Professor Barbara Allen and students in her course, Visual Representation of Political Thought and Action

Political Science and International Relations studies governments, politics, and the dynamics of power. We examine public policies and political behavior. And we explore political processes, systems, and theory. Our curriculum is designed to help students become active and productive citizens.

Professor Barbara Allen and students in her course, Visual Representation of Political Thought and Action

About Political Science and International Relations

Political Scientists study dynamics of norms and power that structure collective action and coercion.  Study of political science encompasses governments, private and public organizations, political behavior, public policies, political processes, systems, and theory. It includes international relations, world politics, comparative politics including American Politics, political philosophy, and local-global environmental politics. The department’s curriculum is designed to cultivate active and productive citizenship, as well as provide versatile skills and knowledge. These can be applied to a wide range of fields, including law, business, government, international service, education, journalism, and other fields.

Requirements for the Political Science and International Relations Major

75 credits, including:

1.  Core Courses (18 credits):

Majors must complete three of the following core courses preferably prior to their senior year. These courses cannot be substituted with any other courses at Carleton or elsewhere:

  • POSC 120: Democracy and Dictatorship
  • POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • POSC 160: Political Philosophy
  • POSC 170: International Relations and World Politics

2. Methods Sequence (15 credits):

One course (6 credits) of introductory statistics or equivalent preparation, including:      

  • STAT 120: Introduction to Statistics Introduction to Statistics·
  • STAT 230: Applied Regression Analysis Applied Regression Analysis·  
  • STAT 250: Introduction to Statistical Inference Introduction to Statistical Inference·  
  • PSYC 200: Measurement and Data Analysis in Psychology/201 Measurement and Data Analysis
  • SOAN 239 (not offered 2024-25) Social Statistics·  
  • Or AP Statistics score of 4 or 5 (see below)

The introductory statistics course (or equivalent) may be taken on an S/CR/NC basis. Other courses may be accepted for this requirement with the approval of the chair. Students who use AP Statistics score of 4 or 5 for the placement must take an additional elective in the department (i.e., 42 elective credits, not 36) to meet the required 75 credits for the major. It is recommended, but not required, to replace that 6 credits with POSC 232: PS Lab: Interview Techniques when available. Otherwise, choose one 6 credit elective course from the list of approved elective courses.

POSC 230: Methods of Political Research Methods of Political Research (6 credits). This course should be taken as soon as possible after declaring a major, but not simultaneously with the stats class listed above. This course cannot be substituted with any other method course at Carleton or elsewhere. 

POSC 232: PS Lab: Interview Techniques Methods (3 credits) from a list of courses offered in the department. Methods courses of 3 credits or more in other departments may be substituted with prior approval from the chair.

3. Elective Courses (36 credits):

  • At least two courses (12 credits) must be at the 300-level. The department recommends that majors take at least one seminar course during the junior year.  
  • Students may count the fourth 100-level core course (6 credits) as one of their electives.
  • A maximum of 12 credits earned outside of the department may be applied towards the total number of electives. These non-department credits may consist of: (a) approved courses in other Carleton departments; (b) from non-Carleton OCS programs; or (c) from non-Carleton post-matriculation courses. Non-departmental courses may not be used to replace 300-level seminars, and should be distinct and independent from courses offered by the department. Application of non-Carleton OCS courses and other post-matriculation courses require approval from the chair. The chair may require a copy of the course syllabus for off-campus and other post-matriculation courses.
  • Students may count up to six credits of POSC 394: Directed Research in Political Science Collaborative Research course as elective credit. Those credits must be taken on a graded basis. Students may take additional POSC 394: Directed Research in Political Science credits without those credits counting as electives in the major. This POSC 394: Directed Research in Political Science course is not a regular course and offered by individual faculty members at their discretion.  

Elective Courses:

  • ECON 286: Economic Beliefs, Political Beliefs, and Identity (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 269: Religion, Race & Caste in Modern India (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 100.00: Media Portrayal of Disasters (.24/FA)
  • POSC 100.02: Media Portrayal of Disasters (.24/FA)
  • POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • POSC 190: In the News: US, China, and World Politics
  • POSC 200: Politics of the Future: The Psychological and Political Barriers to Imagining New Orders (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 201: Statecraft and the Tools of National Power
  • POSC 204: Media and Electoral Politics: 2024 United States Election
  • POSC 205: Congress and the Presidency (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 206.00: Judges and Courts (.25/SP)
  • POSC 210: Misinformation, Political Rumors, and Conspiracy Theories (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 211: Media, Politics, and Difference: How Film Teaches Us Who We Are(n’t) (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 212: Political Psychology of Elites (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 214: Visual Representations of Political Thought and Action (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 215: Comparative Political Communication: News Coverage of Elections (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 219: Policy Feedback (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 221: Latin American Politics
  • POSC 224: Political Campaigns & Electoral Behavior
  • POSC 225: Prisons and Punishment (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 226: Biopolitics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 228: Power and the American Presidency (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 229: The U.S. Congress: Coordination and Conflict (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 231: American Foreign Policy
  • POSC 232: PS Lab: Interview Techniques
  • POSC 235: The Endless War on Terror
  • POSC 238: Sport and Globalization in London and Seville Program: Globalization and Development: Lessons from Int’l Football (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 241: Ethnic Conflict (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 242: Middle East Politics
  • POSC 243: Socio-Political Systems and Gender Issues Across Europe (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 244: The Politics of Eurovision (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 246: Contemporary Chinese Politics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 247: Comparative Nationalism (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 248: Asian Communism: Politics of China, Viet & N Korea (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 249: From the International to the Global: Critical Theories of World Politics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 250: Political Science Topics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 251.00: Science and Humanity (.25/WI)
  • POSC 252: Theoretical Foundations of the American Regime
  • POSC 253: Welfare Capitalisms in Post-War Europe (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 254: Freedom, Excellence, Happiness: Aristotle’s Ethics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 255: Post-Modern Political Thought (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 256: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 257: Marx for the Twenty-First Century: Ecology, Technology, Dispossession (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 258: Politics and Ambition (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 260: “A Savage Made to Inhabit Cities”: The Political Philosophy of Rousseau
  • POSC 261: The Global Crisis of Democracy (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 262: Displaced Lives: Freedom and Meaning (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 264: Politics of Contemporary China (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 265: Public Policy and Global Capitalism
  • POSC 266: Urban Political Economy
  • POSC 268: Global Environmental Politics and Policy (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 269: I Did My Own Research: Information and Political Division in America (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 271: Constitutional Law I
  • POSC 272: Constitutional Law II
  • POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
  • POSC 274: Covid-19 and Globalization (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 275: Black Political Thought (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 276: Imagination in Politics: Resisting Totalitarianism
  • POSC 277: Central and Eastern European Politics Program: Perceptions of Otherness in Modern Eastern and Central Europe (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 278: Memory and Politics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 279: Global Challenges and Civil Society Solutions (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 280: Feminist Security Studies (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 281: U.S.-China Rivalry: The New Cold War?
  • POSC 282: Terrorism and Counterterrorism
  • POSC 283: Separatist Movements (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 284: War and Peace in Northern Ireland (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 285: The U.S. Intelligence Community
  • POSC 288: Politics and Public Policy in Washington, D.C., Program: Global Politics & Pub Policy in Washington DC (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 295: Central and Eastern European Politics Program: Nation-Building in Central and Eastern Europe between Politics and Art (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 296: Central and Eastern European Politics Program: Challenges to the Nation-State in Eastern and Central Europe: Immigrants and Minorities (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
  • POSC 307: Go Our Own Way: Autonomy in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 308: Global Gender Politics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 310: Democracy and Citizenship (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 312: The Rural-Urban Divide (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 313: Legal Issues in Higher Education
  • POSC 315: Polarization and Democratic Decline in the United States
  • POSC 322: Polarization and Populism in Latin America
  • POSC 324: Rebels and Risk Takers: Women and War In the Middle East
  • POSC 328: Foreign Policy Analysis
  • POSC 329: Reinventing Humanism: A Dialogue with Tzvetan Todorov (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 330: The Complexity of Politics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 331: Cooperation and Conflict* (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 333: Global Social Changes and Sustainability (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 336: Global Populist Politics (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 339: LGBTQ Politics in America (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 345: Politics of Dictatorship (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 348: Strangers, Foreigners, and Exiles
  • POSC 352: Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 358: Comparative Social Movements (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 361: Approaches to Development (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 367: Social Welfare in a Time of Crisis (not offered 2024-25)
  • POSC 372: Mansions and Shantytowns: Politics of The Spaces We Live in
  • POSC 378: Political Economy & Ecology of Southeast Asia: Social Changes in Southeast Asia
  • POSC 379: Political Economy and Ecology of S.E. Asia: Diversity of Social Ecological Systems in Southeast Asia
  • POSC 394: Directed Research in Political Science
  • ASST 285: Mapping Japan, the Real and the Imagined
  • CAMS 295: Cinema in Chile and Argentina — Storytelling in Context (not offered 2024-25)
  • CAMS 296: Chile and Argentina–Modes of Storytelling (not offered 2024-25)
  • ECON 240: Microeconomics of Development
  • ECON 241: Growth and Development (not offered 2024-25)
  • ECON 257: Economics of Gender (not offered 2024-25)
  • ECON 264: Health Care Economics
  • ECON 268: Economics of Cost Benefit Analysis (not offered 2024-25)
  • ECON 270: Economics of the Public Sector
  • ECON 271: Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment
  • ECON 274: Labor Economics
  • ECON 275: Law and Economics
  • ECON 277: History and Theory of Financial Crises
  • ECON 280: International Trade
  • ECON 281: International Finance
  • ENTS 210: Environmental Justice (not offered 2024-25)
  • ENTS 310: Topics in Environmental Law and Policy (not offered 2024-25)
  • ENTS 323: Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment
  • EUST 110: The Power of Place: Memory and Counter-Memory in the European City
  • EUST 159: “The Age of Isms” – Ideals, Ideas and Ideologies in Modern Europe
  • EUST 249: The European Union from Constitution to Crisis (not offered 2024-25)
  • GWSS 240: Gender, Globalization and War
  • HIST 123: U.S. Women’s History Since 1877 (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 139: Foundations of Modern Europe (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 141: Europe in the Twentieth Century
  • HIST 150: Politics of Art in Early Imperial China
  • HIST 151: History of Modern Japan (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 152: History of Late Imperial China (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 153: History of Modern China
  • HIST 156: History of Modern Korea (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 161: From Mughals to Mahatma Gandhi: An Introduction to Modern Indian History
  • HIST 165: A Cultural History of the Modern Middle East (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 170: Modern Latin America
  • HIST 181: West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 184: Colonial West Africa (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 205: American Environmental History
  • HIST 212: The Era of the American Revolution (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 226: U.S. Consumer Culture (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 235: Making and Breaking Institutions: Structure, Culture, Corruption, and Reform in the Middle Ages (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 240: Tsars and Serfs, Cossacks and Revolutionaries: The Empire that was Russia (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 241: Russia through Wars and Revolutions (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 242: Communism, Cold War, Collapse: Russia Since Stalin (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 243: The Peasants are Revolting! Society and Politics in the Making of Modern France (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 244: The Enlightenment and Its Legacies (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 245: Ireland: Land, Conflict and Memory
  • HIST 247: The First World War as Global Phenomenon (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 250: Modern Germany (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 257: Chinese Capitalism: From Local to Global (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 260: The Making of the Modern Middle East (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 263: Plagues of Empire (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 265: Central Asia in the Modern Age
  • HIST 266: History of Islam in South Asia (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 269: Religion, Race & Caste in Modern India (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 270: Nuclear Nations: India and Pakistan as Rival Siblings
  • HIST 341: The Russian Revolution and its Global Legacies (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 346: The Holocaust (not offered 2024-25)
  • HIST 347: The Global Cold War
  • HIST 360: Muslims and Modernity (not offered 2024-25)
  • LTAM 300: Issues in Latin American Studies
  • PHIL 113: The Individual and the Political Community (not offered 2024-25)
  • RELG 152: Religions in Japanese Culture (not offered 2024-25)
  • RELG 237: Yoga: Religion, History, Practice (not offered 2024-25)
  • SOAN 225: Social Movements
  • SOAN 256: Africa: Representation and Conflict (not offered 2024-25)
  • SOAN 257: Culture and Politics in India (not offered 2024-25)
  • SOAN 323: Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment
  • SOAN 353: Ethnography of Latin America (not offered 2024-25)

