Catalogue 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Political Science Department
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Chair: Samson Okoth Opondo;
Professors: Richard Born, Andrew Davison, Leah Haus, Katherine Hite, Himadeep Muppidi, Sidney Plotkinb, Stephen R. Rocka, Fubing Sub;
Associate Professors: Luke C. Harrisab, Samson Okoth Opondo;
Assistant Professors: Taneisha Meansa, Claire Sagana, Mallory Whiteduck;
Visiting Associate Professor: George Ciccariello-Maher;
Visiting Assistant Professor: Matthew Reid Krell.
a On leave 2021/22, first semester
b On leave 2021/22, second semester
ab On leave 2021/22
Political Science Major Advisers: The department.
Major
Correlate Sequence in Political Science
Four correlate sequences are available in political science: one each in American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Politics, and Political Theory. 6 political science units are required to complete each sequence. With the approval of the sequence adviser, up to 2 units of political science credit transferred from outside Vassar may count toward the completion of the sequence. With the approval of the sequence adviser, a maximum of 1 unit of fieldwork may count toward completion of the sequence. Up to 1 unit of work elected NRO, taken before declaring a correlate sequence, may count toward completion of the sequence. After declaring a correlate sequence, no course elected NRO may count toward completion of the sequence. Political Science: I. Introductory
The courses listed below are introductions to the discipline of political science: American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Politics, and Political Theory. One introductory course is required of majors. No more than two introductory courses in different subfields may be counted towards the major. Except where otherwise noted, enrollment of juniors and seniors for 100-level courses by permission of the instructor only. -
POLI 140 - American Politics Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
An analysis of the American political system and the structures and processes by which public policies are formulated and implemented. Attention is focused upon decision making in institutions of American national government, such as Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court, and upon political behavior—public opinion, voting, and other forms of political activity. Attention is also given to evaluation of selected public policies and contemporary issues, and questions of political change. Richard Born.
American Politics: Conflict and Power. An analysis of US politics as an example of the uses of conflict to uphold and/or to change established relationships of power and public policy. A main focus is on alternative theories and strategies of conflict, especially as reflected in such institutions as the constitution, court, party system, interest groups, the media, and presidency. A major focus is on the conflict implications of business as a system of power, its relation to the warfare state and the US international project. Materials may be drawn from comparisons with other political systems. Sidney Plotkin.
American Politics: Groups, Revolutions, and Political Movements. This course is a study of the origins, development, structure, and functions of the American Political System and government. First, students are (re)introduced to the system’s historical roots, and the major political and policy-making institutions of the national government. The second half of the course focuses on mass political behavior and interests, and the following topics are covered: public opinion, mass media, political participation, and campaigns and elections. In the course, emphasis is placed on factors and groups that shape American politics, such as the digital and social media revolutions, social movements, racial/ethnic minorities and the Millennial generation. The course incorporates contemporary political events and situations such as the 2016 presidential election, judicial vacancies, and recent social movements. Taneisha Means.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 150 - Comparative Politics Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
An examination of political systems across the world chosen to illustrate different types of political regimes, states, and societies. The political system is seen to include formal institutions of government, such as parliaments and bureaucracies; political parties and other forms of group life; those aspects of the history and social and economic structure of a society that are relevant to politics; and political beliefs, values, and ideologies. Special attention is given to the question of political change and development, whether through revolutionary or constitutional process.
Comparative Politics: Analyzing Politics in the World. This course introduces how comparativists analyze politics within states in the world. Topics include state formation, democracy and dictatorship, political economy, social movements, revolution, ethnicity, and political culture. The course draws from both theoretical work and country and regional case studies that may include the US, Chile, China, India, Cuba, Great Britain, Iran, the Middle East, South Africa and East Asia. The course uses cases to analyze and compare basic concepts and patterns of the political process. Students should come away from the course with both an understanding of the diversity of the world’s political systems, as well as an appreciation of the questions and concepts that inform the work of political scientists. Katherine Hite, George Ciccariello-Maher.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 160 - International Politics Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
An examination of major issues in international politics, including national and international security and production and distribution of wealth, along with selected global issues such as human rights, ethnic nationalism and ethnic conflict, migration and refugees, environmental degradation and protection, and the impact of developments in communication and information technologies. Attention is also given to the origins, evolution, and the future of the contemporary international system, as well as to competing theoretical perspectives on world politics. Leah Haus, Himadeep Muppidi, Stephen Rock.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 170 - Political Theory Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Theorizing happens every day and encompasses a wide variety of practices. Seeking to generate perplexity about ‘the given,’ conversations engage various modes of expression that haunt the present, shape possible futures, and allow us both to theorize the political and politicize the theoretical. Andrew Davison, Mallory Whiteduck.
