When asked what my favorite class I have taken in James Madison College over my four years I immediately am transported back to my spring semester of my sophomore year and MC 241- Politics and Markets with Professor Emmett.
I was interested in the Political Economy minor and was told that MC 241 would be the perfect for me to test whether I liked the program of study as well as get a requirement out of the way for my Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy major.
I enrolled in the class and was at first nervous about the amount of books that we would be reading over the semester. The book list had approximately 7 books on it, on the higher end for a Madison class, and they were all on economic theory. I was nervous about it, but I went into the class with an open mind.
I have not learned more from one class than I did in MC 241.
Professor Emmett leads the class through discussion. We make the seating in a complete circle and he starts the class with a question. It was intimidating at first but soon I came to love the way the class was structured as the class was completely discussion based as opposed to lecture based. I felt that I learned a great deal from this class because of the discussion based. What was more, is I gained a really deep understanding of economic policy because that was what the class focused on.
The aspect that I most liked about the class was not only the discussion based learning but also the material covered. The course focused on the debate between John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek. Having the modern economic policy debate contextualized in that manner allowed me to better understand the debate as well as formulate my own opinions.
I ended up choosing the Political Economy minor because of MC 241 and the nature of the class. Having mostly discussion based classes that really encouraged my learning and understanding of the subject matter was incredibly rewarding and fun.
Stephen
Senior
Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy
Political Economy Minor
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