Prerequisite: GVPT170. Restriction: Must be in Government & Politics Honors program.

This honors seminar examines how hip-hop operates as a site of political meaning-making and how the state engages cultural expression through policing, prosecution, surveillance, and media framing. Drawing on NPR sLouder Than A Riot and scholarship in race and ethnic politics, political behavior, and political psychology, students analyze how narratives about crime, identity, and credibility shape political attitudes and institutional outcomes. The course treats cultural and lyrical texts as data to understand how power is interpreted, contested,and applied across race, gender, and identity.