AFAS G4510: Critical Approaches to African-American Studies
Matsumoto, Mio; 4 credits; T 1810-2000 (SM)

Description not currently available

AMST W3930: Topics in American Studies: Freedom & Citizenship
Montas, Roosevelt; 4 credits; T 1610-1800 (SM)

Freedom and Citizenship in the United States will examine the historical development of ideas of freedom and citizenship in the American context. We will examine texts that treat of issues like the rights and responsibilities of membership in a political association, the nature and limits of the power of the collective over the individual, and the norms of exclusion and inclusion that define a body politic. The course will focus exclusively on primary texts, and the order of readings will be roughly chronological, emphasizing the historical development of the concepts of citizenship, nation, and American identity. The first weeks the course will be dedicated to reading and discussing major texts in Western political history that frame the 17th century founding of the American colonies. The rest of the course will situate the American case in this historical development, beginning with an examination of the Puritan migration to New England and the early communities they formed, and continuing with the study of major documents surrounding the Revolution, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the New Deal, the Civil Rights Movement, and contemporary debates about the meaning of American citizenship. In addition to the classroom requirements, students will be expected to volunteer a minimum of 4 hours a week with the Double Discovery Center (DDC), in connection to the Freedom and Citizenship Project which DDC conducts in partnership with the American Studies Program.

CLEN W4550: Narrative and Human Rights
Slaughter, Joseph R; 3 credits; MW 1740-1855 (LC)

We can’t talk about human rights without talking about the forms in which we talk about human rights. This course will study the convergences of the thematics, philosophies, politics, practices, and formal properties of literature and human rights. In particular, it will examine how literary questions of narrative shape (and are shaped by) human rights concerns; how do the forms of stories enable and respond to forms of thought, forms of commitment, forms of being, forms of justice, and forms of violation? How does narrative help us to imagine an international order based on human dignity, rights, and equality? We will read classic literary texts and contemporary writing (both literary and non-literary) and view a number of films and other multimedia projects to think about the relationships between story forms and human rights problematics and practices. Likely literary authors: Ishmael Beah, Roberto Bolaño, Miguel de Cervantes, Ariel Dorfman, Slavenka Drakulic, Nuruddin Farah, Janette Turner Hospital, Franz Kafka, Sahar Kalifeh, Sindiwe Magona, Michael Ondaatje, Alicia Partnoy, Marjane Satrapi, Ousmane Sembène, Mark Twain . . . . We will also read theoretical and historical pieces by authors such as Agamben, An-Na’im, Appiah, Arendt, Balibar, Bloch, Chakrabarty, Derrida, Douzinas, Habermas, Harlow, Ignatieff, Laclau and Mouffe, Levinas, Lyotard, Marx, Mutua, Nussbaum, Rorty, Said, Scarry, Soyinka, Spivak, Williams.

CSER W3490: Post 9/11 Immigration Policy
OuYang, Elizabeth; 4 credits; R 1100-1250 (SM)

Since September 11, 2001, there has been an avalanche of immigration enforcement policies and initiatives proposed or implemented under the guise of national security. This course will analyze the domino effect of the Patriot Act, the Absconder Initiative, Special Registration, the Real I.D. Act, border security including the building of the 700 mile fence along the U.S./Mexico border, Secured Communities Act-that requires the cooperation of state and local authorities in immigration enforcement, the challenge to birthright citizenship, and now the congressional hearings on Islamic radicalization. Have these policies been effective in combating the war on terrorism and promoting national security? Who stands to benefit from these enforcement strategies? Do immigrant communities feel safer in the U.S.? How have states joined the federal bandwagon of immigration enforcement or created solutions to an inflexible, broken immigration system?

CSER W3924: Latino/a and Latin American Social Movements
Rockefeller, Stuart; 4 credits; W 1100-1250 (SM)

In Latin America, a wave of new popular social movements has been transforming politics and social reality. In the United States, latino/as are building on decades of organizing and demographic growth to claim a new public persona and challenge their marginal status. What are the significant areas of political action, and how can we understand them? What claims can those disenfranchised for reasons of race, class or national origin make on societies? We will discuss a number of important social movements throughout the region, while developing tools for understanding social movements and their possibilities.

CSER W3928: Colonization/Decolonization
TBA; 4 credits; T 1100-1250 (SM)

This course focuses on the spread of European influence and hegemony throughout the world from the age of discovery in the late fifteenth and sixteenth century to the era of decolonization after World War II and postcolonial realities of the present. We are interested in the processes and contents of social and cultural contact and exchange, the development of knowledge, and how they shape relations of power; the place of colonialism in the development of western capitalism; and the elements of colonial power and resistance, including ideologies of liberal political philosophy, social Darwinism, and nationalism. We will think about how ideas about civilization, religion, self and other, and freedom have evolved over time and shaped the making of the modern world. Class is held as a discussion seminar based on close reading of the primary-source documents.

ECON W4480: Gender and Applied Economics
Edlund, Lena; 3 credits; TR 1310-1425 (LC)

This course studies gender gaps, their extent, determinants and consequences. The focus will be on the allocation of rights in different cultures and over time, why women's rights have typically been more limited and why most societies have traditionally favored males in the allocation of resources.

HIST G8914: International Development in History
Immerswahr, Daniel; 3 credits; T 2:10pm-4:00pm (CL)

In this colloquium we will examine the history of international development. We will look at how the practice of international development emerged over time. Because the historical literature on this topic is still in its infancy, we will draw heavily on scholarship from outside the field of history-from economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, and political philosophy. We will also examine related historical fields such as the history of human rights. The focus of this course will be on generating, together, a useful narrative about the history of international development. Among the topics explored in this course will be the relationship of development to empire, the creation and destruction Bretton Woods international system, the role of international institutions such as the United Nations, the Cold War, the rise of market-based development strategies, and transformations within the field of development economics. Readings will draw on scholarship from all parts of the world. Participants will write two short papers and a final essay on the history of development.

HRTS W3950: Human Rights and Human Wrongs
Cronin, Bruce; 4 credits; W 1100-1250 (SM)

This course will examine the tension between two contradictory trends in world politics. On the one hand, we have emerged from a century that has seen some of the most brutal practices ever perpetrated by states against their populations in the form of genocide, systematic torture, mass murder and ethnic cleansing. Many of these abuses occurred after the Holocaust, even though the mantra “never again” was viewed by many as a pledge never to allow a repeat of these practices. Events in the new century suggest that these trends will not end anytime soon. At the same time, since the middle of the twentieth century, for the first time in human history there has been a growing global consensus that all individuals are entitled to at least some level of protection from abuse by their governments. This concept of human rights has been institutionalized through international law, diplomacy, international discourse, transnational activism, and the foreign policies of many states. Over the past two decades, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and international tribunals have gone further than any institutions in human history to try to stem state abuses. This seminar will try to make sense of these contradictions.

HRTS G4020: Introduction to Human Rights
Chuman, Joseph; 3 credits; R 1610-1800 (SM)

This course will provide a wide-ranging survey of conceptual foundations and issues in contemporary human rights. The class will examine the philosophical origins of human rights, their explication in the evolving series of international documents, as well as questions of enforcement through international law and treaty arrangements. The course will also examine contemporary topics that are in the forefront of concern, among them - the status of women, refugees, children, the use of torture and the horrors of genocide. Though the course emphasizes political rights, it also recognizes the evolution of the human rights culture, the growing importance of economic rights and tensions related to globalization and multiculturalism. The broad range of subjects covered in the course is intended to assist students in honing their interests and making future course selections in the human rights field.

HRTS G4300: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Policy and Practice
Rosenthal, Mila; 3 credits; W 2010-2200 (SM)

This course will address economic and social human rights through the lens of what is happening now in the early 21st century, in light of the enormous shifts that have taken place since the modern human rights movement first emerged in the aftermath of WWII. The course will address many of the central debates about economic and social rights and then examine how those debates apply to specific rights and topics including development, health, housing, work, food and education. Throughout, the course will examine how activists and policymakers have responded to all these changes, and ask what might lie ahead for the human rights movement in addressing economic and social rights in a multilateral, globalized world.