Course Format: CLS
Political Science: II. Intermediate
Prerequisite: Freshmen may take a 200-level course only with the permission of the instructor, which usually requires satisfactory completion of an introductory course. For sophomores, juniors, and seniors, an introductory course is recommended but not required. -
POLI 207 - Political Analysis
1 unit(s)
This course emphasizes techniques for testing political science hypotheses via statistical analysis of quantitative data. The great majority of time is spent dealing with two major areas: 1) how empirical data are collected through survey research and other methods, and 2) how these data are then analyzed so as to confirm or disconfirm hypotheses about political thinking and behavior. Students learn how to use the SPSS statistical software package in order to perform their analyses. Richard Born.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
Political Science: II. Intermediate A. American Politics
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POLI 236 - The Military and American Politics Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A study of domestic sources of US militarism and war-making. Themes include the role of violence in American development; Presidential War Powers and congressional deference; changing patterns of civil military relations and the military’s place in American democracy; the political economy of war and military industrial complex; the national security state (CIA, NSC, NSA). Sidney Plotkin.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 238 - Power and Public Policy
1 unit(s)
An examination of the policy consequences of power in the United States, including the role of the corporation as a policy making institution and the influence of citizens and social movements on public policy. The emphasis is on theories of power, relationships between economic and political power, and the impact of power on ideology and the structuring of policy alternatives, policy making, and policy implementation. Case studies may include policy areas such as health, environment, tobacco, technology, and mass media. Sidney Plotkin.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 240 - The American Presidency Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An analysis of the American presidency, with emphasis on recent presidents. Topics include presidential nominations and elections; the nature and use of presidential power; the institutionalized presidency; policy making in the White House; the relationship between presidents and other key political factors, e.g., the Congress, the bureaucracy, the media, and public opinion; and the role of presidential personality and style. Richard Born.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 241 - Congress
1 unit(s)
An analysis of the contemporary and evolving U.S. Congress, its organization, functions, and politics. Topics include congressional elections, redistricting, and representation; political polarization; the internal life and norms of the House and Senate; the structure of power in Congress; the current disarray afflicting the House Republican party; interest groups and lobbying; presidential-congressional relations; the congressional response to selected public problems; and political change and the future of Congress. Richard Born.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 243 - Constitutional Law Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course examines the art of constitutional analysis through the prism of a multifaceted exploration of the central thematic concerns of the Critical Race Theory Movement, as it has developed in the legal academy. It engages an array of perspectives on constitutional interpretation. In so doing, we examine, among other things, a number of Supreme Court opinions that focus on the intersection of issues of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation.
Topic for 2021/22b: This course is modeled very closely after the kind of constitutional law course that first-year law students take in the United States. As such, the starting point for conversations are the cases themselves. However, from there we discuss larger policy issues beyond the recognition of legal doctrine, including asking what factors affect case outcomes, what consequences come from cases, and how political actors outside the legal system react to constitutional cases. Some of the issues that are addressed in this course include racial and sexual segregation, the source and logic of American-style judicial review, powers of Congress, powers of the Presidency, powers of states, religious claims, substantive and procedural due process, sovereign and qualified immunity, abortion, and LGBT discrimination. Matthew Reid Krell.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 244 - Political Parties and Public Opinion Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An examination of the nature and roles of public opinion and political parties in American politics, with emphasis on democratic means of political participation and influence in contemporary America. Special attention is paid to mass and elite political attitudes and behavior, techniques of public opinion polling, the impact of public opinion on policy making, recent national elections, campaign techniques and strategies, and the changing party system. Richard Born.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 245 - Courts, Judges and American Judicial Politics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course examines the central issues in Judicial Politics and the principal questions asked within the subfield. Among other topics, students consider the role of the courts in the American political system, the structure of the federal and state judiciaries, the judicial selection process, the nature of decision-making, inter-branch relations and conflict within the judicial hierarchy, public opinion on the institution, and the social impact of courts. In the course, special emphasis is placed on exploring how and why U.S. courts are political institutions and American judges are political actors.
Topic for 2021/22b: This course surveys the system of courts in the United States, with particular attention being paid to contemporary issues related to the judicial branch of government. The issues we cover include: courts as political institutions; organization of the federal and state courts; the function of the judiciary; the roles and impact of the actors working within the judicial system; analysis of criminal, civil, and appellate courts; and, the implications of the judiciary on public policy in the United States. The central focus of this class is on the importance of the judicial process within the overall political system in the United States. Thus, this course should provide students with an appreciation that courts inherently are political institutions, as are the actors (such as judges and lawyers) working within the judicial system. Matthew Reid Krell.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 246 - Civil Rights
1 unit(s)
This survey course examines the causal and remedial relationship of law to racial discrimination. Following a brief historical overview of the law’s engagement with race, the course considers the development of civil rights claims in a number of areas such as education, housing and employment. Competing visions of racial equality embedded in civil rights legislation, in case law and in legal discourse and theory will be evaluated as well as critiques of traditional models of anti-discrimination law. Throughout the class we will seek to assess how the legal system has accommodated racism and racial subordination as well as the extent to which racial progress is both enabled and delimited within the legal frame. Luke Harris.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 247 - The Politics of Difference
