Problem Set 2

The questions on this problem set require judgement and explanation, meaning they do not necessarily have one right answer.

Exercise 1: Suppose you are assigned to assess whether “moral values” influenced voters’ choice of candidates in the 2020 Presidential election, more than class/economic issues. In order to successfully investigate this hypothesis, you need to identify issues that relate to moral values. Identify at least four issues that you think would be valid measures of an individual’s moral values.

Exercise 2: Suppose you are writing a research memorandum on the current state of identity politics in the United States and begin compiling a bibliography of published research materials. For each source, indicate (1) whether you would add it to your list of reputable policy sources or not, and why; and (2) if you added it, whether you would designate it high or low priority and why.

The book Identity Politics Reconsidered, edited by Linda Alcoff, Michael Hames-Garcia, Satya Mohanty, and Paul Moya, and published by Palgrave in 2006.

The article “Karen Handel could become the first GOP woman elected to Congress from Georgia,” written by Vanessa Williams and published in The Washington Post on June 20, 2017.

The book review by James Crawford in the March 2001 issue of the American Journal of Sociology (Volume 106, No. 5), of the book Language Policy and Identity Politics in the United States by Ronald Schmidt Sr., published by Temple University Press in 2000.

The article “How Much of Our Time Should Politics Take?,” written by David Brooks and published online by Reader’s Digest but undated.

The article by Paulina O. Espejo in the January 2017 issue (Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 92-99) of the journal Theory & Event, entitled “Populism and The People.”

The article by Phyllis M. Palmer in the Spring 1983 issue (Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 151-170) of the journal Feminist Studies, entitled “White Women/Black Women: The Dualism of Female Identity and Experience in the United States.”