4. POSC 400: Integrative Exercise – Integrative Exercise (6 credits):

During their senior year, students will revise substantially the final paper from an advanced seminar in Political Science.

5. Study Abroad

A maximum of 12 credits earned on a non-Carleton and non-departmental within Carleton off campus studies program may be granted toward the electives requirement. These credits may not be used to replace a core course and should be distinct and independent from electives offered at Carleton. The chair may require a copy of the off-campus course syllabus.

Political Science and International Relations Courses

  • POSC 100.00 Media Portrayal of Disasters

    As climate change continues to accelerate, and as connectivity expands, natural disaster events are becoming more frequent, more intense, and also more seen. From devastating wildfires to “biblical” floods, stories of unimaginable catastrophes constantly cycle through the media. How are these disasters portrayed and how do they affect social attitudes and politics? Do they unite people, or do they exacerbate conflicts? Do they create opportunities for major improvements in society, or leave behind uncurable maladies? This course examines major natural disasters through media reports, popular portrayal, and social science literature.

  • POSC 100.02 American Elections of 2024

    This seminar introduces methods of political analysis through a case study of media and politics in the 2024 elections. Students will learn how to conduct research on election news and advertising as part of our Carleton Election Study—a content analysis project covering media and US elections of the first two decades of the twenty-first century. We analyze the activities and results from the 2024 elections by looking at trends in news coverage, political advertising, campaigns and candidate communication and public opinion. 

  • POSC 120 Democracy and Dictatorship

    An introduction to the array of different democratic and authoritarian political institutions in both developing and developed countries. We will also explore key issues in contemporary politics in countries around the world, such as nationalism and independence movements, revolution, regime change, state-making, and social movements.

  • POSC 122 Politics in America: Liberty and Equality

    An introduction to American government and politics. Focus on the Congress, Presidency, political parties and interest groups, the courts and the Constitution. Particular attention will be given to the public policy debates that divide liberals and conservatives and how these divisions are rooted in American political culture.

  • POSC 150 The Political Thought of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. & the American Civil Rights Movement

    What justifies self-defense and retaliation in defending civil rights and liberty? What moral reasoning and strategies offer alternatives to using physical violence in a social movement to gain civil rights? Our seminar examines the American Civil Rights Movement 1954 and 1968, and compares the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X to learn about nonviolent direct action, self-defense, and the use of “any means necessary” to right the wrongs of racial injustice.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 160 Political Philosophy

    Introduction to ancient and modern political philosophy. We will investigate several fundamentally different approaches to the basic questions of politics–questions concerning the character of political life, the possibilities and limits of politics, justice, and the good society–and the philosophic presuppositions (concerning human nature and human flourishing) that underlie these, and all, political questions.

  • POSC 170 International Relations and World Politics

    What are the foundational theories and practices of international relations and world politics? This course addresses topics of a geopolitical, commercial and ideological character as they relate to global systems including: great power politics, polycentricity, and international organizations. It also explores the dynamic intersection of world politics with war, terrorism, nuclear weapons, national security, human security, human rights, and the globalization of economic and social development.

  • POSC 190 In the News: US, China, and World Politics

    How will Russia’s invasion of Ukraine end? Will new conflicts break out across the Taiwan Strait? How will a backsliding Turkey and a highly volatile Syria evolve in response to the devastating Kahramanmaras earthquake? This course provides a forum to discuss and analyze such important current global affairs through reading and debating news headlines. We will follow major news stories chosen by students, analyze reporting from multiple sources and perspectives, and conduct individual research. The goal of this course is to encourage students to think deliberately about current events, and to practice the research and analytical skills needed to gain a deeper understanding of global affairs. Students will also leverage course readings and discussions to produce their own editorial articles or detailed research proposal for future inquiries at the end of the course.

  • POSC 200 Politics of the Future: The Psychological and Political Barriers to Imagining New Orders

    Climate change, global migrations, AI, income inequality, identity and rights, political and religious extremism, disinformation, cyber insecurity, and pandemics–these and other issues are shaping politics today. What do they mean for a politics of the future? Political systems are technologies. Can our present tools keep pace with millennial change? Do we build upon or leap beyond these foundations to design new political institutions? We are not the first humans to face overwhelming uncertainties, but we are the first to encounter some of these challenges. Film, readings, and online media will guide this lecture and discussion course.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 201 Statecraft and the Tools of National Power

    This course covers the science and art of statecraft, which is the application of the tools of national power. Students will study how nations use diplomatic, economic, and military power to achieve stated national policy objectives. The course is team-taught by three career national security professionals. Case studies are used to assess the application of diplomatic, economic, and military power in the real world. Course readings, papers, and significant classroom discussion will deliver content to students and set the stage for the International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise, which is a graded part of the course.

