Undergraduate Seminars
Students majoring in political science must take two 4-point 3000-level seminars. At least one of the seminars taken must be in the student’s primary subfield.
Registration
Students may not pre-register for political science seminars. To register, students must join the seminar's wait list in SSOL. Students on the wait list will receive further instructions from the instructor or the department.
Instructors' preferred methods for admitting students to seminars vary. Some will correspond with students via the wait list function in SSOL. Some will give instructions in the course notes section of the Directory of Classes. Others may communicate with students individually. Still others may ask all interested students to come to the first class meeting for instructions.
The Academic Affairs Coordinator can answer questions about seminar registration.
Seminars must be taken for a letter grade.
Fulfilling the seminar requirement
The following courses fulfill the seminar requirement. All seminars are offered for 4 points of credit.
- POLS UN3911x and UN3912y — Seminar in Political Theory
- POLS UN3921x and UN3922y — Seminar in American Politics
- POLS UN3951x and UN3952y — Seminar in Comparative Politics
- POLS UN3961x and UN3962y — Seminar in International Relations
Barnard colloquia may not be used to fulfill the seminar requirement, though they may be used to fulfill subfield or elective requirements.
Fall 2021 Seminars
Section
Section 001
Populism, Democracy and Rights
The course will concentrate on the contemporary challenge of populism(s) to constitutional democracy appearing in a wide variety of political environments. We will examine the foundations of the phenomenon in concepts of popular sovereignty and the people emerging or re-interpreted in the democratic revolutions, along with later debates around these concepts. We analyze the concept of representation as it pertains to democracy, and then discuss the concept of populism generally and it’s left and right versions. Once this theoretical work is done we will discuss social movements and populism, and then populism and political parties. The idea is to ask whether populism involves a distinctive party/movement relation and what role digital media play in it. We then turn to the history and present of populism, examining the birth of modern populism in the United States and in Latin America comparing the relevant movements, parties and regimes in the latter region, to their fascist contemporaries. With respect to the present, we will distinguish between left and right variants, and the various “host ideologies” to which populist movements and leaders have attached themselves: nationalism, socialism, and even liberal democracy. Concentrating on European case, primarily we will distinguish populism as party-movement, as government and as regime. In the U.S., we will analyze how populist social movements and savvy political entrepreneurs capture existing political parties to come to power. In each version, we will focus on the relationship to democracy and civil society. Finally, we will consider the international conditions that make populism a worldwide challenge to political democracy.Instructor
- Cohen
Section
Section 002
Hobbes's Political Philosophy
In this seminar we will conduct a careful reading of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan together with selected short readings by other authors to enhance students' understanding of some of the issues addressed in this classic work in the history of political thought.Instructor
- Johnston
- Section
Section 001
Bureaucratic Politics
This course is a comprehensive, high-level introduction to bureaucracies in American politics. The course is organized along two themes. First, it emphasizes tools that will be helpful for thinking about bureaucracies, as well as for studying institutions in general. Second, it proceeds from the "inside out," beginning with personnel and ending with the bureaucracy's external environment. The course will expose students to a wide range of American political agencies, activities and possibilities for reform.- Instructor
- Ting
- Section
Section 002
Political Parties in U.S. Politics
In 1942 E.E. Schattschneider famously wrote that “democracy is unthinkable save in terms of parties.” In recent years, many observers of American politics have argued that the growing division between the two parties is having a negative impact on the U.S. political system. This seminar examines American political parties from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. We will explore some fundamental questions about the U.S. party system, including: Why do we have political parties? Why do voters form attachments to particular parties? What role do political parties have in the U.S. Congress? Has politics become more polarized along party lines?- Instructor
- Hirano
- Section
Section 003
Sexuality and Citizenship
For much of the 20th century, the American political system excluded lesbians and gay men from full citizenship. This course seeks to understand the political and social forces shaping the transformation of these sex nonconformists from a pariah group into a viable social movement and eventually into a powerful constituency within the Democratic Party. Special emphasis will be placed on the state’s role in defining lesbian and gay identities, the ways in which gender and racial diversity have shaped the LGB movement, and the role that partisan electoral strategies played in ushering sexuality to the center of American political conflict.- Instructor
- Phillips
- Section
Section 005
The Politics of Income Inequality This seminar considers the problem of income inequality and directs readings and research on the political causes and consequences of changes in income distribution in the US over the last three decades. There will be substantial reading—at least a book or the equivalent in scholarly papers each week—and the expectation of student engagement and discussion is high. The course focuses on politics and selected public policies affecting the distribution of income and the accumulation of wealth in the US. It is designed to help students think analytically about widening income disparity and how the logic of the political economy has structured patterns of great political and economic inequalities. Among the policies we may consider are: taxation, campaign finance reform, voting, the minimum wage and Earned Income Tax Credits, and financial sector reform.- Instructor
