Political Science

This course provides a conceptual and historical approach of nations, states, and nationalism in Europe from the late 19th century to the present. It examines the transnational dimension of European political frameworks and considers current political issues in the light of European history. The course fosters analytical distance and questions the nation-centered view of the world, familiarizes with the academic debates on nation-building and nationalism, and examines the historical processes and steps that have led to the success of the national category.

This course offers a study of corruption and accountability. It examines the causes and consequences of corruption, as well as types of corruption: judicial, political, private sector, and organized crime. This course explores means to regulate corruption including through international regulation, good government, transparency, and democracy.

This is a course on the contemporary domestic politics of China. Students focus on how the Chinese political institutions operate today by addressing a variety of issues and aspects: the evolution of the party-state from 1949 to the present; the political economy of the Reform era; the development and role of the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese political system. Taking an intersectional approach, students also assess other contemporary issues faced by China, including migration, social movements, and media censorship. The course concludes with an examination of China's foreign relations and its future, such as the debate over China's role in the global economy and international security.

This course focuses on the sociology of the State and its relations with society in contemporary Russia. Historical and political sociologists have focused on the state in the form it has taken in the West since the Middle Ages. These essential and fundamental analyses form the starting point for study of the sociological reality of the state in post-Soviet Russia. Using the tools of the historical sociology of politics and comparative politics, the course studies the political transition following the collapse of the USSR, the reform of public action, the trajectories of elites and state agents, and the reform of the state and its authoritarian modernization. Ultimately, the course considers what makes the recent transformations of the Russian state so singular on the one hand and so banal on the other, in the context of the global neoliberal modernization of the state and public action.

This course demonstrates how the political mobilization of law can be analyzed from a sociological perspective. At the intersection of the sociology of law and the sociology of mobilizations, it shows how the "weapon of law" constitutes an essential dimension of contemporary mobilizations. The place of law in the repertoires of collective action is examined: its scope, its limits, and the historicity of its uses. The course looks at various forms of mobilization, both in France and abroad, such as anti-colonial struggles, feminist mobilizations, trade union struggles, the defense of freedoms, and mobilizations in favor of the environment.

This course shows students that nature and politics are totally intertwined. This is the case in two ways. First, the natural world has been shaped and governed by human action for thousands of years. Second, humans themselves are part of nature, always being shaped, changed, limited, and enabled by the non-human (or more-than human?) world. Since all human action and the intimate entanglements between the human and non-human world are suffused with power relations, they are, by definition, deeply involved in politics. This course delves deeper into the implications of thinking about nature through a political lens. Students are introduced to ideas about the ways the natural world relates to nationalism, colonialism, power, violence, belonging, spirituality, ethics, care, time, food, and embodiment. 

 

This course examines how images of the “Old World” were constructed in the United States to define the nation in contrast with the political and cultural traditions of Europe. The tension between the American ideal of exceptionalism and adherence to an essential “Europeanism” continues to affect transatlantic relations. Students examine how these contrasting collective images were transformed during the twentieth century as the United States became a global power that influenced Europe. The course considers the following: which images of Europe have dominated American public discourse; how the geopolitical, political, and economic changes during the American Century affected the way Americans re-positioned themselves towards the Old World. After studying the literature, students explore one case study in a small research project.

An introductory course providing students with a broad overview of political science as a social science discipline, this course seeks to cover the basic principles of political theory, comparative politics, and international relations over the course of the semester. The course covers a wide range of topics, from political theory, ideologies, nations and states, the government, interest groups and society, elections, political psychology, political violence, international relations, and global politics. The goal of the course is to introduce key concepts and ideas in political science, and to encourage students to explore these concepts further through other courses or by themselves.

This course provides a survey of the geography and geopolitics of Europe throughout history. It considers how Europe was created and the contents significance on a global scale.

This course introduces the politics and international relations in Korea, including some of the major developments in Korea’s contemporary history. It covers the complicated ways in which domestic politics, national division, and international relations intersect with each other. The course also provides opportunities to critically discuss contemporary political issues so that students may identify major political forces affecting them and their implications for Korea and their neighbors. The course aims to equip students with political knowledge and intellectual tools with which they can better understand the politics and international relations in Korea and Northeast Asia in the past and the future.