| POSC 120-01 |
American Government
Instructor: Curtis Edmonds
Course Description:
A basic introductory course in American federal government which emphasizes its structure and operation. Special attention is given to the executive, legislative, and judicial processes.
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12:30 PM-01:20 PM, MWF
ALTHSE 207 |
| POSC 150-01 |
Comparative Politics
Instructor: Natalie Chwalisz
Course Description:
An introduction to comparative political analysis with applications to political systems, processes, and issues worldwide. The purpose of the course is to learn to observe political life systematically, analyze a wide range of political phenomena, and distinguish and evaluate the assumptions underlying alternative approaches to the study of politics. The course may address topics such as democratization, authoritarian challenges to democratic systems, social inequality and underdevelopment, sustainability, political corruption, human rights, and political violence.
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09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 104 |
| POSC 170-01 |
International Relations
Instructor: Russell Bova
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 170-01. An introduction to global politics which examines the interaction of states, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in the world arena. Topics covered include traditional concerns such as war, balance of power, the UN and international law along with the more recent additions to the agenda of world politics such as international terrorism, human rights, and economic globalization. This course is cross-listed as INST 170.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 104 |
| POSC 170-02 |
International Relations
Instructor: Kristine Mitchell
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 170-02. An introduction to global politics which examines the interaction of states, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in the world arena. Topics covered include traditional concerns such as war, balance of power, the UN and international law along with the more recent additions to the agenda of world politics such as international terrorism, human rights, and economic globalization. This course is cross-listed as INST 170.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 203 |
| POSC 180-01 |
Political Philosophy
Instructor: John Harles
Course Description:
Cross-listed with PHIL 180-01. An introduction to the history of political thought, focused on such problems as the nature of justice, the meaning of freedom, the requirements of equality, the prevalence of moral dilemmas in political life, the question of whether we ought to obey the law, and the importance of power in politics. We will also discuss how these issues continue to resonate today.This course is cross-listed as PHIL 180.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 313 |
| POSC 180-02 |
Political Philosophy
Instructor: Jonathan Baughman
Course Description:
Cross-listed with PHIL 180-02. An introduction to the history of political thought, focused on such problems as the nature of justice, the meaning of freedom, the requirements of equality, the prevalence of moral dilemmas in political life, the question of whether we ought to obey the law, and the importance of power in politics. We will also discuss how these issues continue to resonate today.This course is cross-listed as PHIL 180.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
DENNY 313 |
| POSC 215-01 |
Black Politics: A Century of Black Radicalism
Instructor: Nadia Alahmed
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AFST 341-01. This is an interdisciplinary course that engages theory, history, and literature in order to explore the evolution of radical Black thought from the abolitionist movement and slave rebellions to the global Black Lives Matter movement. The course will establish and highlight the global Black diaspora as the key agent of political, historical and cultural transformation. We will discuss issues and challenges faced by Black people with respect to global political systems, examine various avenues of political expression, and raise questions and new ideas pertaining to the exploration of Black politics. The course will introduce a wide spectrum of political trends and movements, focusing on radical Black politics: Black Nationalism, Black Marxism, Black Internationalism, Black Feminism, Queer Theory, Afro-Pessimism, as well as contemporary thought on the prison-industrial complex and prison abolition. Cross-listed with AFST 341.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
DENNY 211 |
| POSC 220-01 |
Constitutional Law
Instructor: Stephanie Saxton
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 222-01. This course provides an overview of Constitutional Law. We will first examine the roots of the American Constitution in English common law and existing political arrangements. We will cover the different ways scholars interpret and read the Constitution, and how social movements use the Constitution. The Constitution has been interpreted to the ends of inclusion or exclusion over time, and we will be guided by questions such as the legal scholar, Dahl, asked: "How democratic is the American Constitution?" This course provides an overview of Constitutional Law. We will first examine the roots of the American Constitution in English common law and existing political arrangements. We will cover the different ways scholars interpret and read the Constitution, and how social movements use the Constitution. The Constitution has been interpreted to the ends of inclusion or exclusion over time, and we will be guided by questions such as the legal scholar, Dahl, asked: "How democratic is the American Constitution?"
Prerequisite: 120, or permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as LAWP 222.
