Forum: Campaign 2024
FORUM: Campaign 2024/HNRS 300H1-005
Wednesdays, 5:00-6:15 P.M., Fall 2024, GEAR 129
Note: This is a one-credit course. Only register for one hour of course credit.
Application Deadline: Sunday, March 10 at 11:59 p.m.
This fall’s Honors College Forum will focus on the upcoming presidential election in Campaign 2024. The foundation of the course will be the discussion that takes place each week around a table in the Honors College wing of Gearhart Hall. The class will begin with a foundational study of the presidency, focusing on the nature of the office and the process through which we elect our presidents every four years. Next, students will learn a number of important skills for election analysis, including topics such as campaign fundraising law, political geography, and how to read polling reports. Considering this election cycle includes an incumbent president, the class will also analyze President Biden's first term in office along with what will be the major policy issues being debated in the campaign. Each student will also be assigned a battleground state to track throughout the semester, periodically reporting to the class about the state of the race. In addition to this, student will also track key congressional races that could determine the balance of power in both the House and the Senate. Throughout the semester, student will produce essays for the Honors College blog, predicting what will happen before Election Day, followed by an analysis of the final results and what they mean for the next four years of the United States.
About Noah Pittman:
Dr. Pittman earned a B.A. in political science, summa cum laude, from Rhodes College
in Memphis, Tenn., where he was active in a number of campus groups and won numerous
awards, among them the Yerger Hunt Clifton Scholarship for British Studies at Oxford,
the Seidman Award for Most Outstanding Senior Political Science Major, and the Algernon
Sydney Sullivan Award. During college, Dr. Pittman also interned with Congressman
Steve Cohen's Ninth District Office in Memphis and Harold Ford Jr.'s 2006 U.S. Senate
campaign. At the University of Arkansas, Dr. Pittman completed a M.Ed. in higher education
leadership and a Ph.D. in public policy. Dr. Pittman's dissertation on the Arkansas
Scholarship Lottery and its effects on college participation in the state earned him
the William Miller Dissertation Award from the university's public policy program.
Dr. Pittman currently serves on the executive committee of the Alpha of Arkansas Chapter
of Phi Beta Kappa and the Provost's Enrollment Advisory Committee. In recent years,
he has taught a number of honors courses related to campaigns and elections, the American
presidency, political partisanship, and higher education policy.