19 Professor Jeanette Morehouse Mendez remembers watching the 1984 presidential election returns come in when she was all of 8 years old. This summer, she became the youngest person and first female to head the political science department, having been at OSU since 2005. She teaches courses in American political behavior, with an expertise in elections, campaigns and the media. Her work has been published in such journals as Journal of Politics, Social Science Quarterly, Political Psychology, Politics and Gender, Journal of Women, Politics and Policy, PS: Political Science and Politics, Journal of Media Psychology, and Journal of Political Science. We’re chatting with her about the 2012 presidential election and OSU’s impact on its students, the state and the nation. Election-year lessons New chief of OSU’s political science department offers her take on the 2012 vote. story by Lorene A. Rober on photography by Gary Lawson This fall, you will teach a class on the current presidential election. Describe the class and the makeup of the class. When I was thinking of courses I would like to teach, I thought that a class focusing on the current election would draw interest from a variety of students — and it did. I last taught this in 2008 and had a full course of 35 students. The best part was that the students were interested in elections and government and that is why they took this course, as opposed to a required course. And most interestingly, the class was well split in terms of partisanship and ideology. And that meant … some lively discussions! In the course, what questions do students ask during election years? The No. 1 question is which candidate I will vote for! Of course, I never have revealed this in any course and tell them they can keep guessing. I feel my role is to present the information and create an environment for discussion and interaction, and not use this as a platform to advance my own beliefs. But students really want to know about my preferences, so they also continually ask me to express my opinions on all of the content. The students are smart and engaged and ask great questions about the effects of the election. And because many of the students will be first-time voters, they ask a lot about the past election and about current politics to place this election in a broader context. continues
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