  • POSC 204 Media and Electoral Politics: 2024 United States Election

    Our analysis of media influences on politics will draw from three fields of study: political psychology, political behavior and participation, and public opinion. Students will conduct a study of the effects of campaign ads and news using our multi-year data set of content analyzed election ads and news. We study a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods to learn how political communication affects U.S. elections.

  • POSC 205 Congress and the Presidency

    Why does Congress appear so dysfunctional? Why is it so hard to get things done in Washington? The answers lie, in part, in the growing power of the presidency. Since the late nineteenth century, the nationalization of the two parties shifted the political center of gravity in Washington away from the legislative to the executive branch, which has reshaped American democracy around the presidency. Why did this happen, how has it affected the policy process in Washington, how has it transformed American elections, and what does it mean for the stability of American democracy? This course will explore these questions. 

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 206.00 Judges and Courts

    This course focuses on the judicial branch of government. By exploring the judiciary and the courts, we will see how law, politics, economics, and social trends combine to shape the legal system. We will examine how judges are selected; how judges’ backgrounds and views influence their decisions; the moral, emotional, and intellectual aspects of deciding cases; variations between judges in different courts and administrative settings; and how judging fits into the broader structure and operation of the courts. A special feature of this course will be a guest lectures and dialogue with judges and judicial clerks. 

  • POSC 210 Misinformation, Political Rumors, and Conspiracy Theories

    Why do people believe in conspiracy theories, hold on to misinformed beliefs even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, and/or spread political and social rumors that may have little basis in fact? Who is most vulnerable to these various forms of misinformation? What are the normative and political consequences of misperceptions (if any)? This course explores the psychological, political, and philosophical approaches to the study of the causes, consequences, and tenacity of conspiracy beliefs, misinformation, and political rumors, as well as possible approaches that journalists could employ to combat misperceptions.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 211 Media, Politics, and Difference: How Film Teaches Us Who We Are(n’t)

    As cultural and historical texts, narrative films offer important insight into the cultures that produce and view them. Entertainment media teach us about how to see the world, including what counts as difference—abilities, genders, sexualities, races, ethnicities, classes, identities—and these categories’ meanings and commitments. The messages are “political” in many ways, signaling who has what kinds of: authority, power, resources, and capacities. In this class, we use communications theory, historical and contemporary discourses on race, feminist theory, and political psychology to examine depictions of identity in U.S. cinema, comparing and contrasting Hollywood and independent filmmakers’ works.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 212 Political Psychology of Elites

    When we study the decisions of political leaders, we often consider them in terms of power relations between states. The class examines psychological explanations of leaders’ decision-making. We focus on political elites’ actions, especially in foreign policy asking, why otherwise intelligent and savvy individuals and groups often make very poor decisions. Students will learn about different theoretical perspectives and how to apply them to different historical examples in the study of elite decision-making from the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the Covid pandemic. Students will evaluate contending theories, joining theory and practice to explain elites’ motives and decisions shaping world politics.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 214 Visual Representations of Political Thought and Action

    Visual media offer an alternative method of framing political ideas and events. Images found in such texts as film, posters, and even in statistical tables can enlighten–or mislead. Readings in visual theory, political psychology, and graphic representation will enable you to read images and use these powerful media to convey your ideas and research.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 215 Comparative Political Communication: News Coverage of Elections

    This course will focus on the major theories of political communication in election advertising and political news contexts. Our case studies will focus on recent U.S., French, and UK elections. We compare the legal and cultural contexts of election news coverage and advertising in these countries and analyze media effects on voter perceptions using political psychology studies based on research in the U.S., UK, and EU.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 219 Policy Feedback

    What does politics look like for everyday citizens? Policy feedback is the idea that “policy creates politics.” In this course we examine the relationship between people and politics through the services and programs that citizens interact with in their “ordinary” lives. We also stretch the concept of policy feedback to include interactions with agents of the state (e.g., bureaucrats and officers) and public services (e.g., parks, roads, etc.) We discuss what it means to participate with and know about politics in key policy areas such as healthcare, criminal justice policy, policing, housing, and welfare.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 221 Latin American Politics

    This course will enable students to think critically and comparatively about the Latin American political and socio-economic reality. The course serves as an introduction for those who are unfamiliar with the contemporary history, politics, and social structures of the region. Instruction in this class, however, will go beyond a mere introduction to Latin American political history. It will challenge students to analyze complex problems in Latin American politics and development and encourage them to provide informed arguments on these matters. 

  • POSC 224 Political Campaigns & Electoral Behavior

    Representative government requires the occurrence of regular elections. This course is designed to introduce you to the key issues and controversies surrounding the study of campaigns and elections in the United States. It will analyze the rules and processes that define the presidential and congressional electoral systems, the actors who engage one another within those systems, the campaign strategies candidates use to persuade and turnout voters, and the considerations Americans use to determine their vote on Election day. This course also provides insight into why (and how) campaigns and elections are normatively important for maintaining a healthy democracy.

  • POSC 225 Prisons and Punishment

    The United States prides itself on freedom, yet millions of “legal” and “undocumented” citizens live without it. Across federal and state prisons, county jails, private prisons, and undocumented detention centers, the mark of incarceration has a significant impact on American politics. We center this paradox throughout the course as we look at different aspects of incarceration and punishment. We analyze the United States criminal justice system through policy, public opinion, sociology, and political theory. By using an interdisciplinary approach centered in political science, together we will discover whether the relationship between freedom and domination is truly a paradox.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 226 Biopolitics

    The fear of contaminants, from viruses to strangers, increasingly colonizes the minds of (post)modern citizens. Security is a buzzword to win political votes. It is hard to deny the centrality to modern politics of the care for life. Michel Foucault called this biopolitics, mainly served by mechanisms of security. In this course we will explore the ways in which biopolitics can turn from the state’s constructive concern for the health and well-being of its population into tribal nationalism, racism, and genocide. Among others, our partners of conversation will be Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Roberto Esposito.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 228 Power and the American Presidency

    The power of the executive branch is  loosely defined in the second article of the U.S. Constitution. While the presidency was designed to be clearly subordinated to Congress, presidential has exploded over time and has reshaped American politics around presidential prerogatives. Today, the other branches of the government defer to the president, while voters look to the president to solve a snowballing set of public problems. However, citizen expectations of the president have outpaced even the growth in executive power, which has simultaneously upended the constitutional order while still leaving the average American chronically dissatisfied with government in Washington.  This course is designed to explore the dynamics, the drama, and the intrigue associated with the rise of the imperial presidency in America.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 229 The U.S. Congress: Coordination and Conflict

    How does Congress make public policy? What factors inhibit or enhance legislative productivity? Is the policymaking process too partisan? This course provides a comprehensive introduction to congressional organization and procedures, the policy process, and the core debates and theories surrounding legislative politics in the United States Congress. The path of policy within Congress is an incredibly complex and conflict-ridden coordination problem. As a class, we will explore how the underlying motivations to win office, produce policy, and gain prestige drive congressional member behaviors. We will also carefully consider the institutional details of the House and Senate that constrain these legislative actors and influence legislative outcomes. 

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 230 Methods of Political Research

    An introduction to research method, research design, and the analysis of political data. The course is intended to introduce students to the fundamentals of scientific inquiry as they are employed in the discipline. The course will consider the philosophy of scientific research generally, the philosophy of social science research, theory building and theory testing, the components of applied (quantitative and qualitative) research across the major sub-fields of political science, and basic methodological tools. Intended for majors only.

  • POSC 231 American Foreign Policy

    An introduction to the actors and processes of American foreign policymaking and to the substance of American foreign policy. The course aims to provide students with an understanding of how knowledge of the past, the global policy environment, the processes of foreign policymaking, and the specifics of a foreign policy issue come together to help determine modern American foreign policy. The course will review the structure of the international system of states, state power and interests, the historical context of American foreign policy, actors in American foreign affairs, models of foreign policy decision making, and the instruments of foreign policy. Recommended preparation: POSC 122, AP American Government or AP U.S. History.

  • POSC 232.02 PS Lab: Interview Techniques

    This class provides a hands-on introduction to how researchers devise, conduct, and analyze interviews in political science. Students will learn about different types of interview methodologies with a particular focus on semi-structured techniques. Over the course of the class, students will consider the types of questions most appropriately answered by interviews, the fundamentals of different sampling strategies, how to devise questionnaires, and how to use the information collected for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. We will also cover interview ethics, how to employ culturally sensitive techniques, and how to employ interviews in individual, group, and crowd situations.