- Russell
- Section
Section 006
Immigration Policy and Politics
This seminar examines how the United States admits foreigners into the country and how it incorporates them into the polity. The course traces the evolution of governmental policies from the founding of the Republic to the present, placing particular attention to the inflection points that have produced changes to those policies, particularly during the second half of the 20th century. It explores the role of the federal government as well as state and sub-state jurisdictions in the development and implementation of policies towards the foreign-born, and the impact external and domestic pressures have on those policies. It further examines the role of immigrants in the country’s political process, their political behavior and policy outcomes.- Instructor
- Vargas-Ramos
- Section
Section 007
Equality and the Law This seminar will explore the meaning of equality in the United States, through a close reading of Supreme Court decisions involving race, gender, sexual orientation, and wealth. The central question for the course will be: what does it mean to receive 'the equal protection of laws'?- Instructor
- Amdur
- Section
Section 001
Information, Media, and Political Behavior
How does political information – conveyed through print, broadcast, and social media – shape the behavior of voters and politicians in developed and developing countries? We first ask what voters know about politics, and how the news and political ads influence voter opinions, electoral turnout, vote choices, and the degree to which voters hold governments to account for their performance in office. We then explore the determinants and consequences of media biases, considering the nature and causes of editorial slant, political capture, and government censorship. Finally, we examine how social media and new technologies are changing the nature of modern political participation. This course emphasizes cutting-edge studies seeking to theorize key relationships and identify causal relationships.- Instructor
- Marshall
- Section
Section 001
Advances in International Political Economy
This course examines questions in international political economy, asking what we know and how we know it. It addresses questions such as: Why do some countries promote globalization while others resist it? What do IOs do in international politics? Who runs our system of global governance? We will explore these questions and others by focusing on topics such as international trade, foreign aid, investment, and the environment. For each topic, we will use a variety of theoretical lenses and then investigate the evidence in favor of each. More generally, the course will consider the challenges of drawing casual inferences in the field of international political economy. There are no prerequisites for this course but an introductory economy course would be helpful. Students will write a short reading response each week and produce a research proposal for studying a topic related to international political economy, though they not need to actually conduct this research.- Instructor
- Carnegie
- Section
Section 002
Coercion and World Politics
This course studies the intersection between violent coercion and politics. You will examine political violence, civil wars, interstate wars, international interventions, and criminal violence. You will explore the political causes and dynamics of violent coercion and how populations come to terms with violent coercion, and the implications of violence on countries’ political landscapes. We will examine qualitative case studies, quantitative datasets, and experimental studies of the myriad ways in which coercion and politics interact.- Instructor
- Daly
- Section
Section 003
International Politics on the Cold War
This seminar will allow students to do in-depth research on the political history of the Cold War. This is not an introduction to the Cold War; students are expected to know the basic history and arguments as a prerequisite. We will cross-walk theories and analytical approaches from political science with historical accounts of the events and evolution of the Cold War, asking both how we can explain this history and how it confirms or disconfirms more general arguments.- Instructor
- Jervis
- Section
Section 005
Inequality Within and Between Nations
This seminar examines the dramatic increase in inequality that followed the rise of neoliberalism, and the changes in inequality between nations that accompanied globalization. We examine the causes and consequences of that inequality, the psychology of inequality, and we read Polanyi’s work to understand why both populist and the democratic socialist movements have swept unequal economies. The seminar will also serve as a workshop for writing a research paper, and students will have opportunities for extensive individual meetings with the instructor.- Instructor
- Spiro
- Section
Section 006
International Security
Contemporary developments in international politics are giving rise to many new challenges to international security. Understanding some of these may require revisiting and renewing some standard theories that have a long track record in literature on international relations: deterrence and bargaining theories, the balance of power, power transitions, and the effect of economic interdependence on war and peace. Other challenges—rising populism and nativism—may require borrowing insights from other fields or rummaging in the attic of semi-forgotten social theories. Some trends—the declining quality of public discourse in established democracies—may require fresh thinking entirely.- Instructor
- Snyder