Schedule of Classes

An introduction to the comparative study of politics, employing a conceptual or thematic approach. Selected countries' political systems will be examined with a focus on major features, including their governmental institutions, political parties, and political culture.

An introduction to the study of international relations concentrating on perspectives and policies of major countries, principal institutions, international law and international organization, and selected topics-for example, arms races and arms control, economic and political integration, disparities of income, problems of food and population, and human rights. Course requirements may include simulation.

This course examines circumstances that facilitate or hinder the political, social, and economic incorporation of immigrants. In addition to reviewing early twentieth-century sociological theories of immigration, the course analyzes contemporary research on immigration from the standpoint of political science and related disciplines. While focused primarily on explaining patterns by which immigrants are incorporated in the United States and Europe, it also compares cases from Latin America, Eurasia, the Middle East, and other regions in relation to shared or dissimilar immigration policies, levels of economic development, and demographic compositions.

An introduction to the use of film as a medium for expressing political themes. Concepts of world and comparative politics (war, terrorism, human rights, repression, conflict, economic development, migration) are used to analyze feature films from around the world. The course also addresses the relationship between politics and art and the artist. Visiting filmmakers and scholars contribute their perspectives. Not available to students with credit for POLS 111.

Students are introduced to foundational theories of public policy, gaining valuable insight into "who gets what, when, and how" in the political process. Through a series of case studies in environmental, social welfare, criminal justice, and health policy, students are asked to apply and critically evaluate policy problems and solutions, given existing public policy theories.

The course investigates South African politics using the lenses of race, class, gender, and nationality. It focuses on politics in post-apartheid South Africa (post 1994), although anti-apartheid mobilization is examined. Using perspectives from South African activists, political leaders, and scholars, it examines governance, citizenship, social justice, and community mobilization from feminist, class-based, and racial identity perspectives. Students question their own perspectives in light of these South African voices. A simulation to construct South Africa’s postapartheid constitution elucidates how economic, social, and political identities affect institutional outcomes.

This course examines the politics and policy of the criminal justice system, with a focus on the United States. Course goals include understanding the origins and purposes of criminal justice, the system's current implementation, the role of mass incarceration and punitiveness, the role of federalism, and the process and debate around criminal justice reform.

Recent U.N. studies document the continuing systematic inequality that exists between men and women around the world. Approaching the study of sex-based inequality from a cross-cultural perspective reflects the reality that it is a universal phenomenon, but with complex and varied roots. The course will include an analysis of the ways in which this inequality impacts political decision-making, political representation, and public policy relevant to women and families. The course will also include the study of how factors such as race, class, religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity, and social forces such as global capitalism, militarism, and nationalism interact with gender and affect the economic and political status of women and men around the world.

This course examines Supreme Court cases related to separation of powers and checks and balances by situating cases within varying theories of constitutional interpretation and by assessing the socio-political implications of those decisions. Cases studied include controversies about executive privilege, the Commerce Clause, the Tenth Amendment, and federalism. The course emphasizes, above all, the political role of the judiciary.

The sources, subjects, and major principles of international law. The function of law in the international community.

This course will examine what and how states and societies choose to remember in the aftermath of political violence. Building on the vast and growing interdisciplinary comparative research on memory studies, truth and reconciliation, and transitional justice, the course will introduce students to various ways in which certain events, individuals, and initiatives connected to conflict and peace are remembered in memorials, museums, monuments, and other commemorative practices. The course will include lessons, open questions, and dilemmas that international and U.S. examples offer to scholars, political leaders, and peace activists.

A seminar on a topic related to politics. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic differs.

This course examines eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophies of race in the context of the political history of empire as well as twentieth-century post-colonial challenges to those philosophies and practices.

This course exposes students to essential theories on American voting behavior developed by leading political scientists. At the end of the course, students will be equipped to contribute competently to academic discussions on the topic.

This interdisciplinary course approaches the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights from a humanistic social science perspective. Topics include U.S. cultural politics and LGBT social movements; visual culture, social action, and social change; the politics of queer identity; law and public policy of concern to diverse LGBT communities; and LGBT rights from international and global perspectives.

Schedule of Classes

Politics

Psychology