Courses
All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise specified.
Thesis and Dissertation
699 Master’s Thesis
Credit, 6.
899 Doctoral Dissertation
Credit, 10.
American Politics
701 Directed Studies in American Government and Politics
791J American Political Development
American Political Development is a research tradition in which important theoretical and empirical questions pertaining to the workings of democracy, the development of public policy, and the evolution of political institutions are investigated using historical and qualitative methods. This graduate course is provides a survey of classic and contemporary readings in this field.
791PP Political Psychology
This course serves as a survey of the major theoretical approaches and empirical research in the field of political psychology. As such, it focuses primary attention on psychological explanations of individual political attitudes and actions among both elites as well as the masses. The course is designed to: 1) provide an overview of the burgeoning literature on political psychology in the discipline of political science and the myriad of frameworks and methods used to study political behavior and 2) to prepare graduate students to teach courses on political behavior, and political psychology.
791T Institutions
This course examines the theoretical underpinnings of and major empirical works associated with the study of American Political Institutions, including Congress, the Judiciary, and the Presidency.
791V Political Behavior
This course serves as a survey of the major theoretical approaches and empirical research in the field of American political behavior. The course is designed to: 1) provide an overview of the burgeoning literature on political behavior in the discipline of political science and the myriad of frameworks and methods used to study political behavior and 2) to prepare graduate students to teach courses on political behavior, political psychology, and;or public opinion.
792E Political Organizations
This seminar considers the role of political organizations, with an emphasis on political parties, interest groups, advocacy organizations, NGOs and, to a lesser extent, national and transnational advocacy networks, in society and in policy making. The course emphasizes the goals and imperatives of such organizations, including the need to overcome collective action problems and to compete along with other groups occupying similar policy niches. We examine the development and consequences of political groups' access to resources, institutional settings, strategic repertoires and tactical choices. The course also analyzes the extent and limits of their influence on civil society, agenda setters and policy makers. The course will include readings relevant not only to those studying American politics or public policy but also to those interested in comparative politics and international relations.
793G Public Opinion & Political Behavior
This course will cover several advanced topics in political behavior, with an emphasis on getting familiar with the research methods used in the relevant research literature.
797U Representation
Representation is central to most democratic theories of government, but do governments and elected officials represent their citizens? This course examines both the normative and empirical literature on this question by focusing primarily on representation in the United States, but also by placing the American case in comparative context. Throughout the semester, we will address a number of related questions: What do we mean by “representation?” How do different institutional structures affect the representation that public officials provide to citizens? How do these structures influence the exchange of information among public officials and citizens? To what extent do public officials manipulate rules and structures to increase or decrease their latitude in representing citizens’ interests or in determining whose interests get represented? What is the relationship between citizen’s satisfaction with government and how well their interests are represented?
Comparative Politics
710 Proseminar in Comparative Politics
New methodologies and theories that focus on institutions, ideologies, and systems. Also, interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to the study of culture and history. Guest speakers with expertise in area studies.
711 Tutorial in Comparative Politics
712 Directed Studies in Comparative Polities
771 Tutorial in Area Studies
772 Directed Studies in Area Studies
777 Latin American Politics
Comparative study of Latin American politics and government.
791N Democratization
792DD Distance, Deceit and Denial
This course examines the roles of distance, deceit, and denial in structuring, reproducing, and contesting relations of domination and exploitation. Drawing on a wide range of ethnographic, historical, sociological, psychological, and anthropological case studies, the course aims to stimulate imaginative theorizing and generative research projects about the operation of distance, deceit, and denial in three specific dimensions: language (euphemism, dysphemism, public and hidden transcripts, etc.), space (borders, walls, checkpoints, special economic zones, camps, policing and surveillance technologies, modes of experience-distant warfare, etc.), and social organization (the division of labor, hierarchy, chains of command, etc.). In addition to exploring distance, deceit, and denial as mechanisms of domination and exploitation, specific attention will also be given to the efficacy and ambiguities of movements and technologies that aim to collapse distance.
792PE Political Economy of Development
This course will cover foundational texts and core debates in the study of development. What is development? How have conceptualizations of 'development' and theories of 'development' changed over the past century? The course will focus on both domestic and international processes to illuminate a range of development challenges using examples from around the world.
795E Activism, Participation and Protest
This course examines the multiple, competing ways in which social scientists have theorized the roles of various kinds of collective actors in politics. We will consider a range of such actors, including interest groups, social movements ('old' and 'new,' national and transnational), civil society associations, non-governmental organizations, those social actors recently grouped under the label the 'Third Sector,' as well as current protest movements across the globe. Select case studies, largely from Latin America, Europe, and the US, will help ground our theoretical exploration.
