This course provides an introduction to Western political theory, focusing on theories and practices of power and authority. We will examine the extent to which it is possible to describe, theorize, and make visible how political power operates, and power's relationship to authority, knowledge, truth, and political freedom. A strong tradition of political thought argues that people's consent is what makes political power legitimate. But what if one of the most insidious workings of power is its ability to prevent us from telling the difference between consent and coercion? Can power allow certain authorities to effectively brainwash people? If so, does that mean that those who obey authority should no longer be held politically responsible for their actions? Does the coercive power of norms and conformity prevent any robust practice of freedom? What role (if any) should state power play in negotiating questions of morality, religion and sexuality? Lastly, we will be haunted by a related question: can political theories of power make people free, or are those theories implicated in the very coercion they profess to oppose? Classes will be a combination of lectures, critical discussions/debates, film screenings and presentations. Throughout the term, you will sharpen your ability to formulate coherent written and spoken arguments by organizing and supporting your thoughts in a persuasive manner. An important part of this skill will include the ability to wrestle with complex and controversial political problems that lack any single answer. The stakes of these problems will be brought to life by the political examples we will study, and made legible by looking through the theoretical lenses of diverse thinkers.

• Days/Times: MTW 1:00PM - 3:20PM
• Instructor: Brendese, PJ Joseph
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 11/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course examines the politics and policies that shape the production and consumption of food. Topics include food security, obesity, crop and animal production, and the impacts of agriculture on climate change. We will also consider the vulnerabilities of our food system to challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as efforts to transform food and agriculture through new food technologies and grass-roots movements to create a more democratic food system.

• Days/Times: MWTh 1:00PM - 3:30PM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Gilman 413
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 13/18
• PosTag(s): n/a

What is “the common good”? How do individuals consider this idea, this question, and how are societies led, or misled, by its pursuit? Together, we will explore sources from a range of perspectives: What does Aristotle’s theory of the common good teach us? Or the Federalist Papers, the design of Baltimore’s public transportation system, meritocracy in higher education, the perniciousness of pandemics, proliferation of nuclear weapons, restorative justice, or intimate love? Drawing from film, journal articles, literature, and other sources—authors/creators include Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Bong Joon-ho, Jhumpa Lahiri, Michael Sandel, and more—this First-Year Seminar is as much about how we ask and interrogate challenging, timeless questions as it is about the answers themselves. Engaging our material and each other, we will work together to hone the habits of scholarly inquiry essential to this practice: reading, writing, talking. The seminar will culminate in a final, collaborative research project that seeks to map, and manifest, versions of the common good.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Watters, Aliza
• Room: Greenhouse 113
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

Freedom of speech, and the related freedom of the press, are core values for democracies -- and for universities, in which the freedom to challenge accepted beliefs is assumed to be essential to advancing knowledge. The 1st Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and of the press, as do the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the European Convention on Human Rights among other statements. But like other rights, my right to freedom of speech may conflict with yours, or it may infringe on other important rights or societal objectives. As a result, freedom of speech cannot be (and in practice is not) unlimited. In this seminar, we will be asking why freedom of speech has been accorded such importance, and how and why it might legitimately be limited, in politics, in business, in everyday life, and in universities, looking both at the United States and at other liberal democracies. Reading will include opinions (both majority and dissenting) of courts in the United States, Canada, and Europe, with discussion informed by Justice Robert Jackson’s quip about the US Supreme Court (but equally applicable to other top-level courts): “We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.”

• Days/Times: MW 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Katz, Richard Stephen
• Room: Gilman 134
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 3/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

"What don’t we do with words? Even silence makes manifest the power of speech. This course will introduce you to some of the ways that power has been described and thought about. In addition to studying arguments that connect the power of speech to what it means to be human, we will explore various attempts both to protect and limit speech, taking into consideration not only how we do things with words but how words affect us. Topics that will be covered include freedom of speech, censorship, hate speech, talking back, silence, and storytelling. We will read texts in philosophy, political science, law, and literature, and we will watch at least one film or play. While we discuss the power of speech, we will also reflect on the ways in which discussion fosters a community. In other words, the experience of our discussion is a topic for our conversation. First-year seminars are designed to encourage “meaningful civil exchange among students across disciplinary interests and backgrounds” as well as to “foster early, sustained faculty-student interaction and mentorship.” We will talk about how such seminars are supposed to work and how they may (or may not) realize their goals. Reading, analyzing, and discussing the texts assigned in this course will help us develop foundational critical thinking skills; how might these activities also establish a sense of (group) identity?

• Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
• Instructor: Culbert, Jennifer
• Room: Jenkins 107
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

This First-Year Seminar is designed for students of all backgrounds to provide a mathematical introduction to social choice theory, weighted voting systems, apportionment methods, and gerrymandering. In the search for ideal ways to make certain kinds of political decisions, a lot of wasted effort could be averted if mathematics could determine that finding such an ideal were actually possible in the first place. The seminar will analyze data from recent US elections as well as provide historical context to modern discussions in politics, culminating in a mathematical analysis of the US Electoral College. Case studies, future implications, and comparisons to other governing bodies outside the US will be used to apply the theory of the course. Students will use Microsoft Excel to analyze data sets. There are no mathematical prerequisites for this course.

• Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Cutrone, Joseph W
• Room: Krieger Laverty
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/12
• PosTag(s): AGRI-ELECT

In a moment in time in which our very democracy at risk, this First-Year Seminar will investigate why democratic erosion is occurring, its ramifications, and how to address it. Led by Scott Warren, the co-founder and former CEO of Generation Citizen, a national civics education organization, and a current Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute, this seminar will be heavily discussion-based, relate to current events, and will explore the dynamics and interplay between the realities of democracy in the US and around the world, social entrepreneurship, social change, and policy. This course aims to introduce students to some of the most important issues and debates surrounding democratic consolidation and erosion around the world. Students will study different case studies of democratic erosion and social transformation (or proposed social transformation) from across the United States and world. We will also explore how movements across the world in response to authoritarianism and anti-democratic sentiment are driving the themes explored in the course.

• Days/Times: M 12:00PM - 2:30PM
• Instructor: Warren, Scott L
• Room: Greenhouse 113
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/12
• PosTag(s): AGRI-ELECT

What does it mean to translate? Is a translation merely a transposition of a text or speech from one language to another, or does it entail more? Can the act of translating happen between different genres? What does critical reading entail? In this class we will use the well-known myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to answer these and other questions by analyzing different versions of the myth that span across time, space, language, genre, and media. We will not just learn about translation broadly defined, but also about the metaphor of translation as a transition or a crossing between (or a-cross) multiple entities. Much like Orpheus, we will embark upon a journey of discovery full of forks and twists in the road, only to discover that what Orpheus was searching for might not be as far removed from contemporary questions of identity, self, and our place in the world.

• Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Avesani, Tatiana
• Room: Gilman 108
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 16/18
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course surveys scholarly approaches to processes, relations, institutions, and social structures that cross, subvert, or transcend national borders. The course will also introduce students to research tools for global studies.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/20
• PosTag(s): INST-GATEWY, INST-IR, POLI-IR, CES-BM

This course surveys scholarly approaches to processes, relations, institutions, and social structures that cross, subvert, or transcend national borders. The course will also introduce students to research tools for global studies.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/20
• PosTag(s): INST-GATEWY, INST-IR, POLI-IR, CES-BM

This course surveys scholarly approaches to processes, relations, institutions, and social structures that cross, subvert, or transcend national borders. The course will also introduce students to research tools for global studies.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/20
• PosTag(s): INST-GATEWY, INST-IR, POLI-IR, CES-BM

This course surveys scholarly approaches to processes, relations, institutions, and social structures that cross, subvert, or transcend national borders. The course will also introduce students to research tools for global studies.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/20
• PosTag(s): INST-GATEWY, INST-IR, POLI-IR, CES-BM

This course surveys scholarly approaches to processes, relations, institutions, and social structures that cross, subvert, or transcend national borders. The course will also introduce students to research tools for global studies.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/20
• PosTag(s): INST-GATEWY, INST-IR, POLI-IR, CES-BM

This course surveys scholarly approaches to processes, relations, institutions, and social structures that cross, subvert, or transcend national borders. The course will also introduce students to research tools for global studies.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/20
• PosTag(s): INST-GATEWY, INST-IR, POLI-IR, CES-BM

An introductory overview of Western Political Theory, starting with Plato and the Greeks, moving through Machiavelli and the moderns, and ending up with a brief look at current political theory. We will analyze a range of theoretical styles and political approaches from a handful of thinkers, and develop our skills as close readers, efficient writers, and persuasive speakers.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Phillips, Chas.
• Room: Hodson 303
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/19
• PosTag(s): INST-PT, POLI-PT, CES-ELECT

This course provides an analysis of US foreign policy with a focus on the interests, institutions, and ideas underpinning its development. It offers a broad historical survey that starts with US involvement in the First World War, covers major developments of the twentieth century, and concludes with contemporary issues. Important themes include the developments underpinning the emergence of the liberal world order, strategies of containment during the Cold War, nuclear deterrence and antiproliferation efforts, the politics of international trade, alliance politics, technological and security policy, and the re-emergence of great power competition.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Schmidt, Sebastian
• Room: Krieger 205
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, INST-IR, CES-LSO, CES-FT

This course provides an analysis of US foreign policy with a focus on the interests, institutions, and ideas underpinning its development. It offers a broad historical survey that starts with US involvement in the First World War, covers major developments of the twentieth century, and concludes with contemporary issues. Important themes include the developments underpinning the emergence of the liberal world order, strategies of containment during the Cold War, nuclear deterrence and antiproliferation efforts, the politics of international trade, alliance politics, technological and security policy, and the re-emergence of great power competition.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Schmidt, Sebastian
• Room: Krieger 205
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 3/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, INST-IR, CES-LSO, CES-FT

This course provides an analysis of US foreign policy with a focus on the interests, institutions, and ideas underpinning its development. It offers a broad historical survey that starts with US involvement in the First World War, covers major developments of the twentieth century, and concludes with contemporary issues. Important themes include the developments underpinning the emergence of the liberal world order, strategies of containment during the Cold War, nuclear deterrence and antiproliferation efforts, the politics of international trade, alliance politics, technological and security policy, and the re-emergence of great power competition.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Schmidt, Sebastian
• Room: Krieger 205
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 10/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, INST-IR, CES-LSO, CES-FT

This course provides an analysis of US foreign policy with a focus on the interests, institutions, and ideas underpinning its development. It offers a broad historical survey that starts with US involvement in the First World War, covers major developments of the twentieth century, and concludes with contemporary issues. Important themes include the developments underpinning the emergence of the liberal world order, strategies of containment during the Cold War, nuclear deterrence and antiproliferation efforts, the politics of international trade, alliance politics, technological and security policy, and the re-emergence of great power competition.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Schmidt, Sebastian
• Room: Krieger 205
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, INST-IR, CES-LSO, CES-FT

This course provides an analysis of US foreign policy with a focus on the interests, institutions, and ideas underpinning its development. It offers a broad historical survey that starts with US involvement in the First World War, covers major developments of the twentieth century, and concludes with contemporary issues. Important themes include the developments underpinning the emergence of the liberal world order, strategies of containment during the Cold War, nuclear deterrence and antiproliferation efforts, the politics of international trade, alliance politics, technological and security policy, and the re-emergence of great power competition.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 9:00AM - 9:50AM
• Instructor: Schmidt, Sebastian
• Room: Krieger 205
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 10/16
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, INST-IR, CES-LSO, CES-FT

Over the past several decades, the power and importance of America’s presidency have greatly expanded . Of course, presidential history includes both ups and downs, some coinciding with the rise and fall of national party systems and others linked to specific problems, issues, and personalities. We should train our analytic eyes, however, to see beneath the surface of day-to-day and even decade-to-decade political turbulence. We should focus, instead, on the pronounced secular trend of more than two and a quarter centuries of American history. Two hundred years ago, presidents were weak and often bullied by Congress. Today, presidents are powerful and often thumb their noses at Congress and the courts. For better or worse, we have entered a presidentialist era.

• Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Ginsberg, Benjamin
• Room: Krieger 308
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): POLI-AP, INST-AP

Introduces fundamental patterns, puzzles, and theories on the politics of income inequality.

• Days/Times: WF 3:00PM - 4:15PM
• Instructor: Rehm, Philipp
• Room: Hodson 203
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/16
• PosTag(s): INST-ECON, CES-LC, CES-RI, CES-GI

This course provides an introduction to climate solutions by reviewing the politics and technologies in all major sectors: electricity, transportation, biofuels, hydrogen, buildings, heavy industry, and agriculture. In each area, we will first understand the existing technologies and potential solutions. But to understand decarbonization, we also have to study the political economy of these technologies. What role do the technologies play in the broader economy? Who will win or lose from the transition? What firms and countries dominate and control current and emerging supply chains? What makes a climate solutions project bankable? How can states design policies, regulations, and programs to successfully manage the politics of technology change?

• Days/Times: MW 9:00AM - 9:50AM, F 9:00AM - 9:50AM
• Instructor: Allan, Bentley
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 3/20
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, INST-ECON, ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR, ENGY-SCIPOL, CES-LE, CES-TI

This course provides an introduction to climate solutions by reviewing the politics and technologies in all major sectors: electricity, transportation, biofuels, hydrogen, buildings, heavy industry, and agriculture. In each area, we will first understand the existing technologies and potential solutions. But to understand decarbonization, we also have to study the political economy of these technologies. What role do the technologies play in the broader economy? Who will win or lose from the transition? What firms and countries dominate and control current and emerging supply chains? What makes a climate solutions project bankable? How can states design policies, regulations, and programs to successfully manage the politics of technology change?

