The UCLA Division of Social Sciences is offering up to $1,000 to faculty members who will teach seminars about President Donald Trump and his voters this spring. The courses will be taught as part of the school’s 200-course Fiat Lux program, which is open to all undergraduate students but gives priority access to college freshmen.
Courses are being offered such as, “Why We Disagree, and Can’t Agree to Disagree, on Trump Presidency,” and “Trump Administration Foreign Policy: Behind Headlines.” While some courses, such as Leslie Johns’s “Trump’s Foreign Policy: Change or Continuity?” explicitly state they will try to show “mutual respect for diverse political views,” while others seem steadfast in their critical approach.
A course geared towards juniors and seniors called “Special Studies in Race, Ethnicity, and Politics: Populist Politics and Authoritarian Turn during Trump Era,” will examine “politics of populism in U.S. from historical and economic perspectives, placing particular emphasis on rise of populist and nationalist politics in contemporary period.” The course will be taught by Raul Moreno Campos, a UCLA professor who also teaches race-related courses such as “Malcolm X and Black Liberation.”
A course called, “Whitelash or Working Class Revolt? Making Sense of Rise of Trump and New [sic.]” will explore the “rapid rise of populism in U.S. that culminated with Donald Trump capturing imagination of large base within white working class, especially among men.”
The Fiat Lux program was first designed in 2001 as somewhat of a safe space for students who wanted to discuss the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Three courses in total were offered about former president Barack Obama during his election in 2008, but no supplemental funding was offered for specific Fiat Lux courses about him in 2009.
