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CAS 210 – Landmark Speeches on Democracy and Dissent

Students Teaching Students

In coordination with an undergraduate-run organization called Students Teaching Students, CAS department faculty members mentor exemplary students who develop and teach 1-credit courses on a variety of subjects that advance expertise in communication and its role in public life. This semester, Associate Teaching Professor Lori Bedell is supporting undergraduates Kara Miller (who was in Lori’s RCL course a few years back) and Jess Strait as they teach a course titled “Period Talk: The Impact of Stigma on the Menstrual Equity Movement.”
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CAS 210 – Landmark Speeches on Democracy and Dissent

Landmark Speeches on Democracy and Dissent offers a survey of key speeches, debates, and controversies making up the rich tradition of U.S. civic life. The course introduces students to the basic historical contexts within which these key events arise; engage them in close readings of speeches, tracts, and polemical writing; and develop skills in critical thinking and writing. Students will attend to a broad spectrum of voices, including those of historically under-represented peoples as well as canonical figures.

Course Objectives

  1. Introduce students to the history of particularly influential speeches (bothin immediate historical context and over time) regarding vital questions of U.S. democracy and dissent.
  2. Assist students' ability to closely and thoroughly analyze landmark rhetorical documents in U.S. civic life.
  3. Develop students' skills in critical thinking and writing via their personal research into landmark rhetorical and historical documents.