795F Feminist Politics: Topographies, Transnationalisms, Translations
Drawing on case studies from Latin America, Europe, North America, and other world regions, this course will analyze the uneven topographies of space, place, and power in and across which feminist politics travel and are enacted. Themes explored include comparative and transnational epistemologies; the horizontal and vertical flows of feminist politics into parallel social movements and national and international institutions ('sidestreaming' and 'mainstreaming,' respectively); navigating and resisting development; and, negotiating, confronting, or colluding with neoliberalism. Particular attention will be focused on the transnational dynamics of each of these themes and to the complex cultural and political translations they require of feminist activists and scholars alike.
797LP Language of Politics
This semester we will examine three approaches to studying politics through language: Wittgenstein's and Austin's ordinary language analysis, Skinner's "recovery of intentions," and Foucault's genealogy. What these approaches share is a recognition that language is constitutive of social and political reality. This starting point opens up exciting possibilities for studying politics by way of language. The main goals of this course are for you to (1) understand and critically assess the premises of each approach; (2) see how each approach has been used to study politics, broadly construed; (3) practice using the tools of each approach; and (4) put together and deploy what you have learned, perhaps in ways that the founders and/or practitioners of these approaches did not intend. The emphasis in this course will be on figuring out how to adapt and use these tools to answer empirical questions that you yourself find important.
797PD Powering Development: Water, Energy and Environment
This course examines the human harnessing of water and use of energy to power development over the past century around the world. We will pay particular attention to how infrastructure projects and development plans are often enmeshed in colonial power relations through a reading of interdisciplinary literature in politics, history, geography, and sociology as well as reports from international and non-governmental organizations. Topics range from the construction of massive hydropower dams, to the water-intensive process of fracking for natural gas and oil in an era of extreme energy, to the global land grabs for farmland and by extension water. Critically interrogating these processes in capitalist and (post)socialist contexts, this course is meant to help students generate new linkages and creative research directions within their own disciplines through the mobilization of a variety of theoretical apparatuses that will help us grapple with the pressing sociopolitical challenges of the 21st century including growing inequality and accelerating climate change. The syllabus is available upon request from the instructor.
International Relations
656 International Law
Examination of the basic legal rules regulating relations among states and between states and other entities. Analysis of theories of international law and of how and to what extent legal rules and legal reasoning affect the policies of governments.
720 Proseminar on International Relations
Survey of theory, research, and methodology in the field of international relations; its interdisciplinary dimensions.
721 Tutorial in International Relations
Guided reading and discussion of specific topics as agreed with a faculty member.
722 Directed Studies in International Relations
Research on an international relations topic of the student’s choosing under guidance of a faculty member.
791EE Rules of War
This course evaluates the role of international ethical norms in regulating the practice of organized political violence. We will begin by considering how to think analytically about the effects of ethical norms on international policy-making. We next consider the origins and evolving dynamics of the laws of war, explore why political actors so often violate these rules and the conditions under which they follow them, and examine the political and ethical dilemmas involved in enforcing them. Specific topics covered include weapons bans, terrorism, protection of noncombatants, and war crimes tribunals. The course will conclude with an assessment of continuity and change in global security norms post 9/11.
791PE Political Economy
791S Human Security
This course is a doctoral reading seminar focused on political science literature at the intersection of human rights and international security. Topics to be covered will include human rights, the law of war, conflict prevention and peace-keeping; humanitarian intervention and transitional justice.
792MP Money and Power
Money is a foundational institution, yet it's precise role in contemporary politics is not well understood. This graduate seminar focuses on the interrelationships between of money, finance and political power in contemporary political economy. We will study both the foundational texts on the subject within the political economy literature and also contemporary debates with respect to the configuration of power in the world today. Topics covered include: theories of money and finance, financial globalization and policymaking, financiers and war, financial regulatory politics, and the 'financialization' of contemporary economic life.
794J International Environmental Politics
This course provides an analytical and empirical overview of international environmental politics. It focuses on the intellectual development of the field, and its application to the management of transboundary and global environmental issues. Selected topics include the impact of state leadership, private governance, international political economy, NGOs, scientific governance, and the role of norms and international law. Specific topics include climate change, stratospheric ozone protection, European acid rain, and Mediterranean pollution control.
797GG Globalization and Global Governance
Will cover literature on forces of globalization, perspectives on their causes and effects, and empirical reviews of efforts to governance major global issues such as climate change, migration, trade, arms control, etc, as well as their linkages.