HRTS G4800: International Human Rights Law
TBA; 3 credits; W 4:10pm-6:00pm (SM)

This course introduces the fundamental concepts and problems of public international law. What are the origins of international law? Is international law really law? Who is governed by it? How are treaties interpreted? What is the relationship between international law and domestic law? We examine the interplay between law and international politics, in particular with reference to international human rights, humanitarian law, the use of force, and international criminal prosecutions. No prior knowledge of international law is required. While the topics are necessarily law-related, the course will assume no prior exposure to legal studies.

HRTS G4820: Human Rights and International Organizations
Andreopoulos, George; 3 credits; T 6:10pm-8:00pm (LC)

This course examines the role of international organizations in the promotion and protection of internationally recognized human rights norms. In particular, the course surveys contending approaches on the importance of international organizations in world politics; explores the constitution, history and function of various international organizations for the promotion/protection of human rights and studies the way in which the human rights discourse has been increasingly intersecting with the peace and security and the sustainable development discourses in the work of these organizations; provides an overview of the growing interaction between international organizations and NGOs; and assesses the record of these organizations’ monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in the area of human rights. Registration priority given to Human Rights Studies M.A. (HRSMA) students. Non-HRSMA students should email humanrightsed@columbia.edu to be put on waitlist.

HRTS G8010: Human Rights Grad Res Colloq I
Martin, J. Paul; 1-2 credits; W 4:10pm-6:00pm (CL)

Colloquium I introduces students to current research in the field and resources in print and electronic formats fundamental to advanced human rights research. Class meetings include lectures by faculty and researchers in the field and library staff on reference tools and skills. Students will complete the thesis proposal and present their proposals for peer review. Colloquium I may be taken for one or two credits.

HRTS G8020: Human Rights Grad Res Colloq II
Martin, J. Paul; 2-3 credits; W 4:10pm-6:00pm (CL)

Colloquium II is designed for Human Rights Studies students writing the thesis and other graduate students completing similar research projects on human rights. The colloquium provides a structured opportunity to research and write in stages. Students review and discuss current research in human rights, review research resources and develop skills required for a successful thesis, present their own and discuss others’ work, and receive constructive advice on their work and the thesis process. Colloquium II is taken for two or three credits.

POLS W3125: Citizenship and Exclusion
Isiksel, Turkuler ; 3 credits; TR 1310-1425 (LEC)

Citizenship has always been a battleground in struggles for inclusion and exclusion. This course aims to familiarize students with contemporary theories of citizenship from the lens of boundaries. What kind of ‗good' is citizenship, and why is it denied to some? How do politically, socially or culturally marginalized groups use the discourse of citizenship to claim equal participation and recognition? How is access to citizenship status and rights regulated in contemporary democracies?

POLS W3285: Freedom of Speech and Press
Bollinger, Lee; 3 credits; MW 1610-1725 (LC)

Examines the constitutional right of freedom of speech and press in the United States. Examines, in depth, various areas of law, including extremist or seditious speech, obscenity, libel, fighting words, the public forum doctrine, and public access to the mass media. Follows the law school course model, with readings focused on actual judicial decisions.

POLS W3911: Religion, Democracy and Human Rights
Cohen, Jean; 4 credits; W 1410-1600 (SM)

This course will begin with a focus on the work of four classic thinkers in the critical analysis of religion: Rousseau, Marx, Tocqueville and Weber. We will discuss the meaning of the secularization thesis in their work, the relation of religion to modernity, and their views, when relevant, on the relation between religion and democracy. We then turn to contemporary authors involved in rethinking the secularization thesis, the place of religion in modernity as well as its relation to democracy. The works of Casanova, Assad, Rawls, Taylor and Habermas will be read.

POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: Equality and the Law
Abdur, Robert; 4 credits; R 1410-1600 (SM)

Description not currently available

POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: Terrorism and Counterterrorism
Nacos, Brigitte; 4 credits; T 1100-1250 (SM)

The seminar is designed to illuminate students' understanding of the most important aspects of domestic and international terrorism with an emphasis on the United States as target of and responder to this sort of political violence.

POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: Gays & Lesbians in American Politics
Phillips, Justin; 4 credits; T 1210-1400 (SM)

This course will provide a broad overview of the politics of gay and lesbian rights in the United States. Topics to be examined include the history of the movement, major U.S. Supreme Court and state supreme court rulings dealing with gay rights, and changing public opinion towards gays and lesbians.

POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: Bill of Rights
Zebrowski, Martha K; 4 credits; T 1810-2000 (SM)

This seminar is an investigation of the nature and importance of the federal Bill of Rights in the American federal and state constitutional systems. Common readings, class discussions, and student seminar papers consider the social, political, and legal significance of the Bill of Rights in historical and contemporary American discourse and analysis, along with constitutional case law regarding specific rights. The first part of the course is devoted to a discussion of common, required readings that consider the Bill of Rights in historical and contemporary perspective. The second part of the course is devoted to students' presentations, in class, of their own research on individual topics relating to a particular rights grounded in the American federal and state bills of rights.

POLS W3922: American Politics Seminar: Issues that Divide America
Gertzog, Irwin; 4 credits; W 1100-1250 (SM)

Seminar focuses on four political issues so contentious that they have produced enduring cultural, socio-economic, and political divisions throughout the United States. The four issues are slavery and efforts to end it; the use of alcoholic beverages and the struggle to curtail it; abortion and attempts to prohibit it; and lesbian and gay rights and the battle to impede them.

POLS W3930: Constitutional Law
Rosdeitcher, Sidney; 4 credits; T 1610-1800 (SM)

This course explores major features of U.S. constitutional law through close examination of  selected decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Through student discussion and some lecturing, the seminar addresses issues arising from the Constitution's allocation of power among the three branches of government, including the role of the federal judiciary in a democratic polity; the allocation of powers between the National and State governments, including the scope of Congress’ regulatory powers; and the protection of the private sphere from arbitrary and discriminatory government conduct, including the evolution of the concept of liberty from its protection of economic interests before the New Deal to its current role in  protecting individual autonomy and privacy, protections against racial and gender discrimination and some aspects of freedom of speech and press.  More generally the seminar aims to enhance understanding of some main aspects of our constitutional tradition and the judicial process by which it is elaborated.

POLS W3961: International Politics Seminar: Law & Ethics of International Intervention
Doyle, Michael; 4 credits; W 1100-1250 (SM)

This seminar offers an opportunity for students to explore the law, ethics and politics of international intervention. We will concentrate on humanitarian and preventive intervention. When should states or international organizations be permitted or required to intervene in order to rescue populations from a humanitarian emergency? When can states anticipate a potential attack and act so as to forestall it? Drawing on the literature and examining historical cases, the seminar aims to foster a discussion of what would be better procedural and substantive guidelines for making these difficult decisions.

POLS G8833: Law of War
Fazal, Tanisha; 3 credits; T 2:10pm-4:00pm (CL)

This course focuses on issues surrounding the conduct of warfare. It is centered around a series of questions relating to jus in bello, or the international law governing use of force once hostilities have commenced. Why, for example, have some laws of war been created but not others? Under what conditions should we expect belligerents to observe the laws of war? Why even try to govern the conduct of war? Few of these questions have received systematic treatment from political scientists. Yet, as the law of war has become increasingly salient both domestically and internationally, it is critical to sharpen our understanding of this topic.

RELI W4612: Religion and Humanitarianism
Kenny, Gale; 4 credits; W 2:10pm-4:00pm (SEM)

This seminar examines the role of religion in the antislavery movement, foreign missions, and women's rights in the nineteenth century, and its relevance to contemporary humanitarian activism

RELI W4825: Religion, Gender and Violence
Jakobsen, Janet; 4 credits; W 4:10pm-6:00pm (SM)

Investigates relations among religion, gender, and violence in the world today. Focuses on specific traditions with emphasis on historical change, variation, and differences in geopolitical location within each tradition, as well as among them at given historical moments.