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 247 ) This course relates to the meanings of various group experiences in American politics. It explicitly explores, for example, issues of race, class, gender, disability, and sexual orientation. Among other things, this course addresses the contributions of the Critical Legal Studies Movement, the Feminist Jurisprudence Movement, the Critical Race Movement, and Queer Studies to the legal academy. Luke Harris.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 248 - Racial and Ethnic Group Politics in Popular Culture
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 248 ) Popular culture often affects and depicts public opinion on prominent social and political issues, and attitudes towards racial and ethnic groups. In this course, students think critically about the ways popular culture influences and reflects U.S. racial and ethnic group politics. Students consider how popular culture portrays and provides insights into government actions and policies toward various racial and ethnic groups, race relations and prospects for political coalitions, group responses to discrimination, and Americans’ perceptions and attitudes on a number of cultural, political, social and policy dimensions. Among the topics studied are the following: aspects of the political histories of various groups in the U.S., anti-miscegenation and anti-interracial relationship attitudes, 20th and 21st century race relations, immigration and citizenship, political resistance, mobilization, empowerment and participation, and racial group membership, identity and consciousness. These topics are examined throughout the semester by reading scholarly texts, and analyzing music videos, television shows, motion pictures, and documentaries. Taneisha Means.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
Political Science: II. Intermediate B. Comparative Politics
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POLI 250 - Politics as Games Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course introduces a game theoretic approach used widely in the social and behavioral sciences. Politics often involves joint decision making by multiple players in interactive situations. Therefore this kind of reasoning is particularly fruitful for analyzing political phenomena. The course starts with a general discussion of rationality and proceeds to various model setups and solution concepts. The emphasis is on the application of these theoretical concepts to the real world. Class exercises and homework are designed to encourage students to analyze political events around us and the world. The main objective is the development of logical reasoning and not mathematical expression. Minimal amount of mathematics is used in the course. Fubing Su.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 252 - The Politics of Modern Social Movements Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course examines continuities and transformations in both the study and practice of modern political and social movements. The course explores why movements emerge, how they develop, and what they accomplish. We study several dimensions of collective action, including their organization, leadership, ideology or programmatic content, and objectives. Our case studies are rich and diverse, spanning actors and geographic regions, yet we consciously draw comparisons across the cases concerning movements’ origins, the context of power relations and political positioning within society. We also seek to understand the sometimes powerful, sometimes subtle influences of social movements on the nature of socioeconomic, gender, racial, ethnic, national and transnational relations today. Katherine Hite.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 253 - Transitions In Europe Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 253 and RUSS 253 ) This course addresses themes such as collapse of authoritarianism, democratic consolidation, institution of ‘rule of law’, deepening of markets, break-up of nation-states, and education and collective identity formation. These themes are explored in the European and Eurasian areas, where in recent decades there have been break ups (sometimes violent other times peaceful) of former countries; as well as an unprecedented deepening of the sharing of previously national power in the peculiar entity of the European Union.
The course focuses on the political history of, and alternative explanations for changes that have taken place in the spaces of the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia, and the European Union. The course focus includes the demise of communism in the former Soviet Union; the challenges of democratic consolidation, and institution of a capitalist market economy in post-Soviet Russia; the deepening of the Single European Market and capitalism in the European Union; the state of the nation-state and democracy in the European Union; migration and citizenship; and nationalist backlashes. Leah Haus.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 254 - Chinese Politics and Economy Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 254 ) This course offers a historical and thematic survey of Chinese politics, with an emphasis on the patterns and dynamics of political development and reforms since the Communist takeover in 1949. In the historical segment, we examine major political events leading up to the reform era, including China’s imperial political system, the collapse of dynasties, the civil war, the Communist Party’s rise to power, the land reform, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the initiation of the reform. The thematic part deals with some general issues of governance, economic reform, democratization, globalization and China’s relations with Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States. This course is designed to help students understand China’s contemporary issues from a historical perspective. For students who are interested in other regions of the world, China offers a rich comparative case on some important topics such as modernization, democratization, social movement, economic development, reform and rule of law. Fubing Su.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 255 - Subaltern Politics
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 255 ) What does it mean to understand issues of governance and politics from the perspective of non-elite, or subaltern, groups? How do subalterns respond to, participate in, and/or resist the historically powerful forces of modernity, nationalism, religious mobilization, and politico-economic development in postcolonial spaces? What are the theoretical frameworks most appropriate for analyzing politics from the perspective of the subaltern? This course engages such questions by drawing on the flourishing field of subaltern studies in South Asia. While its primary focus is on materials from South Asia, particularly India, it also seeks to relate the findings from this area to broadly comparable issues in Latin America and Africa. Himadeep Muppidi.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 256 - Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 256 and INTL 256 ) Conflicts over racial, ethnic and / or national identity continue to dominate headlines in diverse corners of the world. Whether referring to ethnic violence in Bosnia or Sri Lanka, racialized political tensions in Sudan and Fiji, the treatment of Roma (Gypsies) and Muslims in Europe, or the charged debates about immigration policy in the United States, cultural identities remain at the center of politics globally. Drawing upon multiple theoretical approaches, this course explores the related concepts of race, ethnicity and nationalism from a comparative perspective using case studies drawn from around the world and across different time periods.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 257 - Genre and the Postcolonial City
