Session D

This course provides an overview of the U.S. political system from the nation's founding to the present. In addition to examining the core structures of our federal system, we will also explore a number of special topics, such as the evolution of civil rights and the causes of partisan gridlock. The course will pay particular attention to the role institutions play in shaping political conflict and, ultimately in determining who wins and who loses.

War is brutal, cruel, and deadly, yet it has played a large role in shaping contemporary states and societies. Despite technological advancements and increased communication between states, we continue to see war. Why? Ethics and War addresses how, when, and why wars are fought and how the international community should address their aftermath through the lens of ethics and morality. This course starts with some large philosophical questions such as “is war ever just?” and covers a number of different aspects of war: terrorism, nuclear weapons, drones, refugee crises, and more. The course looks at these topics through contemporary academic studies, ancient philosophy, and even Star Trek.

Instructor: Julia Raven

Course was originally listed as PS123R. PS123R has been activated as of 5/13/24.

This course provides an overview of the U.S. political system from the nation's founding to the present. In addition to examining the core structures of our federal system, we will also explore a number of special topics, such as the evolution of civil rights and the causes of partisan gridlock. The course will pay particular attention to the role institutions play in shaping political conflict and, ultimately in determining who wins and who loses.

This course provides an overview of the U.S. political system from the nation's founding to the present. In addition to examining the core structures of our federal system, we will also explore a number of special topics, such as the evolution of civil rights and the causes of partisan gridlock. The course will pay particular attention to the role institutions play in shaping political conflict and, ultimately in determining who wins and who loses.

The development of state and democracy in Russia is key to understanding how modern states are made and the enduring push and pull between democracy and autocracy. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine reflects the contradictions between Russia’s quest for state-building and internal limitations on democratic participation and representation. Where do these contradictions come from and how has Russia historically navigated the twin pressures to be a strong state and respect political liberties? This upper-level course in political science looks at three periods – the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Putin’s Russia – to compare and contrast the trajectory of reform of Russian political institutions and thus understand the internal political dynamics shaping Russian politics and history – important lessons for students of comparative politics and policy makers today.

Instructor: Otto Kienitz

This course number was originally listed as PS149.

The aim of this course is to introduce students to key texts and topics by some of the most significant and well known thinkers in the history early modern political thought writing roughly between 1500 and 1770. The works we will consider span the periods characterized by European historians as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment.

Please note that this course description is from Spring 2014.

This course is designed to introduce students to the major theoretical approaches to international politics, to explore important historical and contemporary questions and debates in international affairs, and to teach students to think critically about international relations.  After defining what the study of international relations involves and discussing the how and why of thinking theoretically, we will discuss the major theoretical approaches, concepts, and debates in the field. We will then turn to security issues looking at both World Wars and the Cold War.  The next section of the course looks at issues of political economy including questions of development, rich-poor country relations, and globalization.  Finally we examine a number of contemporary issues of global governance including human rights, ethnic conflict, humanitarian intervention, and environmental issues. We end the semester looking at shifting power dynamics internationally including the rise of China.

Summer 2022 Synchronous Lecture and Discussions will be offered ONLINE only.

All readings for this class will be provided electronically, at no cost, through the library. If you prefer, you can purchase the two main books electronically or in paper form. If you choose to purchase, be sure to get the correct edition listed below.

Art and Jervis, eds. International Politics, 13th edition: https://www.amazon.com/International-Politics-Enduring-Concepts-Contemporary/dp/0134482018/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3H57SMJMF7BAT&keywords=art+and+jervis&qid=1648655544&sprefix=art+and+jervis%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1

Mingst, et al, Essentials of International Relations, 9th edition: https://www.amazon.com/Essentials-International-Relations-Karen-Mingst/dp/0393872181/ref=sr_1_3?crid=O6S1FVSBGRX9&keywords=mingst+essentials+of+international+relations+9th&qid=1648655734&sprefix=mingst%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-3

This course aims to study sovereignty, widely regarded the core concept constitutive of modern state-centric politics and international law.  The first part of the course will study the origins of the concept in medieval legal and political thought and its later development in major texts by Bodin, Grotius, Hobbes, Pufendorf, Rousseau, Schmitt, Arendt.  The second part of the course will then focus on major interpretive themes associated with the politics of sovereignty, such as territoriality, constitutionalism, and sovereignty in international law.  Readings may include studies by Agamben, Grimm, Kantorowicz, Krasner, Kalyvas, Loughlin, Skinner, Stilz, and Tierney.  This is an upper-level undergraduate Theory course.  It is highly recommended that students will have already completed EITHER PS 112a or 112b or an equivalent course in the history of political thought.  

This course provides an overview of the U.S. political system from the nation's founding to the present. In addition to examining the core structures of our federal system, we will also explore a number of special topics, such as the evolution of civil rights and the causes of partisan gridlock. The course will pay particular attention to the role institutions play in shaping political conflict and, ultimately,in determining who wins and who loses.

Instructor: Thomas Kent

   Many scholars agree that groups and group identities are central to politics. But what constitutes a group? Why are some groups more salient than others? What is identity? And how do certain identities become central to political conflicts? This class combines theoretical and empirical approaches to these questions and emphasizes the complexity of group identity. We focus on racial and ethnic politics in the United States. Additionally, this class considers psychological theories of identity, comparative perspectives on immigration and racial identity, and the relationship between ethnic and non-ethnic identities including gender, class, and geography. We discuss foundational scholarship on Black politics and also emerging scholarship on White identity. We adopt a developmental and comparative perspective for the analysis of Latino and Asian-American panethnic identification. We also consider mechanisms of change in group identities. 

  The course is structured around a series of debates. What do we mean by “identity politics”? Does in-group bias arise from conflicting group interests and, if not, where does it come from? Can descriptive representation be a useful means for furthering group interests? How are group interests defined, and how do they change over time? Is it coherent to speak of group interests at all, or will the interests of groups always be contested? Finally, what effects (if any) can we expect demographic change to have on American politics? For each of these issues, this course aims to provide students with conceptual and empirical tools necessary to develop informed understandings of these debates.

Instructor: Joseph Warren