  • POSC 232.01 PS Lab: Agent-Based Models

    Linear modeling using statistical techniques and equilibrium-centered, game-theoretic approaches are standard methods in quantitative social science. However, research into complex systems suggests that dynamic, chaotic and non-linear processes are common in networked, multi-actor systems. Equilibrium may also be difficult to achieve in a world of adaptive or evolutionary agents. How do these concepts apply to our political world? In this class we will explore agent-based models related to political, social and policy questions while student build their own models using the open-source NetLogo language. Prerequisite: POSC 230

  • POSC 232.03 PS Lab: Hacking the Case Study

    This course explores the case study method for investigating important political science questions. We will begin by discussing the philosophy of science, causality, theory building and testing; this will provide us with the grounding to think critically about the uses, strengths, and limitations of case study methods. We will then explore the core issues of case study research design, including methods of comparison, case selection, process tracing, and building cases into mixed method studies. We will also explore how various techniques such as interviews, participant observation, and archival research contribute to building case studies.

  • POSC 232.01 PS Lab: Simulation Research

    Simulations, games and role-play exercises are commonly used as experiential learning tools to help students understand complex problems. They can also be used in a research context to explore processes that are difficult to observe in the field or that involve strategic, adversarial and interactive social choices among multiple actors (such as red team exercises). In this lab we will explore the use of simulation as a tool for social inquiry and policy making and use participant observation approaches to gather data from a large simulation exercise.

  • POSC 232.02 PS Lab: Political Research in Spanish

    This political science lab will train students interested in conducting social science research in Spanish on Latin America or Spain. All reading and audio visual materials used in this course will be in Spanish. Students will exercise and receive further training in their ability to read both qualitative and quantitative scholarship, access official and scholarly databases, read and discuss primary materials such as presidential speeches and interviews with political leaders, as well as journalistic sources. All discussion and instruction will be conducted in Spanish. 

  • POSC 232.04 PS Lab: Intelligence Methods for National Security

    This course is designed to look at two or three lesser-covered current crises around the world. Students will study the issue from all sides, and assess what the stated and actual policy objectives are for all sides in the conflict. Students will take a hard look at the kind of intelligence requirements that a national leader or other policymaker might levy on the security apparatus to better inform the policy-making process, and consider how tools of national power might be applied by all sides to gain leverage or even to solve the crises situation.

  • POSC 235 The Endless War on Terror

    In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. launched the Global War on Terror to purportedly find, stop,and defeat every terrorist group with a global reach. Without question, the Global War on Terror has radically shaped everything from U.S. foreign policies and domestic institutions to civil liberties and pop culture. In this course, we will examine the events of 9/11 and then critically assess the immediate and long-term ramifications of the endless Global War on Terror on different states and communities around the world. While we will certainly spend time interrogating U.S. policies from the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, we will also examine reactions to those policies across both the global north and the global south.

  • POSC 237 Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture Program: Borders, Boundaries and Human Mobility

    Borders are at once real and imagined. They divide and they are crossed. The course draws case studies and examples from the United States and Europe to critically reflect on the notion of borders and to discuss both the construction and reimaging of borders in the physical and socioeconomic sense. The course connects the concept of border(s) and human mobility, from immigration to daily movement in urban spaces and examines critically the construction and deconstruction of borders, the notions of inclusion and exclusion: who has the right to it, within which borders, and at what cost?

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 238 Sport and Globalization in London and Seville Program: Globalization and Development: Lessons from Int’l Football

    This course uses international football (soccer) as a lens to analyze topics in globalization, such as immigration and labor, inequality, foreign investment, trade in services, and intellectual property. Students will be presented with key debates in these areas and then use cases from international football as illustrations. Focusing on the two wealthiest leagues in Europe, the English Premier League and the Spanish Liga, students will address key issues in the study of globalization and development, and in doing so enhance their understanding of the world, sports, and sport’s place in the world.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 241 Ethnic Conflict

    Ethnic conflict is a persistent and troubling challenge for those interested in preserving international peace and stability. By one account, ethnic violence has claimed more than ten million lives since 1945, and in the 1990s, ethnic conflicts comprised nearly half of all ongoing conflicts around the world. In this course, we will attempt to understand the conditions that contribute to ethnic tensions, identify the triggers that lead to escalation, and evaluate alternative ideas for managing and solving such disputes. The course will draw on a number of cases, including Rwanda, Bosnia, and Northern Ireland.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 242 Middle East Politics

    This course introduces the politics and political structures of states in the Middle East. We explore the political origins of Middle Eastern states, and investigate how regional politics are shaped by colonialism, religion, tribes, the family, and more. We examine the persistence of authoritarianism and its links to other issues like nationalism and militarism. The course covers how recent and current events like the revolutionary movements of the ‘Arab Spring’ civil society affect the states and their societies. We conclude with a consideration of the future of Middle Eastern politics, evaluating lingering concerns and emerging prospects for liberalization and reform.

  • POSC 243 Socio-Political Systems and Gender Issues Across Europe

    This course examines the role of activism centered on gender, race, sexuality, and disability in shaping political life across the Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic. While the main emphasis is on current activism and politics, discussions are anchored in relevant historical contexts. Students investigate the impact of Europe’s colonial heritage on minorities, the ongoing legacies of World War II, the Cold War, and the EU expansion into Eastern Europe. Topics include reproductive rights, LGBT politics, homonationalism, “anti-genderism,” sex work, immigration, challenges faced by women of color and Jewish people in Europe, the legacy of state socialism in Eastern Europe.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 244 The Politics of Eurovision

    At first glance, Eurovision, the decades-long, continent-wide singing contest, is nothing more than a mindless pop culture event. Dismissed as a celebration of (at best) mediocre music, Eurovision seems like it would be the last place to learn about serious politics. In this class, however, we will explore Eurovision as a place where art is deeply political and often engages in debates about gender and sexuality, race, the legacies of colonialism, war and revolution, nationalism, and democracy—not just within the context of the competition itself but how these discussions spill over into broader social and political dynamics.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 245 Geopolitics of Southeast Asia

    This course will cover key thematic issues of Southeast Asian politics, including the challenges of democracy, geopolitical conflicts with China, politics of borderlands, environmental politics, the rise of the power of non-state actors, and struggles for citizen-sovereignty of the people. We will examine these geopolitical frontier issues against the background of Southeast Asia's societal evolution through kingdoms, colonial eras, emergence of nation-states, and the influence of globalization on politics. Why is Southeast Asia a misunderstood region of the world? What can we learn from Southeast Asian political orders to understand the faith of freedom, self-governance, and democracy?

  • POSC 246 Contemporary Chinese Politics

    This course examines the history and politics of China in the context of a prolonged revolution. The course begins by examining the end of imperial rule, the development of Modern China, socialist transformations and the establishment of the PRC. After a survey of the political system as established in the 1950s and patterns of politics emerging from it, the analytic focus turns to political change in the reform era (since 1979) and the forces driving it. The adaptation by the Communist Party to these changes and the prospects of democratization are also examined. Topics include protests, economic development, religious freedom, the environment and internet censorship.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 247 Comparative Nationalism

    Nationalism is an ideology that political actors have frequently harnessed to support a wide variety of policies ranging from intensive economic development to genocide. But what is nationalism? Where does it come from? And what gives it such emotional and political power? This course investigates competing ideas about the sources of nationalism, its evolution, and its political uses in state building, legitimation, development, and war. We will consider both historic examples of nationalism, as well as contemporary cases drawn from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the United States.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 248 Asian Communism: Politics of China, Viet & N Korea

    Examines the Asian communism in China, Vietnam, and North Korea. Asian communism presents a series of fascinating questions. Why did communist revolutions occur in some Asian states but not others? Why were relations between some Asian communist states peaceful while others were hostile? Why did some adopt significant economic reforms while others maintained command economies? Why did communist regimes persist in most Asian states, while Communism fell in Mongolia and all of Europe? The approach of the course is comparative and structured around thematic comparisons between the three states.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 249 From the International to the Global: Critical Theories of World Politics

    Why is the world divided territorially? Why are some states considered more powerful than others? What can be done about violent conflict? This course will introduce students with critical approaches to world politics that ask these and other big questions. Marxist, feminist, post-structuralist and post-colonial scholars have challenged classical approaches of thinking about the international in terms of states and power. They have also questioned the dominance of western conceptions of politics in the way political scientists view the world. In this course will read and debate their contributions and apply them to real cases. 

