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Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College's course descriptions average 68.3 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Swarthmore College reads 0.7 points further left.

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Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)

Swarthmore College: 68.3 (likely range 67.0 to 69.5) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

8%Far left92–100

40%Left75–91

39%Center-left59–74

6%Center42–58

3%Center-right26–41

2%Right9–25

1%Far right0–8

326 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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Framing Subject

Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest-left subjects

BLST 050 · Fanon: From the Postcolonial to the Philosophical100

Ethnic & African American Studies

Martinican psychiatrist Frantz Fanon has made an indelible impact on the fields of postcolonial studies and political philosophy. His contributions to Black thought geographically span from the Caribbean, Continental Europe, and the African…

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BLST 094A · Student Run: Freedom Dreaming: Black Radical Insurgency and Abolitionist Imaginings100

Ethnic & African American Studies

Students Fighting for Transformative Justice, Abolition, and Revolution (STAR) cultivates campus spaces that find ways in which we can join the global fight to abolish the carceral state. The goal of this student-designed and student-run…

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ENGL 061 · The Literatures of Slavery100

English & Comparative Literature

Cross-listed as BLST 061 How did Black literary production emerge to resist the institution and ideology of slavery in the United States? While this course will focus largely on antebellum slave narratives- powerful acts of…

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Furthest-right subjects

HIST 008A · West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade, 1500 to 18500

History

This survey course focuses on the origins and impact of the slave trade on West African societies. Concentration: Culture and Identity, Domination and Resistance Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST, GLBL-Paired. Concentration:…

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HIST 037 · The Holocaust: History, Representation, and Culture0

History

This course explores the roots of Nazism, the implementation of the Final Solution, the legacy of the Holocaust on European society, and the representation of the Holocaust through an interdisciplinary approach that relies on primary…

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RELG 012 · The History, Religion, and Culture of India I: From the Indus Valley to the Hindu Saints0

Religious Studies

A study of the religious history of India from the ancient Indo-Aryan civilization of the north to the establishment of Islam under Moghul rule. Topics include the ritual system of the Vedas, the philosophy of the Upanishads, the rise of…

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Why this number, in plain words

Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.

50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.

Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 67.0 to 69.5; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.

Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.

Swarthmore College by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Ethnic & African American Studies	49.0%	49	view
Sociology	46.4%	56	view
Anthropology	37.1%	35	view
Religious Studies	18.8%	85	view
English & Comparative Literature	17.5%	275	view
Political Science	15.7%	83	view
Women's & Gender Studies	12.5%	48	view
Art & Art History	11.5%	113	view
History	10.8%	120	view
Psychology	9.1%	44	view
Philosophy	8.1%	62	view
Economics	2%	50	view

Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method

Name	Metric	Value	95% interval	n	scored
Swarthmore College	mean_bias_score	68.3	67.0 – 69.5	1,020	182
All 100 schools	mean_bias_score	67.5	67.4 – 67.7	124,290	10,124

Formula: SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
Interval: normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
Model / prompt / snapshot: gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats: Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.

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