Courses

Fall 2023

Course descriptions by subfield can be found below the weekly schedule, or click the following links directly:
American Politics
Comparative Politics
International Relations
Political Theory
Public Policy
General Courses
[Click here for past semesters]
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
11:45-1:45American Politics: Basic Theories and Core Concepts
Mayo-Adam (AP)
PSC 72000
Class # 44934
RM
2:00-4:00Writing Politics II
Beinart (G)
PSC 79001
Class # 44959
RM


Global Political Theory
Mehta (PT)
PSC 80601
Class # 44973
RM
Social Ontology
Gould (PT)
PSC 80605
Class # 44975
RM
Cross list w/ PHIL 77850


20th Century Political Thought
Jacobs (PT)
PSC 70300
Class # 44963
RM



Basic Theories and Methods in Comparative Politics
Smith (CP)
PSC 77901
Class # 44970
RM
4:15-6:15Introduction to Public Policy
Krinsky (PP) PSC 73100
Class # 44972
RM







Social Policy & Socio-economic Outcomes In Industrialized Countries
Gornick
PSC 83509
Class# 44980
RM
Cross-list with ECON 80500 & WSCP 81000, SOC 85700

Political Agency Today
Buck-Morss (PT)
PSC 80604
Class # 44969
RM
Research design in Political Science
Lipsitz (G/M)
PSC 79100
Class # 44979
RM

Advanced Qualitative Methods
Majic (G/M)
PSC 89301
Class # 44965
RM
PROGRAM EVENTS
6:30-8:30 Urban Public Policy
DiGaetano (PP)
PSC 73908
Class # 44960
RM
The Indo-Pacific Political Economy
Xia (IR)
PSC 86407
Class # 44961
RM

MA Core Course
Majic (G/M)
PSC 71000
Class # 44962
RM




Constitutional Law
Halper (AP)
PSC 72009
Class # 54005
RM

Comparative Politics of International Migration
Sharpe (CP)
PSC 87609
Class # 44966
RM
Cross-list w/ IMS 70000


International Human Rights & Humanitarian Affairs
Andreopoulos (IR)
PSC 86408
Class # 44967
RM
Basic Theories and Concepts in International Relations
Romaniuk (IR)
PSC 76000
Class # 44971
RM
AP – American Politics    <>CP- Comparative Politics     <>IR – International Relations      <>PT – Political Theory                <> PP – Public Policy      <> G – General Course

American Politics

PSC 72000
Erin Mayo-Adam
American Politics: Basic Theories & Core Concepts
Monday – 11:45am-1:45pm
Description: This seminar surveys the major scholarly debates in the study of the fundamental issues of American politics. The course draws on prominent theoretical perspectives in the literature for understanding key issues regarding: (1) the effect of the history of American political development in creating opportunities and obstacles for realizing an inclusive multi-racial democracy; (2) the strengths and limitations of the constitutional and institutional structure of American government enabling and constraining the democratic backsliding we are currently witnessing; (3) the overhanging influence of the structure of power and the behavior of political elites in affecting democratic possibilities; and (4) the perplexing role of ordinary people’s changing political behavior for enhancing and undermining democracy as best understood in studies of public opinion and political participation broadly construed. The seminar encourages discussion of the relevance of assigned readings for assessing the sustainability of the constitutional system in the United States going forward. Students are to be active participants in the conversation by applying the assigned readings related to enduring political questions to diagnosing the current crisis. The course is designed to use the application of Political Science literature as a way to help students prepare for the doctoral exam in American politics and to acquire the background to teach American politics at the undergraduate level in a way that helps students become active participants in today’s politics.

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PSC 72009
Thomas Halper
Constitutional Law
Wednesday – 6:30pm-8:30pm
Description: The course will cover the following topics: natural law and positivism; judicial review; implied powers and national supremacy; the Supreme Court and Congress; the Supreme Court and the Presidency; commerce; takings clause; segregation and its removal; affirmative action; state action. Most of the assigned readings will be drawn from judicial opinions, though some will come from academic and other sources. Robust, good natured debate will be strongly encouraged.