SOCI G4370: Processes of Stratification and Inequality
Spilerman, Seymour; 3 credits; T 2:10pm-4:00pm (SM)

In this class we address the features of opportunity structures in western societies. Consideration will be given to the determinants of attainment in the labor market--the classic socioeconomic approach--but a major focus of the course will be on non-labor market determinants of economic well-being. We will examine research formulations and empirical evidence in regard to the creation and transmission of family wealth; the relative importance of wealth versus income flows for living standards; racial differences in wealth holdings; and issues of government policy in these matters, especially as expressed in anti-poverty programs and in tax legislation.

WMST W3915: Gender and Power in Global Perspective
Bernstein, Elizabeth; 4 credits; R 4:10pm - 6:00pm (SM)

Considers formations of gender, sexuality, and power as they circulate transnationally as well as transnational feminist movements that have emerged to address contemporary gendered inequalities. Topics include political economy, global care chains, sexuality, sex work, and trafficking, feminist politics and human rights.

WMST W3916: Historical Approaches to Feminist Questions
TBA; 4 credits; T 2:10pm-4:00pm (SM)

Description not currently available

WMST W4320: Thinking Sexuality: Queer Theory
Povinelli, Elizabeth; 4 credits; T 11:00am-12:50pm (SM)

The course will cover a range of (mostly U.S. and mostly 20th-Century) materials that thematize gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender experience and identity. We will study fiction and autobiographical texts, historical, psychoanalytic, and sociological materials, queer theory, and films, focusing on modes of representing sexuality and on the intersections between sexuality and race, ethnicity, class, gender, and nationality. We will also investigate connections between the history of LGBT activism and current events. Authors will include Foucault, Freud, Butler, Sedgwick, Anzaldua, Moraga, Smith. Students will present, and then write up, research projects of their own choosing.

WMST G6001: Theoretical Paradigm Feminist Scholar: Gender, Culture
Abu-Lughod; 4 credits; M 4:10pm-6:00pm (SM)

This course on "The Subject of Rigths" will explore feminist and other critiques of liberal paradigms; considering alternative languages and practices for emancipation. This course is open to graduate students in all disciplines and fulfills one of the requirements for the IRWa G graduate certificate.

AFAS G4080: Topics in the Black Experience: Toni Morrison
Griffin, Farah; 4 credits; W 1410-1600 (SM)

Description not currently available

AFAS G4520: Race and the Articulation of Difference
Gregory, Steven; 3 credits; R 4:10pm-6:00pm (SM)

Description not currently available

AMST W3930: Topics in American Studies: Gender History and American Film
Hallett, Hilary-Anne; 4 credits; R 1100-1250 (SM)

Motion pictures have played a unique role in shaping and reflecting new ideals and images of womanhood and manhood in the modern United States. Throughout the 20th century, movies and their stars have had a complex relationship to transformations affecting the lives of Americans. This seminar examines motion pictures and movie stars as primary sources that, when juxtaposed with other kinds of historical evidence, indicate changes in the gendering of work, leisure, sexuality, family life, and politics. We will consider how the changing institutional history of American film production during the 20th century connected to the gendered images it sold. For much of the period under review, Hollywood used specific genres to target particular audiences and movies were not afforded the protection of free speech. This made films and movie stars peculiarly reflective of, and vulnerable to, the nation’s changing fantasies and fears regarding sexuality and gender roles.

AMST W3930: Topics in American Studies: Equity in Higher Education
Lehecka And Delbanco; 4 credits; M 2:10pm-4:00pm (SM)

In this seminar, we will examine the roles colleges and universities play in American society, the differential access to those institutions available to high school students based on family background and income, ethnicity, and other characteristics, the causes and consequences of this differential access, and some attempts to make the system more equitable. Readings and class meetings will include a study of the following subjects historically and in the 21st century: the wide variety of American institutions of higher education, financial aid policies (locally and nationally), affirmative action, and the role of the high school in helping students attend college. Students in the seminar will be required to spend at least four hours each week as volunteers at the Double Discovery Center (DDC) in addition to completing assigned reading, participating in seminar discussions, and completing written assignments. DDC is an on-campus program that helps New York City high school students who lack many of the resources they need to attend college and to become more successful in gaining admission and finding financial aid. The seminar will integrate its students' first-hand experiences with readings and class discussions.

AMST W3930: Topics in American Studies: Journalism, Democracy and the Digital Revolution
TBA; 4 credits; TBD (SM)

The American news media occupy a complex role in the life of the nation: at once a constitutionally
protected feature of democracy and a product of free enterprise. With an eye to the 2012 presidential
election, this class will explore the transformation of the media from the heyday of the great 20th
century news organizations to the triumph of Twitter. How have the disruption of the mainstream
media and the rise of radically decentralized sources of information affected the political discourse
and the decisions Americans make? We’ll look back at the Grey Lady, Walter Cronkite and Watergate,
and into the future, where favored news purveyors are raw rather than mediated, hot rather than
cool, personal rather than formal, targeted rather than broad, passionate rather than neutral. We’ll
have visits from media players and prognosticators, examine where journalistic standards are going,
and assess the impact of news sources from Fox News to the latest hashtag. Attend first class for
instructor permission.

ANTH V2035: Introduction to the Anthropology of South Asia
Ewing, Katherine; 3 credits; TR 11:40am-12:55pm (LC)

This course provides a broad introduction to the anthropology of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. We will explore social and cultural formations such as caste, class, marriage and the family; as well as the organization of cultural diversity by colonial rule, nationalism and modern statehood, ethnic and religious conflict, and transnational circulations. In addition to secondary sources, students will be particularly encouraged to engage with primary sources such as treatises, speeches, poetry, music, and film. Through learning about the ethnography of the South Asia region, students will also gain an understanding of contemporary theoretical debates in anthropology, which include: the legacies of colonial rule in postcolonial societies, the social power of analytical categories, and the impact of globalization.

ANTH G4127: Archeology of Contemporary Conflict
Crossland, Zoe; 3 credits; T 4:10pm-6:00pm (SM)

Archaeological traces of warfare and conflict demand a sophisticated theoretical engagement, whether the context is recent mass graves or ancient battlefields. This class brings the anthropological literature on violence, ritual, and religion together with archaeological evidence of past violence, to think through archaeological involvement in present day conflicts . Instructor's Permission required.

ANTH G4390: Borders and Boundaries
Lomnitz, Claudio; 3 credits; M 900-1050 (SM)

This graduate seminar focuses on the relationship between international borders and social boundaries within national societies. It has as its premise a double paradox of contemporary life: the hardening of ethnic and racial boundaries at a time when goods and information flow across national borders quite freely; and the racialization of social relations at a time when racial theories lack scientific prestige, and racial categories have become conspicuously unstable. The seminar explores anthropological, historical, political and aesthetic dimensions of the relationship between national borders and social boundaries in a comparative context, and develops a conceptual foundation for analysis of the relationship between borders and boundaries.

ANTH G6235: Third World: After Sovereignty?
Scott, David; 3 credits; M 1100-1250 (LC)

It is increasingly being asserted today that the concept of sovereignty no longer constitutes a plausible way of organizing our thinking about power and legitimacy in contemporary global politics. The state, so it is sometimes said, as the pre-eminent source and adjudicator of political identity within territorially bounded nation-states a well as between sovereign states, is being fundamentally challenged. What does this mean for our understanding of the Third World which came into being precisely as part of the project of the universalization of sovereignty? What are the new conceptual and political conditions in which the problem of sovereignty arises in - and for- the Third World? Through a variety of literature this course engages these questions.

