Current Courses

The following graduate courses are offered on a rotating basis by the Politics department.

200A. Interpretive Methods in Political Theory: Language and Politics Core Seminar.
Examines intersections of philosophy of language, language philosophy, political theory, and politics. How can we read texts and discourses in a manner both historically and textually grounded and compatible with a democratic ethos? Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Mathiowetz

200B. Social Forces and Political Change Core Seminar.
Concerns transformation of social forces into political ones. Focuses on formation, articulation, mobilization, and organization of political interests and identities, their mutual interaction, and their effects on state structures and practices and vice versa. Major themes are 1) social bases of political action: class, gender, race, and other determinants of social division and political identity and 2) relevant forms of political agency and action, including development of political consciousness and representation of interests and identities in the public sphere. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Urban

200C. States and Political Institutions Core Seminar.
Introduces study of political institutions as instruments of collective decision making and action. Explores alternative theoretical approaches to development of political institutions, state and political economy, and security dilemmas. (Formerly States, Political Institutions, and Global Political Economics Core Seminar.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Wirls

200D. Political Economy Core Seminar.
Introduction to the theories and methodologies of political economy. Focuses on the relationship between states and markets and considers the politics of economic choices and institutions germane to both national and global political institutions. Addresses origins and development of markets and capitalism; historical evolution of states and their economies; relationship between labor, capital, production, and consumption; regulation of production; macroeconomics and management of economies; and issues of national and global social welfare. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. K. Eaton

201. Logics of Inquiry.
Investigates approaches to study of politics and to enterprise of social science in general. Works from positivist, interpretive, historical, and critical approaches provide examples held up to critical and epistemological reflection. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. E. Pasotti

203. Making of the Modern.
Introduces, at the graduate level, some of the central conceptual categories and material implications that underwrite the world of the modern. Explores concepts including the individual, historicism, contract, and objectivity. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. V. Seth

205. Political and Social Thought: Politics of Recognition.
Investigates issues about identity and recognition as basis for claims about institutional legitimacy and social struggle. Paradigm is Hegel's account of relation of master and slave in Phenomenology of Spirit. Contemporary political philosophy examines differing accounts of reason, power, resistance, liberation, morality, difference, and the other. Concludes with discussion of identity and interest politics, multiculturalism and assimilation, and moral bases of struggle, reconciliation, and compromise in the political arena. (Formerly course 200A, Political and Social Thought Core Seminar: Politics of Recognition.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. R. Meister

211. Marxism.
Examines how Marx arrived at his substantive political standpoint through a critique of the modes of theory through which state and society are interpreted from within. Also considers how far it is possible to apply the methods Marx used, in learning from the sources available in our own contemporary material, and whether this process of interpretation will lead us to similar conclusions. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. R. Meister

214. Thinking Green: Politics, Ethics, Political Economy.
Green political thought, philosophy, debates, and practices; history of ecological thought and comparative study of competing ideas and proposals. Critical examination of neo-liberal environmentalism. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. R. Lipschutz

221. Politics and Inequalities.
Considers origins and consequences of inequality in modern societies, focusing on intersection between class, race, and gender inequality. Examines discourse of equality, in particular, the relationship between democratic politics and equality and role of political institutions in promoting or diminishing inequality. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Brown

232. United States Political History.
Covers several important themes and sets of readings from the literature on American political development. Topics include the origins and development of American political institutions, the evolution of democratic mechanisms, the rise and fall of social movements, and debates about the sources of policy regimes and political change, including the role of war. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. P. Frymer

233. Interrogating Race.
Critically examines alternative theoretical and methodological approaches to study of race and racism. Considers alternative explanations for origins and persistence of racism and racial inequality and suggests the relevance of a socio-political understanding. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. P. Frymer

241. Culture and Politics in Latin America.
Interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship between culture and politics in Latin America, drawing on current critical debates in anthropology, history, cultural studies, feminist and poststructuralist theories, as well as political science. Students cannot receive credit for this course and course 140C. Enrollment restricted to graduate politics majors. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff

251. Discourse.
Utilizing a variety of approaches—discourse analysis, semiotics, critical theory, and linguistics—analyzes how language constructs the political world. Focuses on the symbolic mediation, normalization, and reproduction of power and subjugation present in the discourses through which they are apprehended and expressed. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Urban

255. Comparative Anti-Colonialisms.
Political thought of anti-colonial movements in comparative, historical perspective, including 18th- to 20th-Century European colonies of America, Asia, and Africa. Focuses both on the contemporary political thought of these movements as well as on historiographical approaches of secondary literature. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Thomas

271. Transnationalism.
Focuses on basic comparative politics concepts—such as the state, regime transition, economic development, and social movements—and then considers how the global context challenges these very same political phenomena. Explores the ontological and methodological repercussions of the nexus between the global and the domestic. (Formerly Global Domestic Nexus.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. A. Clear

272. Critical Interventions in IR Theory and Global Political Economy.
Seminar examines selections from the canonical literature in international relations theory and global political economy through a number of critical lenses, including constructivist, feminist, historical materialist, and subaltern approaches. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. R. Lipschutz

291. Teaching Assistant Seminar (2 credits).
Two-hour weekly seminar required of teaching assistants in which pedagogic and substantive issues will be considered. The experience of performing teaching assistant duties constitutes subject matter for discussion. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. May be repeated for credit. The Staff

293. Field Study.
Individual study undertaken off campus with direct faculty supervision. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. May be repeated for credit. The Staff

295A. Research Colloquium (2 credits).
Weekly venue for Ph.D. students to present current research, exchange information on sources and resources, discuss and critique epistemologies and methods, and to formulate topics for QE field statements and the dissertation. There are no assigned readings. May be repeated for credit twice. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff

295B. Advanced Research Seminar
Weekly seminar for Ph.D. students in which to develop and write extended research papers on selected topics, to present current work, to discuss methods, data sources, and fieldwork, and to receive critiques and assessments from fellow students. May be repeated for credit twice. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff

297. Independent Study.
A student approaches a member of the staff and proposes to take a course 297 on a subject he or she has chosen that is not covered in other politics graduate courses or plans a graduate independent study that includes an undergraduate course. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. May be repeated for credit. The Staff

299. Thesis Research.
Enrollment restricted to gradaute students and permission of instructor. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. May be repeated for credit. The Staff