Spring 2016

Are human rights women's rights? Are women's rights human rights? This course examines the international human rights system (treaties, conventions, institutions and case law) through the lens of gender, exploring the ways in which they are organized around gendered assumptions that shape and limit their ability to reach and remedy the reality of women's lives. The course also considers the tension between international human rights law and local gender justice as well as how international human rights have evolved in response to the rise of global feminisms. The course explores these issues through a series of case studies examining such issues as sexual violence, human trafficking, religious freedom and women's access to education, health care and employment.

Subfield: International Relations

Note: This description is from Fall 2013

Dissertation Research Workshop for students in all empirical subfields.   Students working on all phases of their dissertations, from prospectus to post field work writing and post-research article preparation, are welcome.

This course will be cross-listed with:

Global Metropolitan Studies (GMS) metrostudies.berkeley.edu/

Metropolitan areas in the developing world face enormous challenges. This course will consider the political and institutional environment in which efforts to address metropolitan problems are developed, the financial and institutional vehicles used to provide services of different types, and the role of political parties and other forms of political organization in the development and allocation of services. Emphasis will be placed upon fertile areas for research within the social sciences. Topics will include metropolitan institutions and political regime types, decentralization and multi-level governance, the rule of law and urban violence, civil society and popular mobilization, political party organization and mobilization strategies, public policy formulation, urban bureaucracies, corruption, the politics of urbanization, and the metropolitan political economy. Readings will be drawn primarily from Political Science, Sociology, Geography, and Economics.

Please note that this description is from Fall 2013

This course will examine the study of and writing about Japan by social scientists and journalists.  It will survey disciplinary perspectives on Japanese studies from Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, and Business Administration.  It will also study the media in Japan, andnews coverage of Japan by the foreign media.  It will include at least one session on the March 2011 earthquake and its aftermath.  Given the focus on the social sciences and journalism, it will cover field research techniques appropriate in these fields, especially interviews and ethnographic research.  We will invite several outside specialists to the seminar over the course of the semester.  Graduate students from any department are encouraged to participate.

The goal of this yearlong course is to provide a forum in which students propose, develop, and complete a research project that produces a journal-length paper of publishable quality. It is primarily oriented towards second-year Ph.D. students in any subfield (students in other years may participate with the professors’ consent). The course meets regularly during parts of the fall semester and irregularly during the spring semester. In the first few weeks of the course, we discuss the process of moving from research topic to research question; and we survey published articles by recent Ph.D. students/assistant professors, focusing on the structure and nature of the writing and presentation as well the quality of the argument and evidence. We then move to students’ research proposals for the rest of the fall semester. During the spring semester, students meet individually with the course instructors and their advisors, develop and revise drafts of their papers, and present their work at a department “APSA-style” conference. In order to complete the course and receive credit, students must complete the requirements for both semesters.

NOTE: SPRING 2016 IS THE SECOND COURSE IN THE RESEARCH AND WRITING SEQUENCE.

This course explores the politics of nationalism, identity politics, and violent conflict in the fifteen Soviet successor states.  The first half of the course will be devoted to theoretical approaches to ethnicity, nationality, and religious identity in political science; the treatment of the “nationality question” and religion in Marxist-Leninist theory; the history of Soviet federalism, “nationalities policy,” and state atheism; nationalist mobilization and religious revivalism in the Gorbachev period; and the political dynamics behind the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991.  In the second half of the course, we will turn to the role of ethno-nationalism and religious identities in the post-Soviet period; problems of post-communist nation and state building; and the competing logics of state sovereignty, national self-determination, and autonomy. Case studies will include the conflicts in Chechnya and Russia's North Caucasus, the Russo-Georgia War of 2008, and current conflict in Ukraine.

Students who took PS 191 "Junior Seminar: Nationalism, Identities, and Conflict in the Soviet Successor State" with Professor Walker cannot take this course due to the substantial similarity in course content.

A workshop for presenting and discussing work in progress in moral, political, and legal theory.  The central aim is to provide an opportunity for students to engage with philosophers, political theorists, and legal scholars working on normative questions.  Another aim is to bring together people from different disciplines who have strong normative interests or who speak to issues of potential interest to philosophers and political theorists.  To this end, we will devote a few sessions to the work of economists, historians, psychologists, sociologists, or other social scientists.  

TBA

Topics from multi-equation causal modeling and introductory econometrics, with special emphasis on procedures appropriate for political data, including survey data.

This course is a survey of major theoretical approaches and empirical research in the field of political behavior. It focuses on psychological approaches to understanding political beliefs, attitudes, and actions, and on the implications of individual choices for collective outcomes. The course considers alternative approaches to political behavior, including theories of rational choice, social cognition, learning, emotion, group dynamics, and social identity. Specific topics will include: personality and politics, political socialization, public opinion and political ideology, social influence (authority, conformity, persuasion, and deliberation), mass media influence, racial attitudes, ethnic conflict, and political participation.