Spring 2020

This colloquium exposes graduate students and faculty to work by leading scholars of comparative politics working in diverse substantive areas. Graduate students are expected to read circulated papers of visiting speakers ahead of the colloquium and participate actively in raising questions and making comments.  They are encouraged to meet visiting speakers in their areas of interest in group or one-on-one sessions. 

NOTE: This description is from Spring 2015

Speaker Schedule: Spring 2020

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. This paper will typically serve as students' second-year M.A. essay, and the course is intended as a complement to that requirement. This course 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.

This course is a graduate field seminar in International Politics.  We will survey and assess foundational theoretical perspectives, issues, and research programs in IR, placing each in historical perspective.  What kinds of questions does modern IR theory ask (and not ask) and about what kinds of problems?  What methods are used to seek answers?  What is the value of the answers?  Who uses them and for what?  Where is this field headed and where do we think it should be headed?  Through intensive reading and discussion as well as some small writing assignments, we will build a foundation for more advanced courses in International Relations as well as research agendas that can elaborate, refine, and extend contemporary debates in academic IR.  

Please note that this description is from Spring 2014.

This course provides an introduction to research design in comparative politics; it is the second semester of the two-semester introductory graduate sequence for the comparative sub-field.  We will focus on various topics relevant to doing research, such as how to formulate research questions; develop concepts and measures; bolster the validity of descriptive and causal inferences; and use various qualitative and quantitative methods in the service of diverse substantive agenda.  Developing the ability to critique research is one important objective.  However, the primary goal of the course is to provide a first foundation for actually doing research.

Note: This description is from Spring 2015

This class seeks to guide students in researching, organizing, writing, reviewing and rewriting an original research paper of publishable quality and length (approximately 25 pages long).  Students will be encouraged to individually explore any issue relating to religion and conflict, broadly defined.  They will also be expected to closely follow strict guidelines in terms of structure and formatting.

The secondary goal of this class is to discuss the relationship between religion and conflict.  Lectures dedicated to the craft of research and writing will be interspersed with lectures about theoretical and empirical issues relating to religion and conflict worldwide.  We will discuss theories in the social sciences, from psychology and sociology to anthropology and political science, that explore the intersection of religion and domestic or international conflict.  We will examine explanations for fundamentalism and extremism;  the role of religion in driving global, international and ethnic conflict;  religion and martyrdom; religion in the military; the relationship between religion and science; the Just War tradition; and the contribution of religion to conflict resolution. 

The Junior Seminars are intense writing seminars which focus on the research area of the faculty member teaching the course. The seminars will provide an opportunity for students to have direct intellectual interactions with faculty members while also giving the students an understanding for faculty research.

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:International Relations

NOTE: Students who took PS 123H "Topics in International Relations: Religion and Conflict" with Professor Hassner cannot take this course due to the substantial similarity in course content.

Why are human rights not part of debates about domestic public policy and legal reform in the United States? The United States played a leading role in the creation of the post-World War II international human rights regime and has often championed human rights as a foreign policy goals. Yet human rights have been marginal to debates about social and economic equality at home. We will examine the history of human rights in the United States since the New Deal, asking how and why the New Deal’s embrace of human rights was supplanted by a narrower focus only on constitutional and civil rights. We will also examine the consequences of this narrower framework, as well as why human rights may now be coming home. 

The Junior Seminars are intense writing seminars which focus on the research area of the faculty member teaching the course. 

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   American Politics

Homelessness, global warming, corruption, bankrupt pension systems, educational inequality... This course explores what we can learn in general about the way societies try to address and solve difficult and seemingly intractable public problems. Can we attribute success or failure to institutions and their capacity to solve problems? Are problems difficult to solve because they are so complex and we lack know-how or because of a failure of political will? What are the characteristics of organizations or communities able to solve problems proactively or creatively? How do public problems get politically framed and how are they used to mobilize constituencies? The course draws on literature in public administration, public policy studies, and democratic theory to try to better understand some of the major social, political, environmental, and economic problems of our contemporary world.

Note: This description is from Spring 2014

This course will focus on the transformative process through which the nations of contemporary Southeast Asia have confronted political crises and instability and the various levels of success with which they have attempted to implement comprehensive programs of reform.  This course will analyze several different areas of political activity, such as:  state-led initiatives (political economy) regarding development and resource distribution; citizen and opposition movements both within and outside formal state institutions which seek to influence, alter, or overturn state action and policy; institution-building and the cultivation of social capital; and regional and transnational flows of capital and labor which act in alliance with or in opposition to national economic institutions.  Specific topics will include a comparative analysis of state policy; the relationship between illicit economies (such as narcotics) and ethnic insurgency; the nascent political voice of religion and ethnicity as nationalist or opposition ideologies; the expansion and influence of local NGOs (legal aid, human rights, women’s rights, etc.); political violence and alternative paths to the expression of discontent; and corruption.  After a general overview of Southeast Asia as a regional political theater, we will turn our attention to a series of in-depth case studies.  

Please note that this course description is from Spring 2015

Subfield: Comparative Politics

This course provides an overview of California politics, with a focus on contemporary issues and an analysis of who wields power and why. Specifically, the course will focus on : the demographic, social and economic forces that shape the State's politics- the three official branches of state government (executive, legislative and judicial)- the three unofficial branches (the media, lobbyists and interest groups)- campaigns (candidates, initiatives, consultants, pollsters, political parties and money), local government, the state budget and education policies.

Subfield:   American Politics

Please note this description is from Fall 2013

This one-unit course will feature a guest speaker each week discussing an issue currently in the news. The class is open to all students, and there are no prerequisites. The class is offered Pass/Not Pass, based on a final examination. May be repeated for credit.

This course does not count as an upper division Political Science requirement.