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10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 104 |
| POSC 245-01 |
Political Parties and Interest Groups
Instructor: Katie Marchetti
Course Description:
A study of the functions, structures, and operations of American political parties and interest groups. Course topics include how political parties and interest groups represent people and policies, the sociodemographic bases of political parties, the role of third parties in the U.S. political system, how lobbyists interact with government officials, and the influence of organized interests in politics. Prerequisite: 120, or permission of the instructor.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 303 |
| POSC 246-01 |
The Legislative Process
Instructor: Curtis Edmonds
Course Description:
An analysis of the legislative branch of government, especially Congress. Emphasis is placed upon the legislature as a social system, the decision-making process, the interrelationships with the political parties and interest groups, the executive and the judiciary. Prerequisite: 120, or permission of the instructor.
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11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF
ALTHSE 207 |
| POSC 247-01 |
The American Presidency
Instructor: Curtis Edmonds
Course Description:
This class will be structured around the problem of presidential power. The first part of the course will introduce a framework for analyzing presidential action. Topics will include the presidents role as a public leader, the presidents place in the legislative process, the presidents military responsibilities, and the presidents position within the executive branch. In the second part of the course, we will work to apply this framework in order to understand presidential greatness, as well as individual presidential successes and failures. The goal of these discussions will be to leverage what we have learned in order to explain why a president achieved their goals- or not. Prerequisite: 120, or permission of the instructor.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
DENNY 104 |
| POSC 248-01 |
The Judiciary
Instructor: Jonathan Baughman
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 248-01. This course explores the laws interpretation in and influence on contemporary American society. It considers the nature of the law, the structure of courts, legal terminology, sources of law, and approaches to legal reasoning through an engagement with both watershed cases and contemporary issues in civil and criminal law. Some of the questions we will address include: how do everyday individuals interact with the law? What is the relationship between judicial process that is, the engagement with and navigation of the legal system and justice? How do we understand the redress of harms or the application of punishment as part of the achievement of justice and fairness? What political, legal, social, or rhetorical barriers exist to full inclusion of individuals within the processes of law, and is full inclusion even desirable? . Prerequisite: 120, or permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as LAWP 248.
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12:30 PM-01:20 PM, MWF
DENNY 313 |
| POSC 251-01 |
Latin American Government and Politics
Instructor: Diego Vega
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LALC 251-01. An introduction to the politics of contemporary Latin America. Emphasis is placed upon the varied political institutional responses to socio-economic change in the Americas. Major countries to be analyzed include Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba. Prerequisite: one course in political science or Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean Studies. This course is cross-listed as LALC 251.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 311 |
| POSC 256-01 |
The Politics of Southeast Asia
Instructor: Rachel Jacobs
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 256-01. This course is an overview of the politics of Southeast Asia. Contemporary Southeast Asia is a region of contrasts. It is home to some of the fastest growing economies of the world, hubs of global trade and finance, but also rising threats from non-state actors, ethnic violence, and democratic backsliding. This course will cover the development of the region over the 20th and 21st century from the colonial period to independence and to growing regional interdependence. It will address the political history of most countries in the region and key regional issues. The major themes covered in the course include: nationalism, mass atrocity, statelessness and migration, regional integration, trade, and human rights. Cross-listed as INST 256.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 103 |
| POSC 258-01 |
Human Rights
Instructor: Rachel Jacobs
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 258-01. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights embodies a global consensus on the fundamental importance of human rights as a political value. But the idea and its practical applications have provoked intense controversy around the world on issues such as freedom of expression, capital punishment and torture, gender and sexuality, religious freedom, social and economic justice, and cultural and minority rights. Prerequisite: one social science course or permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as INST 258.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 103 |
| POSC 265-01 |
Public Policy and Policymaking
Instructor: Diego Vega
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 290-02. This course examines the politics around public policies and policymaking in the United States and abroad. The semester starts by exploring how political forces and ideas operate in the creation of new policies, using political science theories as tools to understand policymaking processes. After that, the course explores multiple issue areas (e.g., educational policy, social policy, economic policy, environmental policy, etc.), analyzing policies implemented in countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This comparative perspective will be central to evaluating policy designs and outcomes, with a focus on the differences between the Global North and Global South.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
