Political Science

This course examines American politics. It covers key aspects of American political system, the formal (executive, judiciary, and legislative) and informal (bureaucracy, media, interest groups, etc.) branches of government, its creation and development into its present form, the way officials at various branches and levels are selected, the contours of American federalism, how domestic policy is done and some of the main issues that animate its domestic political debates.

This course combines political philosophy and critical thinking and debate in English. It contains six modules: justice, order, prosperity, market, polity and civilization.

Students will learn about classical theories and the development of political philosophy, how to cultivate critical thinking, argumentative strategies and academic presentation ability and to develop incidental and implicit English acquisition in the exploration of academic subjects.

This course offers a holistic exploration of China's engagement in global governance, emphasizing its relationships and interactions with key regions worldwide. Students will examine China's foreign policies and initiatives, focusing on its engagements with Central Asia, Europe, Japan, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Through detailed case studies and critical analysis, students will gain insights into the multifaceted nature of China's global initiatives and their impact on regional geopolitics, economic landscapes, and diplomatic relations.

How do governments support families in reconciling work and life choices? What choices do women take in terms of working life, reproduction, and political preferences? What are the consequences in terms of welfare institutions and gender inequality? This course aims to combine the three strands of literature on political economy, welfare state studies, and gender issues to instruct students about the importance of a gender-based perspective in learning how different institutions, interest groups, and ideas contribute to gender equality. The course provides students with a series of topics discussed in PE, welfare, and gender literature. Students will become familiar with concepts such as bargaining power, discrimination practices in hiring, and motherhood penalty. The second part of the course focuses on specific examples from East Asia and Europe based on the three “I”s of PE studies: interest groups, institutions, and ideas, and how they improve chances for gender equality in different political economies. The third part of the course facilitates students’ direct involvement in specific cases by having them exercise their critical skills through discussions and presentations aimed at identifying policy solutions to problems of gender inequality 

This course engages students in the exploration of political rights, the legal framework governing political parties, and electoral processes in Mexico. Through the analysis of rulings by the Supreme Court and the Electoral Tribunal, students gain both institutional and jurisdictional perspectives on elections. Throughout the semester, students are encouraged to observe the U.S. electoral process, engage in a post-US election debate, and delve into related topics such as party politics, electoral systems, and the analysis of U.S. presidential elections.
 

This course introduces students to the methodology and major concepts and theories in the Political Science field of comparative politics. Students learn how to analyze and assess similarities and differences among political systems. Students study and compare the domestic politics, political institutions and conflicts of various countries and through time within single countries. Students learn how to identify and explain political similarities and differences among countries, in the process gaining a critical perspective on politics in the U.S.

This course examines the dynamic between music and politics from the Haitian and French Revolution until Black Lives Matter, or, alternately, from Beethoven to Beyoncé. Large thematic topics will include the Enlightenment, liberalism, nationalism, fascism, the Cold War and globalization. Musical case studies will include opera, symphonic tone poems, ballet, film scores, folk and pop songs, hip hop and punk, as well as global genres such as Afrobeat and Tropicalia. 

This course examines a number of questions regarding education and schooling from a normative perspective. It considers the relevant criteria for evaluating the moral rights and duties of children, parents, and states with regard to education. Students explore some of the most important concepts in political theory such as justice, equality, liberty, autonomy, and community. They also discuss the different aims of education as well as which agents have which responsibilities with regard to enabling children to acquire the capacities for full membership in society. In addition, the course considers which understandings of freedom and equality should inform our thinking about multicultural education and/or demands for equal opportunities for the socially disadvantaged and discuss whether and in how far state schools ought to be neutral with regard to religious and/or cultural norms relating to conceptions of the good life.

This course offers a comprehensive examination of the dynamic interplay between religious freedom and secularism in the diverse cultural landscape of the Americas. From the early colonial encounters to the contemporary socio-political debates, it explores the complex interactions between religion, state, and society in shaping the religious and secular identities of the Americas. Competing understandings of religious freedom and secularism in human rights (what they are, what they should be, and how they operate) are examined. The course is organized into two sections each with a distinctive set of themes: the first section focuses on the conceptual approaches to religious freedom and secularism in the Americas, including historical context. The second section focuses on the circulation of ideas among the continent and beyond, by exploring the transnational impact of politics of religious freedom and secularism in the world.