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Comparative Politics 

PSC 77901
Nicholas R. Smith
Basic Theories and Methods in Comparative Politics
Thursday – 2:00pm-4:00pm
Description: This seminar offers a comprehensive introduction to the heterogeneous subfield of comparative politics. Its goals are to provide students with a substantive understanding of the myriad theoretical approaches engaged by scholars, their strengths and weaknesses, and their various use in particular questions of interest to comparative politics. While the primary emphasis of the class will be in parsing the breadth of theoretical approaches, the nature of the subject matter demands substantive application as well as some inquiry into methodological implications. Thus, the students taking this course will become familiar with key research questions that preoccupy the subfield, as well as the concepts, theories, and approaches that underpin possible answers.

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PSC 87609 (CP)
Comparative Politics of International Migration
Michael Sharpe
Cross-list w/ IMS 70000
Wednesday, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Description: International migration is interactively shaping and being shaped by politics, economics, and social relations around the world. The politics of the state in relation to nationality, race, ethnicity, and citizenship are at the heart of the debate on international migration and immigration. This course will focus on both sending and receiving countries and examine the politics of international migration from a historical and comparative perspective. We will analyze why people migrate, the ways in which states and citizens initiate and respond to migration, and how states deal with and adapt to migration on both the domestic and international levels. The seminar includes analysis of migration of the last few decades; examination of the historical relationship between immigration, citizenship, and nationality using the examples of the United States, Canada, Australia, France, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands as well as Italy, Spain, Japan and South Korea and the politics of immigration policy, membership, and belonging in our contemporary global world. I expect all students to do all assigned readings every week, participate actively in seminar discussions, and complete all assignments. By the end of this course, you should have: (1) a good understanding of the major debates in the study of international migration and immigration and (2) hands-on experience doing analysis of a migration/immigration policy. Each student will write a brief summary (one page or less) of the class readings for every week of assigned readings and lead the seminar at least once during the semester. In addition, all students must prepare a research paper on a particular migration and/or immigration policy to be chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor.

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International Relations


PSC 86407
Ming Xia
The Indo-Pacific Political Economy
Tuesday – 6:30pm-8:30pm
Description: The concept of ‘Indo-Pacific’ had existed for almost a century. In 2007 gained attention when Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe spoke in India of a convergence between the Pacific and Indian oceans and a ‘dynamic coupling’ of two seas of ‘freedom and prosperity’. Conceptually the notion of an Indio-Pacific space complemented the existing security and trading realm that existed in the Asia-Pacific. As a framing device for dialogue, the term ‘Indo-Pacific’ significantly adds to the political and economic gravitas of Asia. It provides a maritime foundation that supports the aspirations of the Eurasian continental landmass. It heralds a changing world order where new and old powers seek to establish the extent of their influence in a silent global contest with increasing probability for an open conflict. This course on the Indo-Pacific Political Economy addresses the multiple developments in the changing center of economic, political and strategic gravity in the world. The United States has not only embraced the concept of Indo-Pacific, but also elevated it to the key strategy of American national security and multilateral coalition-building through forums such as the Quad (a partnership with Japan, Australia and India). It seeks to create a maritime ring to quarantine the Eurasian bastion of authoritarian/totalitarian countries, such as Russia, China, and Iran which are all important members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The implications of such a tectonic shift and potential clash are profound to the region and extend across the whole world. This course focuses on the first two decades of the 21st century. It emphasizes the evolving role of great powers in the region (U.S., China, Japan, India, and Russia) and the effect their alliances have in shaping regional developments. By tracing back to the long historical developments of power competition and empire building, and contextualizing Indo-Pacific strategy in the global political economy, the course assesses the near future prospect of Indo-Pacific competition and cooperation in pursuing wealth, power and prestige.