ANTH G8545: The Anthropology of Affliction
Sharp, Lesley; 3 credits; R 11:00am-12:50pm (SM)

Contemporary medical anthropology focusing on such issues as embodiment, medical power and praxis, the commodification of the body and healing, social constructions of suffering, and the cultural significance of medical technologies.

CLEN G6707: 20th Century Drama Texts Seminar: Law and Media
Peters, Julie; 3 credits; T 4:10pm-6:00pm (SM)

Description not currently available

CLEN G6851: Decolonizing Fictions
Viswanathan, Gauri; 4 credits; W 1610-1800 (SM)

Description not currently available

CLEN G6905: The Global South Atlantic
Slaughter, Joseph R; 4 credits; T 1810-2000 (SM)

Description not currently available

CLSL W4075: Post Colonial/Post Soviet Cinema
Shevchuk; 3 credits; T 6:10pm-10:00pm (SM)

The course will discuss how film making has been used as a vehicle of power and control in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet space since 1991. A body of selected films by Soviet and post-Soviet directors that exemplify the function of film making as a tool of appropriation of the colonized, their cultural and political subordination by the Soviet center will be examined in terms of post-colonial theories. The course will also focus on the often over looked work of Ukrainian, Georgian, Belarusian, Armenian, etc. national film schools and how they participated in the communist project of fostering a as well as resisted it by generating, in hidden and, since 1991, overt and increasingly assertive

CPLS G4075: Philosophy, Anthropology, and Politics
Balibar, Etienne; 3 credits; R 6:10pm-8:00pm (SM)

The debate opposing “humanism” and “anti-humanism” as ethical and epistemological discourses was especially virulent in the 60’s and 70’s in France and other European countries, involving different tendencies of Phenomenology, Marxism, Structuralism, Hegelianism, even Analytical Philosophy, around such issues as the meaning of history and the agency of the individual and collective subject. I will trace back its genealogy and its dividing lines (or points of heresy) in order to better understand what was at stake in its progressive replacement by the current controversy on “universalism”, “relativism”, and “conflicting universalities”, and how we can assess its legacy in the emergence of a new anthropological discourse involving the universality of the differences themselves. : This seminar requires an application. APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Please send an email to Assistant Director Catherine LaSota by May 15, 2012 with the following information

CPLS G8844: Social Theory and History
Rao, Anupama; 3 credits; W 6:10pm-8:00pm (SM)

This seminar explores the relationship between theory and history, between (social) form and social transformation. It is typicall to approach this question through debates about the relationship between structure and agency, or by contrasting nomothetic with interpretivist prespectives. However this seminar will ask a different set of questions about the conditions of possibility for historicizing thought, and for apprehending forms of life that are proximate to, yet incommensurable with normative categories of social analysis predicated on assumptions of liberal modernity.

CSER W3905: Asian American & Psychology of Race
Han, Shinhee; 4 credits; W 11:00a - 12:50p (SM)

This seminar provides an introduction to mental health issues for Asian Americans. In particular, it focuses on the psychology of Asian Americans as racial/ethnic minorities in the United States by exploring a number of key concepts: immigration, racialization, prejudice, family, identity, pathology, and loss. We will examine the development of identity in relation to self, family, college, and society. Quantitative investigation, qualitative research, psychology theories of multiculturalism, and Asian American literature will also be integrated into the course.

CSER W3935: Historical Anthropology of US-Mexican Border
Lomnitz, Claudio; 4 credits; T 900-1050 (SM)

This course is an introduction to the historical formation of the US-Mexican border. Beginning in the 1980s, border crossing became an academic rage in the humanities and the social sciences. This was a consequence of globalization, a historical process that reconfigured the boundaries between economy, society and culture, and it was also a primary theme of post-modernist aesthetics, which celebrated playful borrowing of multiple and diverse historical references. Places like Tijuana or El Paso, with their rather seedy reputation, had until then been of interest principally to local residents, but they now became exemplars of post-modern "hybridity," and were meant to inspire the kind of transnational scholarship that is required in today's world. Indeed, the border itself became a metaphor, a movable imaginary boundary that marks ethnic and racial distinction in American and Mexican cities.

ECON W4228: Urban Economics
O'Flaherty, Brendan; 3 credits; TR 4:10pm-5:25pm (LC)

Congestion and other games, and the pricing of transit services. Location theory and land rents. Segregation and discrimination. The fiscal structure of American cities. Zoning and the taking issue. Abandonment and city-owned property. Economic development, abatements, subsidies, and eminent domain. Crime, deadweight losses, and the allocation of police services.

ECON W4325: Economic Development of Japan
Weinstein, David; 3 credits; TR 8:40am-9:55am (LEC)

Description The growth and structural changes of the post-World War II economy; its historical roots; interactions with cultural, social, and political institutions; economic relations with the rest of the world.

ECON W4370: Political Economy
Morelli, Massimo; 3 credits; MW 11:40am-12:55pm (LEC)

The interaction between economics and politics. Anintroduction to the voting theory and other alternative theories of the interaction between economic policy and elections in democracies. Examines both fiscal and monetary policies with relation to different interest groups. Also considers political economy of stabilizationpolicies in developing countries.

ECON W4400: Labor Economics
TBA; 3 credits; TBA (LC)

The labor force and labor markets, educational and man power training, unions and collective bargaining, mobility and immobility, sex and race discrimination, unemployment.

ECON W4750: Globalization and Its Risks
Chichilnisky, Gracie; 3 credits; MW 1740-1855 (LC)

The world is being transformed by dramatic increases in flows of people, goods and services across nations. Globalization has the potential for enormous gains but is also associated to serious risks. The gains are related to international commerce where the industrial countries dominate, while the risks involve the global environment, poverty and the satisfaction of basic needs that affect in great measure the developing nations. Both are linked to a historical division of the world into the North and the South-the industrial and the developing nations. Key to future evolution are (1) the creation of new markets that trade privately produced public goods, such as knowledge and greenhouse gas emissions, as in the Kyoto Protocol; (2) the updating of the Breton Woods Institutions, including the creation of a Knowledge Bank and an International Bank for Environmental Settlements.

ECON G6270: Topics in Economics of Gender
Edlund, Lena; 3 credits; R 2:10pm-4:00pm (SM)

This course will deal with how standard economic tools can be successfully applied to understand the role of gender in shaping behavior and outcomes, as well as the determinants of gender roles, and gender based discrimination in the household, the labor market and society as a whole.

ECON G6308: Political Economy: Theory and Emprics
TBD; 3 credits; T 9:00am-10:50am (LEC)

The course is primarily intended for graduate level students in economics but is open for enrollment by graduate students in political science as well as those with knowledge of econometrics and microeconomics. Explores several current topics in the theory of political economy as well as its historical evolution, drawing on both economic and political science literature. It will focus primarily on economic decision-making, taking into consideration political processes.

ECON G6451: The Economics of Labor I
von Wachter, Till; 3 credits; W 1100-1250 (LC)

Introduction to labor economics, theory and practice.

ECON G6492: Topics in Political Economy
TBA; 3 credits; M 900-1050 (LC)

Description not currently available

ECON G6903: Theory of International Trade
Davis, Donald; 3 credits; W 9:00am-10:50am (LC)

The theory of comparative advantage, the gains form trade, trade and income distribution, international factor mobility, growth and trade.

EEEB W4700: Race: The Tangled History of a Biological Concept
Shapiro, Jill; 4 credits; MW 1610-1725 (LC)

From Aristotle to the Bell Curve, this course examines the history of race as a biological concept. We will explore the complex relationship between the scientific study of biological differences, real, imagined, or invented and the historical and cultural factors involved in the development and expression of "racial ideas."

