3credits
TR 10:10-11:25
Pontusson, J.
This course provides a survey of the institutions, political
processes, and policies of contemporary states. It focuses on the
conditions for and workings of democracy. Looking at Western Europe,
we will analyze institutional variations among liberal democracies,
and their political implications. We will then probe the origins of
democracy in Western societies and the reasons why communism and
other forms of authoritarian rule have prevailed elsewhere. Finally,
we will explore the impetus behind and the obstacles to
democratization in the Third World and the erstwhile Communist Bloc.
Throughout this survey, problems of democracy will be related to
problems of economic development, efficiency, and equality.
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3credits
MWF 1:25-2:15
Hendrix, B.
A survey of the development of Western political theory from Plato to
the present. Readings from the works of the major theorists. An
examination of the relevance of their ideas to contemporary
politics.
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3.0credits
MW 7:30-8:45 p.m.
Kramnick, I.
An introductory survey course intended for freshmen and sophomores
focusing on race in America and at Cornell. The course will be
coordinated by Isaac Kramnick of the Government Department and will
have faculty from different departments and colleges (Philosophy,
Sociologoy, Developmental Sociology, Government, Law School, Art,
English, Africana Studies) who will lecture weekly on topics like:
the concept of race, the social dynamics of race, the politics of
race, race and culture, and race at Cornell. A weekly discussion
section will compliment the lectures and explore the relevance of the
academic inquiry for student experiences at Cornell.
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3credits
TR 8:40-9:55
Evangelista, M.
Enrollment is limited to 15 students. While not restricted to
sophomores this course is intended to offer students, especially
sophomores, an opportunity to work closely with faculty in a seminar
environment within a strong interdisciplinary context. What is the
relevance of gender to nationalism, conflict, and war? The
association of hostility, aggression, and bloodshed with
masculinity—and conciliation and peace-seeking with female
attributes—repeatedly surfaces in portrayals of militaries and
violent strife. The concept of the nation is inextricably linked to
images of motherhood (the motherland, the mother language, etc.), but
violent defense of the nation has traditionally been understood as a
masculine endeavor. In this course, we examine works in several
disciplines and media and evaluate generalizations that link gender,
nationalism, and war. Our texts include novels and films, as well as
political and sociological writings. Students will read Virginia
Woolf’s Three Guineas and Joshua Goldstein’s War and Gender
(a political science survey). They will see films such as the Battle
of Algiers and Prisoner of the Mountains—a Russian film based on
the war in Chechnya, but which draws on Tolstoi’s stories, which
the students will also read. Because the course emphasizes writing,
students will have the opportunity to experiment with a wide range of
styles, from visual analysis of the films to political research.
Among the questions we explore are: How does the political formation
of gender identity occur? How do gender identities shape the
objectives and techniques of nationalist movements and state power
and how are they deployed by the state? We will reflect on these
questions both theoretically and in the context of particular
episodes of violent nationalist or ethnic conflict—in the former
Yugoslavia, in the Chiapas region of Mexico, in Afghanistan, and
elsewhere.
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1-3credits
MW 2:55-4:10
Grusky
Back to Government Course List
4credits
TR 8:40-9:55
Reppy, J.
This course reviews the changing political relations between science,
technology and the state in America from 1960 to the present. It
focuses on the politics of choices involving science and technology
in a variety of institutional settings, from Congress to courts and
regulatory agencies. The tensions and contradictions between the
concepts of science as an autonomous republic and as just another
special interest provide the central theme for the course. Topics
addressed will include research funding, technological controversies,
scientific advice, citizen participation in science policy and the
use of experts in courts.
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4credits
MWF 1:25-2:15
Shefter, M.
The major political actors, institutions, and political styles in
large American cities: mayors, city councils, bureaucracies, ethnic
and racial minorities, urban machine politics and the municipal
reform movement. The implications of these political forces for
policies pertaining to urban poverty, homelessness, and criminal
justice.
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4credits
MWF 2:30-3:20
Hillman, R.
