Open Educational Resources
Document Type
Assignment
Publication Date
Summer 7-15-2026
Abstract
Professor Camara Silver created an open syllabus for LAW/POL 313 Racial Politics that includes Unmuted America: Power at Full Volume, a modular political science assignment series. The syllabus and assignment were created as part of an OER course conversion initiative during Spring 2026. The series asks students to examine how power is organized, narrated, defended, and challenged in American public life. Each version uses a two-part structure: “Volume Up,” in which students examine the historical roots, institutional foundations, and present-day structure of a major political issue, and “Volume Down,” in which students analyze a specific case study, source base, or public narrative in greater detail. Across all versions, the goal is to move students beyond summary and opinion and into political analysis of how power speaks, hides, repeats itself, and gets heard.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
CUNY OER Funding
CUNY OER Initiative
Comments
The included file is a .zip file. It can be unzipped and should contain 7 .docx files that include the assignments and syllabus.