• Days/Times: MW 9:00AM - 9:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Allan, Bentley
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/20
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, INST-ECON, ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR, ENGY-SCIPOL, CES-LE, CES-TI

Recommended Course Background: AS.190.214

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Spence, Lester
• Room: Shaffer 202
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-RI

“Can the United States and China avoid a new Cold War? One might think not given disputes over the South China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, human rights, trade, ideology and so much more. Moreover, competition for influence in the developing world and American concerns as to whether China will replace it as the preeminent world power suggest a new Cold War is in the offing. Nevertheless, their extensive economic ties and need to work together to solve common problems such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, and pandemics argues against a continuing confrontation. This course will examine whether cooperation or conflict will define Sino-American relations, and whether a new Cold War—or even a shooting war—lies in the future.”

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: David, Steven R
• Room: Mergenthaler 366
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): INST-IR

This class explores the ideas and legal doctrines that define the freedom of speech. We will examine the free speech jurisprudence of the U.S. in comparison to that of other systems, particularly the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of Canada.

• Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Katz, Richard Stephen; Zackin, Emily
• Room: Gilman 377
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, INST-CP, CES-LSO, AGRI-ELECT

Nationalism ties powerful organizations to political mobilization, territory, and individual loyalty. Yet nationalism is typically studied in isolation from other social formations that depend upon organizational – individual linkages. Alternative types of identity category sometimes depend similarly upon organizations that collect and deploy resources, mobilize individuals, erect boundaries, and promote strong emotional connections among individuals as well as between individuals and institutions. In this class, we study classic and contemporary works on nationalism, drawn from multiple disciplinary and analytic traditions, in the comparative context of alternative forms of identity. The focus of the class will be primarily theoretical, with no regional or temporal limitations.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Kocher, Matthew Adam
• Room: Bloomberg 168
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/18
• PosTag(s): INST-CP, INST-PT, CES-BM, CES-RI

This is a writing intensive, advanced undergraduate political theory seminar. The course will examine the politics of memory: how power shapes what is available to be remembered, the timing and occasions of memory, who is allowed to remember, and the spaces inside of which remembrance takes place. Specifically, the seminar will explore how segregated memory enables racial segregation and racial inequality. Toward that end, we shall investigate political and theoretical interventions potentially equipped to contest contemporary forms of racial amnesia haunting what some have labeled a “post-truth” world.

• Days/Times: W 3:00PM - 5:30PM
• Instructor: Brendese, PJ Joseph
• Room: Gilman 277
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/15
• PosTag(s): INST-PT, CES-RI

This course introduces students of politics to international law. We will explore historical roots and current problems, recognizing along the way persistent contestation over the participants, sources, purposes, and interests associated with international law. The course situates formal aspects of law—centered on international treaties, international organizations, the World Court (ICJ), and the International Criminal Court (ICC)—within a broader field of global governance consisting of treaty-based and customary law, states and transnational actors, centralized and decentralized forms of legal authority. We will place special emphasis on the significance of international law to colonialism, decolonization, and contemporary forms of imperialism, keeping in mind that the law has been experienced differently in the Global South and by actors not recognized as sovereign by states in positions of power. Students will be exposed to a range of approaches, including rational choice, various species of legalism, process-oriented theories, critical legal studies, and postcolonial critiques.

• Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Ross, Andrew
• Room: Gilman 17
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/19
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR, INST-IR, CES-LSO

This course examines the politics of food at the local, national, and global level. Topics include the politics of agricultural subsidies, struggles over genetically modified foods, government efforts at improving food safety, and issues surrounding obesity and nutrition policy. Juniors, seniors, and graduate students only. Cross-listed with Public Health Studies. A student who takes AS.190.223 (Understanding the Food System) in Summer 2021 cannot also enroll in this course.

• Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Krieger 307
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/19
• PosTag(s): ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR, CES-LE, CES-BM, CES-CC

A close reading of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Ethics by Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), with consideration of important commentaries on these works. What conceptions of the human being, nature, reason, God, and freedom are defended and affirmed by Hobbes and Spinoza? What rhetorical strategies accompany their theories of self, ethics, social life?

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Bennett, Jane; Culbert, Jennifer
• Room: Gilman 208
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/15
• PosTag(s): INST-PT

This seminar will address the role of violence–both domestic and international–in political life. Though most claim to abhor violence, since the advent of recorded history, violence and politics have been intimately related. States practice violence against internal and external foes. Political dissidents engage in violence against states. Competing political forces inflict violence upon one another. Writing in 1924, Winston Churchill declared–and not without reason–that, "The story of the human race is war." Indeed, violence and the threat of violence are the most potent forces in political life. It is, to be sure, often averred that problems can never truly be solved by the use of force. Violence, the saying goes, is not the answer. This adage certainly appeals to our moral sensibilities. But whether or not violence is the answer presumably depends upon the question being asked. For better or worse, it is violence that usually provides the most definitive answers to three of the major questions of political life--statehood, territoriality and power. Violent struggle, in the form of war, revolution, civil war, terrorism and the like, more than any other immediate factor, determines what states will exist and their relative power, what territories they will occupy, and which groups will and will not exercise power within them. Course is open to juniors and seniors.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Ginsberg, Benjamin
• Room: Croft Hall G02
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, CES-LSO

Europe has been in a sense the first testing ground for theories of comparative politics, but many outsiders now see Europe as a pacified and somewhat boring place. This course will question conventional wisdom through an examination of European politics in historical and cross-national perspective. We will apply the comparative method to the study of European politics today, and conversely we will ask what Europe tells us more generally about politics. We will see that Europe is still a locus of intense conflict as well as remarkably diverse experimentation. Topics will include: political, legal, and economic governance; the evolution of democracy and fundamental rights, the welfare state, class stratification, immigration and race, the role of religion; European integration and globalization. Recommended background: Introduction to Comparative Politics.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Jabko, Nicolas
• Room: Maryland 309
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 7/15
• PosTag(s): INST-CP, CES-ELECT

This course offers a graduate-level introduction to the field of comparative politics, focusing on the substantive questions that drive contemporary research. Issues will include: state formation and state capacity; regime typology, democratization, and democratic backsliding; party systems and political behavior; political economy and economic development; racial, ethnic, and religious politics; and revolutions and political violence. Readings include both classic and recent works, selected to help students both prepare for major or minor comprehensive exams and frame their own research projects.

• Days/Times: Th 2:00PM - 4:30PM
• Instructor: Teele, Dawn Langan
• Room: Mergenthaler 366
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 7/8
• PosTag(s): POLI-CP, INST-CP, CES-ELECT, AGRI-ELECT

Over the seven decades since their invention, nuclear weapons have been a central focus in international politics. This course explores the fundamental question: what political arrangements ensure security from nuclear weapons? The debate has evolved through three stages. Initially (1945-1960), radical political changes were anticipated due to the perceived imminent threat of nuclear war. In the second stage (1960-1990), deterrence became a key concept, but opinions differed on the necessary conditions for it. The end of the Cold War marked an unexpected shift. In the third stage (1990-present), concerns about proliferation and terrorism emerged, leading to disagreements on preventive/pre-emptive actions versus arms control and disarmament. Realist international theories have been conflicted throughout these stages, with ongoing debates on arms control, public involvement, and the impact of nuclear security measures on liberal democratic governments.