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PSC 76000
Peter Romaniuk
Basic Theories and Concepts in International Relations
Thursday – 6:30pm-8:30pm
Description: This course provides a graduate-level survey of the theories and concepts central to the academic study of international relations (IR). In its emergence as a distinct field of study, and as it has evolved over time, IR has come to be characterized by major theoretical frameworks that offer competing (but sometimes complementary) descriptions, explanations and predictions about actors and events in world politics. These theories draw upon core concepts (such as anarchy, sovereignty and power) that comprise the basic building blocks of the field and manifest key assumptions about the nature of the international system. Increasingly, and appropriately, IR theories and concepts have been the subject of critical reflection, and debates about how to understand and interpret world politics are as lively as ever. Beyond providing students a point of entry to these debates, the course prompts students to consider the role of theory and concepts in IR research and in the practice of international affairs.

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PSC 86408
George Andreopoulos
International Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
Wednesday – 6:30pm-8:30pm
Description: This course will focus on key concepts in human rights and humanitarianism and examine their analytical value in the context of varying approaches towards the promotion and protection of internationally recognized human rights and humanitarian norms. In particular, the course will examine these concepts in light of (a) the recent debates in international relations theory on the role of ideas and norms, and the intersections between international relations and international law research agendas; and (b) the growing convergence between international human rights law and international humanitarian law. It will assess the impact of normative considerations, as well as the role of the relevant state and non-state actors on a whole set of critical issue areas including accountability, human protection, political membership, human development, and legal empowerment. The course will conclude with a critical discussion of recent UN initiatives in these issue areas.

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Political Theory

PSC 70300
Jack Jacobs
20th Century Political Theory
Wednesday – 2:00pm-4:00pm
Description: This course will focus on significant writers and schools of thought concerned with political theory during the last century. The development of Marxist, psychoanalytic, liberal, feminist, and anti-colonialist ideas will be particularly accented. We will examine the extent to which the work of relevant thinkers can be clarified by discussion of the contexts in which these thinkers lived, will engage in a close reading of key texts, and will debate the extent to which the ideas of the writers we will discuss continue to have contemporary resonance. Readings will likely be chosen from among pieces by Freud, Weber, Lenin, Lukacs, Strauss, Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Arendt, Fanon, Foucault, Beauvoir, Rawls, Nozick, Sandel, and Habermas.

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PSC 80601
Uday Mehta
Global Political Theory
Monday – 2:00pm-4:00pm
Description: The seminar will consider the debates, thoughts, and ideas of thinkers from various parts of the world, especially North Africa, Asia, the Middle east, Latin America mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries. It will have two broad purposes. The first, we will be to consider the ideas underlying various phenomenon, such as colonialism, critiques, diagnosis and struggles that are oriented to western modernity, i.e., most broadly the various challenges, some critical others sympathetic, to the western cannon and the categories it privileges. And second, the debates among non-western thinkers on the matters that were important to them. These debates may be among thinkers who belong to different regions, such as Frantz Fanon and Gandhi on violence; the role and importance of religion to life and politics, (Liberation Theology, Gandhi, Senghor, C. L James), the significance of certain matters to a good life, the role and importance of nationalism and security and the basis of technology to living a morally meaning life. Obviously, there will be considerable overlap between the two purposes, and that will be reflected in the readings. The seminar will not have a fixed method, unless making creative connections is considered a method.