Public Law
741 Tutorial in Public Law
742 Directed Studies in Public Law
792CJ Comparative Judicial Politics
This course will explore the causes and consequences of cross-national variation in judicial and constitutional systems, and in the politics of law. From where do these differences emerge? To what degree do they persist? What does it mean to say that there has been a global trend towards a judicialization of politics? Does that trend suggest some kind of cross-national convergence? Do judicial empowerment and rights consciousness look the same in every national context? How should scholars understand the spread of bill of rights? The proliferation of international law and supra-national courts?
792L Law & American Democracy
This course examines key questions about the role of law and courts in American democracy, focusing in particular on the ability of American courts to fulfill the goals of democratic governance. Issues we address include: judicial review and the countermajoritarian difficulty; judicial policy making and the implementation and impact of court decisions; the response of courts to public opinion, and the responses of citizens and institutions to court decisions; social movement litigation; and methods of judicial selection and the representativeness of legal institutions.
792ND S-Drama/ConstitutionalEquality
Constitutional law on equality, which is referred to as equal protection, is negotiated through legal cases and public opinion. Drama and drama criticism provide opportunities to engage equality through performance and discussion in a public setting outside of the courts. Because it is distinctively expressive and characteristically engaging, drama and criticism offer an important sphere of commentary. The class will engage in at least one performance and visit the set of another.Readings draw on jurisprudence, law and society, and performance studies.
792PL Proseminar in Public Law
The discipline of political science finds its origins in the study of law and legal doctrine. Though the discipline has become much more diverse in terms of the topics investigated by political scientists, it is nonetheless essential to understand the roles played by law, courts, and other legal actors in the political process. The purpose of this seminar is to introduce graduate students to the public law subfield by focusing on empirical research on law and courts from both American and comparative perspectives. To achieve this end, we will address a wide range of theoretically rich and empirically driven research, including examining decision making by judges, the litigation strategies of interest groups, staffing the bench, as well as how courts both shape and are shaped by public opinion.
Political Theory
761 Tutorial in Political Theory
Seminars involving various problems and themes of mutual interest among faculty and graduate students. Recent topics have included studies of Christianity, Greek tragedy, theories of interpretation, theories of conspicuous consumption.
762 Directed Studies in Political Theory
763 Recent Political Theory
Consideration of themes and problems from contemporary political, social, and cultural theories.
791A Plato: Virtue and Epistemology
791AR Arendt
791BB Citizenship
791G Marx
791L Latin American Political Thought
This course examines critical thinkers in the tradition of Latin American political thought. Themes considered include colonialism, indigeneity, founding, imperialism, Marxism, and liberation.
791RC Comparative Political Theory: Race, Civilization and Empire
Examines the work of European political thinkers who have either justified or disavowed systems of European imperialism in conversation with postcolonial and anti-colonial thinkers who have contested those very systems of power. Readings include Du Bois, Kant, James, Rousseau, Bolivar, Montesquieu, Mariategui, Marx, Gandhi, Mill, Tocqueville, and Fanon.
792AP Knowledge Power Fragility: Platonic/Aritstotelian
This course will examine several Platonic dialogues to address the elenchus, its epistemological consequences and ethical dangers, as well as the notion of knowledge in the crafting of political arguments. Apology, Laches, Charmides, Meno, and Republic are some of the Platonic dialogues to be discussed. We will also address some books in Aristotle's Politics.
792MA Modern Arab Political Thought
Massive political protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen, commonly dubbed as the Arab Spring,have gripped the world’s attention since December 2010, especially when they succeeded in overthrowing three of the most enduring Arab dictators. Since then, academics, news commentators, and lay people alike have offered various explanations for this seemingly unexpected turn of events by focusing mainly on contemporary socioeconomic, political and cultural causes. This course offers its own take on revolutionary politics in the Arab world through examining the history of ideas that have animated Arab society since the time of the Arab Renaissance in the mid-19th century, through colonial and postcolonial times, and up until the present. Through close readings of selected texts in this historical canon, we will examine the following questions and themes: how do Arab thinkers conceive of Arab identity? How do Arab identities relate to other identities? How has political freedom been defined by these authors? Do they imagine a uniquely Arab way to achieve such freedom? What are perceived as the legitimate bases of political authority in Arab society? Is revolution or reform the best way for establishing such authority? The class will examine how central Arab thinkers formulate different responses to these questions. This examination will highlight some of the key ways in which Arab thinking about political freedom is distinct from the ways it has been conceived in western political theory. Most importantly, this examination will lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of contemporary struggles for freedom in the Arab world.