ENGL G6631: Narratives of Slavery
Hartman, Saidiya; 3 credits; W 1405-1555 (SM)

Description not currently available

HIST W3330: Europe Since 1945
Grazia, Victoria; 3 credits; MW 2:40pm-3:55pm (LC)

A big picture perspective on the period 1945-2005, the course moves from the New Europe arising from the catastrophe of the Great Depression, Nazi-fascism, and World War II to the New Europe arising out of the contrary forces of globalization. Lectures illuminated by East-West and TransAtlantic comparisons, films, memoirs, and discussions.

HIST W3449: American Urban History
Jackson, Kenneth; 3 credits; TR 1440-1555 (LC)

Description not currently available

HIST W3575: 20th Century Black Urban Politics
Roberts, Samuel; 3 credits; MW 1610-1725 (LC)

A survey of African-American history since the Civil War. An emphasis is placed on the black quest for equality and community.

HIST W3719: History of Modern Middle East
Khalidi, Rashid; 3 credits; TR 840-955 (LC)

This course will cover the History of the Middle East from the 18th century until the present, examining the region ranging from Morocco to Iran and including the Ottoman Empire. It will focus on transformations in the states of the region, external intervention , and the emergence of modern nation-states, as well as aspects of social, economic, cultural and intellectual history of the region.

HIST W3772: West African History
Mann, Gregory; 3 credits; TR 1310-1425 (LC)

This course offers a survey of main themes in West African history over the last millenium, with particular emphasis on the period from the mid-fifteenth through the twentieth century. Themes include the age of West African empires (Ghana, Mali, Songhay), re-alignments of economic and political energies towards the Atlantic coast, the rise and decline of the trans-Atlantic trade in slaves, the advent and demise of colonial rule, and internal displacement, migrations, and revolutions. In the latter part of the course, we will appraise the continuities and ruptures of the colonial and post-colonial eras.

HIST W4008: Wealth and Poverty in Classical Antiquity
Harris, William; 4 credits; M 9:00am-10:50am (SM)

Description not currently available

HIST W4180: Religious Conversion in History
Carlebach, Elisheva; 4 credits; W 1610-1800 (SM)

Boundary crossers have always challenged the way societies imagined themselves. This course explores the political, religious, economic, and social dynamics of religious conversion. The course will focus on Western (Christian and Jewish) models in the medieval and early modern periods. It will include comparative material from other societies and periods. Autobiographies, along with legal, religious and historical documents will complement the readings.

HIST W4227: Empire and Nation: Nationality Issues in the Russian Empire
Bilenky, Serhiy; 4 credits; M 6:10pm-8:00pm (SM)

This senior seminar deals with nationalist challenges and nationality policies in imperial Russia. Particular emphasis will be placed on the imperial policies vis-à-vis national peripheries (primarily Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic, and Volga region) as well as religious minorities (particularly Jews, Roman Catholics, and Muslims). We will also analyze the relationship between the imperial government and Russian nationalism. The gap between nation and empire in Russia will be considered. The main chronological focus of the seminar is the long nineteenth century, the late eighteenth-the early twentieth centuries.

HIST W4358: Themes in Intellectual History: Education
Lilla, Mark; 4 credits; F 11:00am-12:50pm (SM)

"Themes in Intellectual History" offers an intensive examination of one major intellectual concept or problem as it develops over time. This semester will be devoted to some classic modern works on education: its aims, its methods, its prerequisites, its limitations, its social and political implications. These works by Montaigne, Descartes, Locke, Vico, and Rousseau have been chosen for intensive study due to their wide influence and the starkly different pedagogical alternatives they develop. Particular attention will be devoted to Rousseau's Emile and its relation to its precursors.

HIST W4535: 20th Century New York City History
Jackson, Kenneth; 4 credits; T 6:10pm-8:00pm (SM)

This course explores critical areas of New York's economic development in the 20th century, with a view to understanding the rise, fall and resurgence of this world capital. Discussions also focus on the social and political significance of these shifts. Assignments include primary sources, secondary readings, film viewings, trips, and archival research. Students use original sources as part of their investigation of New York City industries for a 20-page research paper. An annotated bibliography is also required. Students are asked to give a weekly update on research progress, and share information regarding useful archives and websites.

HIST W4588: Race, Drugs and Inequality
Roberts, Samuel; 4 credits; M 1810-2000 (SM)

Through a series of secondary- and primary-source readings and web-based writing assignments, students in this seminar course will explore one of the most controversial aspects of twentieth century public health history: drug policy and its relationship to social movements and urban political economy. Readings are primarily historical and sociological, and the principal focus is heroin from its emergence in the 1950s through the crack cocaine era. Topics of discussion include print and visual media representations; racism and the war on drugs; the Rockefeller Drug Laws; methadone, syringe provision, and harm reduction; the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC); and urban politics. Harlem and East Harlem, New York City will be of particular interest in this course. Students will also further develop their research and collaborative work skills. There will be training sessions in using several social science research databases. HIST W4588 is part of the larger Harlem Health History Project (HHHP), an ongoing research and teaching project examining the history of health research, institutions, access to care, politics, social movements, and professional organization in the Harlem, New York City, community..

HIST W4665: Indigenous Worlds - Early Latin America
Pizzigoni, Caterina; 4 credits; W 1610-1800 (SM)

Description not currently available

HIST W4746: Modern Turkey
Philliou, Christine M; 4 credits; M 11:00am-12:50pm (SM)

HIST G8674: Power, State and Law in Latin America
Milanich, Nara ; 3 credits; T 11:00am-12:50pm (SM)

This seminar examines some of the classic questions that inform the "law and society" literature (for example, about legal consciousness; the relationship between vernacular and formal legal forms; the relationship of law and inequality) from the perspective of Latin America. It also examines some of the classic themes in the scholarship on law in Latin America (the supposed failure of the rule of law; the relationship between formal and informal structures and practices) from the perspective of history. The course engages not only historical scholarship but also materials (often sociological or anthropological) from the "law and society" genre. Students in the Latin America track as well as those in other fields who have an interest in law and legal culture are encouraged to enroll. Each week we examine a monograph together with a paired article from a different discipline or geographic area, or one that engages some analytic or methodological aspect of the book. Seminar assignments include brief weekly writing responses as well as a longer analytic paper at the end of the semester. Students will be encouraged to take advantage of the Low Library's excellent and underutilized Latin America collection.

HIST G8930: Approaches to International/Global History
Armstrong, Charles K; 4 credits; W 9:00am-10:50am (CL)

How do international and global perspectives shape and conceptualization, research, and writing of history? Topics include approaches to comparative history and transnational processes, the relationship of local, regional, national, and global scales of analysis, and the problem of periodization when considered on a world scale.

HIST G8962: Modern State: Theory and Practice
TBA; 4 credits; TBA (SM)

With the recent attention to empire, "the state" has tended to recede from view. But the modern state was the vehicle of power and domination for much of the modern period. This course examines the history of the European state in the modern period, looking particularly at its role allocating resources (financial, economic, demographic), managing risk, and reconciling interests.

HIST G9713: History of Modern Palestine
Khalidi, Rashid; 4 credits; T 1410-1600 (SM)

This seminar will examine problems in the historiography of Palestine from the 19th century until the present. The course will focus primarily on how the modern history of Palestine and the Palestinian people have been understood and written. It will also touch on related topics, including great powerpolicies, the history of Zionism and Israel, inter-Arab politics, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Arab-Israeli wars.

HSEA G8090: Power, Passion, Protest in China
Yang, Guobin; 3 credits; W 1410-1600 (SM)

Description not currently available

MDES W3923: Central Question in Islamic Law
Hallaq, Wael; 3 credits; T 2:10pm-4:00pm (SM)

Through detailed discussions of certain landmarks in Islamic legal history (e.g., origins; early formation; sources of law; intellectual make-up; the workings of court; legal change; women in the law; legal effects of colonialism; modernity and legal reform, etc.), the course aims at providing an introductory but integrated view of Islamic law, a definition, so to speak, of what it was/is.

