POLS 485L: Discrimination & Politics (Spring 2020) The course begins with a study of the concept of discrimination and how it is impacted by our understanding of citizenship and group membership. Subsequent topics include electoral politics, institutional controls, segregation and discrimination, social movements, immigration and assimilation, campaigns and media, representation, and competition within and among minority groups.
POLS 288: International Human Rights (Spring 2020) This course will examine critical questions and debates related to human rights, discrimination, and political representation (specifically, discrimination based upon ethnicity or culture, gender, religion, sexual orientation, handicap or disease, and age). Building on foundational work in political representation and human rights, this course will study the impact discrimination in its many forms has on representation and using comparative politics cases to examine what steps have been taken to correct past histories of discrimination. Students will learn from both canonical and contemporary works in the field of comparative politics then apply this knowledge to form their own policy responses.
POLS 171: Introduction to Comparative and International Politics (Spring 2020) This course examines the innerworkings of political systems around the world to provide a grounding in key components to international relations. We will explore topics including autocracies, democracies, supra-national organization, international organizations, international law, and deterrence before focusing within countries to explore the impact of variation in political institutions can have on states. With the aim of developing the tools needed to critically evaluate arguments about the political world, this course begins by introducing the tools commonly employed by political scientists. We will delve deeply into four key challenges in today’s world: justice, political violence, wealth & poverty, and sustainability. PLSC 113: Introduction to Comparative Politics (Fall 2019) This course will examine the innerworkings of political systems around the globe by exploring how and why governments differ between countries. With the aim of developing the tools needed to critically evaluate arguments about the political world, this course begins by introducing the tools commonly employed by political scientists. We then progress to explore between country variation in regimes, dictatorships, democracies, systems for political representation, and political behavior. This course is organized topically but will draw on a wide range of country examples to apply approaches for analysis. By the conclusion of this course students should: 1) be able to analyze and critique arguments about politics, 2) have an understanding of the different types of political systems and how those systems result in different outcomes, and 3) have gained deeper knowledge of some countries.
POLS 273: Civil Wars & Consequences (Fall 2019) This course will provide a survey of scholarly literature about intra-state (or civil) wars. Rather than being a survey of a civil war (such as the U.S. Civil War) this course will delve into all civil wars, more specifically this course will address questions related to what starts civil wars, makes them last longer, makes them bloodier, what makes them more likely to end with one side winning rather than a mutual compromise, makes them recur, and ultimately what are the consequences of these wars for the states where they occur. In addition, this course will explore international aspects of civil war, such as international interventions, spill over, rebel sanctuaries, uses of political violence like terrorism, and the transformation of intra- to inter-state conflict. This is quite a large undertaking in one course which is further complicated by how intrinsically interconnected these topics are. By the end of the course is should become evident how complicated a topic civil wars are and how scholars don’t really agree on our understanding of them. This course is organized topically but will draw on a wide range of peer review literature in political science and policy research. By the conclusion of this course students should: 1) be able to identify the factors commonly thought to contribute to civil war outbreak, magnitude, longevity, recurrence, resolution, and consequences, 2) have an understanding of the essential components of a policy briefing, and 3) have gained deeper knowledge of some countries.
POLS 171: Introduction to Comparative and International Politics (Fall 2019) This course examines the inner-workings of political systems around the world to provide a grounding in key components to international relations. We will explore topics including autocracies, democracies, supra-national organization, international organizations, international law, and deterrence before focusing within countries to explore the impact of variation in political institutions can have on states. With the aim of developing the tools needed to critically evaluate arguments about the political world, this course begins by introducing the tools commonly employed by political scientists. We then progress to delve deeply into four key challenges in today’s world: justice, political violence, wealth & poverty, and sustainability.
PLSC 380I: Nuclear Arms Control & Non-proliferation (Winter 2019) This is a course in international security which began by discussing the global international system prior to 1945 then focused on the transformation of the international security climate with the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The emergence of nuclear weapons altered the world and have been seen to pose a threat to: traditional military power, global peace and security, balance of power among states, and the prestige and influence of states. The proliferation of nuclear weapons raises two main questions: the existential question – how do we live with them or can we eliminate them, and the question of proliferation – can their ownership be limited or contained? In this course, students were asked to think deeply about the following questions: What purpose do nuclear weapons serve? Are they usable? Why have and do states acquire them? Are they in fact different from other weapons or simply more powerful? Have they made catastrophic war more or less likely? Are they permissible under international law?
PLSC 485S: Politics of Parliaments (Spring 2018) This class examined the interworkings of parliamentary politics by focusing of three aspects of policy formation in parliamentary democracies (1) parliamentary institutions, practices, and procedures, (2) parliamentary behavior, and (3) governance and coalition bargaining. The study of these aspects focused on the role of political parties in parliamentary politics and how parties use shrewdness and guile to push their agendas. This seminar was designed for advanced undergraduate students who have completed introductory studies in Comparative Politics. Students in this seminar had a chance to engage in original research in the study of how multi-party systems effectively govern. This was an interactive seminar where full participation was essential and required.
PLSC 485C: Political Representation in Established and Emerging Democracies (Spring 2017) Whose interests are represented in established and emerging democracies? Does every citizen have equal representation and influence over policy formation? To what extend do political institutions serve as an instrument of representation and accountability? To better inform and begin to address these and related questions, this seminar surveyed the debate in political science about political accountability and democracy through established forms of representation. The goal of this seminar was to gain an understanding of the differences and connections that exist between procedural and substantive representation. To achieve this aim the course explored representation by political elites, political parties, legislatures, and governments focusing on both the American and comparative contexts. While this course did discuss the ‘American model’ of representation, the focus was on comparing and contrasting this model with the responsible party model regularly discussed in studies of representation in Western Europe. Additionally, we spent time discussing representation and political accountability in emerging and transitioning democracies of post-Soviet Europe and post-Colonial Africa.
Teaching Assistant
PLSC 117: Introduction to World Politics (Binghamton University, Fall 2014 & Fall 2016) Mentor Seminar (University of the Pacific, Fall 2002 & Spring 2003)
(Pictures of European Commission and Hemicycle of the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium.)