All information in this guide is tentative and subject to change. Check the Political Science Department Office for updates. Information on rooms and times for the classes listed can be obtained from the university-wide Time Schedule of Classes or from the Political Science office.
“Cross listed” Courses”: These may be applied to a Political Science major or minor without a petition, regardless of the departmental prefix. For example, if you take African-American Politics as AAS 306, you do not need to petition to apply it to your Political Science major or minor.
"Meets With” Courses": If you take a “Meets With” course under a departmental prefix other than PSC, you will need to petition to count that course towards your Political Science major or minor.
Current information on rooms and times for classes can be obtained on your MySlice or from the Political Science office.
Maymester: May 24, 2021 - June 4, 2021
PSC 300 m800 Understanding Terrorism
Instructor: Katharine Russell
Class #: 70405
Offered: MTWThF, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm, Offered: ***ONLINE***
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
This course will examine the phenomenon of terrorism from a theoretical and historical perspective. Students will trace the historical development of terrorism and explore the major theoretical approaches to terrorism studies. Students will learn the major concepts within the subfield as well as compare and contrast its theoretical approaches. Through this theoretical study as well as the empirical examination of individual terrorist organizations, leaders, and counter-terrorism approaches, students will explore who engages in terrorism, how, why, where and when, and how governments respond.
PSC 300 m801 Politics of South Asia
Instructor: Sobia Paracha
Class #: 72294
Offered: MTWThF, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm, Offered: ***ONLINE***
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
This course will look into various facets of political and military conflicts in South Asia including but not limited to irregular/asymmetric warfare, territorial disputes, water and natural resources, nuclear weapons, international alliances, democratization process etc. A lot of the conflicts between the South
Asian states (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) are rooted in the history of colonization and decolonization process. That is why I will provide a primer on the history, but the main thrust of the course will be on the current timeframe and how different countries in South Asia are coping with transnational challenges that are a result of a dialectic between geopolitical imperatives and domestic factors of insecurity.
PSC 300 m802 Why Obey the Govt? Philosophy of Law
Instructor: Nilesh Sinha
Class #: 72295
Offered: MTWThF, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm, Offered: ***ONLINE***
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
Was it ok to impeach President Trump? Should there be laws against abortion? Can the government force us wear to masks because of COVID 19? In this course we will pose fundamental questions about the nature of political obligation, our allegiance to the laws of the state, the nature of law itself, its place in our social scheme, and the interaction of law and the government with notions of justice and morality. We will also look at the role judges play and the role they ought to play, in the administration of law and justice.
Session I: June 7, 2021 – July 16, 2021
PSC 202 m001 Introduction to Political Analysis
Instructor: Kari Waters
Class #: 70352
Offered: MTWTh, 10:00 am - 11:45 am, Offered: ***ONLINE***.
Class will be synchronous on Tue/Thur and asynchronous Mon/Wed.
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
The purpose of this course, required for political science majors, is to build skills for conducting, interpreting, and presenting political science research. These skills include: basic research and data collection practices, techniques for measuring political science concepts quantitatively, hypothesis testing, interpretation of statistical evidence, and the presentation of findings in a clear and compelling manner. Tying these components together is a thematic focus on important political science concepts such as democracy, power, or representation.
PSC 300 m803 Political Psychology
Instructor: Heidi Stallman
Class #: 72296
Offered: MTWTh, 12:00pm – 1:45pm, Offered: ***ONLINE***
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
This course serves as an introductory exploration of the field of political psychology. We examine what psychology can tell us about political phenomenon – ranging from voting behavior to war and genocide. To do so, the students will be exposed to a variety of source materials, including traditional academic texts, videos, podcasts, and guest lectures. The goal is to expose students to the enormous complexity of human behavior and the significant role political psychology can play in improving the human condition. Political psychologists have applied insights of psychological science to a host of different research questions including: How do emotions influence political decision-making? What considerations go into individuals’ racial attitudes? What role does the media exert in how citizens think? This class will allow students to unpack the extent to which ones individual political being views the world and their respective place in it. Most importantly, this course will survey political psychology’s research agenda, namely focusing on illuminate the nexus between political elites and individual, domestic, and group behavior. In doing so, students will engage with contemporary political problems such as race relations, fault lines of democracy, terrorism, ethnic conflict and political decision making.
PSC 355 u800 International Political Economy
Instructor: Daniel McDowell
Class #: 70369
Offered: ***ONLINE***, Asynchronous
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
From the rise of Donald Trump’s economic populism to Great Britain’s “Brexit” from the European Union, it is impossible to deny the tenuous political underpinnings of economic globalization today. To borrow from Prof. Jeffry Frieden, globalization is a choice, not a fact. That is, the global economic integration we observe today is the product of governments’ policy decisions over a period of many decades. This course introduces the student to the field of international political economy (IPE). IPE studies how politics impacts the global economy and, in return, how the global economy impacts politics. There are two central questions that we will wrestle with in this class. First, what explains the international economic policy choices governments make? Second, what are the effects of those policy choices both within and across countries? Over the course of the session, we will engage with a number of key topics in IPE including: international trade, economic development, multinational corporations, international capital flows, exchange rates, sovereign debt, and financial crises. We will rely on two primary analytic tools: basic economic principles to explain how economic policies influence the distribution of income and political economy theories that explain how politicians set policies. Together, we will use these tools to help understand historical and contemporary phenomena.
Session II: July 19, 2021 – August 27, 2021
PSC 121 m001 American National Government & Politics
Instructor: Nathan Carrington
Class #: 70004
Offered: MTWTh, 10:45 am - 11:45 am, Offered: ***ONLINE***
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
How does the American political system operate? This course provides an introduction to American political ideas, institutions, behaviors, and processes. Topics include (among other things) public opinion, elections, Congress, the presidency, the mass media, civic participation, the Constitution, federalism, and public policy. Although we will cover the “nuts and bolts” of American government, our focus is on political science rather than civics, which means our task is to analyze and interpret political phenomena.
PSC 124 m800 International Relations
Instructor: Raza Raja
Class #: 72299
Offered: MTWTh, 2:00 pm – 3:45 pm, Offered: ***ONLINE***
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
This course introduces students to the main issues and actors in contemporary international relations, organized around three major topical perspectives: world structure and theoretical views of that structure; international political economy; and international conflict, cooperation and security. It will focus on current debates around global topics such as human rights, economic interdependence, nationalism, the global environment, and economic disparities.
PSC 125 m800 Political Theory
Instructor: Ugur Altundal
Class #: 72297
Offered: MTWTh, 12:00pm – 1:45pm, Offered: ***ONLINE***
Prerequisites: None
Course Description
This course presents some of the most important philosophers and themes in ancient, modern, and contemporary political philosophy. We will read selections from the works of Plato, Thomas Hobbes, John Stuart Mill, Isaiah Berlin, and John Rawls, and examine the concepts of justice, equality, liberty, and the role of the state. We will also use these concepts to reflect on the political debates in today’s world