Michaele Ferguson

Age and the political machine: What happens after a lawmaker passes away?

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 21:48:27 +0000

Age and the political machine: What happens after a lawmaker passes away? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/03/2023 - 15:48

Michaele Ferguson, associate professor of Political Science and President’s Teaching Scholar at CU Boulder was recently interviewed for CU Boulder Today. Dr. Ferguson was interviewed as part of the article "Age and the political machine: What happens after a lawmaker passes away?" in which she discusses the process to replace a lawmaker, following the recent death of Senator Dianne Feinstein. She examines age, gender and death in politics—and what voters should consider before filling out a ballot. You can read the interview with Dr. Ferguson here: Age and the political machine: What happens after a lawmaker passes away? | CU Boulder Today | University of Colorado Boulder

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Will abortion spur more women to vote in November? Expert weighs in

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:25:34 +0000

Will abortion spur more women to vote in November? Expert weighs in Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/01/2022 - 09:25

The 2022 midterm elections are right around the corner, and a slew of high-profile races, including some in Colorado, remain nail-bitingly close. One question, in particular, has left many political pundits scratching their heads: How big of a role will the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to strike down Roe v. Wade play in motivating voters to cast a ballot?

Michaele Ferguson is the author of the books Sharing Democracy and W Stands for Women: How the George W. Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender and an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at CU Boulder who studies feminism and democratic theory.

Ferguson talks about Roe v. Wade and the Nov. 8 election, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and gender in politics, and why senate candidate Joe O’Dea has staked out a moderate stance on abortion.

click here to read!

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Five questions for Michaele Ferguson

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 18:09:54 +0000

Five questions for Michaele Ferguson Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/11/2021 - 11:09

Professor Michaele Ferguson was one of two faculty members across the University of Colorado system awarded the title of CU President’s Teaching Scholar in 2020. Professor Ferguson was recently featured on CU Connections where she was asked about her unique teaching style, future book and research projects, and what it means to be awarded the Presidents Teaching Scholar at CU.

Learn more about Michaele Ferguson's interview here : CU Connections

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Professor transforms political science class into a game

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 14:32:21 +0000

Professor transforms political science class into a game Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/14/2018 - 08:32

"Sometimes Michaele Ferguson’s classes are going too smoothly, and there’s a real need for a riot or maybe just a bit more heckling.

The heckling is real, the riots just acknowledged, and they are part of an innovative teaching method called Reacting to the Past, which was initiated at Barnard College in New York. Ferguson, an associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado Boulder, usually teaches at least one class a semester involving these games, which require students to play characters from the past."

Professor Michaele Ferguson was recently highlighted in the Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine for her innovative teaching method and style. Read more about Dr. Ferguson's classes here!

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Laying the foundation for student success: Marinus Smith awardees honored

Anonymous — Fri, 04 May 2018 16:25:22 +0000

Laying the foundation for student success: Marinus Smith awardees honored Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/04/2018 - 10:25

The Political Science Department would like to congradulate Professor Boulding, Professor Ferguson, and Professor Young in recieving the 2017-2018 Marinus Smith Awards. We feel grateful to have such amazing staff members!

"The Marinus Smith Awards are presented each spring to nominated faculty, advisors and staff members who have made a positive impact on the lives of CU Boulder students. Submitting a nomination provides a meaningful way for students to say thank you to outstanding staff and faculty members who have taken the time to show care and concern for those they serve."

Click here to read more from CU Boulder Today.

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Meet Michaele Ferguson

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 15:55:33 +0000

Meet Michaele Ferguson Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/23/2018 - 09:55

Emma Piller

Associate Professor

“I am an army brat. I actually spent most of my childhood living in Western Europe,” Professor Ferguson says. Between the ages of three and 13, she lived in West Germany and the Netherlands. “I was living outside the United States but reading news about it. We would get the Armed Forces’ newspaper, the Stars and Stripes, and my dad and I would argue over the kitchen table about the Iran Contra Affair, and whether Reagan was a good president or not. That was really fun.”

Ferguson attributes her interest in politics to her early education. She grew up around people with many different nationalities and learned to speak French in her time abroad. “It encouraged me to think about how societies could run completely differently than ours does in the US, and it gave me exposure to a lot of different ways of viewing the world and history.”