A general education course for students at the sophomore and higher
levels. Law is presented not as a body of rules but as a set of
varied techniques for resolving conflicts and dealing with social
problems. The course analyzes the roles of courts, legislatures, and
administrative agencies in the legal process, considering also
constitutional limits on their power and practical limits of their
effectiveness. Assigned readings consist mainly of judicial and
administrative legal process. Students are expected to read assigned
materials before each class and to be prepared for participation in
class discussion.
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4credits
MWF 1:25-2:15
Rabkin, J.
An analysis of contemporary issues in civil liberties and civil
rights, with emphasis on Supreme Court decisions. Cases are analyzed
in terms of democratic theory and the social and political context in
which they arose.
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4credits
MW 7:30-8:45
Zimmermann, H.
The course gives an introduction to politics and political systems in
Western Europe. It starts with a brief history of the formation of
the nation state and the establishment of democratic rule. It
continues with the modes and structures of political conflict and
explores political cultures, party and electoral systems, the roles
of interest groups and social movements, and the mass media. It then
turns to a discussion of parliament and government. The main
countries studied include Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. The
main dimensions guiding the comparison will be conflict vs. consent,
federalism vs. centralism, parliamentary vs. presidential systems,
and majority vs. proportional representation. The course will
conclude with a discussion of minority-majority relations and the
problem of democratic inclusion. Pre 1998 description: This course
presents an introduction to politics and political change in Western
Europe. It starts from the formation of the European nation-state and
the growth of democratic regimes after the French Revolution. It
continues with the nature of European systems of government and with
the political party system; it then turns to the politics of public
policy and to the interaction between policy-makers and societal
interest groups. The course ends with an analysis of the interaction
between politics and economics in the different countries. The main
countries studies are France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain and the
Scandinavian countries, with the United States used as an external
reference point.
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4credits
MWF 1:25-2:15
Ryter, L.
Contemporary politics in Southeast Asia must be understood in light
of colonialism, the nationalist movements that colonial rule in
effect produced, and the geo-strategic imperatives of the cold war.
Colonial rule defined the territorial boundaries and institutions of
the modern state, nationalism provided a new political discourse, and
the cold war helped determine the nature of authority in
post-colonial states. This course will consider these and other
themes in comparative perspective with special focus on Indonesia,
Thailand, and the Philippines.
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4credits
MW 2:55-4:10
Brettell, A.
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to
the main issues in Chinese politics in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The first sessions of the class focus on the rise of the Chinese
revolution, the tenants of Mao Zedong thought, and the main political
campaigns of the Mao period. Next, the course focuses on the Deng
Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin eras and the complex problems associated
with "opening" China. Some of these problems include reforming the
economy incrementally while furthering economic growth; rectifying
the fallout of political extremism and expanding individual choice
while keeping society stable and affirming collective interests; and
allowing more input into policy processes while maintaining party
dominance. Students will examine the succession of a new generation
of leaders to power, a fourth generation, and the possibility of
continuing economic and political reforms. Also, we will make
comparisons between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan.
Throughout the course, we will explore several themes including the
meaning of citizenship in a one-party dominated state, national
integration, state power and regime adaptation, social control,
channels of democratization, and the political challenge of social
issues.
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4credits
TR 2:55-4:10
Rubenstein, D.
This course will focus on critical approaches to the study of
ideology in order to understand the role of ideology in political
subject formation. After an initial presentation of the classical
Marxist texts on ideology, we will examine twentieth century
reworkings of hegemony theorist Antonio Gramsci and the critical
structuralist approaches of Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard and Dick
Hebdige. We will concentrate on the "lived relation" to ruling ideas
in the form of ideologies of everyday life. The second part of the
course will be devoted to psychoanalytically oriented theories
(Freud, Lacan) which address the internalization of belief, both in
relation to the intrapsychic and in the interaction between psychic
and state apparatuses. We conclude with Louis Althusser's notion of
interpellation, which resumes the Marxist, structuralist and
psychoanalytic objectives of the course material. The theorists in
the second part of the course will be contextualized within the
experience of the historical traumas of fascism and French
decolonization. Throughout the semester, we will be reflecting on the
continued relevance of historic ideologies, centered around notions
of class interest, to late twentieth century ideologies' attachments
to national, religious, gendered, ethnic, technological identity.