• Days/Times: M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Deudney, Daniel Horace
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/40
• PosTag(s): INST-IR

Humanitarianism has become a pervasive form of moral and political action in world politics. Over the course of the twentieth century and beyond, humanitarian logics infused the conduct of war and informed global governance in many areas—from refugee relief and post-conflict reconstruction, to peacekeeping and development, to migration, ecological security, and recovery from natural disasters. And yet, while often celebrated as an achievement, humanitarianism involves ambiguities, contradictions, and pathologies demanding critical scrutiny. This seminar aims, first, to interrogate critically the history of humanitarian practices and, second, to refine and revise concepts used to study and evaluate those practices. We pursue these aims in part with an eye to understanding mutations of humanitarian politics accompanying contemporary challenges to the post-WWII liberal international order. Topics include: (1) the invention of “humanity” as an idea/ideal; (2)humanitarianism, war and empire; (3) varities of humanitarianism; (4) humanitarian violence; (5) humanitarian expertise and institutions; (6) humanitarianism, media, and technology;

• Days/Times: W 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Barkawi, Tarak Karim; Ross, Andrew
• Room: Mergenthaler 366
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/10
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR, INST-IR, CES-ELECT

This course will survey the history of geopolitics and green industrial from China’s wind and solar push in the 1990s to the Inflation Reduction Act and beyond. We will seek to understand the determinants of industrial policy, best practices for industrial policy, and the effects of industrial policy on climate politics. The lens of geopolitics and industrial policy provides a unique avenue to understand world order. Through this lens, we will see how energy systems and technology competition animate and structure global politics.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Allan, Bentley
• Room: Mergenthaler 366
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/9
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR, CES-LE, CES-PD, CES-TI, INST-GLOBAL

Over the last quarter millennium, the United States of America has been the most successful state in world politics. It has had the world’s largest economy since 1870, and was on the winning side of the three great world struggles of the 20th century. During these struggles, the fate of liberal capitalist democracy in the world has been closely connected with the rise and success of the USA. This course examines the rise and impacts of the USA in comparative and international perspective. What factors account for the success of the USA during the late modern era? How has the rise and influence of the USA shaped world politics? The course focuses on the causes, consequences and possible alternatives of three founding moments (1776-88, 1861-67 and 1933-36), the role of wars against illiberal adversaries in strengthening American liberal national identity, the ways in which the internal logics of the Philadelphian states-union (1787-1861) and the liberal international order among advanced industrial democracies (1945-) as alternatives to Westphalian state-systems, the role and consequences of the US as an anti-imperial power, and the internal dual between liberal America dedicated to the Founding principles and an ‘alt-America’ of slavery and white supremacy.

• Days/Times: T 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Deudney, Daniel Horace
• Room: Gilman 119
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/15
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR, INST-CP, INST-IR, CES-PD

Institutions are a ubiquitous part of political life. Much of the work of political life, both inside and outside government, is only possible through institutions - arrangements of power that provide continuity over time, have a relatively stable mission, jurisdiction and organizational structure. Democracy itself is dependent upon - but perhaps also constrained by - institutions. Institutions are subjects of profound anxiety, across the political spectrum, albeit for different reasons. Those anxieties come from fears about hierarchy, elite capture, illegitimacy, inflexibility, gerontocracy and ineffectiveness. This class will investigate the reasons for the creation and maintenance of institutions, the sources of institutional anxiety, and the challenges that this anxiety creates for the effective, responsible and democratic exercise of power

• Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Shilliam, Robbie; Teles, Steven Michael
• Room: Gilman 55
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/15
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR, INST-IR, AGRI-ELECT, CES-LSO

This course is a survey of modern political thought for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students. Its purpose is to (1) introduce some of the most significant texts in early modern European political theory, (2) survey a selection of the most important recent scholarly studies of these sources, and (3) develop theoretical and methodological skills at analyzing and interpreting the texts and the scholarship they have inspired.

• Days/Times: Th 9:00AM - 11:30AM
• Instructor: Valdez, Inés
• Room: Macaulay 101
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 6/8
• PosTag(s): POLI-PT, INST-PT, CES-ELECT

Open to and required for Political Science majors writing a thesis. International Studies majors writing a senior thesis under the supervision of a Political Science Department faculty member may also enroll. Topics include: research design, literature review, evidence collection and approaches to analysis of evidence, and the writing process. The course lays the groundwork for completing the thesis in the second semester under the direction of the faculty thesis supervisor. Students are expected to have decided on a research topic and arranged for a faculty thesis supervisor prior to the start of the semester. Seniors. Under special circumstances, juniors will be allowed to enroll. Enrollment limit: 15.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room: Mergenthaler 326
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

This class introduces students to the core theories, concepts and empirical analyses of two levels of collective action analysis: social movements and advocacy organizations. We will explore current and past social movements to ask questions both fundamental (e.g. “Why do social movements start?” “Under what conditions do they succeed?”) and to look critically at the real-world constraints and opportunities contemporary advocacy organizations face.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Smithson-Stanley, Lynsy Suzanne
• Room: Hodson 211
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/18
• PosTag(s): POLI-AP, INST-AP, CES-ELECT, AGRI-ELECT

The course will focus on the origin and development of the Arab-Israeli conflict from its beginnings when Palestine was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, through World War I, The British Mandate over Palestine, and the first Arab-Israeli war (1947-1949). It will then examine the period of the Arab-Israeli wars of 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982, the Palestinian Intifadas (1987-1993 and 2000-2005); and the development of the Arab-Israeli peace process from its beginnings with the Egyptian-Israeli treaty of 1979, the Oslo I and Oslo II agreements of 1993 and 1995, Israel's peace treaty with Jordan of 1994, the Road Map of 2003; and the periodic peace talks between Israel and Syria. The conflict will be analyzed against the background of great power intervention in the Middle East, the rise of political Islam and the dynamics of Intra-Arab politics, and will consider the impact of the Arab Spring.

• Days/Times: T 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Freedman, Robert
• Room: Maryland 104
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/20
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, INST-CP

This course will explore the evolution of Russian Foreign Policy from Czarist times to the present. The main theme will be the question of continuity and change, as the course will seek to determine to what degree current Russian Foreign Policy is rooted in the Czarist(1613-1917) and Soviet(1917-1991) periods, and to what degree it has operated since 1991 on a new basis. The main emphasis of the course will be on Russia's relations with the United States and Europe, China, the Middle East and the countries of the former Soviet Union--especially Ukraine, the Baltic States, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. The course will conclude with an analysis of the Russian reaction to the Arab Spring and its impact both on Russian domestic politics and on Russian foreign policy.