792R Heidegger and Contemporary Radical Political Theory
This seminar will examine works by Antonio Negri, Jacques Ranciere, and Alain Badiou, among others. We will begin with Heidegger's 'Introduction' to Being and Time in order to broach cultural and philosophical problems that will be addressed in more details through the works of contemporary philosophers.
793PC Postcolonial Political Thought
This course surveys some of the central texts of postcolonial theory. It begins with an examination of the foundational works in that field of study such as: Franz Fanon's "Black Skin, White Masks," Edward Said's "Orientalism," Homi Bhabha's "Nation and Narration," and Gayatri Spivak's "Can the Subaltern Speak?" The rest of the course is regionally and thematically organized to explore major writings in post-colonial theory from South Asia (Partha Chatterjee, Dipesh Chakrabarty), Sub-Saharan Africa (Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Achille Mbembe), the Caribbean (Paul Gilroy), and the Arab world (Abdullah Laroui, Joseph Massad). The course will also examine central themes in postcolonial thought such as theories of postcolonial difference and postcolonial feminism. More generally, this course explores the following questions: how do non-western thinkers conceive of freedom, reason, equality, and political emancipation in the wake of a colonialism that has fundamentally re-shaped their modes of living and producing? In what ways do their formulations of these central concepts of European modernity embrace, question, critique, and/or cast doubt on their applicability to the post-colonial world? What alternatives, if any, do these thinkers put forward for the political future of their respective societies?
795K Foucault
In a roughly chronological fashion, we will read many of the principle works of Michel Foucault, as well as essays, interviews, and lectures. The objectives of this seminar are to assess the significance of Foucault's works for understanding political institutions, government, ethics, and historical change, and for the practices of historical and critical research in political theory.
797DE Politics of Decolonization
This seminar examines political theories of decolonization. Instead of restricting our view to the period of decolonization after World War Two when European colonial possessions attained formal sovereignty, we will center on the 500-year struggle of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples as well as creole-settlers against and with the modern-colonial world system in the Americas. And rather than view decolonization solely as a struggle for national independence, we will emphasize its transnational dimensions, how ideologies and practices of decolonization travel across boundaries of race, nation, and empire and in doing so transform global power relations. In our efforts to theorize decolonization transnationally, we will situate our analyses in the interstices of different framings of the colonial situation (e.g. coloniality of power, neocolonialism, postcolonialism, settler colonialism). Readings draw from (but not exclusively) Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, Ottobah Cugoano, Jose Marti, CLR James, Jose Carlos Mariategui, Frederick Douglass, WEB Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, and Enrique Dussel.
797HP History and Political Science Research
History is inherent in the study of politics and the many historical dimensions of political science research are not self-evident. This seminar is designed, first, to foreground and to reconsider the value of history in political science research, which is multivalent, by surveying the philosophy of history. Second, we will enter into debates over historical methods. While pursuing those two objectives, we will track how each runs along and/or across lines demarcating different methodologies and fields of political science research. A third objective is to examine the history of political science and ascertain the value our own research and methods.
797ML Republicanism and the People
In very general terms, republicanism develops and stands for some crucial concepts as linchpins of the social order. Some of these concepts refer to both the community and individuals, as is the case of virtue, merit, and patriotism. These three concepts are individuals-oriented, but always for the sake of the larger moral entity represented by the community. Other concepts refer to the specific communitarian arena where the republic is expected to thrive. “Institutions,” “public good,” and “rule of law” are among these community-oriented concepts. The people, as opposed to any group whose claim to rule rests on ancestry, wealth, or both, are still another powerful element in the symbolic tapestry of republicanism. This seminar will discuss all these concepts in the following authors: Cicero, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and Montesquieu. We will compare the view of the people in these authors to the way some seventeenth century English thinkers theorized the people. The seminar will conclude with some sections from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.
797PS Political Struggle, Disagreement and Contest
Survey of political and social theories of struggle (agonism), disagreement and contest. We will examine contests in many contexts from the street to the state, undertaken in political life and in political theory. Students will be encouraged to pursue independent research in relation to the course theme.
Public Policy
691T Technology, Power and Governance
Examines power and uses of digital technologies in national, transnational and global governance. Topics include inequalities, transparency, civil society, state capacity, privacy, social movements, cyberwar and electoral politics.
