An Interview With Professor Lynn Uzzell

How Should We Teach Politics? An Interview With Professor Lynn Uzzell
Visiting politics professor from the University of Virginia offers her perspective on how to counter modern political polarization

(Lynn Uzzell, visiting assistant professor of politics, teaches a class on the Constitutional Convention while dressed up as George Washington during the COVID-19 Pandemic. SOURCE – The Columns, 2021)

Before the first class of each semester, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics, Lynn Uzzell, asks her students a question: “What do you think is the most pressing political problem in America today?” Since about 2016, she has received one answer far more than any other: polarization. In fact, 50% to 75% of students from any of Uzzell’s given classes have stated this as the most pressing issue.

“There aren’t too many avenues out of that problem as far as I can see unless there is a change in the way that we are instructing ourselves through [discussing] politics,” said Uzzell — who holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in politics from the University of Dallas — in a recent interview with The Spectator.

“For the first time ever in my teaching career,” Uzzell continued, “I have introduced formal debates into my classes here at Washington and Lee…The reason I’ve done that is because I want to get students here comfortable talking about their disagreements in a way that is civil and respectful.”

In her American National Government class (POL-100), Uzzell places students into formal debates where they argue their points in a respectful setting. By encouraging this sort of debate, Uzzell equips her students to be reasonable and civil members of political society. This teaching style has also had the benefit of helping many students discover a previously hidden passion for politics.

According to Uzzell, the class serves as a “gateway drug” to the subject of American politics, as many who join the class have no previous academic experience in politics. Her goal is to “get to know [her] students individually but also to introduce them to a subject that [she] thinks is important for everybody.” Uzzell has noticed how this strategy of “active engagement” causes the class to always go in different directions depending on the composition of the student body.

Another section of American National Government will be taught by Uzzell in the winter term.

Uzzell’s innovative teaching methods do not stop after the entry level class. In one of her higher level courses, Creating the U.S. Constitution (POL-295), students grasp the complexities of the Constitutional Convention by adopting the role of one of the Founding Fathers in a mock convention.

This process begins in the first half of the semester when the class does a deep dive into the original records of the Convention; students then reenact the Convention in the second half of the course. The activity helps students to truly understand the historical dynamics at play within the convention.

Lilly Gillespie, ‘22, portrayed Benjamin Franklin when she took the class in the winter of 2021. “The immersive elements were so unique and made this class one of my most treasured and formative experiences at Washington and Lee,” Gillespie told The Spectator.

“Learning about the Constitution[,]” she continued, “equipped me to have comprehensive conversations and defend the work of our founders from attacks that transcend partisan affiliations.”

The ability to teach in this creative style is part of what drew Uzzell to come to W&L; the university administration gives professors more agency than most in choosing the subjects of their classes.

Uzzell has used this flexibility to create a class around one of her principal academic interests: Slavery and the Constitution (POL-370). In this course, students examine the way that the institution of slavery affected the formation of the Constitution and vice versa. Students read a variety of sources regarding the Constitutional Convention before progressing through the national debate over slavery, analyzing the works and speeches of leaders like Thomas Jefferson, John C. Calhoun, Fredrick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln.

Having studied this issue for over twenty years, Uzzell finds the contrast between the harsh realities of the nation’s original sin and our founding principles of individual liberty a fascinating and important topic to explore. The tension between the ideals of the founders and their practice deserves a “profound and focused study,” Uzzell noted. By the end of the course, Uzzell observes, students are writing more nuanced and balanced papers than many published essays she sees on the subject.

“While her courses are difficult, she rewards hard work, critical thinking, and visible effort in assignments[,]” said Jordan Kach, ‘27, who took four classes with Uzzell as a freshman. “I loved her traditional teaching style and class topics so incredibly much.”

“Professor Uzzell, from her dedication, wisdom, and enthusiasm for the subjects she teaches, fostered the same passion in me for American Politics and the Constitution,” Kach told The Spectator.

This spring, Uzzell will be teaching a course related to a passion that she found in her undergraduate years: speech and communications. In Rhetoric in the Structure of American Politics (POL-295), students will study rhetorical theory and learn to apply and recognize it in the American political sphere, reading texts by authors such as Aristotle and speeches by key figures in American political history.

“This is a class that both enables students to understand the political speeches that they hear better but also can help hone their own skills if they are interested in persuasion in the future,” Uzzell said. Understanding rhetorical strategies will help students in all areas of their life, as argument is truly a timeless and universally applied skill.

Politics is no simple subject to teach. Much of it is highly subjective, which can make for a tenser educational environment than other, non-partisan disciplines. I, for one, find Uzzell’s approach of encouraging debate and critical thinking to be the most effective way to constructively teach politics: even if a student disagrees with the professor’s point of view, one can’t help but admire her effort to not dominate the discussion. Her approach helps to create citizens that are well versed not only in the reasons behind their own views but also that of differing perspectives. Ultimately, that understanding is what we will need in the next generation of political leaders graduating from W&L.