Professor Jonathan Cervas
Office: Posner Hall 374
Email: cervas@cmu.edu
Location: Scaife Hall 234
Time: Tuesday & Thursday 2:00p-3:20p Eastern
Office Hours: Wed 10:30a-12:30p & 1:30p-3:30p, and by appointment (arrange via email)
CMU Academic Calendar
TA: Zakareya Hamed
Email: zhamed@andrew.cmu.edu
Office Hours: arrange via email
Course Relevance: DC: Perspectives on Justice and Injustice
Learning Resources: All resources will be provided via Canvas
Prerequisites: NONE
Are Americans really so divided? The question sounds rhetorical, but political scientists have spent thirty years disagreeing about the answer, and the first month of this course works through that argument: whether the public has genuinely polarized or merely sorted itself into tidier parties, what people mean by “affective polarization” and whether it does the damage commonly attributed to it, how race and partisanship reinforce one another, and whether any of this actually threatens democracy. You will read scholars arguing with each other in print, sometimes over the same data.
The rest of the semester belongs to you. Working in teams of four or five, you will choose a topic, assign your classmates the readings, set the questions, and run the discussion yourselves. Alongside that you will write an op-ed for a general audience, review a book and present it to the class, and build a policy brief with a small team.
Running through all of it is a question about justice: how political division creates and entrenches inequality — who gets heard, who gets represented, and who absorbs the costs of a politics organized around mutual dislike. No previous coursework in political science is expected, and no statistics beyond reading a chart.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
The course grade will be a weighted average of the following components:
| Assignment | Percent of Final Grade |
|---|---|
| Attendance | 25% |
| Discussion Board (before each class) | 15% |
| Student Led Topics | 9% |
| Surveys (3: intake, midterm, evaluation) | 2% |
| Book Review (Slides + Presentation) | 12% |
| Op-Ed Project (Draft + Review + Final) | 20% |
| Group Policy Brief | 17% |
| Assignment | Due Date |
|---|---|
| Discussion board post | 9:00 a.m., each class day |
| Surveys (3) | August 26, October 7, final week |
| Op-ed, first draft | September 21 |
| Op-ed peer review | September 24 |
| Op-ed final draft | September 28 |
| Book Review (slides) | November 23 |
| Group Project | December 1/3 |
| Group Project reflection | December 4 |
Full instructions for every assignment are in Canvas, under Assignments. What follows is the shape of each one and what it is worth.
Absences and the attendance grade. The
first three cost almost nothing; four to six is where it
bites.
Your grade depends heavily on active engagement. This course is interactive: your preparation (completing the readings), contributions to discussions, and participation in debates are essential to your success.
Assignments & Deadlines You are expected to meet all assignment deadlines. If you anticipate being unable to turn something in on time, contact me before the due date to discuss alternatives. Late work will incur a penalty1 provided it does not impede your classmates’ progress (for instance, in group projects). Failing to participate or contribute meaningfully, especially in ways that affect others’ work, will result in a lower grade.
Required readings only. Optional readings, and fuller notes on each, are on that session’s page in Canvas.
Written by the class on August 27, 2026. This replaces the draft that stood here; the words are theirs.
Once it starts getting personal, give it a rest.
- The goal is to not make people feel like they have been attacked.
- Challenge ideas, not people.
- No yelling with malicious intent.
- Have civil speech in the classroom.
- Be open minded to different ideas.
- Understand people come from different backgrounds. Give people the benefit of the doubt, as long as it is not recurring.
- Don’t share personal details of classmates outside of class.
Where the line is.
- There are consequences to things that we say if it crosses lines of university rules.
- If someone says something clearly bigoted or sexist, the professor will enforce.
- Nothing in this statement supersedes rules enforced by the University.
- If you have a problem with somebody, or are uncomfortable, come talk to Professor Cervas.
Laptops, tablets, and phones are not to be used for anything that is not pertinent to what we are doing in the room. The simplest version of this: keep them in your bag. If you are found using a device for something unrelated to class, you will be marked absent for that session — attendance is 25% of the grade, so this is not a small thing.
The rule is short: the argument has to be yours. Use these tools to help you work; do not use them to do the work.
Reasonable use. Brainstorming. Generating the best counter-argument to your own position so you can answer it. Checking grammar and clarity. Asking for an explanation of something in a reading you did not follow. Asking where a draft of yours is unclear.
Not reasonable. Submitting generated prose or slides as your own. Producing your discussion-board posts. Having a tool write your peer review — that one takes something from a classmate who is owed a real reader. Turning in an argument you could not defend if asked about it here, in this room, out loud.
That last test is the one that matters, and it is specific to this course. Nearly everything you write here you may be asked to say aloud: your board post seeds a discussion, your slides come with a presentation, your op-ed and your brief are positions you have taken in front of people who can question them. If you cannot say why your argument makes the move it makes, how the text got produced is beside the point. You do not have the thing the assignment was for.
Say what you used. A line at the end of the op-ed or the brief, a final slide on the book review deck, a clause in a post: I used [tool] to [purpose]. That is the whole requirement. Disclosure costs you nothing and is never itself a problem. Undisclosed use is.
Do not put a classmate’s work into these tools without their explicit permission. Their draft is theirs, and they gave it to you to read, not to feed to something else.
Submitting generated work as your own is a violation of the university’s academic integrity policy and will be handled as one. If you are unsure whether something falls inside these lines, ask me before you submit rather than after.
I am committed to including a broad range of perspectives in the readings and materials for this course. If you believe a critical voice is missing, please let me know so I can improve the syllabus now and in future offerings.
We must treat every individual with respect. We come from many different backgrounds, and this variety of viewpoints is fundamental to building and maintaining an equitable and inclusive campus community. “Representation” can refer to the ways we identify ourselves—race, color, national origin, language, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, ancestry, belief, veteran status, or genetic information, among others. Each of these identities shapes the perspectives our students, faculty, and staff bring to campus. Promoting these varied viewpoints not only fuels excellence and innovation but also advances the pursuit of justice. We acknowledge our imperfections while fully committing to the work—inside and outside our classrooms—of building and sustaining a campus community that embraces these core values.
Each of us is responsible for creating a safer, more inclusive environment.
Unfortunately, incidents of bias or discrimination do occur, whether intentional or unintentional. They contribute to an unwelcoming atmosphere for individuals and groups at the university. Therefore, the university encourages anyone who experiences or observes unfair or hostile treatment on the basis of identity to speak out for justice and seek support—either in the moment or afterward. You can share your experiences using the following resources:
If you have a documented disability and an accommodations letter from the Office of Disability Resources, please discuss your needs with me as early in the semester as possible. I will work with you to ensure that accommodations are provided as appropriate. If you suspect you may have a disability and are not yet registered with the Office of Disability Resources, you can contact them at access@andrew.cmu.edu.
The past few years have been challenging. We are all under significant stress and uncertainty. I encourage you to find ways to move regularly, eat well, and reach out to your support system—or to me at cervas@cmu.edu—if you need help. We can all benefit from support during stressful times, and this semester is no exception.
As a student, you may experience a range of challenges that interfere with learning, such as strained relationships, increased anxiety, substance use, feeling down, difficulty concentrating, or lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events can diminish your academic performance and reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. CMU offers services that can help, and treatment does work. Learn more about confidential mental health services available on campus at:
Please remember that support is always available—don’t hesitate to reach out.
One percentage point per hour late, never falling below 50%. An hour or two costs almost nothing; a day costs a letter grade, but late work is always worth more than no work. Work never submitted scores zero, so handing something in a week late is always worth more than handing in nothing. Canvas applies both automatically.↩︎