• Days/Times: W 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Freedman, Robert
• Room: Krieger 304
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 7/20
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR, INST-IR, INST-CP

Over the past three decades, East Asia has been the most dynamic region in the world. East Asia has a remarkable record of high and sustained economic growth. From 1965 to 1990, the twenty-three economies of East Asia grew faster than all other regions of the world mostly thanks to the ‘miraculous growth’ of Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand; these eight countries, in fact, have grown roughly three times as fast as Latin America and South Asia, five times faster than Sub-Saharan Africa, and significantly outperformed the industrial economies and the oil-rich Middle East and North Africa regions. Poverty levels have plummeted and human-development indicators have improved across the region. The course is divided into three parts to allow students to develop expertise in one or more countries and/or policy arenas, while also cultivating a broad grasp of the region and the distinct challenges of “fast-paced, sustained economic growth.” Part I will introduce the subject, consider the origins of Asian economic development, and analyse the common economic variables behind the region’s success. It will look at the East Asian Crisis and will consider its lessons and assess whether or not East Asian countries have learned them. While the course will show that there are many common ingredients to the success of the region’s economies, it will also show that each country is different, and that differences could be, at times, quite stark. Hence, Part II will focus on the development experiences of individual countries, with a special emphasis on the ASEAN economies, NIEs, Japan and China. Finally, Part III will consider various topics of special interest to Asia, including trends toward greater regional economic cooperation, both in the real and financial/monetary sectors, and issues related to poverty, migration, and inclusiveness in the region. NOTE: Contact Dr. Dore if prerequisites are not met.

• Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Dore, Giovanna Maria Dora
• Room: Croft Hall G02
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/20
• PosTag(s): INST-ECON, CES-PD

Did you know that Brazil is very similar to the United States? This course is intended as an introduction to the culture and civilization of Brazil. It is designed to provide students with basic information about Brazilian history, politics, economy, art, literature, popular culture, theater, cinema, and music. The course will focus on how Indigenous, Asian, African, and European cultural influences have interacted to create the new and unique civilization that is Brazil today. The course is taught in English. No Prereq. THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: De Azeredo Cerqueira, Flavia Christina
• Room: Latrobe 107
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/31
• PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL

Dystopia (from the Latin) means “bad place.” Classic literary dystopias such as We, 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 depict societies gone wrong, bad places in which socioeconomic ideas promise harmony but produce nightmarish, even apocalyptic outcomes. A common theme of dystopian fiction is the conflict between collective need and individual desire. In this course we will pursue this theme, and others, as we read works of fiction alongside influential works of socio-economic thought. One of our aims will be to tease out the buried dreams and latent possibilities in the historical realities and literary imaginings of dystopic worlds. Readings include selections from popular fiction and contemporary media as well as texts by authors such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Hayek, Rosa Luxemburg, W.E.B. Du Bois, Franz Kafka, Juli Zeh, Olivia Wenzel, Elias Canetti, Brigitte Riemann, Hannah Arendt, Frantz Fanon, Herta Müller, and Philip K. Dick.

• Days/Times: TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Todarello, Josh
• Room: Gilman 77
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 11/14
• PosTag(s): MLL-GERM

The global political and security landscape of the 21st century will be shaped by the rivalry between two superpowers -- China and the U.S. For the foreseeable future, the geographic focus of that contest will be Southeast Asia and the surrounding maritime space, particularly the South China Sea. Southeast Asia is a complex, highly differentiated region of ten-plus nations, each with its own unique history and relationship with China. This course will introduce Southeast Asia as a key region -- geographically, economically, and strategically -- often overlooked by policymakers and scholars. It will also focus on the craft of national security strategy as the best tool for understanding the multi-sided competition, already well underway involving China, the U.S., and the Southeast Asian states.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Ott, marvin C
• Room: Mergenthaler 266
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/15
• PosTag(s): INST-CP, INST-IR

This course begins by reviewing canonical texts in modern political philosophy beginning with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and ends by exploring classic questions in contemporary debates in race, gender, and identity.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Lebron, Christopher Joseph
• Room: Hodson 216
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): CES-LSO, CES-LC, CES-RI, INST-PT, PHIL-ETHICS

This course begins by reviewing canonical texts in modern political philosophy beginning with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and ends by exploring classic questions in contemporary debates in race, gender, and identity.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Lebron, Christopher Joseph
• Room: Hodson 216
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): CES-LSO, CES-LC, CES-RI, INST-PT, PHIL-ETHICS

This course examines the ideals and operation of the American political system. It seeks to understand how our institutions and politics work, why they work as they do, and what the consequences are for representative government in the United States. Emphasis is placed on the federal government and its electoral, legislative, and executive structures and processes. As useful and appropriate, attention is also given to the federal courts and to the role of the states. The purpose of the course is to understand and confront the character and problems of modern government in the United States in a highly polarized and plebiscitary era.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 1/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-ELECT, POLI-AP

This course examines the ideals and operation of the American political system. It seeks to understand how our institutions and politics work, why they work as they do, and what the consequences are for representative government in the United States. Emphasis is placed on the federal government and its electoral, legislative, and executive structures and processes. As useful and appropriate, attention is also given to the federal courts and to the role of the states. The purpose of the course is to understand and confront the character and problems of modern government in the United States in a highly polarized and plebiscitary era.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-ELECT, POLI-AP

This course examines the ideals and operation of the American political system. It seeks to understand how our institutions and politics work, why they work as they do, and what the consequences are for representative government in the United States. Emphasis is placed on the federal government and its electoral, legislative, and executive structures and processes. As useful and appropriate, attention is also given to the federal courts and to the role of the states. The purpose of the course is to understand and confront the character and problems of modern government in the United States in a highly polarized and plebiscitary era.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 1/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-ELECT, POLI-AP

This course examines the ideals and operation of the American political system. It seeks to understand how our institutions and politics work, why they work as they do, and what the consequences are for representative government in the United States. Emphasis is placed on the federal government and its electoral, legislative, and executive structures and processes. As useful and appropriate, attention is also given to the federal courts and to the role of the states. The purpose of the course is to understand and confront the character and problems of modern government in the United States in a highly polarized and plebiscitary era.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 5/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-ELECT, POLI-AP

This course examines the ideals and operation of the American political system. It seeks to understand how our institutions and politics work, why they work as they do, and what the consequences are for representative government in the United States. Emphasis is placed on the federal government and its electoral, legislative, and executive structures and processes. As useful and appropriate, attention is also given to the federal courts and to the role of the states. The purpose of the course is to understand and confront the character and problems of modern government in the United States in a highly polarized and plebiscitary era.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 6/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-ELECT, POLI-AP

This course examines the ideals and operation of the American political system. It seeks to understand how our institutions and politics work, why they work as they do, and what the consequences are for representative government in the United States. Emphasis is placed on the federal government and its electoral, legislative, and executive structures and processes. As useful and appropriate, attention is also given to the federal courts and to the role of the states. The purpose of the course is to understand and confront the character and problems of modern government in the United States in a highly polarized and plebiscitary era.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 14/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-ELECT, POLI-AP

This course examines the ideals and operation of the American political system. It seeks to understand how our institutions and politics work, why they work as they do, and what the consequences are for representative government in the United States. Emphasis is placed on the federal government and its electoral, legislative, and executive structures and processes. As useful and appropriate, attention is also given to the federal courts and to the role of the states. The purpose of the course is to understand and confront the character and problems of modern government in the United States in a highly polarized and plebiscitary era.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 3/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-ELECT, POLI-AP

This course investigates core questions of what constitutes political freedom, what limits on freedom (if any) should be imposed by authority, adn the relationship between freedom, responsibility, and political judgement. Spanning texts ancient, modern, and contemporary, we shall investigate how power inhabits and invigorates practices of freedom and consent. Among the questions we will consider: Can we always tell the difference between consent and coercion? Are morality and freedom incompatible? Is freedom from the past impossible? By wrestling with slavery (freedom's opposite) we will confront the terrifying possibility that slavery can be both embodied and psychic. If our minds can be held captive by power, can we ever be certain that we are truly free? The political stakes of these problems will be brought to light through a consideration of issues of religion, gender, sexuality, civil liberties, class and race.

• Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:20PM, F 1:30PM - 2:20PM
• Instructor: Brendese, PJ Joseph
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/20
• PosTag(s): INST-PT

This course investigates core questions of what constitutes political freedom, what limits on freedom (if any) should be imposed by authority, adn the relationship between freedom, responsibility, and political judgement. Spanning texts ancient, modern, and contemporary, we shall investigate how power inhabits and invigorates practices of freedom and consent. Among the questions we will consider: Can we always tell the difference between consent and coercion? Are morality and freedom incompatible? Is freedom from the past impossible? By wrestling with slavery (freedom's opposite) we will confront the terrifying possibility that slavery can be both embodied and psychic. If our minds can be held captive by power, can we ever be certain that we are truly free? The political stakes of these problems will be brought to light through a consideration of issues of religion, gender, sexuality, civil liberties, class and race.

• Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:20PM, F 1:30PM - 2:20PM
• Instructor: Brendese, PJ Joseph
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/20
• PosTag(s): INST-PT

This course investigates core questions of what constitutes political freedom, what limits on freedom (if any) should be imposed by authority, adn the relationship between freedom, responsibility, and political judgement. Spanning texts ancient, modern, and contemporary, we shall investigate how power inhabits and invigorates practices of freedom and consent. Among the questions we will consider: Can we always tell the difference between consent and coercion? Are morality and freedom incompatible? Is freedom from the past impossible? By wrestling with slavery (freedom's opposite) we will confront the terrifying possibility that slavery can be both embodied and psychic. If our minds can be held captive by power, can we ever be certain that we are truly free? The political stakes of these problems will be brought to light through a consideration of issues of religion, gender, sexuality, civil liberties, class and race.

• Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:20PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Brendese, PJ Joseph
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 6/20
• PosTag(s): INST-PT

This course investigates core questions of what constitutes political freedom, what limits on freedom (if any) should be imposed by authority, adn the relationship between freedom, responsibility, and political judgement. Spanning texts ancient, modern, and contemporary, we shall investigate how power inhabits and invigorates practices of freedom and consent. Among the questions we will consider: Can we always tell the difference between consent and coercion? Are morality and freedom incompatible? Is freedom from the past impossible? By wrestling with slavery (freedom's opposite) we will confront the terrifying possibility that slavery can be both embodied and psychic. If our minds can be held captive by power, can we ever be certain that we are truly free? The political stakes of these problems will be brought to light through a consideration of issues of religion, gender, sexuality, civil liberties, class and race.

• Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:20PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Brendese, PJ Joseph
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 13/20
• PosTag(s): INST-PT

Introduces fundamental patterns, puzzles, and theories on the politics of income inequality.

• Days/Times: WF 3:00PM - 4:15PM
• Instructor: Rehm, Philipp
• Room: Bloomberg 168
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/16
• PosTag(s): INST-ECON

The plots and settings of fictitious works provide “cases” for the exploration of international relations theories. Incorporates literature, film, and works of IR scholarship.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 2/20
• PosTag(s): INST-IR

This course examines Latinos and the American political landscape – taking seriously the political lives of Latinos to sharpen accounts of American political development. In Part I: Latinos and American Empire, we will examine how American state building, American racial capitalism, and American empire created a varied set of racialized citizenship regimes that shaped the legality and membership of Latinos – depending on the interplay between domestic racial hierarchies and international projects. In Part II: Latinos and the Administrative State, we will examine how the regulation of Latino immigrants and asylum seekers from Latin America and the Caribbean have been an engine for American political development – including the making of border bureaucracies, networked policing that harnesses the institution of federalism, and the development of ocean-spanning detention infrastructure. In Part III: Latinos as Targets, we will examine how Latinos became racialized as ‘illegals’ and became the prime targets of state action – and how state efforts have led to the suppressing of political agency, mobilization of collective action, and even integration of Latinos into the enforcement apparatus. In Part IV: Latinos, Hierarchies, and Power, we will examine the political power of those most marginalized among the Latino population – including Black, Trans, Queer, Immigrant, and Undocumented Latinos – to learn about how these groups contend with intragroup and intergroup hierarchies, their role in intersectional movements, and their organizing under repressive conditions. In Part V: Latinos and Placemaking, we conclude with Latino placemaking across the United States to examine how Latinos – in relation with and to, and in coalition with Black, Indigenous, and Asian organizing – are cultivating and asserting political and policy influence in the face of climate change, policing, detention, and gentrification.

• Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Bautista-Chavez, Angie M.
• Room: Bloomberg 276
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/19
• PosTag(s): POLI-AP, INST-AP, CDS-MB, CDS-SSMC, CES-LSO, CES-PD, CES-RI

This course studies the complexity of international human rights as a vehicle for political change. The course approaches human rights as a set of legal instruments and practices, but also as a flexible political and symbolic toolbox used to address sometimes very divergent claims to justice. It pays attention to the roles of states, as well as the growing authority of human rights organizations, institutions, and online networks. We begin with a survey of major international human rights instruments before using a series of case studies to better understand how those instruments are used in practice. Rather than assume that human rights are always effective and benevolent, we set out to consider which kinds of policies they enable and which they foreclose. Cases also raise questions about the universality of human rights across cultural settings and demand critical reflection on how human rights function in North-South relations. The course draws from research aimed at improving the practice of human rights, as well as perspectives approaching human rights as instruments of power.

• Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Ross, Andrew
• Room: Gilman 219
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/19
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, CES-BM, CES-LSO, CES-RI, POLI-IR

What is "Marxism"? After years of obscurity, Marxism has returned to recent political and academic debates, often without any clear indication of what the term might actually mean, or how it might differ from other "radical" political traditions. In this class, we will study and discuss the most important works of Karl Marx and Marxian thinkers, from their philosophical foundations to their analysis of global capitalism, class struggle, and the roles of states and culture. In the second part of the semester, we will trace this tradition through some of the great upheavals in the 20th century: from the Russian Revolution to particular variants of the struggles against colonialism in the developing world and against racism in the United States. In the process, we will focus on the central ideas distinguishing Marxism from other philosophies as well as from adjacent, allied, and rival political movements.

• Days/Times: TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Roundtree, Jacob; Schmitz, Volker
• Room: Gilman 313
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): POLI-PT, INST-PT, CES-LC, CES-LSO, CES-PD

The future of Israel has never been more uncertain. Although external threats from Arab countries have abated, the danger posed by a nuclear attack from Iran grows with each passing day. Equally alarming is the growing domestic threat to Israel’s existence as a Jewish democracy. Efforts by Israel’s ruling coalition to weaken the High Court call into question whether the liberal democratic character of Israel can persist. The possibility of civil war, once thought impossible, cannot be discounted. In assessing how Israel can cope with these existential threats, lessons from the destruction of the ancient Israelite kingdoms will be examined.

