I incorporate a number of games, simulations, and experiential activities in my courses. Here are some activities I’ve used (not necessarily at present) in Intro to Comparative Politics:
- Uprising!, a game designed to teach about civil unrest, military repression, and possibly transitions to democracy. It’s a much-expanded version of this game by Luis Jimenez. Email me if you’re interested in seeing the materials.
- Slugs and Worms, an off-the-shelf game designed to teach about parliamentary procedure and negotiation in the complex institutional context of the European Parliament.
- Create Your Own State, a 20-40 minute game in which students create a world system of states with characteristics assigned by dice, and think about how they interact. Email me if you’re interested in seeing the materials.
- A constitutional design workshop for a country that varies from semester to semester. This paper by Greg Love and Miguel Centellas describes a more extensive approach to a similar idea. Email me if you’re interested in seeing my materials.
In Religion and Politics, we design and run the Cyclone Religion and Politics Survey, a survey of the Iowa State University student body. Again, if you have questions about what we do, I’m happy to chat.
Here is a list I put together of videos for teaching about Latin American politics.
Image: Fishers on the coast of Bahia, Brazil, 2008