Political Science

This course provides students with the tools needed to understand how domestic violence and abuse was and is now understood in public debate and what the key theoretical underpinnings are to understand domestic violence from a social science lens. The course explores how legislation within different jurisdictions has evolved to reflect new research evidence and changes in public debate, and it critically reflects on what the social policy response to domestic violence is and has been in different settings. The course focuses primarily on the UK context with potential for exploring other countries as case studies.

This course provides a panorama of how behavioral approaches can help to understand key issues in the political and social sciences. It examines the central cognitive and behavioral processes relevant to the analysis of social and political dynamics. Through a combination of formal lectures and class discussion, the course provides the tools necessary to apply a behavioral perspective to political and social issues. Furthermore, the methodological and theoretical limitations and challenges of these approaches are discussed throughout the semester in order to enable students to think and apply these approaches critically.

This course examines the role of popular distrust (e.g., perceptions of government corruption, waste, abuse) in contemporary democratic and electoral-authoritarian regimes. It probes contradictions in how scholars approach distrust within democracy. It explores how distrust gets politicized and interacts with institutions and inequalities to drive participation and political violence; reactions to public spending, taxation, public-health risk and conspiracy theories; and voting behavior among groups who feel threatened (economically, culturally). By foregrounding questions of power and state capacity—and what remains of them—in the minds of voters facing new social risks, this course offers a path to harness the mobilizing force of distrust within a neo-republican framework.

This course explores the formation and development of educational thought throughout Western history. It analyzes the influence that the rise of modern democracy - and the social, philosophical, and political transformations it entailed - had on our vision of education. As the Church's authority gradually declined in the eighteenth century with the emergence of Enlightenment ideas, new ways of thinking about the role of the state and the purpose of education emerged. Education became increasingly tied to political life and was seen as a central element for the development and stability of modern democratic societies. A central theme throughout the course, therefore, concerns the political function of education: Who should control education? Why should the state intervene? For whom is it intended? The course studies the way various thinkers have thought about the purpose of education, whether it is to shape moral character, to prepare citizens for civic life, to train workers for economic productivity or to foster personal emancipation and freedom. By studying the long and complex history of educational thought in its political and social contexts, this course offers an invaluable training for thinking critically and flexibly about the political challenges of our own time.

This course covers advanced theories of International Relations. The course explores central questions of international politics by examining the different traditions of thought about the character and nature of "the international." The course goes beyond realist and liberal theories to explore a counter-history of the theory on international politics and covers topics such as Marxism, feminism, post-colonialism, international political sociology, migration, environmental studies, and critical approaches to the international order and its institutional structures. The course examines how "the international" was constructed as a field of study throughout capitalist modernity, and how these theories are connected to the practice of international relations. It ends by relating international theory to contemporary events, such as the global war on terror and the rise of the far-right.

The majority of lectures in political psychology focus on the American context. This course thinks outside the box and shifts attention to the intersection of politics and psychology in a comparative manner, while still keeping the U.S. case in mind. The course begins by reviewing the foundations of political psychology and then explores the current state of the field. Next, it delves into how individuals make decisions, the mechanisms used in information processing, the importance of both "cold" and "hot" cognition in forming political behavior, and the role of groups and identities in shaping political opinions. Lastly, the course concludes by examining the relationships between groups and exploring why polarization is becoming increasingly prevalent in present-day politics.

This course examines politics and political science using a feminist analysis and a gendered lens. The course looks at the gendered nature of politics and examines topics including women in politics, gendered institutions, gender power, political leadership through a gendered lens and mechanisms to address the under-representation of women in political life.

This course enhances students' understanding of international dispute settlement and the achievement of global justice. Following a comparison of various methods and means of dispute settlement, the course focuses on the role of international law and international legal proceedings in settling international disputes and promoting global justice. This course looks specifically at important cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Students are asked to define and assess the role, potential, and limitations of international law and its institutions in international relations throughout the course. Students present a case study and produce a final paper. 

This course offers an exploration of the derivation, development and practice of Irish foreign, security and defense policies, with a particular focus on contemporary challenges. Students gain a detailed insight into Ireland's place in the contemporary world order, the transformation of Irish national foreign, security and defense policy through its membership of the European Union and the efforts of Irish policy makers to pursue Irish interests and values within an evolving global order. This includes an analysis of Irish foreign policy strategy, policy making and economic, political and military engagement. This course provides a solid theoretical and empirical grounding for further advanced study, and encourages students to compare and to evaluate critically competing understandings of Ireland in the world. Transferable skills are developed through independent research, teamwork, communications and role play.

This advanced topics course covers international trade institutions, trade law, and trade policy. Students explore trade policies, how they are implemented by the United States and other countries, and how their use is constrained by international trade agreements.  

The Fall 2025 offering of this course covers fundamental principles of international trade rules established by the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the principles of non-discrimination, trade remedy measures, SPS, TBT, and exceptions to trade obligations. 

In addition, students examine newly emerging issues in trade, such as environmental concerns, digital trade and e-commerce, intellectual property rights, and trade in services, and delve into the most frequently used methods of dispute resolution: mediation, arbitration, and litigation. Through lectures, simulations, and student presentations, students learn the procedures and actual workings of these three methods at various settings such as WTO, WIPO, and LCIA, inter alia. 

Students should expect to present a substantial case study and produce a final paper.