Political Science

This course explores the relationships between science, technology, and democracy, and the changing role of the State in science and technology (S&T) in our societies. The Covid-19 crisis and responses to it illustrate how crucial these relationships are. It explores key science and technology policy issues and look at wider challenges, such as efforts to improve public engagement in decisions about science and technology, initiatives to encourage more responsible research and innovation, and debates about the apparent rise in fraud and misconduct in science and concerns on the part of some scientists that many published scientific findings may be false.

The International Internship course develops vital business skills employers are actively seeking in job candidates. This course is comprised of two parts: an internship, and a hybrid academic seminar. Students are placed in an internship within a sector related to their professional ambitions. The hybrid academic seminar, conducted both online and in-person, analyzes and evaluates the workplace culture and the daily working environment students experience. The course is divided into eight career readiness competency modules as set out by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), which guide the course’s learning objectives. During the academic seminar, students reflect weekly on their internship experience within the context of their host culture by comparing and contrasting their experiences with their global internship placement with that of their home culture. Students reflect on their experiences in their internship, the role they have played in the evolution of their experience in their internship placement, and the experiences of their peers in their internship placements. Students develop a greater awareness of their strengths relative to the career readiness competencies, the subtleties and complexities of integrating into a cross-cultural work environment, and how to build and maintain a career search portfolio.

This course presents a historical and contemporary study of European integration and the role of the European Union in global politics. Some of the key concepts explored include Europeanization, Atlantism, supranationalism, intergovernmentalism, sovereignty, integration, interdependence, globalization, security, conflict and cooperation. Topics also include: the European Union as a global actor; the academic study of European integration; Europe after the end of the Second World War; birth and evolution of Atlanticism; the Soviet sphere of influence; dissension in bipolar Europe; Europe in the 1980s; the first European Community; the failure of the political and military community; Gaullist approach to European integration and the enlargement of the EC; reformulation of the European map and the creation of the European Union; the Common Foreign and Security Policy; the EU in a globalized world; the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on EU foreign policy; challenges of the future. Assessment is based on participation, a midterm exam, three short essays, and a final exam.