Political Science

This course fosters respect in the dignity, rights, contributions, and circumstances in one's own person and in others, with constructive and supportive responses to different circumstances and needs. It also aims to build committed and solid solutions to social problems and needs, strengthening democracy, and the common good, while proposing solutions to problems and projects, systematically integrating knowledge, experiences, and methodologies from other disciplines, groups, and cultures.

This course introduces contemporary issues in democratic theory and philosophy and public policy. It draws on political and moral philosophy as well as philosophy of law in order to examine the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary political debates over civil rights and liberties, democratic institutions and procedures, inequality and disadvantage and human rights. It combines the study of contemporary philosophy with analysis of particular cases, through a mixture of academic articles, newspaper articles, public policy reports and recently published works by distinguished academics.

By adopting an interdisciplinary approach (African studies, history, political sciences, anthropology), this course explores globalization from the vantage point of the Global South, taking Africa in particular as an entry point. It looks at the history and contemporary configurations of the relations between African, Asian and Latin American countries through a holistic approach that keeps the political and economic dimensions of these phenomena connected to their wider social and cultural contexts, the analysis of macro-phenomena tied to individual experiences. To do so, the course is divided into six teaching modules: history; politics and international relations; goods and infrastructures; people; religions; media and popular culture. Each module combines the discussion of larger, transversal trends with the analysis of specific case studies that, through their specificities, help understand global phenomena in their locally grounded dimensions. The course thus offers an alternative understanding of globalization process that permit to reconceptualize the European experience within a larger universe of ex-centric and multipolar interconnections that characterize contemporary politics and culture.

This course explores different indigenous tribes from Latin America. The course considers how an indigenous group’s history contributes to their current status under the modern nation state. It discusses the role of language and speech throughout history, through analyzing primary sources written in indigenous dialects. The course also explores how the transition from empire to independent nations impacted indigenous populations. 

This course covers key concepts in cultural security studies approaches (strategic culture, role theory, ontological security, historical memory) and understand key disciplinary debates, such as material vs. non-material explanations for behavior; culture as practice vs. ideas; and whether cultural variables link directly to policy decisions. Even more importantly, the course applies these theories to real world events to better understand how culture, history, and identity contribute to international politics in the past and present. In doing so, students learn and apply interpretive methods to critically engage with identity discourse as it is espoused by elites and political leadership.

Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a type of virus, manifesting itself in individual human beings; but the covid-19 pandemic was not just a health issue, but a social and economic phenomenon. This course explores the economics and politics of the covid-19 pandemic and the policy response (health-related, economic and social) in the UK and other countries. It does not cover specific medical or scientific aspects of covid-19 as a disease, but beyond that discusses a wide range of topics relating both to the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic on societies and economies across the glob. There is a particular focus on how and why policy decisions were taken; and on the longer-term implications.

This course examines Indigenous peoples as agents of geopolitical change. It introduces colonial/decolonial geographies to demonstrate the geopolitical implications of Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Key themes include: territory and geopolitics; Indigenous identities, subject-formation and intersectionality; Indigenous knowledges, rights and political agency; and, Indigenous relationships with non-Indigenous peoples.

This class provides an opportunity for students to formulate a multicultural communication strategy, based on analysis of the actors involved and there interests while applying the appropriate methodologies for its implementation in the public arena. Prior knowledge required of historical analysis of the international system and research methodologies. 

This course situates migration within broader social and economic contexts. To understand human mobility, it conceives migration as an intrinsic part of wider processes of economic and social change, rather than as a “problem to be solved”. Drawing on empirical and theoretical work, it demonstrates the contradictions and continuities in how migration has been understood in social science scholarship and explores how migration affects key areas of the economy and society, including implications from a public health perspective. By examining historical and contemporary examples, the course shows how migration patterns evolve in response to shifting economic demands, political decisions and social transformations.

From the 9/11 attacks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the “politics of emergency” have moved from the periphery to the center of governance. This course examines how the state of exception, no longer a rare response to crisis, became a recurring technique used to justify extraordinary measures, expand executive authority, and suspend normal legal and democratic processes. It examines how this logic operates across regimes, from liberal democracies to authoritarian states, and investigate its contrasting applications to current issues such as climate change or migration. Drawing upon political theories and comparative case studies, the course explores how emergency politics fundamentally transform political practice and challenge democratic norms.