American Political Divides and Great Debates

[84-309] | Fall 2026

Prof. Jonathan Cervas

Updated: August 20, 2026

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
Prerequisite Knowledge: NONE

Why are Americans so divided — and is the premise even true? We spend a month on what political science actually knows, then the semester is yours: student teams pick the topics, assign the readings, and run the room.

Assessment

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%

Due Dates

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)	October 24
Group Project	December 1/3
Group Project reflection	December 4

The Essentials

Before every class: one short discussion-board post, due 9:00 a.m., in Canvas.
Attendance is 25%. The first three absences cost almost nothing; four to six is where a semester goes wrong.
Late work costs one point per hour, but never drops below 50% — with one exception: the op-ed rough draft (September 21) loses 10% immediately, then 1% per hour, with no floor and no exceptions, because two classmates are waiting on it.
Devices stay in bags. Non-class use of a laptop or phone means being marked absent for that session.
Surveys and their screenshot receipts run through Canvas, under Assignments.

The Full Syllabus

Everything else — the week-by-week schedule with all readings, assignment details, and every policy — lives in the full syllabus:

https://jcervas.github.io/teaching/2026-2027/class-cmu-2026-84-309/readme.html