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 250 Political Science Topics

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 251.00 Science and Humanity

    The modern age has been characterized by the unprecedented advance of natural science and the attempt to achieve technological mastery of nature. How did this come about? What worldview does this express, and how does that worldview affect the way we live and think? We will investigate these questions by studying classic works by some of modernity‘s philosophic founders (including Bacon, Descartes, and Hobbes) as well as some of its most penetrating interpreters and critics (including Jonathan Swift, Rousseau, and Nietzsche).

  • POSC 252 Theoretical Foundations of the American Regime

    In this course we will examine the theoretical foundations of the American regime as understood by the founders (including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton); by dissenters among their ranks (the Antifederalists); by earlier thinkers on whom the founders drew (Locke, Montesquieu, and Aristotle); and by later figures, including political actors (such as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass) and philosophically minded observers (such as Alexis de Tocqueville).

  • POSC 253 Welfare Capitalisms in Post-War Europe

    In this course students will explore the different kinds of welfare states that exist in Europe, the political economic and social conditions that made them possible and the debates about their strengths, weaknesses and prospects. We will review the so-called “varieties of capitalism” literature along with key welfare policies such as social insurance, health care, education, unemployment insurance, family and income support, and pensions. Welfare states use combinations of these policies differently to insure citizens against “old” and “new” risks. Finally, the course looks at how welfare regimes have responded of migration, financial, and public health crises.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 254 Freedom, Excellence, Happiness: Aristotle’s Ethics

    What does it mean to be morally excellent? To be politically excellent? To be intellectually and spiritually excellent? Are these things mutually compatible? Do they lie within the reach of everyone? And what is the relation between excellence and pleasure? Between excellence and happiness? Aristotle addresses these questions in intricate and illuminating detail in the Nicomachean Ethics, which we will study in this course. The Ethics is more accessible than some of Aristotle’s other works. But it is also a multifaceted and multi-layered book, and one that reveals more to those who study it with care.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 255 Post-Modern Political Thought

    The thought and practice of the modern age have been found irredeemably oppressive, alienating, dehumanizing, and/or exhausted by a number of leading philosophic thinkers in recent years. In this course we will explore the critiques and alternative visions offered by a variety of post-modern thinkers, including Nietzsche (in many ways the first post-modern), Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 256 Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

    Nietzsche understood himself to be living at a moment of great endings: the exhaustion of modernity, the self-undermining of rationalism, the self-overcoming of morality–in short, stunningly, the “death of God.” He regarded these endings as an unprecedented disaster for humanity but also as an unprecedented opportunity, and he pointed the way to a new ideal and a new culture that would be life-affirming and life-enhancing. This course will center on close study of Beyond Good and Evil, perhaps Nietzsche’s most beautiful book and probably his most political one. Selections from some of his other books will also be assigned. 

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 257 Marx for the Twenty-First Century: Ecology, Technology, Dispossession

    This course introduces students to the work of Karl Marx by exploring parts of Capital volumes one, two and three as well as of the Grundrisse in tandem with twenty-first century discussions of carboniferous capitalism, digital labor and colonial dispossession. Using concepts of the “metabolic” relationship to nature, “original accumulation” and of Marx’s analysis of machines and technological obsolescence we will together chart a course through twenty-first century attempts to make Marx’s nineteenth century critique of industrial capitalism fruitful for an understanding of today’s world.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 258 Politics and Ambition

    Is personal ambition a threat to peace and the public good or is it a prod to nobility and heroism? Does it exemplify the opposition between self and society or does it represent their intersection and mutual support—or both? And what is the nature of political ambition, especially the ambition to rule: what does the would-be ruler really want? We will take up these and related questions by studying several classic works of philosophy and literature. Readings will likely include works by Plato, Xenophon, and Shakespeare as well as American founders, statesmen, and moral leaders. 

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 260 “A Savage Made to Inhabit Cities”: The Political Philosophy of Rousseau

    In this course we will study what Rousseau considered his greatest and best book: Emile. Emile is a philosophic novel. It uses a thought experiment–the rearing of a child from infancy to adulthood–to explore human nature and the human condition, including their political dimensions. Among Emile's themes are natural goodness and the origins of evil; self-love and sociability; the differences and relations between the sexes; citizenship; and the principles of political right. The book also addresses the question of how one might live naturally and happily amid an unnatural and unhappy civilization.

  • POSC 261 The Global Crisis of Democracy

    Democracy is in trouble worldwide. The most visible indicators are the rise of explicitly anti-democratic leaders and anti-liberal parties that employ populism and exploit ethnic and ideological polarization to acquire power. Democratic norms and institutions have eroded across the globe. Structures that undergirded the positive-sum linkage between industrialization, the rise of labor unions, and democratic parties in much of the West have been transformed in ways that undermine democracy. This course will analyze these and related trends that demonstrate that liberal democracy is suffering a global crisis. Instruction will cover cases across time and from all regions of the world.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 262 Displaced Lives: Freedom and Meaning

    To feel secure and accepted by society are essential human needs. However, even a cursory look at the 20th century shows how often and unexpectedly the lives of individuals were profoundly disrupted and crushed by the forces of nature and history. Security and social acceptance are fragile gifts of history. If so, what freedom and meaning, if at all, are to be found in living a displaced life, against and through the destructive tidal waves of history? The course tries to answer this question through an engagement with the memoirs and writings of Stefan Zweig, Edward Said, Norman Manea, Mikhail Bulgakov, Karl Ove Knausgaard, and James Baldwin.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 264 Politics of Contemporary China

    This course examines the political, social, and economic transformation of China over the past century. Though contemporary issues are at the heart of the course, students will delve into an entire century of changes and upheaval to understand the roots of current affairs in China. Particular emphasis will be placed on state-building and how this has changed state-society relations at the grassroots. Students will also explore how the Chinese Communist Party has survived and even thrived while many other Communist regimes have fallen and assess the relationship between economic development and democratization.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 265 Public Policy and Global Capitalism

    This course provides a comprehensive introduction to comparative and international public policy. It examines major theories and approaches to public policy design and implementation in several major areas: international policy economy (including the study of international trade and monetary policy, financial regulation, and comparative welfare policy), global public health and comparative healthcare policy, institutional development (including democratic governance, accountability systems, and judicial reform), and environmental public policy. Recommended Preparation: STAT 120 is strongly recommended.

  • POSC 266 Urban Political Economy

    Nowhere is the tension between economic development and democratic governance more pronounced than in the politics of America’s cities. This course is designed to introduce students to the structure and operation of local government, the tensions that exist between the centralizing tendencies of federal power and the desire for local autonomy, and the unique set of policy concerns that drive the politics of local communities across the country.  Within the context of these concerns, this class will highlight the life-or-death imperative that every local jurisdiction must abide to ensure robust economic development or else risk municipal extinction, as well as the consequences that the development imperative has on democratic governance at the local level.

  • POSC 268 Global Environmental Politics and Policy

    Global environmental politics and policy is the most prominent field that challenges traditional state-centric ways of thinking about international problems and solutions. This course examines local-global dynamics of environmental problems. The course will cover five arenas crucial to understanding the nature and origin of global environmental politics and policymaking mechanisms: (1) international environmental law; (2) world political orders; (3) human-environment interactions through politics and markets; (4) paradigms of sustainable development; and (5) dynamics of human values and rules.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 269 I Did My Own Research: Information and Political Division in America

    Many Americans sense that polarization makes governance harder; scholars argue that polarization can undermine democracy itself. How do we manage difficult problems in a polarized political era? Can we ever agree if we are so free to pursue information that only supports what we already believe? We examine group identity in American culture and how boundaries affect attitudes and behavior as well as information around policy disputes around incarceration/policing, free speech, LGBTQ rights, health care, elections, immigration, and more. Finally, we consider how to reduce unproductive polarization for a better America even when we don’t agree on what better entails.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 271 Constitutional Law I

    This course will explore the United States Constitution and the legal doctrines that have emerged from it, using them as lenses through which to understand the history—and shape the future—of this country. Using prominent Supreme Court opinions as teaching tools and loci of debate (including cases on the Court’s recent and current docket), this course will explore the different kind of theoretical approaches with which to make Constitutional arguments and interpret the Constitution. It is one of two paired courses (the other being POSC 272) that complement each other. Both courses will address the structure and functioning of the United States government, and will explore in greater depth the historic Constitutional “trends” towards greater equality and more liberty (albeit slowly, haltingly, and with steps both forward and backward). This course will focus in particular on how matters of racial justice have been a Constitutional issue from the very beginning of the nation—and very much remain unfinished legal work. In exploring matters of personal liberty, this course will focus in particular on First Amendment freedom of religion. Finally, in examining governmental structures, this course will emphasize federalism and the distribution of power between the national and state governments, including the rise of a nationwide economic system and the modern administrative state. The course will require close reading of judicial opinions and other texts, and learning how to construct arguments using logic and precedent. A special feature of this course will be detailed examination and intra-class mock debate of the cases the Supreme Court will hear this fall challenging raced-based affirmative action programs at private and public universities.

