This year’s election is steeped in complex, multifaceted issues ranging from international trade to the Middle East crisis. The Electoral Commons aims to explore and clarify these issues for new and experienced voters.

Scholars shed light on election issues at Electoral Commons

A new series featuring faculty from throughout USC aims to slow the spin on campaign rhetoric and explore the important topics emerging from this year’s election.

August 19, 2016

Is Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s stance on trade policy good for the country? Are Republican candidate Donald Trump’s proposals regarding immigration feasible? What impact has the politics of gender had on both of their campaigns and the election as a whole?

From race and wealth equality to the Middle East crisis, this election has been suffused in myriad national and global issues, many of which fall well within USC Provost Michael Quick’s definition of intractable, “wicked problems.”

Richard Fliegel. Photo by Peter Zhaoyu Zhou.

“There’s so much going on this time around,” said Richard Fliegel, associate dean for undergraduate programs, “it can be difficult to follow and analyze even for seasoned voters, particularly when the candidates and their campaigns ramp up the political rhetoric.

“For students, many of whom are looking forward to their first election in November, the confusion can become overwhelming.”

To help both new and returning voters draw order from the chaos, the USC Provost and USC Dornsife, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and USC Price School of Public Policy present the Electoral Commons, part of a thematic semester focusing on the election.

Organized by Fliegel and representatives from each school, the thematic semester is a project of USC’s General Education Committee, sponsored by the USC Provost and featuring discussions of the debates led by USC Dornsife’s Robert Shrum, Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics and professor of the practice of political science, and Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics.

Scheduled through the weeks leading up to the Nov. 7 election, the Electoral Commons series highlights USC scholars who provide their expert insights on the issues. Each session will tackle a specific, high-profile topic:

USC students may also take advantage of a Fall Thematic Curriculum designed to further enlighten them on the issues entwined with the election. Assembled from general education courses and other offerings, the curriculum includes classes deemed particularly relevant to the election and the issues addressed by the candidates.

For more information about the Electoral Commons and the Thematic Curriculum, visit dornsife.usc.edu/thematicsemester.

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