Political Science

This course explores how the internet has facilitated echo chambers and conspiracy theorist groups such as QAnon, specifically focusing on its effects on the 2016 American presidential election and the elections since. It examines contemporary American politics through the development of different digital tools, notably social networks, and the progressive digitalization of politics and American public politics. The course first covers the state of historical art and technology, then the different cognitive concepts that allow a better understanding of our relationship to the internet and digital technology. It considers the impact this has on the production of US public politics, the polarization in the country, and the presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

Authoritarian populist parties hold power in Hungary and Poland and have gained significant support in countries as diverse as France, Italy, and Germany. But what is populism? Is it part of a historical trend or is it markedly new? Does populism speak for "the people" or is it a danger to democracy? Is the rise of populism irresistible or can liberal democracies react to this challenge? The course takes a look at competing ideas of populism before evaluating the causes of the recent growth of populism in Europe and the United States. The course analyzes explanations which highlight economic causes, cultural backlash, and elite manipulation. The course concludes by looking at strategies which liberal democracies might use to respond to populism.

This course interrogates the intersection of environmental studies with ethical and political theories of justice. It engages with issues of environmental justice and injustice on a global scale and provides special consideration to the intersecting dimensions of race, ethnicity, class, and gender as well as global economic inequality and settler colonialism. An important dimension of the course is learning about the understandings of environment and claims to justice mobilized by social movements seeking to address environmental injustice. Beginning with an introduction to theories of environment, justice, and scientific knowledge production and continuing with an investigation of themes in environmental in/justice, the course considers how capital flows and the distribution of power shape who has access to the necessities of life and to clean environments and who does not, and how the world itself is being radically altered by human action. Finally, it considers what ethical and political obligations humans may have to more-than-human beings, and how the struggle to protect these beings is often tied up with the social justice struggles of marginalized human groups. The course continually returns to the question of how plural understandings of justice and the environment underwrite or challenge environmental destruction and socio-economic inequality and examines the social movements locally and globally that are challenging and, in some cases, transforming such inequality. Through readings, in-class discussions, guest lectures, selected films and documentaries, and a final project, students reflect critically on the root causes of the uneven distribution of the basic resources necessary for life.

This course provides a holistic understanding of conflict and of how and why it occurs from the intrapersonal level to the international level. It introduces concepts and techniques related to the negotiation process as well as examines negotiation pitfalls, preparation, fixed-pie and mixed motive perceptions, distributive and integrative negotiations, negotiation styles, ethics, and key issues.