The following is a list of program-approved courses. You can click on each course to view course descriptions, available sections, course dates, meeting days/times, and other relevant course information. Some courses will require additional permissions and/or prerequisite coursework. Please see course descriptions for details.
Courses may overlap with your current academic year. Please make sure to check the course meeting dates prior to applying.
*Online Courses will run using synchronous or asynchronous remote instruction formats.
- Courses run using synchronous remote instruction will have scheduled meeting days and times. Students are expected to connect remotely during those times. These classes typically involve web conferencing.
- Courses run using asynchronous remote instruction will have no scheduled class sessions. These courses will have a regular schedule of work and assignments due throughout each week but will not require students to be online at a particular time. Rather, the instructor will provide materials—for example, readings, video content, presentations, lectures, assignments, and exams. Students will access these materials and satisfy the course requirements within the time frames specified by the instructor.
This course is designed to introduce students to the theories, concepts, and ideas used in social science efforts to understand international politics. As such, it stresses theory and inference and uses historical examples and contemporary events only as illustrations to illuminate behavior in larger classes of events. We will begin the overview with the dominant theoretical paradigms in international relations and study the causes and consequences of military conflict and war. We will then explore major issues in international political economy. We will conclude the semester with a discussion of contemporary issues, including human security, environmental issues, and border politics.
Comparative politics is sometimes seen as an amorphous area of study within political science. American politics, as the adjective "American" clearly indicates, answers questions about political science in the American context. In contrast, deciphering what, for political scientists, the adjective "comparative" means is a less straightforward task. Saying that comparative politics scholars compare things may be the painfully obvious answer but it still leaves unanswered just what is meant when we say "comparative politics." This course is designed as an introduction to the key topics and debates within comparative politics.
This course explores the structure and interplay of the various institutions and sub-institutions of the American federal government, providing a cursory introduction to the ideas and institutions that shape politics in contemporary America. Our lectures will focus on three thematic areas: the Constitution: reach, scope, and interpretation, Modern American institutions, and the political behavior of a presumably engaged citizenry. We will study the strategies, roles, and limitations of both governmental elites and ordinary citizens, with particular emphasis on how they communicate and interact within the constitutional to shape the achievement of the “common good”. To a lesser extent, we will examine documents from America’s formative period and discuss insights from the modern discipline of political science. This will allow us to examine important social and political phenomena from a variety of perspectives. Ultimately, the goal of this course is to help each student arrive at a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the forces that shape American government and politics, so that they may be both a more discerning student and critic of the system and a more informed and reflective participant in it.