Assistant Professor of Political Science Joel Schlosser Talks Teaching in 'Political Science Now'

The American Political Science Association interviewed Assistant Professor of Political Science Joel Schlosser as part of a series on faculty members who have been recognized for their commitment to teaching.

Schlosser was interviewed in recognition of having received the Rosalyn S. Schwartz Teaching Award.

From the interview:

"Teaching has been an education for me. I’ve learned just how precious and fragile the space of the classroom is. If I am lucky and play my own role just right, I can hold a space for wondrous things to arise: trust and friendship among all participants; understanding not just of material but of what we bring to the material and why; a sense of community and just how much we can accomplish together."

At Bryn Mawr, Schlosser teaches courses in the history of political thought, democratic theory, power and politics, and contemporary political theory. In all of his courses he seeks to integrate questions from contemporary politics with the history of political thought: Greek tragedy and the Hollywood Western; Hegel and contemporary identity politics; international relations and Herodotus. He has taught Susan Sontag after Aristophanes's Lysistrata, Charles Mills in the midst of Rousseau and Kant, and Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture alongside Judith Butler and Sophocles. 

Just as Schlosser seeks to engage present questions with historically-sensitive work from the history of political thought with his research, he also strives to use his teaching to introduce students to alternative perspectives and vocabularies from this history in order to broaden and deepen how they consider the present.