It wasn’t until her father left the military that she moved to Colorado with her family. “I hated it,” she says. “We moved to a suburban neighborhood where you had to be able to drive to get anywhere. When we lived in Holland, we lived in a small town and I could get on my bike as a kid and if my parents needed something for dinner, they could send one of us out. We didn’t need a driver's license or car.”

The professor’s two older sisters eventually wen

t to CU, but not wanting to follow them, Ferguson pursued Bryn Mawr for her undergraduate. She later went to graduate school at Harvard. After working at the University of Washington, Professor Ferguson received an offer to come to Boulder. A year after Ferguson started, her sister became a professor in Mechanical Engineering at CU. Their other sister works as a software developer and program manager at Google, so her whole family settled back in Colorado.

“We were all here in the 80s, we all moved away, and now we’re all back. I would not have predicted that this is how my life would be at this point.” 15 years later, Ferguson is still at the University of Colorado Boulder, inspiring her students to engage in greater conversations.

“How do you start to see yourself as a political agent?” The ultimate question Professor Michaele Ferguson asks her students. “I want students to be prepared for a life of engaged citizenship.” Ferguson creates opportunities for her students to hold civil debates, organize political action, and learn how to apply timeless ideologies to relevant issues today.

Students in Ferguson’s Sex, Power, and Politics class design and implement their own political activism projects. She keeps her students’ visuals as examples for future classes she’ll teach. Her show-and-tells include a #MeToo project students created: “They had a couple of cardboard boxes that they painted white and then wrote the hashtag MeToo on it. They had people in the UMC come and write their stories or just write MeToo on it if they weren’t comfortable sharing their experiences,” Ferguson says, as she points to the different stories people shared on the poster. “This is a very powerful way to raise people’s awareness of how pervasive sexual harassment and sexual assault are. But where does this take us beyond that?”

“I want [students] to learn that they as ordinary citizens can actually start to create change through things they can do here on campus.”

Professor Ferguson also teaches PSCI 2004 in political theory, but she adds a twist to it. She covers traditional ideologies including the big five: liberalism, conservatism, fascism, socialism, and anarchism. After spring break, however, Ferguson introduces feminism, white nationalism, anitfascism, Black Lives Matter and radical black thought into her course. “I can’t just teach the traditional ideologies, as if there aren’t other ideas popping up in our political world. I have to teach what is happening right now, too, to prepare my students to understand the world we live in.”

With passion and thoughtfulness, Professor Ferguson makes a difference in her students’ lives in her engaging and dynamic courses. Her outlook on teaching prepares students for more than just their careers; she is committed to creating spaces where students can think critically and apply their knowledge to political action.

“Politics means you have a vision of what the world should look like and you take a stand on something you want to change. If someone criticizes you, it doesn’t mean you have to be dug in about it, you just have to dig deeper.”

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Neoliberal feminism as political ideology: revitalizing the study of feminist political ideologies

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 15:48:34 +0000

Neoliberal feminism as political ideology: revitalizing the study of feminist political ideologies Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/19/2017 - 09:48

Journal of Political Ideologies, 22:3, 221-235, DOI: 10.1080/13569317.2017.1348705

Abstract

The emerging literature on neoliberal feminism appears to signal the revitalization of the study of feminist ideologies, suspended since the mid-1980s. However, it is argued here that scholars tend to conceptualize neoliberal feminism in a way that inhibits ideological analysis, as exemplified in Nancy Fraser’s Fortunes of Feminism. They take classifications of feminist political ideologies from the 1980s as representative of the only true feminisms, and thus view neoliberal feminism as a perversion, rather than an outgrowth, of earlier feminisms. This account of the emergence of neoliberal feminism is both historically inaccurate and politically problematic: it positions feminists as passive in the face of an overpowering neoliberal agency, and limits feminists’ capacity to imagine themselves as agents of political and ideological change. Building on Michael Freeden’s work on political ideologies, an alternative account of neoliberal feminism is offered, one that locates feminist agency in the production of new feminist ideologies.

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Trump is a Feminist, and Other Cautionary Tales for Our Neoliberal Age

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 15:46:06 +0000

Trump is a Feminist, and Other Cautionary Tales for Our Neoliberal Age Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/19/2017 - 09:46

Theory & Event, Vol. 20, No. 1 Supplement, January 2017: 53-67.