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 257 and URBS 257 ) This course explores the physical and imaginative dimensions of selected postcolonial cities. The theoretical texts, genres of expression and cultural contexts that the course engages address the dynamics of urban governance as well as aesthetic strategies and everyday practices that continue to reframe existing senses of reality in the postcolonial city. Through an engagement with literary, cinematic, architectural among other forms of urban mediation and production, the course examines the politics of migrancy, colonialism, gender, class and race as they come to bear on political identities, urban rhythms and the built environment. Case studies include: Johannesburg , Nairobi, Algiers and migrant enclaves in London and Paris. Samson Opondo.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 258 - Latin American Politics
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 258 ) Drawing from political processes across several Latin American countries, this course focuses on conceptual debates regarding political representation and participation, political institutions, political culture, and political economy in the region. A major theme is inequality. The course examines historical-structural patterns, relationships among social, economic, and political conditions at the national, sub-national and regional levels, and important social and political actors and institutions. The course also examines the evolution of US roles in Latin America. Katherine Hite.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 259 - Settler Colonialism in a Comparative Perspective
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 259 ) This course examines the phenomenon of settler colonialism through a comparative study of the interactions between settler and ‘native’ / indigenous populations in different societies. It explores the patterns of settler migration and settlement and the dynamics of violence and local displacement in the colony through the tropes of racialization of space, colonial law, production/labor, racialized knowledge, aesthetics, health, gender, domesticity and sexuality. Attentive to historical injustices and the transformation of violence in ‘postcolonial’ and settler societies, the course interrogates the forms of belonging, memory, desire and nostalgia that arise from the unresolved status of settler and indigenous communities and the competing claims to, or unequal access to resources like land. Case studies are drawn primarily from Africa but also include examples from other regions. Samson Opondo.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 284 - Latin American Revolutions Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Latin America has long been synonymous with revolution, and with good reason. The long 20th Century began and ended with rebellion in Mexico; intervening years saw guerrilla warfare spreading like wildfire, with revolutionary victories in Cuba and Nicaragua; and today, radical movements fight an uphill battle for change under the mantle of the “Pink Tide.” The roots of revolution run far deeper, however. This course offers a long view of Latin American revolutionary processes, with Indigenous struggles against colonization, slave revolts, and the complex dynamics of 19th-century wars of independence providing the necessary background for grasping the movements of the present and aspirations of the future. George Ciccariello-Maher.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
Political Science: II. Intermediate C. International Politics
Political Science: II. Intermediate D. Political Theory
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POLI 270 - Diasporas Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 270 and JWST 270 ) Topic for 2021/22b: Diasporic Poetics. What is poetic attuned exposure, and how might it possibly intensify the empirical, pragmatic, and ethical understandings of diaspora as an absence of, or alternative to, power? Andrew Bush and Andrew Davison.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 271 - Theorizing Global Blackness and Indigeneity
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 271 ) Recent years have seen simultaneous explosions of political struggle against both anti-Black racism (from Ferguson 2014 to Minneapolis 2020) and the colonial dispossession of Indigenous communities (from Canada’s Idle No More in 2012 to #NoDAPL in 2016). But many organizers and theorists alike continue to draw hard lines between the historical experiences of settler colonialism and chattel slavery, and consequently between Black and Indigenous struggles in the present. This course in comparative political theory expands our framework for approaching these questions in two ways: historically, by locating Blackness and Indigeneity in their broader context and shared genesis; and geographically, by considering these as intertwining and overlapping global phenomena. By engaging theorists and practitioners from across the Global South, we think through questions including Afro-Indigenous histories (from the Seminoles to Latin America), African Indigeneity, the settler colonialism and indigeneity Palestine, and what it would mean to reconfigure new, future identities in the course of shared struggles.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 272 - Feminist Thought and Politics: Sex, Gender, Matter
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 272 ) Since its beginnings, feminism has radically transformed the very foundations of politics, forcing us to rethink values and ideals as fundamental as freedom and equality. It has challenged former understandings of fundamental political concepts like power, and the distinction between the private and public spheres, as well as the personal and the political. Feminist theory is also incredibly creative and prolific in terms of its production of new concepts (e.g., gender). In this course we interrogate high-stakes questions such as: Are masculinity and femininity, men and women, heterosexual and homosexual, transsexual and cys-gender, the human and the nonhuman, contingent or universal categories? Are these categories empowering, alienating, both? Are racialized, sexed, gender, intersecting identities the necessary foundations for political action, or do they hinder the valuation of difference? What does feminist theory teach us about less apparently related issues like terrorism, colonialism, or environmental crisis? Claire Sagan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 273 - Interpreting Politics Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A detailed study of the philosophical underpinnings of various modes of interpreting politics: empiricism/positivism; interpretive/hermeneutic inquiry, critical theory, rational choice theory, realism, and discourse analysis. Aim is to understand the central concepts and goals of each approach, the kinds of explanations they seek to offer, and the views they posit regarding the relationship between politics and theory, on the one hand, and politics and the political analyst, on the other. Andrew Davison.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 274 - Indigenous Political Thought Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Algonquin elder William Commanda said, “Indians are born into politics.” Ojibway/Métis comedian and media maker Ryan McMahon wrote about his grandfather’d words to him at a young age: “Everything you do is political – you’re Anishinabe.” Native American and Indigenous peoples articulate their understanding of the self in relation to a political identity. This course introduces the schools of Indigenous political thought and considers the many ways politics play into the life of Indigenous peoples, ranging from theories of sovereignty to Indigenous international politics to major social movements. With readings in political theory, history, philosophy and literature, we explore the multiple perspectives of Indigenous communities and political organizations, Indigenous politicians and everyday folks on the rez. Mallory Whiteduck.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 275 - Reconsidering Western Political Thought