  • POSC 272 Constitutional Law II

    This course will explore the United States Constitution and the legal doctrines that have emerged from it, using them as lenses through which to understand the history—and shape the future—of this country. Using prominent Supreme Court opinions as teaching tools and loci of debate (including cases on the Court’s recent and current docket), this course will explore the different kind of theoretical approaches with which to make Constitutional arguments and interpret the Constitution. It is one of two paired courses (the other being POSC 271) that complement each other. Both courses will address the structure and functioning of the United States government, and will explore in greater depth the historic Constitutional “trends” towards greater equality and more liberty (albeit slowly, haltingly, and with steps both forward and backward). This course will focus in particular on how gender equality is very much unfinished Constitutional work on our way towards a “more perfect union.” This topic will include an examination of the Court’s recent controversial decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In exploring matters of personal liberty, this course will focus in particular on First Amendment freedom of speech and other fundamental rights protected under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Finally, in examining governmental structures, this course will emphasize the separation of powers across the branches of the federal government. The course will require close reading of judicial opinions and other texts, and learning how to construct arguments using logic and precedent. POSC 271 is not a prerequisite for POSC 272. The two courses can be taken independently, although having taking POSC 271 will provide students with a broader and more nuanced foundation for exploring the themes covered of this course

  • POSC 273 Race and Politics in the U.S.

    This course addresses race and ethnicity in U.S. politics. Following an introduction to historical, sociological, and psychological approaches to the study of race and ethnicity, we apply these approaches to understanding the ways in which racial attitudes have been structured along a number of political and policy dimensions, e.g., welfare, education, criminal justice. Students will gain an increased understanding of the multiple contexts that shape contemporary racial and ethnic politics and policies in the U.S., and will consider the role of institutional design, policy development, representation, and racial attitudes among the general U.S. public and political environment.

  • POSC 274 Covid-19 and Globalization

    What are the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on global politics and public policy? How do state responses to COVID-19 as well as historical cases such as the Black Death in Europe, the SARS outbreak in East Asia and Middle East, and the Ebola outbreak in Africa help us understand the scientific, political, and economic challenges of pandemics on countries and communities around the world? We will apply theories and concepts from IR, political economy, and natural sciences to explore these questions and consider what we can learn from those responses to address other global challenges like climate change.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 275 Black Political Thought

    Western political thought has developed numerous ways to think about freedom, citizenship, the relationship between state and citizens, and more. This course turns to the tradition of Black political thought to consider how thinkers within this tradition developed new and alternative ways to conceptualize freedom and citizenship from racial domination through slavery, apartheid, and colonialism. We center thinkers of Black political thought in the modern Atlantic world from the Antebellum era through the era of mass incarceration and neoliberalism to provide a historical and theoretical analysis of freedom.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 276 Imagination in Politics: Resisting Totalitarianism

    Ideological fanaticism is on the rise today. Individuals prefer the incantation of slogans and clichés to autonomous thinking, moderation, and care for the diversity and complexity of circumstances and of human beings. The results are the inability to converse across differences and the tendency to ostracize and exclude others in the name of tribal and populist nationalism, as well as of racism. Hannah Arendt called totalitarianism this form of ideological hypnosis, which characterizes not only totalitarian political regimes, but can also colonize liberal-democracies. In this class we will read some of the works of Arendt to better understand the power of imagination to enhance critical and independent thinking and resist totalitarianism.

  • POSC 277 Central and Eastern European Politics Program: Perceptions of Otherness in Modern Eastern and Central Europe

    Is nationalism fundamentally flawed in its inclusionary capacity? Can the same power of imagination to bring strangers together, which made nation-building possible, be deployed for inventing post-national forms of solidarity? The course will explore representations of strangers and foreigners in Central and Eastern Europe, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, with a special focus on Roma and Jews. The aim will be to understand how these representations will work to legitimize different forms of exclusionary politics. An important part of the course will explore the role that exiled and displaced people can play in reimagining identities on a cosmopolitan level.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 278 Memory and Politics

    Central to individual and collective identity, memory can be abused through the excess of commemoration. Is memory just a tool in the hands of nationalistic and divisive politics or can it be used for the cosmopolitan purpose of fighting oppression and injustice? To answer this question, we will read in this class literature on the nationalistic and cosmopolitan uses and abuses of memory and apply the theory to two case studies: the memory of the Jewish presence in Romanian society and politics and the role the memory of the Holocaust and Naqba plays in the relationship between Israel and Palestine.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 279 Global Challenges and Civil Society Solutions

    Tocqueville once remarked, “if men who live in democratic countries did not acquire the practice of associating with each other in ordinary life, civilization itself would be in peril.” Today, our lives are affected by a wide spectrum of these associations of ordinary life from the Catholic Church, to international NGOs like Greenpeace, to mundane neighborhood groups. This course investigates whether these organizations can help solve some of the most pressing global challenges like climate change, inequality, and epidemics. We will engage classic literature about civil society, study contemporary organizations and movements, and think critically about their political, social and economic impact.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 280 Feminist Security Studies

    Feminist security studies question and challenge traditional approaches to international relations and security, highlighting the myriad ways that state security practices can actually increase insecurity for many people. How and why does this security paradox exist and how do we escape it? In this class, we will explore the theoretical and analytical contributions of feminist security scholars and use these lessons to analyze a variety of policies, issues, and conflicts. The cases that we will cover include the UN resolution on women, peace, and security, Sweden’s feminist foreign policy, violence against women, and conflicts in Syria, Uganda, and Yemen.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 281 U.S.-China Rivalry: The New Cold War?

    This course surveys key security dynamics, actors and issues in the Asia-Pacific. We will begin with a brief overview of historical conflicts and cooperations in the region, focusing on the impact of decolonization, communism, and the Cold War. We will then proceed to discuss contemporary security issues; topics include territorial disputes, Taiwan, nuclear proliferation, the U.S. alliance system, regional organizations like ASEAN, and U.S.-China rivalry. We will also study major international relation paradigms and theories, including heterodox approaches relevant to major actors in the Asia-Pacific, to guide our investigation of these security issues. No prior knowledge required.

  • POSC 282 Terrorism and Counterterrorism

    This course focuses on the historic and modern use of violence or the threat of violence by non-state actors to secure political outcomes. We will review the strategy and tactics of various terror groups, use case studies to understand the logic of terrorism, assess why some groups succeed while others fail, and study terrorist organizations’ efforts at recruitment and indoctrination. These topics will be addressed from theoretical and practical perspectives, with input from expert guest speakers. Finally, we will assess counterterrorism measures, including the moral, ethical, legal, and practical approaches to creating security in the modern world.

  • POSC 283 Separatist Movements

    This course explores the emergence and resolution of separatist movements around the world. While separatist movements are often associated with the violent dissolution of states, not all separatist movements result in violence and not all separatist movements seek independence. We will investigate the conditions under which separatist pressures are most likely to develop and when such pressures result in actual separation. We will contrast the tactics of movements, from peaceful approaches in places like contemporary Quebec or Scotland, to peaceful outcomes like the “velvet divorce” of Czechoslovakia, to violent insurrections in places like the Philippines, Spain, and Northern Ireland.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 284 War and Peace in Northern Ireland

    This class examines the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants known as “The Troubles.” We will investigate the causes of violence in this region and explore the different phases of the conflict, including initial mobilization of peaceful protestors, radicalization into violent resistance, and de-escalation. We will also consider the international dimensions of the conflict and how groups forged transnational ties with diaspora groups and separatist movements around the world. Finally, we will explore the consequences of this conflict on present-day Northern Ireland’s politics and identify lessons from the peace process for other societies in conflict.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 285 The U.S. Intelligence Community

    This course covers the U.S. Intelligence Community, how intelligence supports national security policy development, and how intelligence is applied to execute strategy in pursuit of policy objectives (specifically, implementation of national security and foreign policy initiatives). Studying the structure, processes, procedures, oversight, and capabilities of the Intelligence Community will enhance understanding of how intelligence supported or failed policymakers in national security decision-making, including the areas of diplomatic and economic cooperation and engagement, and security challenges ranging from deterrence to conventional war. The course concludes with the study of asymmetric/hybrid warfare in our modern age and how intelligence might be used to better understand the changing dynamics of future global conflict.

