Photo Courtesy of Rosanna Perotti
Dr. Rosanna Perotti, associate professor of political science at Hofstra University, started off her career as a journalist, an unexpected first passion.
“I liked a lot of things, but I didn’t know what to major in because I sort of liked everything, and I thought, well, [if’] I’m a writer, I can write [about] everything,” Perotti said.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, she took a job as a reporter at a small paper in New Jersey. When deciding what her next step in academia would be, Perotti decided to go back the University of Pennsylvania to get her master’s in political science. After doing her Ph.D. thesis on immigration policy, she developed a love for the topic, the theories and most importantly teaching students.
Political science, a field that is seldom static, requires constant adjustment. “My classes, like a lot of [political scientists’], require constant updating and constant attention to the news,” Perotti said. “The trends change, and we need to be able to address what’s happening. You also need to be able to address aspects of our system that nobody pays attention to until there’s a crisis, for instance, the Electoral College,” she continued, noting it as an area that is currently of great importance.
Media and its relationship with the central government has been a source of controversy in recent years. As a journalist, Perotti has a deep insight on this topic.
“I think I have an understanding of how to consume journalism that may be different from the man on the street,” Perotti explained. “In order to understand how to consume journalism, you have to understand that there are certain criteria that make things news.”
Her understanding of how news is produced allows her to empathize with the media, while also seeking a comprehensive look at what is happening in society. This is the same wisdom she tries to instill in her students, while stressing the media’s role as a watchdog over the government.
“We can’t forget that what makes the system democratic are the checks that are put in place and were bolstered by the framers of our constitution,” Perotti said.
These checks Perotti explained, are the courts, the bureaucracy or “the experts who serve in the executive branch largely in making and evaluating policy” and the media.
“We may not like what they’re doing. They may not sometimes even be saying the truth,” Perotti said. “But … simply attacking the legitimacy of the press is attacking our democratic system. No ifs, ands or buts about that.”
As this kind of divisiveness and polarization plagues our society, Perotti strives to keep it out of her classroom. “I have had heated discussions in my classes,” Perotti said. “I try to steer the discussion back to divisions that we have about policy and not the emotional content, because I think that’s what universities are about.”
“Universities are about trying to talk about issues, but in a non-emotional way, [and] to look at the substantive content … to attack the issues and not the people,” Perotti continued, explaining the root of her pedagogy.
Another element of this unnecessary divide in political discourse is what Perotti describes as an unsophistication that prevents people from being able to break down the labels they give to one another.
“There needs to be a set of issues or behaviors that are attached to that [label] to make for a productive conversation,” Perotti explained. “And I think that the classroom is a place for us to talk about that, but that requires a lot of patience.”
“When you’re calling somebody a fascist, you need to follow that through by saying, ‘look, you’re supporting positions that attack all of the safety checks that we have in a democratic system,’” Perotti continued, suggesting that people should understand what the offensive behaviors and issue positions they’re addressing are, before assigning someone an identity.
Academia is meant to be a place where people can comfortably share their ideas, and through this acceptance, shed any ignorance they may carry.
“I try in my class to acknowledge that everybody has an opinion, or that everybody has partisanship or [a] set of positions on issues and to encourage respect between them,” Perotti said. Maintaining this level of respect, Perotti explained, can sometimes require one to listen to opinions they deeply disagree with.
“I think what makes that easier is having exposure to a lot of types of people,” Perotti said. “Having a number, first of all, of crosscutting identities in your own world, and also maintaining friendships and connections into a number of different worlds.”
Perotti maintains that through the empirical knowledge a classroom provides, and the compassion-driven conversation she encourages, students will gain a true understanding of the world around them – an understanding they can take with them wherever they go.