MDES G4228: Revolution in Arabic: Lit-War
Al-Musawi, Muhsin; 3 credits; W 11:00am-12:50pm (SM)

This course responds to the sweeping winds of change in the Arab region, covering a great amount of archival and media material including documentaries, films, narratives, poetry and songs. It substantiates and synthesizes its analysis with a theoretical frame that makes use of Arab intellectual thought in translation, along with legacies of popular revolutions and liberation movements in the Arab region and in the three continents, along with readings of significance in the literature of World War I and II.

MDES G6031: Nationalism in Middle East
Massad, Joseph; 3 credits; T 4:10pm-6:00pm (SM)

This course intends to familiarize students with the most recent theories dealing with nationalism from a variety of angles and perspectives. In addition to covering the theoretical material, the course also examines two case studies of nationalism, Arab unionist nationalism and the Zionist colonial-settler nationalism. The course will discuss issues of gender, law, sexuality, race, tradition, narration, in the context of studying the formation of national identities.

PHIL G9255: Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Kitcher, Patricia; 3 credits; R 2:05pm-3:55pm (SM)

PHIL G9567: Philosophy of Mind: Theories of Personal Autonomy
Bilgrami And Elster; 3 credits; W 12:10pm-2:00pm (SM)

Theories of personal autonomy will be pursued by a study of a range of different topics such as individual rationality, the nature of motivation, weakness of will, self-deception, and the nature of human values and their relation to desires, beliefs, and human action.

POLS W3120: Democratic Theory
Schwartzberg, Melissa; 3 credits; TR 1140-1255 (LC)

Focuses on the theory and practice of democracy, from the examination of its classic and modern foundations to the analysis of its transformations in advanced industrial societies facing class, gender, race, and regional differences.

POLS W3220: Logic of Collective Choice
Lax, Jeffrey; 3 credits; TR 1140-1255 (LC)

Much (most?) of politics is about combining individual preferences or actions into collective choices. We will make use of two theoretical approaches. Our primary approach will be social choice theory, which studies how we aggregate what individuals want into what the collective “wants.” The second approach, game theory, covers how we aggregate what individuals want into what the group gets, given that social, economic, and political outcomes usually depend on the interaction of individual choices. The aggregation of preferences or choices is usually governed by some set of institutional rules, formal or informal. Our main themes include the rationality of individual and group preferences, the underpinnings and implications of using majority rule, tradeoffs between aggregation methods, the fairness of group choice, the effects of institutional constraints on choice (e.g., agenda control), and the implications for democratic choice. Most of the course material is highly abstract, but these abstract issues turn up in many real-world problems, from bargaining between the branches of government to campus elections to judicial decisions on multi-member courts to the allocation of relief funds among victims of natural disasters to the scoring of Olympic events. The collective choice problem is one faced by society as a whole and by the smallest group alike.

POLS W3290: Voting and American Politics
Erikson, Robert; 3 credits; TR 1010-1125 (LC)

Elections and public opinion; history of U.S. electoral politics; the problem of voter participation; partisanship and voting; accounting for voting decisions; explaining and forecasting election outcomes; elections and divided government; money and elections; electoral politics and representative democracy.

POLS W3322: The American Congress
Wawro, Gregory; 3 credits; TR 1310-1425 (LC)

Prerequisites: POLS W1201 or the equivalent, or instructor's permission. Inquiry into the dynamics, organization, and policy-making processes of the American Congress. Particular emphasis on the relationship of legislators to constituents, lobbyists, bureaucrats, the president, and with one another.

POLS W3503: Political Economy of African Development
Blattman, Chris; 3 credits; TR 1440-1555 (LC)

Why is Africa still poor? What, if anything, can the West do about it? No course can answer these questions in full, but one can get started on the (hopefully lifelong) learning. Students will be exposed to the major and the not-so-major debates in aid and development. They will discuss the conventional and less conventional theories of poverty, growth, war and good governance, and why there is so much or so little of it in Africa. The aim is to help students think critically about these debates and their possible role in the problems and solutions.

POLS W3595: Social Protection Around the World
Mares, Isabela; 3 credits; MW 840-955 (LC)

This course employs the tools of comparative politics to account for the development of social policies in both developed and developing countries. The policies and institutions by which governments provide social protection to their citizens vary significantly across countries. Some governments provide only meager benefits to a narrow group of citizens, while others cover the entire population. In some countries, these benefits are provided directly by the state, while in others, many responsibilities are delegated to societal organizations, such as labor unions, religious organizations and so on.

POLS W3631: American Foreign Policy
Blanchard, Eric; 3 credits; TR 1440-1555 (LC)

Introduction to American foreign policy since 1945 with an emphasis on post-cold war topics. Will cover major schools of American thought, the policy making process, and key policies and issues.

POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: Presidential Elections
Smith, Raymond; 4 credits; T 1810-2000 (SM)

This class will provide an examination of the 2012 Presidential Election as it is unfolding. Early in the course, we will preview the election, examining the political processes and institutions that are likely to shape the outcome. The second part of the course will revolve around the election itself, and will focus on a close examination of the November 6 election itself. During the last part of the class will take a closer look at the institution of the Presidency itself and the transition to power. Along with other assignments, students will write and present a research paper incorporating the actual results of the election.

POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: Quantitative Analysis/American Politics
Hirano, Shiego; 4 credits; T 2:10pm-4:00pm (SM)

In this class we will examine how quantitative methods have been used to help us answer some of the important questions in American politics. Questions such as: Has politics become more polarized? Does the state of the economy affect presidential elections? Do Republican presidents increase economic inequality? Why do economically disadvantaged voters vote for Republican presidents? Do incumbents have an advantage in elections? Over the course of the seminar we will replicate some the quantitative analysis found in some recent research on these topics.

POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: Media and American Politics
Knight, Kathleen; 4 credits; W 1410-1600 (SM)

Both conventional wisdom and scholarly research about the role of the mass media in American politics have changed rapidly in a very short period of time. This course explores the influence of the mass media on politics with attention to changes in the relationship between the media and government. We will start with consideration of the historical role of the mass media and how it has changed. Then we will focus on the question of how much real influence the media have, and how it is exercised. This will involve examination of media treatment of substantive topics of current interest. These will include the fall political campaigns, the war, and additional topics chosen on the basis of student interest. This is a research seminar in American politics. Students are expected to engage in original empirical research on one of several topics in mass media and politics and to contribute to group efforts on data collection, coding, fact checking, cross-verification and review. In the event of excess demand, an application process with take place at the first class meeting. 

POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: Policy Making
Russell, Judith; 4 credits; W 1100-1250 (SM)

This seminar directs readings and research on public policy making in the American federal government.. It is designed to help students think analytically about the ways in which the structures, processes and actors at the heart of public policy making interact. It examines how political institutions--the executive and legislative branches--are organized and motivated to produce policy, the politics of government organization, bureaucratic operation and survival, how the budget process drives policy making processes, policy structures and relationships that have emerged out of custom and practice, theories and models of decision making, concepts of rationality and choice, agenda-setting, political innovation, interest groups' role in policy formation as well as that of the judiciary. Specific policy areas we will engage as case studies are: economic and employment policy, energy and environmental policy, and policy responses to terrorism and disaster. Some policy investigations we will engage are evolving as we study them during the semester.

POLS W3951: Comparative Politics Seminar: Size of Government
Goodhart, Lucy; 4 credits; T 1410-1600 (SM)

As current American debate illustrates, the role of the state, and the size of government spending as a percentage of GDP, is one of the fundamental issues that structures the political landscape. Across many, if not most, of the advanced, industrialized democracies, the appropriate level of government expenditure is the issue that separates and defines political parties, energizes voters, and informs a normative debate on the proper role of the state in society. In this seminar, we will first read some of the canonical texts that supported the growth in state spending after World War II and the opposing voices arguing for a more minimalist state. Next, we will review the empirical analyses of who wants more spending or less, and why, in order to determine whether available theory can help to explain the significant variations we observe over time and across country in the actual level of state spending. A further step is to explore whether we are more likely to understand the reasons for state spending if we see it as the delivery of public goods, as a mechanism for redistribution or as insurance against risk. Last, but not least, we consider how and whether increased global integration has influenced both the demand for public expenditure and the ability of policy-makers to respond to popular preferences.