  • POSC 288 Politics and Public Policy in Washington, D.C., Program: Global Politics & Pub Policy in Washington DC

    Students will participate in a seminar centered around meetings with experts in areas of global politics and policy. Over the course of the term they will collaborate in groups to produce a presentation exploring the political dimensions of public policy with a focus on how problem identification, institutional capacity, and stakeholder interests combine to shape policy options.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 289 Politics and Public Policy in Washington, D.C., Program: Politics & Public Policy in Washington DC

    Students will participate in a seminar centered around meetings with experts in areas of U.S. politics and policy. Over the course of the term they will collaborate in groups to produce a presentation exploring the political dimensions of public policy with a focus on how problem identification, institutional capacity, and stakeholder interests combine to shape policy options.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 294 Directed Research in Political Science

    I will be assisting Professor Poskanzer with background research and editing as he completes a book for John Hopkins press.

  • POSC 295 Central and Eastern European Politics Program: Nation-Building in Central and Eastern Europe between Politics and Art

    The state and its cultural politics played a pivotal role in building the Romanian nation. The first part of the course will analyze the difficulties of nation-building in modern Romania, with a special emphasis on the incapacity of Romanian liberalism to prevent the rise of extreme right wing politics. The second part will explore different images of Romanian national identity that art provided both during the communist regime and in the post-1989 decades, also in a comparative perspective with Hungary, Bulgaria, and Serbia. The course will include visits to galleries, architectural sites and neighborhoods in Bucharest and its surroundings.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 296 Central and Eastern European Politics Program: Challenges to the Nation-State in Eastern and Central Europe: Immigrants and Minorities

    How do democracies react when confronted with massive bodies of immigrants? Do the problems that Eastern and Central European countries face in dealing with immigrants reflect deeper challenges to their capacity of thinking of the nation along inclusionary lines? We will explore the legal and political issues that EU countries and their societies, particularly, in Eastern and Central Europe, face when confronted with a migration crisis. Then we will look at Roma’s history of exploitation and injustice in Eastern and Central Europe. The course will include visits with community groups and NGOs, as well as encounters with minority rights activists.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 302 Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations

    How do social and political groups interact? How do we understand these interactions in relation to power? This course will introduce the basic approaches and debates in the study of prejudice, racial attitudes, and intergroup relations. We will focus on three main questions. First, how do we understand and study prejudice and racism as they relate to U.S. politics? Second, how do group identities, stereotyping, and other factors help us understand the legitimation of discrimination, group hierarchy, and social domination? Third, what are the political and social challenges associated with reducing prejudice?

  • POSC 304 Media and Electoral Politics: 2024 United States Elections

    Our analysis of media influences on politics will draw from three fields of study: political psychology, political behavior and participation, and public opinion. Students will conduct a study of the effects of campaign ads and news using our multi-year data set of content analyzed election ads and news. We study a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods to learn how political communication affects U.S. elections. Students enrolled in the POSC 304 version will conduct more extensive analysis of data for their seminar papers.

  • POSC 307 Go Our Own Way: Autonomy in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement

    “Every civil rights bill was passed for white people, not black people. I am a human being. I know … I have right(s). White people didn’t know that. … so [they] had to … to tell that white man, ‘he’s a human being, don’t stop him.’ That bill was for the white man…. I knew [my rights] all the time.” Stokely Carmichael spoke for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee viewpoint in 1966. The Black Panther Party enacted basic civic responsibilities in their programs. Ella Baker spoke of autonomy in community. This seminar brings voices across generations speaking to current affairs.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 308 Global Gender Politics

    How have gendered divisions of power, labor, and resources contributed to the global crises of violence, sustainability, and inequity? Where and why has the pursuit of gender justice elicited intense backlash, especially within the last two decades? In this course, we will explore the global consequences of gender inequality and the ongoing pursuit of gender justice both transnationally and in different regions of the world. We will investigate a variety of cases ranging from land rights movements in East Africa, to the international movement to ban nuclear weapons. Finally, we will pay special attention to how hard-won gains in women’s rights and other related inequalities in world affairs are being jeopardized by new and old authoritarianisms.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 310 Democracy and Citizenship

    We often hear “citizenship” thrown around as solely a legal right, but what does it actually mean? In this course we use an interdisciplinary framework to understand both what citizenship is and what it does. We utilize canonical political theory to critique and test concepts and measures of citizenship in American Politics. We will focus particularly on how marginalized groups know about and interact with politics to see if what it means to be a citizen differs when your relationship with government is categorized by domination, and we will discuss ways that marginalized groups obtain freedom, power, solidarity through community.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 312 The Rural-Urban Divide

    The rural-urban divide is a prominent fixture of partisan and political conflict in the United States. It is a source of profound social, cultural, and economic differences in how people think about the world and a major driver of political polarization. Yet, few people understand how fundamental geographic space is to understanding American politics today. This course is a research seminar designed to explore the yawning perceptual gap between how rural and urban Americans think about their communities and their politics. The course addresses critical questions related to partisan polarization, race and ethnicity,  political and economic inequality, and the quality of representation.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 313 Legal Issues in Higher Education

    This seminar will explore pressing legal and policy issues facing American colleges and universities. The course will address the ways core academic values (e.g., academic freedom; the creation and maintenance of a community based on shared values) fit or conflict with legal rules and political dynamics that operate beyond the academy. Likely topics include how college admissions are shaped by legal principles, with particular emphasis on debates over affirmative action; on-campus speech; faculty tenure; intellectual property; student rights and student discipline (including discipline for sexual assault); and college and university relations with the outside world.

  • POSC 315 Polarization and Democratic Decline in the United States

    The United States is more politically polarized today than at any time since the late nineteenth century, leaving lawmakers, journalists, and experts increasingly concerned that the toxicity in our politics is making the country vulnerable to political instability, violence, and democratic decline. Moreover, citizens are increasingly willing to call into question the legitimacy of this country’s core electoral and governing institutions. How did the U.S. get to this point? What can be done about it? This course will examine political polarization as a central feature of American politics and the consequences for American democracy.

  • POSC 322 Polarization and Populism in Latin America

    Polarization and populism have shaped Latin American politics and development for much of the region's history. These forces have re-emerged in the post-Cold War period in acute and powerful ways in threatening democracy and systems of accountability. This course will examine these forces and adjacent phenomena such as democratic backsliding, the aggrandizement of presidential powers, socio-economic conflicts, contentious politics, and the continuation of state crises in Latin America. Students will work on their own research projects. 

  • POSC 324 Rebels and Risk Takers: Women and War In the Middle East

    How are women (and gender more broadly) shaping and shaped by war and conflict in the Middle East? Far from the trope of the subjugated, veiled, and abused Middle Eastern woman, women in the Middle East are active social and political agents. In wars and conflicts in the Middle East region, women have, for example, been combatants, soldiers, activists, spies, homemakers, writers, and political leaders. This course surveys conflicts involving Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Iraq–along with Western powers like the U.S., UK, and Australia–through the wartime experiences of women.

  • POSC 328 Foreign Policy Analysis

    Foreign policy analysis is a distinct sub-field within international relations that focuses on explaining the actions and choices of actors in world politics. After a review of the historical development of the sub-field, we will explore approaches to foreign policy that emphasize the empirical testing of hypotheses that explain how policies and choices are formulated and implemented. The psychological sources of foreign policy decisions (including leaders' beliefs and personalities and the effect of decision-making groups) are a central theme. Completion of a lower level IR course and the stats/methods sequence is recommended preparation.

