Passing the Torch

Fall 2024
By Katy Munger

Sociocultural anthropologist Elizabeth “Libby” Vann was not surprised when the need for younger candidates emerged as a hot topic during this year’s campaign season. Vann had already put nearly a year into developing her new course, POLI 224: How to Run for Office, which debuts this semester. It’s a timely addition that builds on her popular social policy and advocacy courses. 

In this experiential course, students work together in small, semesterlong teams to learn about all aspects of campaigns — selecting a real office and upcoming election cycle and researching actual election and voter histories for those offices and districts — just as if their candidate were preparing to run in that election, Vann says. 

Students will also hear from those who’ve been there before — Rice alumni who’ve run for office, elected officials and campaign experts. “They’ll talk about why they decided to run for a specific office as the beginning of a conversation with students about why they might want to run or not,” Vann explains. “I emphasize state and local politics because I want students to learn which office is best for them to start with and develop a game plan for next steps after that.”

In this experiential course, students work together in small, semesterlong teams to learn about all aspects of campaigns.

For sophomore Summer Orr, this approach is an important draw. “I knew I’d never get another chance to learn about how a campaign works in so much detail,” she says. “I don’t want the ability to run a political campaign to remain exclusively in the hands of those with money and connections that the everyday person doesn’t have.”

The course is not only for future candidates. “Some of my students don’t want to be the front person, and that’s fine,” Vann explains. “There are so many other important roles behind the scenes. Because the students all work on campaign teams, they’re part of the broader experience regardless.” 

“If new generations run for office,” says sophomore Aleena Ahmad, “it may encourage them to engage more with the system and effect the change they want to see.”

Vann is on board with the many motivations for taking her class, explaining that everyone wins when a variety of voices are heard during campaign season. “Students are really interested in political engagement right now, but they’re also concerned about the health of democracy. This course will help them direct that energy toward the greater good.”

Elizabeth Vann is lecturer in social policy analysis and director of community partnerships for the School of Social Sciences.

LESSONS IN DEMOCRACY

Students take a deep dive into elections with these fall classes: 

FWIS 144 (First-Year Writing Intensive Seminars)
The 2024 Federal and State Elections in the U.S.
Mark Jones, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies and professor of political science

New students may elect to fulfill Rice’s writing requirement via a timely election-themed course, trying their hand at policy reports, data analysis, op-eds and candidate profiles.

POLI 420 (PSYC 420, COMP 435)
Election Systems, Technologies and Administration
Robert Stein, the Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science; Michael Byrne, professor of psychological sciences

Students dive deep into voting technologies — their accuracy, security and how voters interact with them. Class research projects take students out into the community.

POLI 535
Race, Ethnicity and American Politics
Tanika Raychaudhuri, assistant professor of political science

In this graduate seminar, students explore the behavioral and electoral implications of racial and ethnic diversity and investigate the dynamics of American democracy as the electorate diversifies. 

All are faculty in the School of Social Sciences.