Political insiders to teach new course on American political campaigns at LBJ School of Public Affairs
A well-known political strategist, a national advertising expert, a veteran political reporter and an Emmy Award-winning political filmmaker will teach a course this fall titled “The Modern American Political Campaign” at UT Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Matthew Dowd |
The team is made up of Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign; Mark McKinnon, who oversaw advertising for the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns; Wayne Slater, senior political writer of the Dallas Morning News and coauthor of Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential; and Paul Stekler, a nationally recognized documentary filmmaker whose films include "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire" and "Last Man Standing: Politics, Texas Style."
The graduate-level course will examine how political campaigns are conducted, analyzed and covered; why campaigns operate the way they do; and how political campaigns affect the overall political system. The course will feature a bipartisan lineup of guest lecturers who have been active in state and national political campaigns.
Titled “Nuestro Presidente,” this Bush-Cheney ’04 commercial, which was produced under the supervision of Mark McKinnon, was one of several targeting Spanish-speakers. |
“This class will provide students a tremendous immersion into practical politics and will be led by practitioners from various fields,” said Dowd, who is a visiting lecturer at UT Austin’s Department of Government. “Austin has such a wealth of political talent available, it wasn't a difficult proposition putting this course together for the LBJ School.”
Veteran political journalist Wayne Slater coauthored
this 2003 book that examines Karl Rove’s pivotal role in President
Bush’s political career. |
The course will cover everything from strategy, to media development, to press coverage, to all other aspects of a modern campaign, said Dowd.
“When the course is finished, students will have a healthy understanding of how campaign strategy and communication work in a political environment,” he said.
According to Stekler, head of the production program in Radio-Television-Film at UT Austin's College of Communication, it is fitting that the LBJ School offer this course because of President Johnson’s political legacy and Texas’ influence on modern American politics.
Paul Stekler |
“LBJ was one of our greatest legislative presidents but also somebody who was intensely political in terms of election campaigns,” he said. “This is hopefully the first step in a nonpartisan way to develop much larger coverage of American campaign politics at the LBJ School and at UT.”
The fall 2005 course will be held in Bass Lecture Hall on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The target for the class is 60 graduate students – 20 LBJ School students, 20 Law School students and 20 College of Communication students – additional students will be put on a standby list. For more information, visit http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/advising/view_course.php?cid=151 or contact Lucy Neighbors at lucy.neighbors@mail.utexas.edu.
Related Links:
“Political
dream team to teach course at UT: Big guns coming to LBJ School this fall
to shoot down campaign myths”
Austin American-Statesman
“Professors
of Political Power”
Austin American-Statesman
PBS “Frontline” interview with Mark McKinnon
PBS “Frontline” interview with Matthew Dowd
“With all that promise and all that talent,
we’d like to sign
up for the course ourselves.”
Austin American-Statesman
editorial board
Mark McKinnon with President George W. Bush
© Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
P.O. Box Y
Austin, TX 78713-8925
512-471-3200
22 April 2005
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