1 unit(s)
An engagement with the debated meanings and worldly political manifestations of selected, classical texts of “Western” political theory. Texts and interpretive literature vary from semester to semester and, in order to consider the “Western” quality of political theory, are read in conversation with texts understood to be discursively outside, or on the borders of, “the West.” Andrew Davison.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 276 - Political Theory from Below
1 unit(s)
This course in comparative political theorizing seeks to destabilize the traditional canon of Western thought by stretching our approach to understanding politics in three ways. First, it provides a hemispheric approach to political theory, drawing on political thinkers from across the Americas. Second, it thinks from a specific perspective—what has been called “the underside of history”—engaging specifically the voices of the colonized and enslaved. And third, by engaging not only professional philosophers but also organic intellectuals and radical activists, it seeks to stretch our understanding of who is capable of engaging in political theory. We begin with Argentinian philosopher of liberation Enrique Dussel, who formulates a positive notion of political power based on the struggles of the oppressed, before turning to the US context, where W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction lays the groundwork for approaching Black radicalism in the 20th-century. We then chart a parallel course from colonization to national liberation in Latin America before concluding with Gloria Anzaldúa’s prescient account of the open wound that is the southern border of the United States.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 277 - The Politics of Capitalism
1 unit(s)
An examination of theories of the relationship between capitalism, politics and the state. Central concerns include tendencies toward fiscal crisis, war, and waste; the impact of capital on political power and the sabotage of democracy; ideology, class consciousness and the potential for resistance from below. Authors to be considered include, among others, Thorstein Veblen, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Franz Neurmann, C. Wright Mills, and Sheldon Wolin. Sidney Plotkin.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 278 - Environmental Political Thought Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 278 and STS 278 ) In the current, urgent context of eco-catastrophe, the high-stakes question of how to rethink the human and the nonhuman arises (together, in relation with one another, entangled as they are, distinct as they might be…). Many theorists from myriad disciplines and multidisciplinary areas have taken on this question, some stressing the “intrinsic value” of the natural world, some proclaiming the end of nature, some critiquing the concept of Nature as so all-encompassing that it inevitably allows human claims to mastery of the nonhuman. Though this course cannot exhaustively survey all these approaches, we will explore some of the key contemporary debates (regarding mass extinction, Gaia theories, the oft-cited “Anthropocene”) pertaining to deep ecology, social and political ecology, de-growth theory, object-oriented ontology, speculative realism, environmental justice, posthumanism, ecofeminism, (feminist) new materialisms. Claire Sagan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 279 - Pandemic, Politics and Theory
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 279 ) Who knew that a virus could so radically interrupt, accelerate, damage, mobilize humans and nonhumans? In a context which reads increasingly like a tragic dystopia, this course explores theoretical texts that engage the current pandemic and its effects on power, discipline, and control. We discuss how the virus has transformed our relationship to temporality, the recognition and erasure of care work, the microbe’s relation to ecology and disaster capitalism, the pandemic’s effects on borders, immunity, community, and confinement, masks, faces and screens, mutual aid and abandonment, neoliberal austerity and public health, epidemiology and epistemology, the unknown and uncertainty, etc. Slavoj Zizek immediately described the “PANdemIC” as “a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection.” While Paul Preciado has argued that the lockdown has entrenched a biopolitics of “pharmacopornographic production,” Nick Mirzoeff has described New York City as a “necropolis” that should be transformed into decolonial networks of care. Wendy Brown, Lauren Berlant, Brian Massumi each reflected upon the quarantine. We attempt to ride the prolific wave of writings that came out of COVID19 and its biopolitics, for collective catharsis and in hopes to be better equipped to face this faceless event. Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT
Political Science: II. Intermediate: E. Other
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POLI 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group field projects or internships with prior approval of the adviser. Students are expected to do substantial directed reading in theoretical material specifically related to the field placement prior to or in conjunction with the field experience; to develop in consultation with a faculty supervisor a set of questions based on the theoretical reading to guide the field observations; to submit a written report relating the theoretical reading to the field observations or, in lieu of a report and at the option of the department, to take a final oral examination administered by two faculty members. No more than 1 unit of community-engaged learning (290) may be counted toward fulfilling the requirements of the minimum major. The department.
Special permission.
Course Format: INT -
POLI 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Independent work is normally based on a student’s desire to study with an instructor a specialized aspect of a course taken with that instructor. One unit normally entails substantial directed reading and/or the writing of a long paper and biweekly conferences with the instructor. In no case shall independent work satisfy the subfield distribution requirement. The department.
Special permission.
Course Format: OTH
Political Science: III. Advanced A. Optional Senior Thesis
Seminars in the 340s, 350s, 360s, and 370s are generally limited to twelve students and require permission of the instructor. Students taking seminars are expected to have taken relevant course-work at a lower level. The content of seminars can vary from year to year depending upon interests of students and instructors. Seminars might focus on topics too specialized to receive exhaustive treatment in lower-level courses; they might explore particular approaches to the discipline or particular methods of research; they might be concerned with especially difficult problems in political life, or be oriented toward a research project of the instructor. The thesis (POLI 300 , POLI 301 , POLI 302 ) and senior independent work (POLI 399 ) require permission of the instructor.
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POLI 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis, written in the fall semester.
Special permission.
Course Format: INT -
POLI 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in two semesters.
Special permission.
Yearlong course 301-POLI 302 .
Course Format: INT -
POLI 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in two semesters.
Special permission.
Yearlong course POLI 301 -302.
