Political Science

This course examines how individuals, communities, societies, and states address legacies of violence and atrocity. The course considers how best to commemorate and memorialize the experience of victims and survivors. The course opens by introducing the legal, political, and philosophical dimensions of key concepts of war, crime, atrocity, and genocide, on the one hand, and the theory and practice of transitional justice on the other. In the first half of the course, students look at key mechanisms of transitional justice – trials, truth, and reconciliation commissions and reparations, drawing on a set of empirical cases including former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Cambodia. In the second half, students look at some emerging areas of transitional justice practice, and the potential for transformative approaches using the arts and education and in relation to gender, and memorialization. Finally, the course addresses the question of what works, and how we measure success in transitional justice, drawing implications for policy and research.

This policy oriented course focuses on the European Union's security and defense politics. With the re-election of Donald Trump, questions on how the EU is going to defend itself are high on the political agendas. How well is the EU prepared to take on more responsibility? To answer the question, the course looks at how the EU addresses security and defense policy issues and identify difficulties in the evolution of the EU's security and defense policy. It covers the functioning of the EU's security and defense policy; examines the concepts of security; introduces the different tools of the EU's security and defense policy and the key issues of deeper EU integration. In addition, the course develops presentation and writing skills, ability to understand public documents, research on open source, and work in teams.

This course illuminates the landscape of counter-revolutionary efforts in the Middle East and North Africa region and the restoration—or reconfiguration—of autocracy through notable cases of human rights violations. Each session focuses on one emblematic case study in a different country; and from there, reconstructs the recent trajectory of said country, examining how the national power structure was reshuffled, in line with geopolitical transformations and to the detriment of human rights aspirations.

This course explores the relationships between science, war, and the prevention of war. It places military and security technologies within social, political, and historical contexts. The course emphasizes 20th and 21st centuries and weapons usually designated as "unconventional" or "weapons of mass destruction." In addition to thinking about how science, technology, and warfare have shaped each other, the course considers the changing role of the scientist in relation to the state. It also considers broader themes, such as arms control, disarmament, ethics, and popular culture in relation to war.

This course provides the conceptual keys and analytical frameworks essential to better understand the main contemporary international issues. It explores, from a political sciences perspective, three classic themes of international relations: the diversity of actors on the international scene; the transformation of conflict and security; and the challenges posed by globalization. This is not an introductory course, as the approach is firmly focused on a selection of topical issues and the scientific debates they raise.

This course explores different perspectives of contemporary democracy. The original investigations and categories of political science, those developed by Greek civilization, are proposed as a category of analysis. The course then reviews the construction of democracy; its corruption, and its demagogic implementation in contemporary regime. 

This course examines the changing public sphere over time, from its early-modern emergence to the challenges of tabloid news and online fragmentation in contemporary media culture.

This course examines the role of media in cases of modern conflict, genocide, and peace processes. It covers media structure, content, framing and psychological responses during times of conflict and peace-making, and how media informs audiences and either foments or quells conflict.

This course examines some of the leading theories of justice in contemporary political thought and their implications for designing political institutions and public policies. Questions include: What is a fair distribution of society’s resources? Should parents be entitled to pass on their wealth to their children? Should offensive speech be regulated? Should our public policies treat every citizen the same or allow for gender and cultural differences? Can historical injustices be rectified? What does environmental justice look like? Are animals entitled to justice? In pursuing these questions, students explore topics such as rights, distributive justice, gender equality and multiculturalism, historical injustice and reconciliation, and pluralism and the clash of values. 

This course explores the concept of democratic representation in multi-level systems, examining both theoretical foundations and practical case studies. It begins with an overview of key theories on democratic representation, exploring both the demand for representation by the public and the supply of representation by elected officials and institutions. In the latter half, case studies from various multi-level political systems illustrate how these theories apply in practice and how representation is shaped by institutional design.