Schedule

Your roadmap for the term. One session per week, and each row links the session’s slides and its entry in the Syllabus, which is where the readings and the learning goals live.

	Slides. The session’s deck.
	Reading. Opens the session’s entry in the syllabus, core and optional.
	Greyed out means not published yet.
none	There is no reading for that session at all.

Note

This is a preliminary plan and may be revised during the term. Greyed-out entries are not settled yet.

Table 1: Session 1, orientation. What the seminar asks, how the term is organised, and what a term paper in it looks like.

Session	Date	Topic	Slides	Reading
01	09 Sep	Introduction and outlook

Block I: Concepts

Table 2: Block I of the term, concepts. The chalkboard opens the session’s slides and the book opens its entry in the syllabus, where the core and optional readings are listed. A greyed icon is not published yet.

Session	Date	Topic	Slides	Reading
02	16 Sep	What is identity?
03	23 Sep	What is political polarization?
04	30 Sep	What is affective polarization?

Block II: Measurement

Table 3: Block II of the term, measurement. The chalkboard opens the session’s slides and the book opens its entry in the syllabus, where the core and optional readings are listed. A greyed icon is not published yet.

Session	Date	Topic	Slides	Reading
05	07 Oct	Measuring affective polarization
06	14 Oct	Beyond the thermometer: behavioral measures

Block III: Extensions and consequences

Table 4: Block III of the term, extensions and consequences. The chalkboard opens the session’s slides and the book opens its entry in the syllabus, where the core and optional readings are listed. A greyed icon is not published yet.

Session	Date	Topic	Slides	Reading
07	21 Oct	Beyond party: social sorting and non-partisan identities
–	28 Oct	No session
08	04 Nov	Is partisanship a social identity, or a cue about ideology?
09	11 Nov	Consequences of affective polarization for democracy
10	18 Nov	Open session		none

Block IV: Term papers

Table 5: Block IV of the term, term papers. The chalkboard opens the session’s slides and the book opens its entry in the syllabus, where the core and optional readings are listed. A greyed icon is not published yet.

Session	Date	Topic	Slides	Reading
11	25 Nov	Term paper pitches I		none
12	02 Dec	Term paper pitches II		none
13	09 Dec	Term paper consultation (optional)		none

How a session runs

Everyone reads the core reading beforehand, and the session is a discussion of that text rather than a lecture about it. I open with a short framing of the reading and the questions it raises, and the rest of the time belongs to the group. The optional readings are there for anyone who wants to go further, and as a starting point for term papers.

Sessions 11 and 12 are term paper pitches, and session 13 is optional individual consultation. See what is required of you for what each of those asks.