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PSC 80605 (PT)
Carol Gould
Social Ontology
(Cross-List w/ PHIL 77800)
Tuesday – 2:00pm-4:00pm
Description: This seminar will aim to cast new light on our sociality, on what it means to understand people as social beings, who engage in collective action (or common activity) and have shared intentions. We will draw on both continental and analytic approaches and will consider feminist relational ontologies and accounts of the social construction of gender and race. The continental tradition emerges from Hegel’s provocative master-slave dialectic, followed by Marx’s social ontology, through the British Hegelians, to 20th century figures like Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre (especially in the Critique of Dialectical Reason), Arendt, and Levinas. In recent analytic philosophy, the project of social ontology has been connected to the philosophy of action, the philosophy of language, metaethics, and to the development of a “socialized metaphysics.” Helpful analyses have been advanced of collective or joint or shared intentions (e.g., as “We intentions”), as well as of the difficult issues concerning normativity in its relation to social and institutional facts and practices (a theme that can also be found in continental approaches). In addition to accounts of institutions and the practices that make up the “basic structure” of society, attention has been paid to the politically charged question of the nature of corporations (e.g., should they be viewed as persons?). Central too have been notions of collective or corporate responsibility—whether nations or states or corporate entities can be properly regarded as responsible for choices and what the role is of individuals within those collectivities or corporate entities. Philosophers here include Margaret Gilbert, Michael Bratman, David Copp, John Searle, Philip Pettit, and Larry May. Feminist philosophers have drawn on both traditions to advance critiques of essentialism, and of individualist accounts of identity, favoring instead socially constitutive or constructivist approaches (Haslanger), relational ontologies (e.g., Whitbeck), or care theories (e.g., V. Held). In addition to the implications of social construction for understanding oppression and domination, they have attempted to reconstruct norms like autonomy in relational terms (e.g., Meyers, Stoljar). The seminar will draw on a subset of the above philosophers, integrating continental and analytic approaches in an effort to address specific issues of social ontology and more broadly to conceptualize our social being. It will conclude with a focus on the normative and political import of these ontological analyses. For example, what are the implications of privileging individual agency or social collectivities for understanding the basis and possibilities of social transformation? What importance does a particular social ontology have for helping to explain action and for holding the agents in question responsible for their choices? Can more fully social ways of understanding individuals and their activities help us to theorize new directions for social and political life? Seminar members will be encouraged to relate the course materials to their ongoing research projects through oral presentations and analytical term papers and will be expected to be active participants in the seminar discussions.

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PSC 80608
Susan Buck-Morss
Political Agency Today
Tuesday – 4:15pm-6:15pm
Description: We will consider critically “the subject” as a category of Enlightenment thought in light of the challenges to political action today. Topics will include Algorithmic Governmentality, Massified Individuality, Planetary Rescue, Inter-Subjective Solidarity.

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Public Policy

PSC 73100
John Krinsky
Introduction to Public Policy
Monday – 4:15pm-6:15pm
Description: This course is an introduction to public policy or the study of a large part of what states do within their borders, and what governmental leaders try to do—through a variety of institutions—about a wide range of issues. The course deals with policy as a process, rather than as accomplished fact, and through the lens of policy, considers the ways in which power, institutions, states, and subjects and objects of states take shape. Put differently, policy is a process in which people who want something try to get it, and often, people who don’t want it, try to prevent it; it’s a process in which people do things to other people, deeply affecting their lives, and hope to get the sanction of the state—a more universal legitimacy—for their actions, and, perhaps, too, to get employees of the state to carry out those actions for them. In many respects, then, the study of policy is the study of politics more broadly.

