Date of Award

12-2025

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Emily Hauptmann Ph.D.

Second Advisor

John Clark Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Jil Larson Ph.D.

Keywords

Politics, teaching, theory, utopianism

Abstract

This dissertation investigates how, and if, utopianism is being taught in college classrooms across the United States. Long considered impractical, overly idealistic, and/or politically dangerous, utopianism has been largely marginalized in political science and American culture. However, this project finds that there are instructors teaching utopianism and they are using the concept to challenge students to think differently about governance, justice, and institutional design. Drawing from political theory literature, course syllabi submitted by faculty from different U.S. universities, interviews with instructors, and personal case studies of my own courses at Central State University and Manchester University, I explore how utopian ideas enter the classroom and what impact they have on student thinking in politics.

This project grants particular attention to how instructors structure readings and assignments, such as simulations and final projects, that ask students to imagine alternative political systems. At the outset of this project, I assume that students arrive to college with little knowledge of utopianism or assume it lacks relevance to the study of American politics. However, the findings in this project demonstrate that students are not only willing to engage with the material, but eager to explore how it can be used to critique existing structures and envision new possibilities. Notably, the students included in this project did not equate utopianism with authoritarianism or communism, nor did they treat it as disconnected from political reality. Instead, student participants framed it as a valuable way to interrogate the status quo and think beyond the limitations of current political institutions and policies.

In a time marked by constitutional instability, democratic backsliding, and institutional distrust, political science should expand its boundaries to include imagination as a method of inquiry. I argue that utopianism, when taught seriously, encourages students to critically engage in political and social issues. It invites students to think not only about how the world works, but how it could work differently. In doing so, it offers political science an opportunity to educate future civic leaders with both analytical and theoretical rigor.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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