I am passionate about teaching and emphasize a student-centered approach to pedagogy. A classroom is a site of productive conversations, and these conversations necessitate an environment of mutual respect.
Because much of my scholarship involves studying race in the United States, I inevitably incorporate related issues into courses on both American politics and political theory.
Given that race is a central feature of modern politics, it is necessary for rigorous theory and the study of American politics to engage with it. Moreover, it helps students engage with the material, relating concepts and theories to everyday experiences and contemporary events.
Courses Taught (Instructor of Record)
- Introduction to American Politics
- Chapman University, Fall 2022
- University of Redlands, Fall 2022
- 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
- Political Ideologies
- University of Oregon, Spring 2023
- Foucault and Post-Colonial Theory
- UC Riverside, Spring 2021
- UC Riverside, Summer 2021
- University of Oregon, Winter 2023
Introduction to American Politics
I have been lucky enough to teach this class twice and thoroughly enjoyed the process. 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. For most of the course, we supplemented a textbook with either contemporary analyses of, for example, the Senate, or ensured that we spend time on class discussion, especially for discussions of civil liberties, but I also worked hard to connect the content to American racial politics with selections from The 1619 Project. The syllabus included is for a semester.
I divided this class, which was specifically focused on the development of the current party system, between looking at theories of partisan attachment and parties, exploring the historical development of American parties, and then turning to ask questions about 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 and the phenomenon of Trump’s 2016 victory. 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 expose them to 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. This included asking questions about how to understand the Black Panther Party’s legacy after years of repression and also how Civil Rights-era activism can serve as a model for contemporary anti-racist activism, among many other rich experiences.
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. Given their positive engagement in my course, I hope that I was generally successful. 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 relate Foucault, Federici, and Mbembe to issues of eugenics, racial disparities in health care, and reproductive rights.
I am consistently impressed by my students’ abilities to grapple with such difficult texts and to apply concepts such as biopower to phenomena in the world around them. This syllabus was designed for a quarter.
Sean D. Long 