DENNY 110 |
| POSC 270-01 |
Politics of the European Union
Instructor: Kristine Mitchell
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 270-01. The European Union (EU) represents an unprecedented political experiment in economic and political integration that challenges conventional understandings of sovereignty and political organization. Its supporters credit it with fostering peace and stability on the continent while its detractors characterize it as an antidemocratic, overweening bureaucracy. The puzzle of why sovereign states have ceded so much of their authority to a novel political institution they do not fully control is at the heart of this course. We will explore the postwar and post-cold war contexts that gave rise to new thinking about European political organization and the challenges and crises that have driven European integration forward. Students will become familiar with the political processes and multi-level institutional structure of the EU and evaluate their success at balancing national and European interests, ensuring democratic accountability, and responding successfully to the challenges facing Europe in the 21st century. This course is cross-listed as INST 270.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
DENNY 110 |
| POSC 273-01 |
International Political Economy
Instructor: Russell Bova
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 273-01. This course examines the politics of global economic relations. Specific topics discussed include: trade and protectionism, international monetary relations, foreign direct investment, global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and World Trade Organization (WTO), regional economic integration (e.g. the European Union [EU] and North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA], economic development, and the economic emergence of China and India. The larger issue serving as the backdrop to all of this is economic globalization -- its significance, sources, and consequences. Prerequisite: 170, or permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as INST 273.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
DENNY 211 |
| POSC 280-01 |
American Foreign Policy
Instructor: Rachel Jacobs
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 280-01. A survey of U.S. foreign policy since World War II. American approaches to such issues as containment, detente, arms control, deterrence, international law, and foreign aid will be discussed. Students will also address issues of U.S. foreign policy formulation, including the roles of the public, Congress, and the president in the foreign policy process. Prerequisite: 170 or INST 170 or permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as INST 280.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
ALTHSE 109 |
| POSC 281-01 |
American National Security Policy
Instructor: Andy Wolff
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 281-01. Analysis of formulation and implementation of American national security policy within the context of American society and the international system. National security will not be considered simply in a military/strategic sense but as connoting the preservation of the core values of a society. Prerequisite: POSC 170 or 120 or INST 170 or permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as INST 281.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
ALTHSE 109 |
| POSC 290-01 |
Politics of Migration
Instructor: Natalie Chwalisz
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 290-07. Currently, both forced and voluntary migration is at historic highs. Simultaneously, immigration control is becoming a global phenomenon. The rise of border control contrasts with the vulnerability of many migrants today. This course will give an overview of migration and forced migration and then look at issues and rationales in migration control from a comparative perspective. The questions we will ask are: What drives migration? What are the historical roots of migration? What is the purpose of immigration control? What are the politics of migration control in comparative perspective? This course incorporates various levels of analysis (international, national, subnational, transnational) and draws on interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks. Students will gain an understanding of migration and the legal frameworks governing the process. Students will then explore how migration relates to state sovereignty, human rights, and international law. Students will also interrogate the process of creating immigration policies, and the actors and stakeholders driving this process.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 304 |
| POSC 290-02 |
The Geopolitics of Eurasia
Instructor: Craig Nation
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INST 290-05 and RUSS 260-02. Eurasian is undergoing a process of dramatic change. Our course examines the regions evolution, with focus on emerging geopolitical competition. The Eurasian plate, covering about forty percent of Earths land mass and containing more than seventy percent of the worlds population, has become a platform for intense geopolitical rivalry. We will attempt to identify the factors driving interstate competition in the area, analyze what is at stake, evaluate the consequences of unhinged strategic rivalry, and investigate prospects for the future. Is a battle for Eurasia underway? How might inevitable interstate differences in this vast region be channeled in more positive directions? Course taught in English.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
DENNY 110 |
| POSC 290-03 |
Introduction to Public Law
Instructor: Stephanie Saxton
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 290-05. This class will analyze the intersection of people and law by asking, "who is the public in public law", and "how do people make sense of American law"? Students will learn the court system, historic struggles for rights, and trace the ways in which the American people use legal language and institutions. Several of the Friday seminars will be devoted to visits from legal practitioners-from pro bono lawyers to public defenders to non-profit leaders- to get a better sense of how people are presently reading and using law in the realms of housing, the environment, and civil rights.