• Days/Times: W 4:00PM - 6:30PM
• Instructor: David, Steven R
• Room: Mergenthaler 366
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): INST-CP

For the most part, observers of American politics have not considered the possibility that the American democratic regime might be at risk. But the unexpected election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the subsequent course of his presidency have occasioned a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety about whether democracy in the United States is at risk and whether American political institutions can withstand the stresses of contemporary politics. This course will use the Trump era to explore the conditions that seem to threaten the stability of the American regime. We will begin by exploring the political circumstances that led to Trump’s rise. We will then examine what we can learn from the experience of other countries about the conditions that make democracy either robust or fragile. Finally, we will consider how a set of contemporary political conditions in the United States — extreme partisan polarization, intense racial antagonism, growing economic inequality, and expanded executive power — contribute to the challenges facing American democracy today and in the future.

• Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Lieberman, Robert C
• Room: Krieger 307
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, CES-LSO, POLI-AP

This course provides an overview of public opinion in the United States. We will explore what affects people’s political opinions, how opinions change, and how opinions affect (and are affected by) politics. Some of the questions we will discuss are: What is public opinion? How much do Americans know about politics? How do the issue positions of leading politicians affect public opinion? How do race relations affect public opinion? What role does partisanship play in all this? When and how do people change their minds about politics? How can my voice be heard in politics? The class will read papers that include quantitative/statistical work; a prior knowledge of statistical methods would be helpful but it is not required for success in the course. The final paper will be based on an original research project, the successful completion of which does not require any statistical training.

• Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
• Instructor: Trump, Kris-Stella
• Room: Gilman 55
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/30
• PosTag(s): POLI-AP, INST-AP

Whether thought of as a biological reality or a social construction, “race” is viewed simultaneously as global and as intensely domestic. In this course I seek to examine race from a comparative perspective. What if we thought of race as a political construction, one produced both domestically and transnationally? In this class we will examine how race and racism are produced across as well as within borders, comparing the United States with similar and dissimilar cases. Further we will examine how comparative racial politics shape and are shaped by political movements, ideologies, and orders.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Spence, Lester
• Room: Krieger 308
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/20
• PosTag(s): INST-CP, POLI-CP, CES-RI

This is an exploratory research lab course that examines Rastafari – a transnational movement with roots in the Caribbean and presence in Baltimore and DC. Students learn about the history, philosophy, and practices of the movement as well as its confrontations with racist systems of political and economic governance. Students are prepared to undertake research with the movement, which culminates in a week long immersion with the movement in Jamaica.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Shilliam, Robbie
• Room:  
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/10
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR, POLI-AP, INST-CP, CES-BM, CES-CC, CES-LC

While the United States has long been a democracy for white men, it has mostly been anything but democratic when seen through the eyes of Black Americans. But progress toward the expansion of democracy has occurred at a few times in American history. What made American democratization possible, and how might the United States again move toward more complete and inclusive democracy?

• Days/Times: TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
• Instructor: Lieberman, Robert C
• Room: Krieger 302
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/20
• PosTag(s): n/a

With the tools of geopolitics, course explores political debates over globalization of machine civilization and changes in scope and pace, space and place, and role of nature in human affairs.

• Days/Times: T 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Deudney, Daniel Horace
• Room: Mergenthaler 366
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/10
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, POLI-IR, CES-LE, CES-TI

Although “the market” is conventionally understood as separate from “politics”, the modern market economy did not arise in a political vacuum. In fact, the very separation between the economy and politics is itself the product of a politically potent set of ideas. This course is an upper-division reading seminar on the origins and evolution of the modern market economy. Readings will include Smith, Marx, Weber, Polanyi, Keynes, Hayek, Friedman, Becker, and Foucault. Recommended course background: Introduction to comparative politics OR any college-level course in social or political theory.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Jabko, Nicolas
• Room: Mergenthaler 366
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 3/15
• PosTag(s): CES-PD, CES-FT, INST-ECON, POLI-CP, POLI-PT

Intensive exploration of theories of how geography, ecology, and technology shape political orders. Case studies of ancient, early modern, global, and contemporary topics, including European ascent, industrial revolution, tropics and North South divide, climate change, geo-engineering and global commons (oceans, atmosphere and orbital space

• Days/Times: M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Deudney, Daniel Horace
• Room: Gilman 55
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/40
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, INST-PT, POLI-IR, CES-LE

We are used to thinking of sovereignty, the state, and war as fairly self-evident concepts and as the bedrock of so much work, not only in academic international relations, but also in policy discourse. It seems straightforward that sovereign states wage war, and war in turn may make or break states. Under conditions of rapidly advancing globalization, however, the relationship of these concepts is anything but straightforward. This class builds on historical investigations into state formation, the relationship of the military instrument to the state, the progressive globalization of the defense industrial base, the rapidly changing practices of security under technical innovation, and related phenomena to question notions of state and security and to better understand the past and present fault lines of conflict. This is a graduate course that welcomes advanced undergraduates with previous international relations coursework at instructor’s discretion.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Schmidt, Sebastian
• Room: Mergenthaler 366
• Status: Approval Required
• Seats Available: 1/5
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR, INST-IR

The power to coin money was historically central to the formation of sovereign states. Yet the relationship between money and sovereignty has considerably evolved over time. First, the emergence of nation-states and of popular sovereignty meant that money was no longer primarily a state and elite concern, but also increasingly a matter of everyday life and mass politics. Second, the increasing integration and financialization of the world economy produced new challenges for sovereignty. We will discuss historical and social science scholarship that address these historical trends and the politics of money and sovereignty today. Topics will include: capitalism, public budgets and debts, central banks, populism, democracy, financialization, international integration.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Jabko, Nicolas
• Room: Maryland 104
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/5
• PosTag(s): POLI-CP, INST-ECON, INST-IR, CES-FT, CES-LE, CES-LSO

This course takes a critical look at the histories, theories, and practices of student activism. The course material addresses questions such as: what explains movement success and failure in different contexts? What is the connection between community organizing and campus activism? How and why do non-violent protests turn violent? And what differences, if any, obtain between left and right leaning forms of student protest?

• Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Shilliam, Robbie
• Room: Gilman 377
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/20
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Brendese, PJ Joseph
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: David, Steven R
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Marlin-Bennett, Renee E
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Zackin, Emily
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Freedman, Robert
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Shilliam, Robbie
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Chung, Erin
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Culbert, Jennifer
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Ginsberg, Benjamin
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Sheingate, Adam
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Simon, Josh David
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Han, Hahrie
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Barkawi, Tarak Karim
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Phillips, Chas.
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Teles, Steven Michael
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Lieberman, Robert C
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Deluca, Stefanie
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Seniors also have the opportunity to write a senior research thesis. To be eligible to write this thesis, students must identify a faculty sponsor who will supervise the project.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Weaver, Vesla Mae
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

The objective of this course is to examine the American right in comparative context with an emphasis on discussing how scholarship defines key terms, engaging various empirical cases from around the world ranging from Hungary to Turkey to India, and placing particular emphasis on linking theory with practice by inviting experts and scholars from within and beyond academia to discuss contemporary developments in global politics. We will closely consider major themes and concepts from other introductory political science courses such as democratic backsliding, global populism, the administrative state, and varieties of conservatism and partisanship. There are no prerequisites for this course and students from fields outside political science and international studies are strongly encouraged to participate. Dean's Teaching Fellowship.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Gover, Jessica Ann
• Room: Bloomberg 276
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): POLI-AP, POLI-CP, INST-AP, INST-CP, CES-ELECT

The prospect of rapid technological development, coupled with the fragility of existing political institutions, has led many futurists to argue that humanity’s chances of surviving the 21st century are no better than a coin flip. This course will introduce students to the nascent, interdisciplinary field of Existential Risk Studies while situating the conversation of ‘the politics of the apocalypse’ within a wider geophysical, sociological, and geopolitical perspective. Topics to be considered include nuclear technology, climate change and biospheric collapse, geoengineering, artificial superintelligence, transhumanism, and space expansionism as potential causes of political and existential crises.

• Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Scott, Henry Gabriel
• Room: Bloomberg 276
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR, POLI-PT, INST-IR, INST-PT, CES-LE, CES-TI

What does it mean to live in a world often characterized as “post-truth” or “post-moral”? The postmodern turn is often characterized by a rejection of moralism. Such criticisms often argue that that which has often been called ‘morality’ is only one way in which to valuate the better and the worse—and one which impoverishes life since its works by ‘judging life’ utilizing criteria which claim to stand outside and above the life thus judged. However if this is only one way in which to evaluate, the question which is raised is: what other frameworks for valuation could there be? This course will investigate what may be meant by the critique and explore other frameworks for valuation primarily through the immanent processual ethics proposed in Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics. Through reading Spinoza’s ethical framework in conversation with various considerations from fields such as the scientific, mathematical, literary, cinematic, and painterly, we will explore a possible alternative framework of normative evaluation, populated by considerations such as: power of action, capacity for affecting and being affected, what a body can do.

• Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Kim, Jiyoung
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 13/15
• PosTag(s): POLI-PT, INST-PT

This course satisfies the gateway requirement for the major in International Studies and it satisfies the requirement for a 100-level course in comparative politics for the major in Political Science. Substantively, the classes introduces students to the study of politics and political life in the world, with a particular focus on the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Throughout the course, we will analyze the sources of order and disorder in modern states, addressing a series of questions, such as: why did nation-states form? What makes a state a nation? Why are some states democracies while others are not? How do people organize to fight oppression? Why does conflict sometimes turn violent? What are the causes of ethnic war? Drawing on a mix of classic works and contemporary scholarship, we will discuss the answers that scholars have formulated to address these and other questions, paying special attention to research design and the quality of argumentation.

• Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Lawrence, Adria K
• Room: Remsen Hall 101
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/90
• PosTag(s): INST-CP, INST-IR, INST-GATEWY, CES-LSO, CES-PD, POLI-CP

East Asia’s “miracle growth” has not gone hand in hand with a decisive move toward democracy. Over the last 30 years, only eight East Asian countries have become democratic out of more than 60 countries worldwide, and they continue to struggle with the challenges of democratic consolidation, weak political governance, and limited citizens’ political engagement. This course explores the reasons why democratization proceeds slowly in East Asia, and seems to be essentially decoupled from the region’s fast-paced economic growth. The choice of Korea, Indonesia, and Myanmar as the case studies for this course results from their authoritarian past as well as their more recent institutional and political trajectories towards democracy.Contact instructor if prerequisites are not met.

• Days/Times: W 1:00PM - 3:30PM
• Instructor: Dore, Giovanna Maria Dora
• Room: Mergenthaler 266
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 6/15
• PosTag(s): INST-CP, INST-ECON, CES-PD

This course will explore the dynamics and interplay between social entrepreneurship, social change, and policy. Students will explore this specific moment in our democracy, and contextualize erosion happening in international and domestic contexts. The course will examine the intersection between social change and policy change, examining how the two concepts intersect while focusing on the end goal of systems change and furthering democracy. Students will examine different case studies of social transformation (or proposed social transformation) from across the United States and world. Guest speakers will include diverse practitioners of social entrepreneurship who think about long-term pathways to transformative social change, and dynamic policymakers. While the course will include case studies on broader domestic and international challenges and models of democratic erosion, a larger focus will be on specific local social problems and solutions. This will manifest through class discussions and a final project based on the surrounding community.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Warren, Scott L
• Room: Hodson 301
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 3/30
• PosTag(s): AGRI-ELECT, CES-CC

How long has AI been part of our cultural imagination? This course critically engages instances of artificial intelligence in thought, literature, and film from the 17th century to the present. In conversation with the realities of machine learning, algorithms, generative AI, large language models, automation, and so on, we will investigate the nature of artificial intelligence vis-à-vis issues of labor, consciousness, collectivity, individualism, fantasy, and futurity. Students will consider philosophical texts alongside works of science fiction, literature, and film. Readings may include texts by Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Poe, Hofmannsthal, Marx, Foucault, Alan Turin, Charles Babbage, Philip K. Dick, and Ursula Le Guin. No technical knowledge or prior courses are required!

• Days/Times: TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
• Instructor: Todarello, Josh
• Room: Hodson 211
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM, CES-TI

Political thinkers from Ernst Bloch and Carl Schmitt to Reinhard Koselleck and Theodor W. Adorno have long been drawn to Heinrich von Kleist’s novella “Michael Kohlhaas” because of the questions it raises about what a just political order would be when, in the context of this story, only the threat of violence enables the powerless to be heard. The novella takes place in the latter half of the sixteenth century as the feudal era is coming to an end, and Kohlhaas’s struggle to rectify the damage done to his property reveals the vulnerability of the then emerging merchant class to the still unchecked power of the nobility. Yet Kohlhaas’s response to the situation proves to be as arbitrary as the injustice he faces, and the only solution the novella can find for this impasse is a fairy tale that embodies—in all senses of the phrase—poetic justice. This course will examine the novella in its historical context (Reformation, doctrine of natural law, Prussian land reform) and with an eye toward modern thought on state violence, terror, liberalism, and the power of art. All texts and discussion in English.

• Days/Times: WF 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Tobias, Rochelle
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/15
• PosTag(s): MLL-GERM, INST-GLOBAL

This course will introduce students to the cutting-edge debates on global migration and refugees and give them a first-hand look at the complicated interactions between research, politics, and policy-making. Each week, students will read the work of a featured scholar who will visit the class as a guest lecture, giving students the unique opportunity to directly engage with the scholar. In addition, policy makers, community groups, and activists dealing with migration will visit the class for guest lectures, and students will have the opportunity to learn exactly how, when, and why research is (and is not) applied on the ground. To highlight the global nature of the theme, the course will highlight issues of immigration and emigration, receiving and sending countries, in the global North and South. This course is offered in Washington DC and is available to students accepted to the Spring 2025 Hopkins Semester DC only.

• Days/Times: Th 2:30PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Agarwala, Rina
• Room: 555 Penn 448
• Status: Approval Required
• Seats Available: 15/20
• PosTag(s): INST-IR, INST-GLOBAL