An introduction to the process of conducting research in political science. Students will develop an intuition for problem-driven research in the social sciences, gaining specific insight into the range of methodological tools employed by political scientists. In this course, students will design and analyze a research question, formulate and test hypotheses about politics, evaluate techniques to measuring political phenomena, and assess methods of empirical analysis and interpretation. The course has a particular focus on quantitative analysis and students will gain fluency in statistical software. The course provides a foundation for conducting empirical research and is strongly recommended for students interested in independent research, a senior honors thesis, and/or graduate school.

The institutions, processes, and values that shape American politics. The origins and evolution of the U.S. Constitution and the institutions it created: Congress, the executive branch, the presidency, the federal court system, and federalism. Analysis of "intermediary" institutions including political parties, interest groups, elections, and the media. Study of enduring debates over values in American politics, with particular attention to conflicts over civil rights and civil liberties.

This course is a survey of landmark decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court throughout American history. The course covers both cases about the structure of our government and cases interpreting the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. Topics include executive powers, congressional authority under the Commerce Clause, nation-state relations, economic liberties, freedom of the press, the right to privacy, the rights of the criminally accused, and the civil rights of women and minorities.

This course examines how public policy on a wide range of issues, from reproductive rights to education, environment, and immigration, is made in the United States. The battle over these issues involves many institutions-the president, the executive branch, Congress, the courts, state and local governments-who compete, and sometimes cooperate, over public policy. Students will analyze current policy struggles to better understand the interactions among these institutions and the resulting shape of American public policy.

This seminar examines race and ethnicity in American politics, with special attention to the modern civil rights era of the 1960s and beyond. We consider the political experiences of the country's four largest racial groups — Black, Latino, AAPI, and white Americans — as well as numerically smaller groups, including MENA, multiracial, and Indigenous Americans. Topics include the definition and political meaning of racial and ethnic identities; the psychological foundations of racial attitudes and intergroup relations; how redistricting shapes the representation of non-white groups; the political implications of intersections among race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and religion; and the role of race in legislative politics, the legal system, and the presidency.

Overview of development studies with attention to major schools of political economy, their intellectual origins and centrality to contemporary debates about economic development. Topics include: capitalism, colonialism, dependency, nationalism, slavery, and independence; economic development models, policies, and strategies; perspectives on gender and development; changing conceptions and measures of poverty, development, and underdevelopment; contemporary debates in development studies.

This course offers an introduction to contemporary African politics. The primary goal is to introduce students to the diversity of challenges and development issues facing African countries since independence. Questions motivating the course include: (1) Why state institutions weaker in African than in other developing regions? (2) What explains Africa's slow economic growth? (3) What can be done to improve political accountability on the continent? (4) Why have some African countries been plagued by high levels of political violence while others have not? 

In answering these questions, we will examine Africa’s historical experiences, its economic heritage, and the international context in which it is embedded.  At the same time, we will explore how Africans have responded to unique circumstances to shape their own political and economic situations.  

As we address the core themes of the course, we will draw on a wide range of academic disciplines, including political science, history, economics and anthropology. We will study particular events in particular African countries, but we will also examine broad patterns across countries and use social science concepts and methods to try to explain them. 

An introduction to the international system with emphasis on contemporary theory and practice. Analysis of the bases of power and influence, the sources of tension and conflict, and the modes of accommodation and conflict resolution. This course serves as an introduction to the international relations subfield in the political science department, and also as a means of fulfilling the political science core requirement of the international relations major.

This course explores the origins and effects of the spread of nuclear weapons in the international system, with particular attention to the effects of nuclear proliferation within states, and on state interaction. Historically, the course will cover the development of nuclear technology and strategy from the early twentieth century to the present day. Thematically, the course explores such questions of the morality of nuclear technology and strategy, the construction and conditions for nuclear deterrence, the motives and obstacles for proliferating states, the question of nuclear weapons safety, and arms control approaches in the international system.

Let’s face it: the “classic” or “canonical” authors in political theory are typically white, male, cis, heterosexual, and rich. Because of this, the canon of political theory has erased the ideas of people of color, women, queer people, and others on concepts such as justice, freedom, and equality. Odds are, these ideas are substantially different than the ones that have become the standards in political science and mainstream politics. This course explores the origins and imports of these other canons, these other classics. We will begin by carefully reading a canonical thinker, such as John Locke or John Stuart Mill, to understand their theorization of concepts such as justice, freedom, equality, and politics. Then we will examine and analyze works on the same topics by Black, women, and queer authors to compare, contrast, and critique the hegemonic perspective. We aren’t trying to justify the canon. Nor are we interested in simply dismantling it. Rather, we’re expanding and multiplying canons to help us confront political problems in an intersectional world. Authors may include Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Stanton, Frances Harper, and the Combahee River Collective.

This course explores key themes and debates in anticolonial thought, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. It examines how provocative visions of dignity and dignified existence have shaped anti-colonial struggles, both during colonial struggle and in times of so-called independence. Through the study of key, firebrand philosophers, poets, writers and activists as well as by engaging multiple forms of media, we will analyze the various faces of anticolonialism and the questions it has raised and continues to raise, especially around dignity, freedom, violence, modernity, race and culture. While the course readings are mainly drawn from African anticolonial thought, students are encouraged to engage with and raise examples from global experiences and theories of anticolonialism.

The Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v Hodges legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. It also suggested that anyone who isn’t married cannot realize the full potential of being human. Obergefell’s dramatic swings between empowering and deriding LGBTQ people illuminate larger tensions in the relationship between sexuality and politics. Notably, marriage grants privileges to some, but not others, based on the state’s approval of their sexual preferences. The state, moreover, has historically regulated sex acts in ways that criminalize whole classes of people. These tensions raise key questions we will explore in this course: What role should the state play in supporting and restricting sexual practices? Should we look to the state to secure sexual freedom, or is sexual freedom achieved when we kick the state out of our bedrooms? More broadly, how are the boundaries of sexuality created in and through “politics”? To examine these questions, we will read queer theorists alongside contemporary political theorists.

An introduction to the international system with emphasis on contemporary theory and practice. Analysis of the bases of power and influence, the sources of tension and conflict, and the modes of accommodation and conflict resolution. This course serves as an introduction to the international relations subfield in the political science department, and also as a means of fulfilling the political science core requirement of the international relations major.