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11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF
DENNY 104 |
| POSC 290-04 |
Comparative Law
Instructor: Natalie Chwalisz
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 290-06. This course introduces the field of comparative law by examining major Western legal traditions. First, we consider civil and common law. Thereafter, we will critically analyze the interaction of colonial and indigenous legal systems and explore legal pluralism. The final part of the course considers how legal institutions in democratic nations address challenges related to social polarization and democratic backsliding, analyzing differences in their legal institutions and practices (such as approaches to free speech). The course aims to provide a broad understanding of global legal systems and traditions (both Western and non-Western) and equip students with comparative analysis skills.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 311 |
| POSC 390-01 |
American Political Representation
Instructor: Katie Marchetti
Course Description:
This seminar will acquaint you with the significant concepts and research questions addressed in recent and classic studies of political representation. We will consider the different dimensions of representation (e.g., descriptive, substantive), biases and inequality in representation and how normative considerations shape expectations about representation in practice. Representation is a very broad topic of study and the course readings will cover several subfields in American politics. For example, we will examine research about the behavior of political actors, the operation of government at the state and national levels, the roles of political parties and organized interests in representation, and how individuals form ideas about and respond to government activity and policies.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, R
DENNY 303 |
| POSC 390-02 |
War and Justice
Instructor: Toby Reiner
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 400-01. "All's fair in love and war," goes the common saying, suggesting that standards of justice or morality are inapplicable to military conflict, which is a realm of survival in which anything goes. Others hold that no war can possibly be just, at least in the contemporary era in which weapons of mass destruction mean that wars wreak a human and environmental impact that cannot possibly be sustainable or legitimate. In this class, we consider both these approaches - realism and pacifism, respectively - and juxtapose them to the just-war tradition, which holds that defensive and limited wars may be justified so long as they follow certain moral guidelines such as proportionality and non-combatant immunity. We will consider when it might be just to go to war, how just wars must be waged, and what, if anything, justice after war consists in. We will approach these questions using both the laws of war and philosophical works about war. We will consider military conflicts from across the globe, including the World Wars, Vietnam, Rwanda, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia, and more, and from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages to the present day. We will consider topics such as humanitarian intervention and the protection of human rights during war, the moral status and responsibility of ordinary combatants, war crimes tribunals, genocide and ethnic cleansing, civil war, emerging technologies of war, and the possibility of moving towards a world in which war is no longer necessary.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, T
DENNY 204 |
| POSC 390-03 |
War and Justice
Instructor: Toby Reiner
Course Description:
Cross-listed with LAWP 400-02. "All's fair in love and war," goes the common saying, suggesting that standards of justice or morality are inapplicable to military conflict, which is a realm of survival in which anything goes. Others hold that no war can possibly be just, at least in the contemporary era in which weapons of mass destruction mean that wars wreak a human and environmental impact that cannot possibly be sustainable or legitimate. In this class, we consider both these approaches - realism and pacifism, respectively - and juxtapose them to the just-war tradition, which holds that defensive and limited wars may be justified so long as they follow certain moral guidelines such as proportionality and non-combatant immunity. We will consider when it might be just to go to war, how just wars must be waged, and what, if anything, justice after war consists in. We will approach these questions using both the laws of war and philosophical works about war. We will consider military conflicts from across the globe, including the World Wars, Vietnam, Rwanda, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia, and more, and from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages to the present day. We will consider topics such as humanitarian intervention and the protection of human rights during war, the moral status and responsibility of ordinary combatants, war crimes tribunals, genocide and ethnic cleansing, civil war, emerging technologies of war, and the possibility of moving towards a world in which war is no longer necessary.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
DENNY 212 |
| POSC 490-01 |
Senior Thesis
Instructor: Andy Wolff
Course Description:
Permission of Instructor Required
Senior political science majors who are interested may apply to take this course during the spring semester of their senior year. The course involves writing a senior thesis based on a question of the students own choosing. Permission of instructor is required.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
STERN 7 |
| POSC 500-01 |
Theories of Human Rights
Instructor: Toby Reiner
Course Description:
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| POSC 550-01 |
Serbia and the Politics of Perception
Instructor: Toby Reiner
Course Description:
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