Course Format: INT
Political Science: III. Advanced B. American Politics Seminars
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POLI 341 - Seminar in Congressional Politics: U.S. House and Senate Election Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This seminar is focused on U.S. congressional elections, with some attention also devoted to interrelationships between voting for Congress and voting for the president. The ideas covered in the course are applied to the specific context of the 2010 midterms and the forthcoming 2012 elections. Among the topics studied are the following: 1) the ongoing massive redistricting of congressional districts; 2) the electoral effects of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision of 2010; 3) the emergence of 501(c)(4) “non-profit” groups and Super-PACs as major players in campaign financing; 4) the development of ever more sophisticated campaign technology, like “microtargeting” of voters; 5) the transformation of southern House and Senate seats from Democratic to Republican control; and 6) the increasing partisan polarization of American elections. Richard Born.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 343 - Seminar in Constitutional Theory
1 unit(s)
This seminar focuses on some core problems pertaining to constitutional interpretation, examining questions of constitutional theory and interpretation as they relate to issues of equality and full citizenship. The course discusses the nature and function of the Constitution, explores theories about how the Constitution should be interpreted, and examines the methods that interpreters use to decipher the meanings of constitutional provisions. These concerns are addressed by focusing on various dimensions of constitutional theories and decisions pertaining to questions related to anti-discrimination law. Some of the issues covered include standards of judicial review, Supreme Court interpretations of equal protection, the constitutional protection of groups as well as individuals, and the appropriateness of constitutional protections rooted in color-blind and gender-blind principles. Luke Harris.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 345 - Seminar on Litigation and Justice Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on the myriad ways that court litigants and litigators shape the law, judicial outcomes, and social understandings of justice through their choices and behavior. The primary focus in this seminar is civil litigation, and we discuss and analyze a range of cases concerning immigration, environmental justice, constitutional claims, qualified immunity, and employment law (e.g., race, sex, LGBT, disability, and wage claims). In our discussions, we also investigate the power of institutional litigants and organizations like the ACLU, the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, the Federalist Society, and the United States government, and the roles they play in shaping the legal system inside and outside the courthouse. In the latter part of the course, we discuss cases that highlight the law and politics of criminal sentencing. Throughout the course, we also address and examine the characteristics of law firms that engage in certain types of practice, the extent to which litigants and litigators influence judges and case outcomes, and ethical questions raised in lawyering and representing clients. Matthew Reid Krell.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 346 - Seminar on the U.S. Courts and Legal System Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 346 ) This course is designed to promote and facilitate healthy discussion, debate, and dialogue about the U.S. legal system and the centrality of race, ethnicity, and politics in the system. Students start the course by examining the roots of the modern legal system. In part II of the course, students explore the legal processes and actors significant to the system, such as police officers, lawyers, jurors, and jurists. Special attention is given to investigating and discussing diversity within the legal system and the myriad factors influencing legal actors’ decisions. The course concludes with students exploring and researching some of the issues facing the courts and our criminal legal system, such as the criminalization of marginalized populations, mass imprisonment and e-carceration, crimmigration, the treatment of individuals detained and confined in local, state, and federal penal institutions, the politics of re-entry and life post-incarceration, and demands for justice, reform, and abolition. Taneisha Means.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 348 - Seminar in Democracy and Power in America
1 unit(s)
An examination of tensions and adjustments between democratic ideals and the structures and practices of political and economic power in the United States. Sidney Plotkin.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor, normally an intermediate-level course in American Politics.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
Political Science: III. Advanced C. Comparative Politics Seminars
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POLI 351 - Africana Studies Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 351 ) This seminar explores both historical and contemporary debates within the field of Africana Studies. Students examine a variety of subjects and themes encompassing different disciplinary and interdisciplinary works drawn from the humanities and social sciences. The critical perspectives that the seminar engages draw attention to the political, representational and explanatory value of a variety of genres of expression and knowledge practices. By delving into philosophical, historical, aesthetic and political analyses of Africa and African Diaspora societies, subjects and practices, students acquire a deep understanding of Africana research methods culminating in a substantive research project. The particular subject and themes explored vary with the faculty teaching the course. Samson Opondo.
Prerequisite(s): AFRS 100 or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 352 - Redemption and Diplomatic Imagination in Postcolonial Africa Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 352 ) This seminar explores the shifts and transformations in the discourse and practice of redemptive diplomacy in Africa. It introduces students to the cultural, philosophical and political dimensions of estrangement and the mediation practices that accompany the quest for recognition, meaning and material well-being in selected colonial and postcolonial societies. Through a critical treatment of the redemptive vision and diplomatic imaginaries summoned by missionaries, anti-colonial resistance movements and colonial era Pan-Africanists, the seminar interrogates the ‘idea of Africa’ produced by these discourses of redemption and their implications for diplomatic thought in Africa. The insights derived from the interrogation of foundational discourses on African redemption are used to map the transformation of identities, institutional forms, and the minute texture of everyday life in postcolonial Africa. The seminar also engages modern humanitarianism, diasporic religious movements, Non-Governmental Organizations and neoliberal or millennial capitalist networks that seek to save Africans from foreign forces of oppression or ‘themselves.’ Samson Opondo.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 358 - State, Market and Development
1 unit(s)
The turmoil in the global economy has ignited a fierce debate about the proper role of government across the world. Does this mark the end of the free market ideology? Are governments going to take over more responsibilities in managing the economy and society? To engage these important questions, this course embarks on an intellectual journey to explore similar debates in the past and examine a variety of choices countries have made in different time periods and in different regions of the world. After a general discussion of some major analytical traditions in political economy, the course revisits scholarly exchanges over mercantilist policies in the 19th century, Marxist and Polanyian critiques of capitalism, structuralist theories in the mid-20th century, East Asian development in the 1980s, the socialist transition in the 1990s, and globalization in the 21st century. The course concludes with some new insights from the reinvigorated research in institutionalism and the welfare state. Particular attention is paid to the variegated conceptualization of development and intellectual bases for the role of state and market. Fubing Su.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 381 - The Politics of Memory Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This seminar is a multidisciplinary exploration of the politics of memory, broadly understood as the relationships of atrocious political pasts to the present. The seminar draws from comparative politics, international relations, political theory, media studies, art history, psychoanalysis, journalism, and fiction to examine and analyze the significance of the many manifestations of memory for politics. Works and sites examined include testimonies, declassified government documents, memorials, museums, artwork, performance, and trials, from around the globe. The seminar may include site visits. Katherine Hite.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
Political Science: III. Advanced D. International Politics Seminars
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POLI 360 - The Ethics of War and Peace
1 unit(s)
This course considers the moral rights and obligations of states, political and military leaders, soldiers, and ordinary citizens with respect to war and peace. Taking just war theory as our point of departure, we concentrate on three major questions: (1) When, if ever, is the use of military force permissible? (2) How may military force be used? (3) Who is responsible for ensuring that force is used only at a permissible time and in a permissible manner? Students are encouraged to develop positions on these matters and to apply them to recent and contemporary cases involving the use or potential use of force. Stephen Rock.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 362 - Seminar in International Politics: Migration and Citizenship Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This seminar addresses the causes and consequences of movement from countries such as Jamaica, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Afghanistan, China and Mexico to post-industrial countries in Europe, and the United States.
