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Academic Catalog 2025-26

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Your search for courses · during 25FA · tagged with POSI Elective · returned 15 results

  • POSC 100 Podcast Politics 6 credits

    This seminar will explore the fast-changing world of podcasting in American politics and public policy discourse. Political podcasts are emerging as a venue for political candidates to discuss their campaigns, policy makers to float new ideas for policy, and academics and analysts to discuss their most recent books. Political podcasts range widely on the ideological spectrum from extreme right to extreme left. Students in this course will examine, discuss, and write about particular political podcasts across this range of views. They will also explore the podcast form, eventually creating their own podcasts for course work. 

    Held for new first year students

    • Fall 2025
    • AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1
    • Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.

    • CL: 100 level POSI Elective
    • POSC  100.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Alfred Montero 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • M, WHasenstab 002 8:30am-9:40am
    • FHasenstab 002 8:30am-9:30am
  • POSC 100 Society in Silico 6 credits

    Can models help us understand the social world? Vexing issues like segregation, economic inequality, corruption, market failure, resource over-exploitation, genocide, insurgency and terrorism have inspired scholars to ask if computational models of social systems can shed light on the hard-to-observe micro processes underlying macro problems. In this course we will explore the conceptual and empirical foundations of modeling especially in complex systems. We will read about, then experiment with, existing models while students learn to program their own using open-source software. 

    Held for new first year students

    • Fall 2025
    • AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 IS, International Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning
    • Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.

    • CL: 100 level POSI Elective
    • POSC  100.02 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Greg Marfleet 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THHasenstab 002 1:15pm-3:00pm
  • POSC 122 Politics in America: Liberty and Equality 6 credits

    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.

    • Fall 2025
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry
    • AFST Pertinent AMST America in the World AMST Democracy Activism AMST Survey 1 CL: 100 level POSI Core POSI Elective AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 3 Public Policy Educational Reform
    • POSC  122.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Christina Farhart 🏫 👤
    • Size:30
    • T, THHulings 316 1:15pm-3:00pm
  • POSC 200 Politics of the Future: The Psychological and Political Barriers to Imagining New Orders 6 credits

    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.

    • Fall 2025
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • CL: 200 level POSI Elective
    • POSC  200.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Barbara Allen 🏫 👤 · Lawrence Wichlinski 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THHasenstab 002 10:10am-11:55am
  • POSC 228 Power and the American Presidency 6 credits

    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.

    • Fall 2025
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level POSI Elective
    • POSC  228.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Ryan Dawkins 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WHasenstab 105 9:50am-11:00am
    • FHasenstab 105 9:40am-10:40am
  • POSC 243 Women’s & Gender Studies in Europe Program: 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.

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    • Fall 2025
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Women's and Gender Studies in Europe program.

    • ACE Theoretical GWSS Elective POSI Elective EUST Transnational Support
    • POSC  243.07 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Iveta Jusová 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • Credits:7 – 8
  • POSC 246 Contemporary Chinese Politics 6 credits

    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.

    • Fall 2025
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • ASST East Asia CL: 200 level EAST Core EAST Supporting POSI Elective
    • POSC  246.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Christopher Heurlin 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THHasenstab 109 10:10am-11:55am
  • POSC 248 Asian Communism: Politics of China, Viet & N Korea 6 credits

    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.

    • Fall 2025
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • ASST East Asia CL: 200 level EAST Core EAST Supporting POSI Elective ASST Social Inquiry
    • POSC  248.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Christopher Heurlin 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THHasenstab 109 1:15pm-3:00pm
  • POSC 250 Kings, Tyrants, Philosophers: Plato’s Republic 6 credits

    In this course we will read Plato’s Republic, perhaps the greatest and surely the most important work of political philosophy ever written. What are the deepest needs and the most powerful longings of human nature? Can they be fulfilled, and, if so, how? What are the deepest needs of society, and can they be fulfilled? What is the relation between individual happiness and societal well-being? Are they compatible or in conflict with one another? And where they are in conflict, what does justice require that we do? The Republic explores these questions in an imaginative and unforgettable way.

    • Fall 2025
    • HI, Humanistic Inquiry
    • CL: 200 level MARS Supporting PHIL Interdisciplinary 2 PHIL Traditions 1 POSI Elective
    • POSC  250.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Laurence Cooper 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THLaird 206 1:15pm-3:00pm
  • POSC 271 Constitutional Law I 6 credits

    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.

    • Fall 2025
    • SI, Social Inquiry
    • AMST Democracy Activism AMST Survey 2 CL: 200 level POSI Elective PPOL Other Comparative AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity
    • POSC  271.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Steven Poskanzer 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • M, WHasenstab 002 11:10am-12:20pm
    • FHasenstab 002 12:00pm-1:00pm
  • POSC 273 Race and Politics in the U.S. 6 credits

    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.

    • Fall 2025
    • IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • AFST Social Inquiry AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level POSI Elective AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity EDUC 3 Public Policy Educational Reform PPOL Social Policy & Welfare
    • POSC  273.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Christina Farhart 🏫 👤
    • Size:25
    • T, THCMC 210 10:10am-11:55am
  • POSC 313 Legal Issues in Higher Education 6 credits

    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.

    • Fall 2025
    • SI, Social Inquiry
    • CL: 300 level POSI Elective PPOL Education Policy
    • POSC  313.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Steven Poskanzer 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THHasenstab 109 8:15am-10:00am
  • POSC 358 Comparative Social Movements 6 credits

    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.

    Extra Time

    • Fall 2025
    • IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
    • CCST Encounters CL: 300 level POSI Elective CCST Principles Cross-Cultural Analysis EUST Transnational Support
    • POSC  358.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Dev Gupta 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • M, WHasenstab 002 1:50pm-3:35pm
    • Extra Time Required:

  • POSC 364 Capitalism and Its Critics 6 credits

    This research seminar examines the contemporary institutions, processes, and challenges of modern capitalism in advanced and developing countries. The course begins with a review of key thinkers on modern capitalism: Marx, Weber, Schumpeter, Hayek, Polanyi, Offe, Tilly, and Piketty. It then proceeds to an analysis of the sweeping debate concerning inequality and democracy. Student work in this course focuses on the research and composition of a 20-25-page original work on a topic relevant to the questions covered in the seminar. Intense course participation, including classroom discussion and periodic debates, is required. Majors may develop their comps based on this seminar.

    • Fall 2025
    • IS, International Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
    • CL: 300 level POSI Elective PPOL Economic Policy Making & Development
    • POSC  364.01 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Alfred Montero 🏫 👤
    • Size:15
    • T, THHasenstab 105 1:15pm-3:00pm
  • POSC 394 Directed Research in Political Science 1 – 6 credits

    Students work on a research project related to a faculty member's research interests, and directed by that faculty member. Student activities vary according to the field and stage of the project. The long-run goal of these projects normally includes dissemination to a scholarly community beyond Carleton. The faculty member will meet regularly with the student and actively direct the work of the student, who will submit an end-of-term product, typically a paper or presentation.

    Register for this course by submitting the Directed Research form which requires approval from the project faculty supervisor and your adviser.

    • Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026
    • No Exploration
    • CL: Faculty Research POSI Elective
    • POSC  394.11 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Barbara Allen 🏫 👤
    • Credits:3
    • POSC  394.12 Fall 2025

    • Faculty:Summer Forester 🏫 👤

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2025–26 Academic Catalog

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Registrar: Theresa Rodriguez
Email: registrar@carleton.edu
Phone: 507-222-4094
Academic Catalog 2025-26 pages maintained by Maria Reverman
This page was last updated on 28 January 2026
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