About
"American-centricity" is a Discussion assessment that encourages students to explore a country through a Congressional Research Service report.
Estimated Time
An estimated 60-90 minutes is needed to complete this activity.
Prompt
Comparing countries is always done in context. The context of one’s home country, lived experience, and pre-existing assumptions about other countries matter when comparing countries.
Assuming we have some degree of American-centricity when thinking about comparative politics and analyzing countries, it can be useful to see how this American-centricity is framed for the nation’s legislative body: The United States Congress.
Instructions
Post
- Go to Congressional Research Service (CRS) ReportsLinks to an external site.
- Find a CRS report about a country that you are interested in learning more about
- Please select a different country from Discussion - Explore a Country
- Attach report link
- Read through the CRS report you selected
- Summarize the report in 5 or more sentences
Reply
- In your reply to a peer, be sure to include a link to the OpenFactBook’s page of your peer’s specific CountryLinks to an external site.
- In 3 or more sentences, share how the report or report summary relates to one of the 10 topics:
- Geography
- People and Society
- Government
- Economy
- Energy (depends)
- Communications
- Transportation
- Military and Security
- Terrorism (depends)
- Transnational Issues