POLS W3951: Comparative Politics Seminar: Varieties of Capitalism
Mares, Isabela; 4 credits; M 1810-2000 (SM)

This course provides a theoretical framework for understanding the variation in economic and social institutions among advanced capitalist economies. Can we meaningfully talk of the German or Swedish model and, if so, what are their distinctive characteristics? In what ways do these economies differ from liberal market economies, such as the United States or the United Kingdom? Do these cross-national differences persist in the face of increased economic integration and globalization? We will explore these questions by examining institutional and policy differences in the following areas: (a) training and skill formation; (b) financial institutions and corporate governance, (c) the welfare state, (d) systems of industrial relations

POLS W3951: Comparative Politics Seminar: Democracy and Regime Change
Kasara, Kimuli; 4 credits; W 1410-1600 (SM)

Description not currently available

POLS W3961: International Politics Seminar: International Politics of the Cold War
Jervis, Robert; 4 credits; T 1010-1200 (SM)

Description not currently available

POLS W3961: International Politics Seminar: Globalization and International Politics
Pinto, Pablo M; 4 credits; M 1410-1600 (SM)

Globalization involves the increasing integration of economic, social and political processes across international borders.  Workers in Bangalore man telephones in the middle of the night to provide technical support to customers in the US and Europe.  Farmers in Chiapas and college students in Nice demonstrate against the World Bank.  Multinational corporations and backyard business clamor for greater access to markets.  Governments in Asia find that they are beholden to panic by investors a world away. To some degree, these processes (or ones like them) have always been with us.  However, international politics, which has traditionally been organized around the physical control of geography by sovereign governments, increasingly poses tensions or contradictions as the scope of the world that defies boundaries increases.  While globalization means many things to many different people, this course will begin to map some of the most obvious examples where sovereignty and the global society collide.  Globalization defies easy definition in part because these processes are dynamic and ongoing.  We will explore the economics, politics and conflict processes  associated with a globalizing world.

POLS W3961: International Politics Seminar: Great Powers - UN Security Council
Gottlieb, Stuart; 4 credits; M 1410-1600 (SM)

Description not currently available

POLS W4134: Modern Political Thought
Urbinati, Nadia; 3 credits; MW 1810-1925 (LC)

Interpretations of civil society and the foundations of political order according to the two main traditions of political thought--contraction and Aristotelian. Readings include works by Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Montesquieu, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Saint-Simon, Tocqueville, Marx, and Mill.

POLS W4406: Democracy and Institutional Change in Latin America
Negretto, Gabriel; 3 credits; TR 1610-1725 (LC)

The purpose of this course is it to analyze the central features of new democratic regimes in Latin America and the institutional transformations they have experienced since 1978. The course is divided into three sections: democracy and political institutions, performance and quality of democracy, and institutional reform.

POLS W4445: Politics of the Middle East and North Africa
El-Ghobashy; 3 credits; TR 1010-1125 (LC)

This course examines issues on the political economy of institutions, with an empirical emphasis on countries with intermediate levels of economic and institutional development (especially Latin American ones), from a comparative perspective. It draws on theoretical tools and concepts used mostly in economics (such as game theory and the new institutional economics) to look into issues that are largely political. It attempts to build bridges between a mostly theoretical literature in political economy and its applicability to the Latin American context.

POLS W4461: Latin American Politics
Murillos, Maria; 3 credits; TR 1010-1125 (LC)

Comparative theoretical and empirical analysis of political development and regime change in the region through close study of the interrelated nature of polity, society, and economy in selected cases.

POLS G4471: Chinese Politics
Shimizu, Kay; 3 credits; (LC)

Selected aspects of contemporary Chinese politics, including the causes and character of the Chinese revolution, the transformation worked in Chinese society by the revolutionary government, political conflict, and the goals of government policies and the policies of carrying them out.

POLS G4472: Japanese Politics
Curtis, Gerald; 3 credits; (LC)

Surveys key features of the Japanese political system, with focus on political institutions and processes. Themes include party politics, bureaucratic power, the role of the Diet, voting behavior, the role of the state in the economy, and the domestic politics of foreign policy.

POLS W4496: Contemporary African Politics
Kasara, Kimuli; 3 credits; TR 1140-1255 (LC)

Topics include the transition from colonialism to independence, ethnic and class relations, the state, strategies for development, international influences, and case studies of selected countries.

POLS W4895: War, Peace & Strategy
Betts, Richard K; 3 credits; MW 1140-1255 (LC)

Survey of the causes of war and peace, functions of military strategy, interaction of political ends and military means. Emphasis on 20th-century conflicts; nuclear deterrence; economic, technological, and moral aspects of strategy; crisis management; and institutional norms and mechanisms for promoting stability.

POLS G6210: Theories and Debates in American Politics
Erikson, Robert and Lax, Jeffrey; 3 credits; R 2:10pm-4:00pm (SM)

This graduate student field survey provides an overview of the scholarly study of American politics. The course has been designed for students who intend to specialize in American politics, as well as for those students whose primary interests are comparative politics, international relations, or political theory, but who desire an intensive introduction to the “American” style of political science. Instructor permission is required before registration. Please contact the instructors for more information.

POLS G6411: Comparative Politics Survey I
Huber, John; 3 credits; F 10:10am-12:00pm (LC)

This graduate level seminar is designed to introduce students to many of the main questions motivating research in comparative politics. This course and its counterpart offered in the spring (G6412) are not designed as exercises in intellectual history, although some "classics" are included. They are also not designed to teach particular approaches or methods in the study of comparative politics, although many such approaches and methods are included in the readings. Instead, they are designed to give students a sense of what we "know" today about the answers to some major questions that animate the subfield and to encourage students to develop the analytical skills, substantive knowledge, and theoretical insights necessary to make their own contributions to comparative politics and political science. Comparative Politics Survey II builds on the topics developed Comparative Politics Survey I, but can easily be taken before taking Comparative Politics Survey I. Topics to be covered in the surveys include among others, institutions, culture, parties, violence, collective action, economic development, bureaucracy, regimes and regime change, the welfare state, corruption and political behavior.

POLS G6601: Issues in Political Theory
Johnston, David; 3 credits; T 11:00am-12:50pm (LC)

A survey of selected issues and debates in political theory. Areas of the field discussed include normative political philosophy, history of political thought, and the design of political and social institutions.

POLS G6801: Theories of International Relations
Jervis, Robert L; 3 credits; M 2:10pm-4:00pm (CL)

Issues and problems in theory of international politics; systems theories and the current international system; the domestic sources of foreign policy and theories of decision making; transnational forces, the balance of power, and alliances.

POLS G8223: Legislative Behavior and Institutions
O'Halloran, Sharyn; 3 credits; R 1610-1800 (CL)

Instructor permission required before registration. Examination of the interactions between individual incentives and political institutions in shaping policy. Presents an approach to the study of politics that emphasizes individual incentives in an electoral system, examines how re-election-minded legislators organize to solve collective dilemmas, and focusses on the effects of these political institutions on policy choice.

POLS G8236: Themes in American Political Development
Katznelson, Ira; 3 credits; R 4:10 - 6:00 pm (SM)

POLS G8403: Political Instituions in Latin America: Politics of Constitutional Change
TBA; 3 credits; R 1810-2000 (CL)

The purpose of this seminar it to analyze the politics of constitutional change from a theoretical and comparative perspective. We will discuss different approaches to constitutional stability and change and apply them to explain selected cases of constitutional reform in Latin America. The seminar is divided into three sections: concepts and approaches, institutional design and variation, and constitution making episodes. We conclude with a discussion on the importance of constitutional change for the reformulation of a research agenda on institutional origins and effects.