  • POSC 329 Reinventing Humanism: A Dialogue with Tzvetan Todorov

    Humanism is today severely criticized for reducing humanity to Western culture and history and for its aggressive control and destruction of the non-human. Concomitantly, the history of the twentieth century reveals a growing totalitarian and anti-humanistic tendency in (post)modern societies and their politics, to replace individual agency, freedom, and responsibility with systemic solutions. The course explores, through a dialogue with the work of the French thinker, Tzvetan Todorov, how being human could be reinvented today in ways that avoid the moral and political pitfalls of the previous humanistic tradition, without devaluing, in the process, the idea of a shared humanity.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 330 The Complexity of Politics

    Theories of complexity and emergence relate to how large-scale collective properties and characteristics of a system can arise from the behavior and attributes of component parts. This course explores the relevance of these concepts, studied mainly in physics and biology, for the social sciences. Students will explore agent-based modeling to discover emergent properties of social systems through computer simulations they create using NetLogo software. Reading and seminar discussion topics include conflict and cooperation, electoral competition, transmission of culture and social networks. Completion of the stats/methods sequence is highly recommended.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 331 Cooperation and Conflict*

    Why do countries go to war? What conditions promote a lasting peace? These may well be the two most important and enduring questions in international politics. The course combines an exploration of various theoretical approaches to war and peace—including rational, psychological and structural models—with an empirical analysis of the onset, escalation, and resolution of conflict. We investigate changing patterns in the frequency of global violence and identify where it occurs more (and less) often and assess whether there is an overall trend toward a more peaceful world.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 333 Global Social Changes and Sustainability

    This course is about the relationship between social changes and ecological changes to understand and to be able to advance analytical concepts, research methods, and theories of society-nature interactions. How do livelihoods of individuals and groups change over time and how do the changes affect ecological sustainability? What are the roles of human institutions in ecological sustainability? What are the roles of ecosystem dynamics in institutional sustainability? Students will learn fundamental theories and concepts that explain linkages between social change and environmental changes and gain methods and skills to measure social changes qualitatively and quantitatively.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 335 Navigating Environmental Complexity–Challenges to Democratic Governance and Political Communication

    How can we design democratic institutions to deal with environmental and social problems? Are there universal approaches to solving political problems in physically and socially diverse communities? Do people come up with different institutional ways to address shared problems because of environmental or cultural differences? Our seminar considers current thinking about complex social-ecological systems and how we communicate and work collectively to address the problems of local and global commons.  

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 336 Global Populist Politics

    Are populist politicians scoundrels or saviors? Regardless of the answer, populism is undeniably a growing force in politics around the world: in democracies as well as autocracies, rich and poor countries, and involving different ideologies. How can we understand this diversity? In this class, we will explore populism using a variety of comparative frameworks: temporal (situating the current crop of populism in historical context), ideological (comparing populisms of the left versus the right), as well as geographic. We will try to understand the hallmarks of populism, when and why it emerges, and its impact on political institutions and society.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 339 LGBTQ Politics in America

    The advancement of LGBTQ rights in the United States has experienced unprecedented success over the last twenty years, shifting public attitudes and legal protections for LGBTQ Americans. This course provides a discussion of LGBTQ history and in-depth analysis of how LGBTQ policy victories were achieved, including background on the strategies and tactics used to generate results. We will take a critical look at such milestones and examine what they mean for the entire LGBTQ population, including queer people of color, transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, the disabled, and the economically disadvantaged.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 345 Politics of Dictatorship

    Seventy percent of the world’s population live in closed autocracies or electoral autocracies today. As the Taliban retook Afghanistan and Myanmar’s budding democracy fell to a military coup, there is an urgent need to better understand non-democratic regimes. This course takes a deep dive into dictatorships past and present, exploring key questions of who holds power, how power is monopolized, how controls and resistance interact, and how regimes transition to and from democracy. This course will also investigate the social and economic consequences of dictatorship, focusing primarily on how regime type interacts with economic development, the protection of rights, and inequality.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 348 Strangers, Foreigners, and Exiles

    All over the world today, right-wing parties are winning the electorate with their anti-immigrant rhetoric. We are told that national identity, cultural heritage, civilizational values and even our jobs are threatened by the growing presence of the immigrants. In this course we will explore the complex and multifaceted reality of strangers’ and foreigners’ presence in modern societies. We will also try to understand what being an exile means for the human condition and what moral obligations we have toward refugees and other displaced people. Among others, our partners of conversation will be Hannah Arendt, Jacques Derrida, Tzvetan Todorov, Zygmunt Bauman, and Edward Said.

  • POSC 352 Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville

    This course will be devoted to close study of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, which has plausibly been described as the best book ever written about democracy and the best book every written about America. Tocqueville uncovers the myriad ways in which equality, including especially the passion for equality, determines the character and the possibilities of modern humanity. Tocqueville thereby provides a political education that is also an education toward self-knowledge.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 358 Comparative Social Movements

    This course will examine the role that social movements play in political life. The first part of the course will critically review the major theories that have been developed to explain how social movements form, operate and seek to influence politics at both the domestic and international levels. In the second part of the course, these theoretical approaches will be used to explore a number of case studies involving social movements that span several different issue areas and political regions. Potential case studies include the transnational environmental movement, religious movements in Latin America and the recent growth of far right activism in northern Europe.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 361 Approaches to Development

    The meaning of “development” has been contested across multiple disciplines. The development and continual existence of past civilizations has been at the core of the discourse among those who study factors leading to the rise and fall of civilizations. Can we reconcile the meaning of development in economic terms with cultural, ecological, political, religious, social and spiritual terms? How can we measure it quantitatively? What and how do the UNDP Human Development Indexes and the World Development Reports measure? What are the exemplary cases that illustrate development? How do individual choices and patterns of livelihood activities link to development trends?

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 364 Capitalism and Its Critics*

    This research seminar examines the major debates in studies of contemporary capitalism in advanced capitalist and developing countries around the world. Moving beyond the classic theoretical debates of liberal, Marxist, developmentalist, and post-industrial arguments, the seminar will focus on recent debates concerning changes in labor markets, class structures, production systems, political institutions and social distribution, corporate governance, the multilateral system (e.g., IMF, the World Bank), supranational entities such as the European Union, and critical approaches on economic development, including new studies of the informal labor market.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 367 Social Welfare in a Time of Crisis

    During COVID-19, many countries adopted new cash transfers, wage subsidies, and basic income experiments, among other innovative social policies, prompting major debates on the need to transform existing social protection systems. We will examine the origins and evolution of formal welfare institutions in the global north and south, with an intersectional focus on their consequences for diverse groups. We will also explore how non-state actors contribute to the construction and maintenance of social safety nets around the world. Based on these insights, we will consider how states, markets, families, and communities may shape the future of welfare states.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • POSC 372 Mansions and Shantytowns: Politics of The Spaces We Live in

    This course explores theories about spaces/places and investigates the impact of our physical environment on a broad range of social and political issues. We will look at how parks, monuments, residential communities, and other features of our cities and towns are made, who makes them, and in turn, their effects on our daily lives. Students will engage with important contemporary issues such as residential segregation, public space management, protest policing, etc. Most of the course will focus on urban politics, with a brief foray into rural issues. The goal of this course is to encourage students to think about everyday environmental features in a more systematic and theoretic manner and design social scientific inquiries into spatial issues.

  • POSC 378 Political Economy & Ecology of Southeast Asia: Social Changes in Southeast Asia

    Informed by the assigned readings, students will visit markets, factories, farms, and various cultural and natural sites to see first-hand the changes and challenges occurring in these areas. The course covers: (1) issues of livelihood transition from rural to urban; (2) the interaction between market systems and social relations; and (3) the impact on society of changes in physical infrastructures such as roads and telecommunication. Students will keep a journal and produce three thematic short essays, a 20-25-minute video, or a well-organized blog to document their learning.

  • POSC 379 Political Economy and Ecology of S.E. Asia: Diversity of Social Ecological Systems in Southeast Asia

    Connecting the first and the second components, this course examines key actors, issues, and interests in the political economy of and ecology of Southeast Asia. Students will connect economy to ecology in Southeast Asia by connecting field experiences and observation to real data, facts, and cases that illustrate the interaction between economy and ecology. This course requires students to identify a topic of interest based on their field experience, research it using techniques taught in the field research and methods course, and write a research report in the form of a term paper. 

  • POSC 394 Directed Research in Political Science

    Students work with Barbara Allen and former visiting prof Dan Stevens in advanced statistical analysis of 2000-2016 local and national election news coverage. The objective is to learn appropriate advanced statistical techniques and writing to revise coauthored papers presented at six professional conferences in the US and internationally as chapters in a book that is proposed to several major academic publishers. Fall work focuses on content analysis of 2020 and 2024 news broadcast transcripts. Current students and 4 recent grads are also analyzing data and writing about prior projects: 2008 and 2016 broadcast adwatches and misinformation in election ads; 2008, 2016, and 2020 election advertising claims accuracy and effects; 2000, 2004, 2008, 2016 local election news coverage; and local and national news coverage of GFloyd murder and protests and DChauvin trial, verdict, and protests. Other skills learned include: hand and machine coding/content analysis, data management and archiving of a multi-year data set.

  • POSC 400 Integrative Exercise