Undergraduate

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

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

This course introduces students to the major texts and topics of early modern political thought from about 1500 to 1800, spanning the periods known as the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment. Readings will include works by thinkers such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. 

Instructor: Nathan Pippenger

Ideas about the prerequisites, processes and indicia of economic development have undergone radical change since the end of World War II.

Peace brought an enormous and unfounded optimism: not only was political and economic development desirable and possible, the two were thought to be mutually re-enforcing. The theory and practice of "development" has changed radically since then. Indeed, scholars no longer agree (or perhaps even lack an interest in defining) what "development" is, who it is for and whether it is desirable. Today, instead of "development" we have "emerging markets"-a catch phrase that embodies a deep transformation of the state, the economy and the relationship between human beings and market forces. Instead of genuine participation we live in an era where "democracy" has become an empty slogan that disempowers people from affecting real decisions that shape their daily live. Why did this happen? What does it mean? How did we get to where we are today?

This lecture course exposes students to some of the main debates in the field of economic and political development and underdevelopment. The intellectual history of "development" as a field is explored through the origins and transformation of three key institutional fields: the state, the national market, and the international economy. Going through a series of system-transforming events—the rise of the Asian NICs; the Debt Crises of the 1980s; the Financial Crises of the 1990s--we will conclude by considering the ways in which the international economy itself has changed over time and try to understand the social, psychological and political consequences of contemporary forms of post-fordist production.

Subfield: Comparative Politics

This course explores the long and complicated relationship between U.S. foreign policy and developments in East Asia. Since WWII, the U.S. has maintained a strong military and economic presence throughout the Asia-Pacific as part of its Cold War strategy of ‘containment of communism.’ We will touch on a number of topics, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, China-Taiwan relations and current tensions in the South China Sea. Assessment is based on each student’s intellectual engagement with the course content and ability to analyze, critique, and reflect upon the material both orally and in written form. This is a reading and writing intensive course. There are no prerequisites for the course and prior knowledge of Asia is not required.

Whereas in the U.S. Occupy Wall Street mobilized primarily tent activists and met with  a mixed public reception, earlier the same year protests of “indignant” youth in Southern Europe and Israel spurred mega-demonstrations and won broad public support. What explains the appearance of rare “encompassing” protests, and why did they occur in some countries and not others during the 2011 protest wave?  Did participants in Europe and Israel cross class, cultural and political boundaries more than the Americans who supported and participated in Occupy? What political mechanisms and protest practices facilitate diversity of participation in mega-protests? We will draw on the literature on social movements and contentious politics, and will look closely at diverse national cases.

Each student will write 1 short paper and 1 long research paper, as well as actively participating in classes and posting comments and questions on upcoming readings every second week.

Instructor: Michael Shalev

Subfield: Comparative Politics

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

This course will survey research on how voters and politicians react to crime. It will examine crime from the perspective of voters, such as how they react to crime, who they blame for crime, and whether they hold politicians accountable for rising crime. It will also examine how politicians respond to voters, analyzing whether politicians exploit voters’ fears, whether they manipulate crime statistics, and why they pursued policies that led to mass incarceration. In covering these topics, we will review research on why crime has generally fallen over the last few centuries, why it may have risen in the 1960s-1980s, and why it fell in the 1990s. While surveying this research, the course will also focus on training students to evaluate quantitative evidence for causal claims.

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

Fragile and failed states are among the most pressing challenges of the contemporary world. Yet how to establish, or reestablish, these states is among the most perplexing puzzles facing policymakers. We will briefly survey the literature on the origins of the modern state, and we will examine why certain states are fragile or failed. We will also discuss security concerns that emerge from failed and failing states, including smuggling, drug trafficking, and terrorism. We will then devote the majority of the class to considering efforts to consciously build states—especially by international actors. We will examine whether these efforts succeed and on what dimensions. In exploring these topics, you will gain familiarity with a range of academic and policy debates on state failure, international security, and statebuilding. By helping you identify and grapple with some of the dilemmas associated with building and rebuilding states, you will also learn to critically evaluate existing theories and evidence. Finally, you will have the opportunity to formulate your own theories and compile your own evidence on these topics through course assignments and class discussions.

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

This course focuses on emerging issues in the field of Chinese politics, and books (and articles) published mainly in the last decade. Material covered will include: the state, state capacity, policy implementation, socialist legality, environmental litigation, local people’s congresses, NGOS, village elections, protest, rights consciousness, and experimental research on authoritarian responsiveness.

The course is designed, and will be conducted, like a graduate seminar.  Students who enroll must be ready to do all the reading in advance of seminar meetings and to participate actively in class discussions.

This seminar is designed to explore what we know about the interaction between the American political system and the American economic system. We will approach the topic from multiple vantage points – theory, including classic and contemporary work; comparative analysis; historical analyses of the American experience; and investigations of recent and on-going political conflicts over health care, financial reform, and other matters. The goal is to better understand why the political economy of the United States is distinctive, and to shed light on the broader question of how – and for whose benefit – the American political system operates.

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