Voting is Sexy: New Course Featured

Voting is Sexy, a new Stamps taught by Associate Professors Stephanie Rowden and Hannah Smotrich, is featured in an August 23 WWJ News story.

“Voting is sexy.” 

That’s the name of a fall course at the University of Michigan. Associate Professor Stephanie Rowden, who will be co-teaching this class, says it’s time to put creative energy into the civics lesson. 

“I was looking at the last mid-term election — 2014 — and I noticed that 43 percent of all Michiganders voted but only 14 percent of U of M students turned out to vote in that election,” said Rowden. ​“I looked at that as a really important civic challenge but also as an artist it’s a really interesting creative challenge.”

She says their students in art and design are partnering with the school of music, theatre, and dance to inspire their peers to make it to the polls this November.

“They are going to be developing a high energy, non-partisn creative campaign. As we say, ​‘to make voting irresistible’ which it should be. So, essentially they’ll be working on rebranding the experience of mid-term voting.” 

Students in this team-based class will create a campaign of pop-up events, posters, video, social media and more in order to educate and motivate others to vote on November 6.

Civics Lesson Gets Sexy At University Of Michigan | WWJ Newsradio