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PSC 83509
Janet Gornick
Social Policy & Socio-Economic Outcomes in Industrialized Countries
(Cross-list w/ WSCP 81000, ECON 80500, SOC 85700)
Tuesday – 4:15pm-6:15pm
Description: This course introduces cross-national comparative research, with a focus on socio-economic outcomes and on the policies and institutions that shape those outcomes. The course is organized around two databases available through LIS, a data archive located in Luxembourg, with a satellite office here at the Graduate Center. LIS contains two main micro-databases. The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database includes 300+ micro-datasets from over 50 high- and middle-income countries. These datasets contain comprehensive measures of income, employment, and household characteristics. A smaller, companion dataset – the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) Database – provides microdata on assets and debt. Since the mid-1980s, the LIS data have been used by more than 8000 researchers – mostly sociologists, economists, and political scientists – to analyze cross-country and over-time variation in diverse outcomes such as poverty, income inequality, employment status, wage patterns, gender inequality and family structure. Many researchers have combined LIS’ microdata with various macro-datasets to study, for example, the effects of national social or labor market policies on socio-economic outcomes, or to link socio-economic variation to national-level outcomes such as child well-being, health status, political attitudes and voting behavior. (The LIS and LWS data are accessed through an internet-based “remote-execution system”. All students are permitted to use the LIS microdata at no cost and without limit.) The course has two main components: 1) Students will read and assess a selection of published studies based on the data. 2) Students will carry out an original piece of empirical research using the LIS or LWS microdata. That work will culminate in a term paper. While there are no formal prerequisites, students must have a working knowledge of basic statistics, and beginner-to-intermediate capacity in one of these programming languages: SAS, SPSS, Stata, or R. Neither statistics nor programming will be part of the course’s curriculum. Extensive documentation about the data, self-teaching materials, and instructional videos are available on the LIS website. Note: All MA students must receive clearance from the professor before registering.

*All Master’s students must obtain permission from Professor Gornick before registering. *

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PSC 73908
Alan DiGaetano
Urban Public Policy
Monday – 6:30pm-8:30pm
Description: This course is designed to explain the urban policy making process in the United States. The course first introduces students to some basic concepts and theoretical perspectives used in the analysis of urban policy making. The remainder of the course examines specific urban policy areas, including economic development, education, community development, and fiscal policy making.

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General and Cross-field

PSC 79002 (G)
Peter Beinart
Writing Politics I
Day/Time: Monday 2:00pm–4:00pm
Description: Graduate students in political science spend their days reading scholarly work about politics. This class aims to teach them how to write about it so non-scholars will care. To that end, students will read a lot of political writing, most of it fabulous, some of it awful, and try to figure out what distinguishes the two. They will also come up with many, many ideas for political columns and book reviews of their own, see those ideas dissected by their classmates and the instructor, and then write the best ones up. After that, the process will begin again: dissection, followed by rewriting, followed by more dissection. In between, we will discuss the less edifying aspects of non-academic publishing, such as why editors don’t always answer their email. Editors will join us to explain.

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PSC  71000 (G)
Samantha Majic
MA Core Course
Tuesday – 6:30pm-8:30pm
Description: This course has two primary objectives: (1) to introduce students to and provide an overview of major perspectives, problems, and approaches in political science; (2) to foster intellectual community within our department. The seminar proceeds through the various subfields of the political science discipline, engaging key texts and debates in these subfields through course sessions led by faculty members in the program. It also engages the conduct of current scholarship in the discipline through course sessions where advanced graduate students discuss their own research. An important theme throughout the course is how democratic institutions, democratization, and sustainability inform political questions and political science inquiry.

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PSC 89301 (G/M)
Samantha Majic
Advanced Qualitative Methods
Wednesday – 4:15pm-6:15pm
Description: This course will introduce students to the principles and methods of qualitative research. During the semester, we will consider epistemological debates about this research and cover the primary qualitative methods used by researchers in the social sciences, including interviews, focus groups, ethnography, participant observation, archival research, feminist methods, and research with visual materials. In addition to analyzing the comparative strengths and weaknesses of each method, students will gain experience using each approach and learn about the major steps of the research process, including project design and implementation, data analysis, and writing and publishing.

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PSC 71300 (G)
Keena Lipsitz
Research Design in Political Science
Wednesday – 4:15pm-6:15pm
Description: This seminar is a graduate-level introduction to how political scientists conduct empirical research. It will teach students how to develop research questions and methods for gathering data to answer those questions. Students will need to take other courses in the department to learn how to analyze the data they collect. Taking this course, however, will ensure that students design research that will produce high quality data for analysis. Even the best data analysis skills cannot compensate for poorly designed studies. As they say, “garbage in, garbage out.”

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