Teaching

Current Semester

Fall 2017 Semester

Other Courses Taught

European Economic Integration: Politics and Policy (EUS 4212/POS 4931)

This course will address core questions of European integration from the origins of the European Union to its current economic crisis. The unifying theme is the question: How alike politically do countries have to be for economic integration to work? More specifically, we will ask: Are there fundamental tensions between economic integration and political integration? If so, how might they be managed? Does the EU have a “democratic deficit” or, on the contrary, has it strengthened democracy among its members, including the new members from postcommunist Eastern Europe? What does the ongoing economic crisis reveal about the project of creating a single currency, the Euro? In the final part of the course, we will address the mobilization of nationalist and Euroskeptic parties in the wake of the Euro crisis. In addressing these questions, the class will take an interdisciplinary approach with an emphasis on the politics of economic policy.

Social Movements (Graduate Seminar, CPO 6077)

This class is intended for graduate students in political science and the related social sciences. Its subject is the relation between social contention and politics. The course aims to:

(1) provide a survey of the literature on social and protest movements,

(2) introduce students to methods for studying these movements, and

(3) furnish tools for interpreting protest across different social and political contexts.

Specifically, we will address the following questions: Under what conditions do social movements form? How and when do they exploit opportunities to mobilize? What internal resources do they draw on in order to overcome obstacles to mobilization? What are the implications of how a social movement frames its cause? What is the role of internationalization on social movement development? Relatedly, can transnational institutions such as the European Union effectively promote social movements whose goals they support?

Social Movements and Contentious Politics in Europe (POS 4931 & EUS 3930)

This class is intended for intermediate and upper-level undergraduates in European Studies and the related social sciences and humanities. Its subject is the relation between social contention and politics. Specifically, we will address the following questions: Under what conditions do social movements form? How and when do they exploit opportunities to mobilize? What internal resources do they draw on in order to overcome obstacles to mobilization? What are the implications of how a social movement frames its cause? What is the role of internationalization on social movement development? Relatedly, can transnational institutions such as the European Union effectively promote social movements whose goals they support?

State-Building (Graduate Seminar, POS 6933)

The modern state is of central interest to students of comparative politics, international relations, and American political development. Whether condemned as an instrument of repression or elevated as an engine of economic development, the state is inarguably the fundamental unit of national political organization in the world today. Revisiting some of the foundational texts on state-building, this course will examine the processes that produced the modern state in the region where it first appeared, Western Europe. We will then analyze attempts to transplant this singular institutional innovation to Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and East Asia. We will address the following questions: what is the modern state? In what historical circumstances did it originate? Can state-builders in late-developing nations reproduce the institutional forms of the modern state, or are these institutions inevitably altered in transit? When does state-building fail and why?

Postcommunist Politics (Graduate Seminar, POS 6736)

This seminar will use the diverse political trajectories across the postcommunist space of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to probe core debates in both comparative politics and international relations. These include democratization and democratic consolidation, the politics of economic reform, the international diffusion of political reform (e.g. the phenomenon of the “colored revolutions”), the impact of international institutions on domestic politics (particularly as seen in European Union enlargement), ethnic conflict and state breakup, the rediscovery of modernization theory, and, finally, the problems of state reform and political corruption.

The interdisciplinary perspective and thematic focus should make the seminar of interest to students of comparative politics and international relations, regardless of area specialty. The class does not assume prior knowledge of the region, and for those thinking about possible dissertation topics or at the dissertation-writing stage, the postcommunist world offers a host of shadow cases for extending your research.

Introduction to Comparative Politics (CPO 2001)

This course is designed to provide students a comprehensive introduction to comparative politics through the discussion of a broad range of thematic topics. These are supplemented with a selection of academic readings and real world case studies from various regions of the world.