The seminar first considers different reasons for why people move across state borders, such as the role of economic forces, the legacies of colonialism, and escape from violence. The seminar then engages in a comparative analysis of the politics of ‘difference’ in post-industrial countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S.; and asks why these politics have played out quite differently in each country. Comparisons include migrants, minorities and the politics of ‘difference’ in countries of the former Soviet Union. So as to compare the politics of ‘difference,’ readings consider government policies to, societal views on, and experiences of migrants, minorities, & refugees. Readings address specific subjects including education policy in regard to the (grand) children of migrants; policies towards religious minorities; diverse views on the implications of multiculturalism and assimilation for gender inequity; perceptions on the economic consequences of immigration for other workers; and the sources and impact of anti-immigrant and anti-refugee political movements historically and contemporarily. Leah Haus.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 363 - Decolonizing International Relations
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 363 ) Colonial frameworks are deeply constitutive of mainstream international relations. Issues of global security, economy, and politics continue to be analyzed through perspectives that either silence or are impervious to the voices and agencies of global majorities. This seminar challenges students to enter into, reconstruct, and critically evaluate the differently imagined worlds of ordinary, subaltern peoples and political groups. We draw upon postcolonial theories to explore alternatives to the historically dominant explanations of international relations. Himadeep Muppidi.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 366 - Worlding International Relations Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This seminar is a writing intensive course where we explore how prominent thinkers/scholars of international relations have engaged the task of writing alternative worlds into the field of politics. Though located in the periphery, how have various thinkers imagined, articulated and taken up the challenge of crossing multiple colonial borders? While we read various authors, our focus is primarily on the act and practice of writing itself. We closely consider how those we read write, and we write and study each other’s works in order to collectively think through, critique and help ourselves imagine and write into existence variously silenced aspects of international relations. Himadeep Muppidi.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 367 - Strategic Thinking in Global Affairs Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 367 ) This seminar explores strategic thinking to attain large ends with limited means. We examine a historical set of instances in which individuals, groups, and/or nations have attempted to harness political, military, diplomatic, economic, environmental, legal, and scientific resources to advance national and global interests. Because strategic thinking requires the art of reconciling ends and means, we also examine how a range of people and groups with various levels of power balance what they think and want with the constraints that they face. Elizabeth Bradley and Robert Brigham.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 395 - Thinking Africa: Conversations on the Thought of Achille Mbembe
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 395 and FFS 395 ) The Intensive examines a select number of texts by Achille Mbembe, the Cameroonian postcolonial theorist and author of De La Postcolonie: Essai sur l’Imagination Politique dans L’Afrique Contemporaine (2000) [On The Postcolony (2001)], “Necropolitics” (2003), Sortir de la Grande Nuit (2010), Critique de la Raison Nègre (2013) [Critique of Black Reason (2016)]. Charting Mbembe’s intellectual history, the major debates and concepts he engages, and their implication for thinking with and about Africa, we discuss the complexity of an African thinker reflecting on the condition of a continent (and humanity at large).
A goal of this Intensive is to develop a greater critical fluency on what it means to think, read and write the world from Africa. With insights from Mbembe’s corpus and the work of his interlocutors, the Intensive explores the stakes of Mbembe’s thought and relates them to other lines of inquiry, reflection, and creativity. Working individually and collaboratively, the students undertake a large writing, translation, or creative project which engages an element of Mbembe’s work and relates it to an area of their intellectual interest.
This intensive is organized as a peer-to-peer, inter-disciplinary conversation hinging on three main activities: 1. Textual exegesis, translation (from French to English) of interviews, podcasts, and conference presentations, and critique. 2. Participation in two student-organized workshops with Mbembe’s interlocutors from different disciplines, e.g., Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Philosophy/French, Columbia University) and Abdourahman Waberi (Literature and Creative Writing, George Washington University). 3. Ongoing conversation and guided independent studies with the two professors teaching the intensive as they edit a volume on the themes of this intensive.