Abstract

Feminists have criticized the election of President Trump as a failure of and for feminism, obscuring how his election signals the success of neoliberal feminism. Such feminist criticisms of Trump amplify rather than displace the dominance of neoliberal feminism, which is troubling because this is a deeply anti-political feminism that discourages the practice of political habits among feminists. I show how Pantsuit Nation and the Women’s March on Washington, while widely taken as signs of resurgent feminist organizing, exposed feminist political incapacity. Feminists should counter neoliberal feminism with an explicitly political feminism, one that embraces political judgment and collective action.

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Vulnerability by Marriage: Okin's Radical Feminist Critique of Structural Gender Inequality.

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 21:40:49 +0000

Vulnerability by Marriage: Okin's Radical Feminist Critique of Structural Gender Inequality. Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/19/2017 - 15:40

Ferguson ML. Hypatia. 31 (3) (August 2016): 687-703.

Abstract:
The central thesis of Susan Okin’s Justice, Gender, and the Family—that the ideology of the traditional family is the linchpin of contemporary gender inequality in the US—remains significant more than a quarter-century after the book’s publication. On a political register, Okin’s insistence on structural analysis of gender inequality is an important corrective to recent mainstream feminist emphasis on individual women’s choices. On an academic register, her work reveals the incoherence of scholarly classifications of feminist theories as “liberal feminist” or “radical feminist” by confounding such distinctions. I argue that her thesis is best understood in relation to the early radical feminism of Juliet Mitchell’s Woman’s Estate, a book Okin praised. Placing Okin’s work in the context of its radical roots clarifies her “linchpin thesis,” but also reveals the limitations of her argument: in her emphasis on what Iris Young has termed the “distributive paradigm of justice,” Okin unnecessarily adopts a much narrower definition of the family than did Mitchell, and overestimates the influence of economic vulnerability after divorce on women’s capacity to exit marriage. I suggest modifications to her theory, and conclude by showing the continuing relevance of her argument for analyzing recent legal, policy, and demographic shifts.

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Political science professor receives award for making a difference

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 16:23:39 +0000

Political science professor receives award for making a difference Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/06/2016 - 09:23

Casey Van Divier

Third-year CU student Louise Vazquez makes it a priority to get to know her professors. The political science major aims to be prepared for first impressions – but things don’t always go according to plan.

“I remember when I first talked to Professor Ferguson in one of her classes, I was really, really intimidated,” said Vazquez. However, she was determined to make a connection with the political science professor, who was teaching her Survey of Western Political Thought class in the spring of

2016.

“I asked her: ‘do you have any children?’ She was very polite, but she asked me why I would ask that,” Vazquez said. “I froze. I was like, I asked the wrong question!”

As it turned out, Professor Michaele Ferguson reminded Vazquez of her own mother, who teaches as well. The two got to talking and began to build a strong relationship from there.

It wasn’t until the next semester that Vazquez found out about CU’s Women Who Make A Difference Award. The award celebrates women on campus who have made CU a better place. Nominees are recognized at an award ceremony, which was held this year at 5:30 pm on Monday, December 5^th in UMC 235.

Vazquez learned about the award from a flyer. “I thought of Professor Ferguson and I was like, I need to do this,” she said.

The nomination process consisted of filling out a Google Form and writing a letter explaining why the nominee was chosen.

“[Professor Ferguson] is here to really inspire students and do more than is asked of her,” said Vazquez. “As a student and as a woman, I’ve gone through a lot in my college years, and she’s grounding. She’s intelligent, she’s driven, she’s an amazing human being. I’m really just proud to have her in my life.”

After filling out the nomination form, Vazquez sent Ferguson an email with the date of the awards ceremony. She also included a link to the form she had filled out, w

hich contained the letter she had written.

“When I read that, I honestly started crying,” said Professor Ferguson. “She talked about how I challenge my students, but I challenge them to be who they want to be. It was touching because she was calling out qualities in me that are the qualities I want to have.”

The letter included an explanation as to why – despite the fact that the professor insists Vazquez refer to her as Michaele – she continues to call her Professor Ferguson.

“She said she thinks I’m worthy of respect and she wants to show me that respect,” said Ferguson. “It was an incredibly moving nomination.”

And for Ferguson, the award is ‘just as much about Louise’ as it is about her.

“She went out of her way to nominate me for this,” said the professor. "She didn’t have to, and to me it signals tremendous qualities in her that she’s willing to take the time to recognize somebody else.”

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