring how the development of partisanship and the party system impacts contemporary partisan politics. Students learned major ideas about the role of party elites and psychological attitudes and applied them to historical discussions of the American Founding and the Civil War, as well as contemporary issues including partisan polarization. This syllabus was designed for a semester.
While I have taught a few variations of this course, the included syllabus is for a racial politics class specifically focused on the history of racial politics through the 20th century. I chose to teach this history through firsthand accounts of individuals such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, and Angela Davis. Despite the focus on history, we worked hard to apply these readings to contemporary contexts.
Because of my own positionality teaching a course such as this, I attempted to adjust the syllabus and class discussions to students’ interests as much as possible. This syllabus was designed for a quarter.
Foucault and Post-Colonial Theory
I am often asked to teach a variety of “Modern Political Theory” courses, and often teach similar material that wrestles with the philosophy of Michel Foucault, the question of the “population” in contemporary politics, and how such theories relate to questions of race and post-colonial theory. This particular class was taught with an emphasis on contemporary questions of “life and death,” where we sought to apply theory to understand issues such as eugenics, racial disparities in health care, and reproductive rights. This syllabus was designed for a quarter.
Sean D. Long 