Working in English and French, this team-taught intensive allows students to collaboratively explore Mbembe’s ideas in ways that might not be possible in a traditional senior seminar. Our discussions will take place in English, with the French and Francophone Studies students reading some of the texts and writing their assignments in French for FFS credit. Patricia-Pia Célérier and Samson Opondo.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT
Political Science: III. Advanced E. Political Theory Seminars
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POLI 371 - Gender, Science and Politics
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 371 and WMST 371 ) In a context that some have described as “post-truth,” and in which “marching for Science” has become a form of resistance to power, there are high stakes behind science literacy. When the climate sciences are helping us understand our ecological condition, yet climatology and the new discourse of “Anthropocene” also has begun legitimizing fantasies of geoengineering the Earth, what would a feminist climatology look like? In today’s digital age, when boundaries between real/unreal, physical/virtual, human/natural, female/male seem to collapse all around us, should we, more-than-women and more-than-men espouse our new cyborg selves, or cling to an image of women-as-goddesses oh-so-close to nature, and to images of men as taming, mastering, dominating nature? What are some alternatives beyond these possibilities? This course critically engages the sciences from a feminist theoretical perspective. We examine the ”situated” nature of scientific knowledge, against the positivist grain of scientific claims to Truth and objectivity. We also examine how feminist theorists have drawn from some dissensual and innovative scientific theories of late, to inspire provocative arguments about the environment, ontology, and normativity. Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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POLI 372 - New Materialism
1 unit(s)
This seminar is a non-exhaustive survey of a recent and prolific current in theory called “new materialism” and “the nonhuman turn.” Consisting mostly of feminist theorists, new materialists argue for the need to build upon, radicalize, and sometimes even break from the previous post-structuralist focus on discourse (the so-called “linguistic turn”). They argue that it is time to re-emphasize materiality, bodies, biology, evolution, ecologies, the nonhuman, the more-than-human, even the specter of the posthuman. This attempt is partly inspired by the rise of digital and surveillance capitalism resulting in the omnipresence of technology in our daily lives and in the production of “cyborg” (Donna Haraway) subjectivities or “dividuals” (Gilles Deleuze). New materialism has also emerged in response to the “intrusion of Gaia” (Isabelle Stengers) or what some have called the “Anthropocene,” or the “ecological crisis” (arguably more aptly described as “eco-catastrophe”). Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 376 - Ecological Catastrophe and Nietzsche’s Eternal Return Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 376 and STS 376 ) This course explores several sorts of texts together, for thought experiments pertaining to our times of ecological catastrophe. We critically engage: 1) theories concerned with ecological collapse, extinction, catastrophism, and the oft-cited and ill-named Anthropocene 2) literature on Nietzsche within environmental political thought 3) literature on Nietzsche and gender 4) selected primary texts by Nietzsche. Examining the latter in close readings and in the context of our compromised ecological futures, we ask ourselves to what extent the Nietzschean concepts of “eternal return” and “will to power” may help us think in these troubled times: what would a feminist Nietzschean ecology look like? Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 377 - Everyday Indigenous Sovereignty Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Sovereignty is a weighty concept, and it has dominated scholarship in Native American and Indigenous history, politics and even literature. Sovereignty brings to mind images of grandeur: Indigenous leaders making speeches on the political stage or academics theorizing in offices. But what if Indigenous sovereignty is also a grandparent and grandchild going for a walk in the bush? In this seminar, we interrogate theories of Indigenous sovereignty by putting them into conversation with the everyday: ordinary behavior, small things and the quotidian elements of Native American and Indigenous life. Grounded by core texts written by Indigenous political thinkers, we consider how a turn to the everyday can actually be radical. Mallory Whiteduck.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 379 - Reading Black Reconstruction
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 379 ) W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction can be understood as a sort of Rosetta Stone of US history. By taking enslaved people seriously as political subjects, Du Bois permits us to understand how it was slaves themselves who determined both the meaning and the outcome of the Civil War, but who also sought to build an ambitious vision of “abolition-democracy” from the ashes of the slave order. All history is not past, however, and Black Reconstruction has become an increasingly necessary foundation for grappling with the persistent tangle of race and class in the US today. This seminar works through the essential contours of Du Bois’ mammoth text—the stretching of Marxist categories like class and general strike, the autonomous transformative capacity of slaves in struggle, and the ultimate betrayal of Reconstruction. But we also emphasize underdiscussed elements of the text, Du Bois’ analysis of a burgeoning imperialism and his own blind spots to gender and indigenous struggles. This seminar takes place in conjunction with a symposium of the same name, featuring the participation of some of the most important intellectual voices of our time, and an edited volume to be published by Duke University Press.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
POLI 384 - Seminar in Political Theory Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An examination of selected theorists and problems in contemporary political theory. Andrew Davison.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
Political Science: III. Advanced F. Other
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POLI 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Independent work is normally based on a student’s desire to study with an instructor a specialized aspect of a course taken with that instructor. Normally 1 unit entails substantial directed reading, the writing of a long paper, and biweekly conferences with the instructor. This course cannot be used to satisfy the requirement of 2 units of 300-level work in the major. In no case shall independent work satisfy the subfield distribution requirement. The department.
Special permission.
Course Format: OTH
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