697J Topics in Organizational Theory
791PG History of US Social Policy, Politics of Gender, Race and Class
This interdisciplinary course, designed for students in both Political Science and History, will concentrate on approaches to the study of the history of U.S. public policy aimed at addressing social and political inequalities. We will explore the methods, findings, and controversies in research about public policy in American politics, history, and political science from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives and approaches. Readings will focus our attention on policies aimed at the overlapping axes of marginalization on the basis of gender, race, class, and sexuality, in particular. Throughout the course, we will analyze the ways in which policy, over time, has come to address issues and discrimination in intersectional ways, defining politically-relevant categories, identities, and forms of marginalization, such as gender, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and ideological and partisan identification. Students will write a short reaction paper every other week, make two short presentations, and write a research paper that they will present to the class.
797JA Organizational Theory and Institutional Analysis
This graduate seminar is designed to help students obtain a solid foundation in organizational and institutional perspectives, with a particular focus on institutional stability and change. Course materials draw from several fields within political science as well as sociological perspectives on institutional stability and change. The course is one of three courses designed to help students prepare for the field examination in public policy, but it is suitable for any graduate student with an interest in organizational and institutional structures, processes, and the core theoretical frameworks that constitute this inter-disciplinary subfield.
Research Methods
750 Research Design
Introduction to the principles of research design, with particular emphasis on qualitative methods. Topics include philosophy of science, concept formation, case studies, casual inference, fieldwork, and content analysis. Practical aspects of research also covered, such as finding grant opportunities, preparing proposals, and completing a dissertation prospectus.
753 Political Network Analysis
This is a course on network analysis. The study of networks across the sciences has exploded recently. In this course, we will cover network scientific theory as it applies to the social sciences, network data collection and management, network visualization and description; and methods for the statistical analysis of networks. The course will make extensive use of real-world applications and students will gain a thorough background in the use of network analytic software. Most of the applications discussed will be drawn from political science, but this course will be relevant to anyone interested in network analytic research.
755 Introduction to Quantitative Analysis
This is a course on network analysis. The study of networks across the sciences has exploded recently. In this course, we will cover network scientific theory as it applies to the social sciences, network data collection and management, network visualization and description; and methods for the statistical analysis of networks. The course will make extensive use of real-world applications and students will gain a thorough background in the use of network analytic software. Most of the applications discussed will be drawn from political science, but this course will be relevant to anyone interested in network analytic research.
791EA Empirical Analysis and Ideologies
This course will familiarize students with existing approaches to the measurement and classification of ideology in text, and provide an opportunity to think critically about how to improve upon these. We begin by examining various definitions of ideology from different empirical and philosophical traditions, distinguishing between those that emphasize core values and beliefs from ones that take policy positions as their essential indicators. We then consider what it would mean to analyze ideologies as shared, publicly-articulated philosophies; in particular, how might we operationalize such systems in order to effectively detect their presence in writing and speech? The instructor will draw examples primarily from contemporary U.S. media, but students are welcome to base their own research in other settings.
791PA Political Ethnography
What does it mean to study politics from below? How does immersion of the researcher in the research world contribute to the study of power? What are the promises, and perils, of social research that invites the unruly minutiae of lived experience to converse with, and contest, abstract disciplinary theories and categories? In this practice-intensive seminar, we explore ethnographic and other qualitative fieldwork methods with specific attention to their potential to subvert, generate, and extend understandings of politics and power. Readings draw on exemplary political ethnographies as well as discussions of methodology and method in political science, sociology, and anthropology. Participants will have the opportunity to craft and conduct locally based ethnographic research projects related to their primary areas of interest and will be expected to make significant weekly commitments to field research. The seminar is intended as preparation for students planning to conduct independent fieldwork for their MA or PhD research, but those interested in the epistemological, political and ethical implications of studying power from below are also welcome.
797BA Topics in Bayesian Analysis and Statistical Learning
This course will introduce the fundamentals of applied Bayesian data analysis for social scientists—including model development, estimation, quantification of uncertainty, and model checking—as well as a few key notions from statistical machine learning. Emphasis will be on acquiring basic computational skills needed by practitioners and on interpretation of results. Topics will vary, but may be drawn from multilevel regression and generalized linear models (HLMs/GLM), classification, clustering, measurement models, approaches to missing data, categorical variable analysis, and causal inference. The primary computing environment will be R, with additional exposure to specialized tools for Bayesian computation (e.g. Stan, BUGS, JAGS). Some previous exposure to R is recommended, but not required.
797BB Qualitative Research Methods
797L Interpretation
797SR Survey Research Methods
This course will focus on advanced topics in survey design and analysis. Topics covered include different approaches to sampling, how to construct and use survey weights, and tools for analyzing and enriching survey data, including approaches to conducting matching and multiple imputation, as well as the construction and analysis of panel data. The course will also focus on designing and analyzing survey experiments.