POLS G8471: Chinese Politics in Comparative Perspective
Lu, Xiabo; 3 credits; W 4:10pm-6:00pm (CL)

The major issues in the secondary literature, together with identification of problems of, and approaches to, research.

POLS G8474: Political Economy of East Asia in Comparative Perspective
Shimizu, Kay; 3 credits; T 1610-1800 (CL)

This course is designed to explore the content, process, and problems of East Asia’s economic reforms in a comparative perspective. While there is a heavy focus on the economy, the approach is one of political economy, not economics. Through a detailed examination of the literature on industrial policy, property rights, markets and the role of the state in economic development, it is hoped that broader comparative insights may emerge about reform in East Asia that distinguishes it from the experience of regimes in developing and developed nations worldwide. The overarching question is what explains the course of East Asia’s state and its agents? What incentives motivated their particular responses to the reforms? What role did changes in property rights play in the trajectory of each country’s reforms? Why were some reforms easier to implement than others? Who were the winners and losers in the different reforms? What major new problems have emerged and why? How have those been handled? This course presumes a basic knowledge of the governments and politics of East Asia.

POLS G8492: Comparing Institutions
Frye, Timothy; 3 credits; R 1410-1600 (CL)

Description not currently available

POLS G8804: International Political Economy
Pinto, Pablo; 3 credits; W 1410-1600 (CL)

Analysis of theories in international political economy, examining the relationship between politics of economics globally and the causes of the rise and decline of states.  Instructor permission required before registration.

POLS G8811: Civil Wars
Fazal, Tanisha; 3 credits; T 1410-1600 (CL)

This course is a graduate-level survey of recent literature on civil wars. It will focus particularly on: developing an operational definition of civil war; understanding causes of civil war, with a focus on secessionism; examining strategies of violence employed in civil war; and, civil war termination.

POLS G8865: United States Foreign Policy
Betts, Richard K; 3 credits; T 900-1050 (LC)

This course is a topical review, emphasizing historical context and current concerns, organized in terms of several functions and regions. From the Spring 2012 semester: Books recommended for purchase: Eric A. Nordlinger, Isolationism Reconfigured (Princeton University Press, 1995) G. John Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton University Press, 2001) George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 1951) Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence (Knopf, 2002) Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World (W. W. Norton, 2008) John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (W. W. Norton, 2001) John D. Steinbruner, Principles of Glob

POLS G8870: Colloquium: US Relations with East Asia
Curtis, Gerald L; 3 credits; W 1010-1200 (CL)

Examination of key developments in East Asian international relations and their implications for United States foreign policy. Students should have knowledge about at least one East Asian country (China, Japan, Korea and the countries in ASEAN).

PORT W3490: Brazilian Society and Civilization
Hertzman, Marc; 3 credits; MW 1140-1255 (LC)

RELI W4322: Exploring Sharia: Islamic Law
Haider, Najam; 4 credits; T 2:10pm-4:00pm (SEM)

The platform of every modern Islamist political party calls for the implementation of the sharia. This term is invariably (and incorrectly) interpreted as an unchanging legal code dating back to 7th century Arabia. In reality, Islamic law is an organic and constantly evolving human project aimed at ascertaining Gods will in a given historical and cultural context. This course offers a detailed and nuanced look at the Islamic legal methodology and its evolution over the last 1400 years. The first part of the semester is dedicated to classical Islamic jurisprudence, concentrating on the manner in which jurists used the Quran, the Sunna (the model of the Prophet), and rationality to articulate a coherent legal system. The second part of the course focuses on those areas of the law that engender passionate debate and controversy in the contemporary world. Specifically, we examine the discourse surrounding Islamic family (medical ethics, marriage, divorce, womens rights) and criminal (capital punishment, apostasy, suicide/martyrdom) law. The course concludes by discussing the legal implications of Muslims living as minorities in non-Islamic countries and the effects of modernity on the foundations of Islamic jurisprudence

RELI W4828: Religion and the Sexual Body
Ewing, Katherine; 4 credits; T 2:10pm-4:00pm (SM)

Theoretical approaches to gender and sexualities, focusing on the articulation, cultivation, and regulation how bodily practices are within various religious traditions, including modern secularism.

SDEV W3410: Urbanization and Sustainability
TBA; 3 credits; R 1405-1555 (LC)

The first decade of the 21st Century marked the first time in human history when more of world's population lived in urban as distinct from rural places. It is impossible to achieve sustainable development in a physical, social or economic manner absent an understanding of the powerful and interdependent relationship between these concepts of sustainability and urbanization. This course explores this vital nexus. Students will gain a more detailed understanding of the ways in which urban life provides opportunities and challenges for addressing climate change, access to water and energy efficiency, among other topics. The intention is to provide students majoring in Sustainable Development with an historic and contemporary understanding of the connections between the process of urbanization that now dominates the world and the range of ways in which that process, directly and indirectly, shapes the challenge of sustainable development. Offered in the Fall (even years). Lab Required.

SOCI W3264: The Changing American Family
Aidala, Angela; 3 credits; MW 4:10pm-5:25pm (LC)

Examines social forces contributing to changes in U.S. family formation including declines in marriage, increases in nonmarital childbearing, and women's labor force participation. Analyzes forces affecting growth of "non-traditional" families including lesbian/gay, multigenerational families. Particular attention given to urban, suburban, rural contexts of poverty.

SOCI W3281: American Society
DiPrete, Thomas ; 3 credits; TR 10:10am-11:25am (LC)

Debates about the distribution of income, policies towards the poor, policies towards immigration, and the proper balance between state, religion, and family for addressing important social problems are an endemic feature of American politics and have sharpened considerably in the increasingly polarized condition of American politics. This course addresses the character of inequality, religion, family, and immigration in contemporary America. We will frequently use a comparative perspective to better understand the nature of American distinctiveness within the broader industrialized world. Through such comparisons, the course will also clarify the potential role that social science evidence can play in policy debates around these issues.

SOCI W3302: Sociology of Gender Roles
Bernstein, Elizabeth; credits; TR 11:40am-12:55pm (LC)

Examination of factors in gender identity that are both universal (across time, culture, setting) and specific to a social context. Social construction of gender roles in different settings, including family, work, and politics. Attention to the role of social policies in reinforcing norms or facilitating change.

SOCI G6043: Political Sociology of Science and Medicine
Nelson, Alondra; 3 credits; M 1610-1800 (SM)

This course explores twin phenomena: 1) the socio-cultural organization of the institutions of science and medicine and 2) the ways in which the biosciences and biomedicine have come to organize the social world. The understanding that science and its medical applications are central to contemporary societies-and indeed are transforming our social landscapes-will underlie our exploration. Themes discussed included medical inequality; biological citizenship; health social movements; race and health; scientific epistemology; genetics and genomics; and the "politics of life itself."

SOCI G6160: Israeli Society - Special Topics
Cohen, Yinon; 3 credits; T 1210-1400 (SM)

This semester the seminar will focus on migration patterns to and from Israel. The seminar has two main parts. The first focuses on immigration patterns to Palestine/Israel from the late 19th century until the present. We will discuss Jewish immigration in the pre-state period, Arab forced migration in 1948, Jewish immigration to Israel until the 1967 war, and migration patterns from the late 1960s until the present. The second part of the course discusses emigration from Israel since 1948, which is viewed as a major social problem. The focus will be on the number of emigrants, their composition, the causes for emigration, return migration, and on the question of the brain drain from Israel.

SOCI G6320: Immigration, Cities, States: Deciphering the Global
Sassen, Saskia J; 3 credits; T 1410-1600 (SM)

Transnational processes such as economic globalization and cross-border migrations confront the social sciences with a series of theoretical and methodological challenges. This course examines these challenges through a focus oon both macro level cross-border flows and micro processes which might take place at a global or at a sub-national level. Particular attention will go to analyzing the challenges for theorization and empirical specification.