Professor Jonathan Cervas
Office: Posner Hall 374
Email: cervas@cmu.edu
Location: Porter Hall A21A
Time: Tuesday & Thursday 11:00a-12:20p Eastern
Office Hours: Wed 10:30a-12:30p & 1:30p-3:30p, and by appointment (arrange via email)
CMU Academic Calendar
The most up-to-date version of this syllabus can be found here.
Course Relevance: DC: Perspectives on Justice and Injustice Learning Resources: All resources will be provided via Canvas
Prerequisites: 36-200 Reasoning with Data
25 meetings, Tuesdays and Thursdays. One of them, Tue, Nov 24, meets on Zoom rather than in the room. Tinted days are ones we do not meet — fall break, Democracy Day, Thanksgiving, and the Constitution Day Symposium.
How American elections actually work, taught through the data they produce. Tuesdays we read; Thursdays we put real election data on the screen and work out what it shows — through the 2026 midterms, live.
The course grade will be a weighted average of the following components:
| Category | Percent of Final Grade |
|---|---|
| Participation & Attendance | 23% |
| Discussion Board | 10% |
| Surveys (3, completion only) | 2% |
| Data Slides | 10% |
| Three Tests (10% each) | 30% |
| Data Journalism Project | 25% |
| Assignment | Due |
|---|---|
| Data slide | before each Thursday |
| Surveys (3) | Wed, Aug 26 (Cervas Election Study), Fri, Oct 23 (midterm feedback), final week (course evaluation) |
| Discussion board post | Friday, 11:59 p.m., each week |
| Week 4 board post (no Thursday class) | Wed, Sep 16 — day after the Tue Sep 15 class; Thu Sep 17 is Constitution Day, no class |
| Week 14 board post (Thanksgiving) | Wed, Nov 25 — day after the Tue Nov 24 Zoom class; Thu Nov 26 is Thanksgiving, no class |
| Test 1 — Ch. 1–5 | Thu, Oct 8, in class |
| Data journalism: pitch | Tue, Oct 20, in class |
| Test 2 — Ch. 6–9 | Tue, Nov 10, in class |
| Data journalism: draft | Thu, Nov 19 — the term’s last data session |
| Data journalism: peer reviews (two) | Tue, Dec 1 |
| Test 3 — Ch. 10–13 | Thu, Dec 3, in class |
| Data newsletter | Tue, Dec 8 |
| Data journalism: final | Fri, Dec 11 — after the last session |
There is no final exam.
The session-by-session schedule, every reading and lab, assignment details, and all policies:
https://jcervas.github.io/teaching/2026-2027/class-cmu-2026-84-355/readme.html