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4credits
TR 11:40-12:55
Waite, G.
This course provides an introduction to some fundamentals of current
film analysis and political theory, and their relationship to one
another. Our investigation has two main aspects. One the one hand, we
will be interested in the work of film-makers whohave been
particularly concerned to reshape ideas about politics in the
cinematographic medium. On the other, we wil attempt to develop a way
of reading political theory using techniques borrowed from cinema and
vice versa--thus forging between these two disciplines productive
analogies that are not necessarily based on influence. We will study
not only mainstream but also experimental and low-budget films;
similarly, we will find political theory in obscure places, as well
as more obvious ones. While the course has a historical perspective,
the main emphasis will be on contemporary work. Our texts/films will
be taken from the work of such thinkers/film-makers as: P.P.
Pasolini, J.-L. Godard, S. Sisenstein, D. Vertov, G. Romero, R.
Corman, M. von Trotte, D. Cronenberg, T.W. Adorno, W. Winders, R.W.
Fassbinder, A. Kluge, P.K. Dick. W. Benjamin, G. Deleuze, M. Gorris,
K. Tahimik, L. Strauss, K. Marx, J.G. Fichte, L. Althusser, R. Scott,
L. Bunuel, A. Gramsci.
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4 credits
MW 8:40-9:55
Sergounin, A.
The main purpose of the course is to demonstrate that over the last
decade Moscow's policy towards the West/United States has gradually
shifted from confrontation model or damage limitation to a strategic
partnership (particularly, in areas such as fighting international
terrorism and transborder crime, arms control, non-proliferation,
conversion of defense industry, rescue operations, etc.). The course
also aims at explaining why these dramatic changes occurred and what
forces are driving Russia's foreign policy. In conclusion, the course
outlines the near future of Russian's foreign relations
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4credits
TR 11:40-12:55
Zimmermann
This course evaluates changes over time in political and economic
relations between the United States and Western Europe (including the
European Union), beginning with the Cold War and continuing to the
present. The key issue will be explaining patterns of cooperation and
conflict.
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4credits
TR 10:10-11:00
Evangelista, M.
During more than four decades following the end of World War II
international politics was dominated by a phenomenon known as the
Cold War. This class examines the origins, course, and ultimate
demise of this conflict that pitted the United States and NATO
against the Soviet Union and its allies. It seeks to evaluate the
competing explanations that political scientists and historians have
put forward to explain the Cold War by drawing on the new evidence
that has become available. The course considers political, economic,
and strategic aspects of the Cold War, including the nuclear arms
race, with particular focus on the link between domestic and foreign
policy in the United States and the Soviet Union. The course
emphasizes writing, and includes a final research paper for which
students will use original archival materials.
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4credits
MWF 11:15-12:05
Way, C.
This course surveys leading theories of the causes of interstate war
- that is, large scale organized violence between the armed forces of
states. Why is war a recurring feature of international politics? Are
democracies more peaceful than other types of states, and if so what
explains this "democratic peace"? Why do democratic publics seem to
reward threats to use force by "rallying around the flag" in support
of their governments? Does the inexorable pattern of the rise and
fall of nations lead to cycles of great power wars throughout
history? These and other questions will be examined in our survey of
theories of war at three levels of analysis: the individual and small
groups, domestic politics, and the international system. Topics
covered include: 1) historical patterns in warfare; 2) theoretical
explanations for war; 3) evaluation of the evidence for the various
explanations; 4) nuclear weapons; 5) ethics and warfare; and, 6) the
major security problems of the coming decades, civil war, and the
prospects for peace in the future.
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4credits
Wash. D.C.
Staff
Characteristics of international law; its theoretical foundations,
principles, processes, and relationship to international politics.
Emphasis on law-in-action. Attention to both traditional problems
(intervention, coercion, and the scope and limits of adjudication)
and contemporary trends and processes (arms control, outer space,
exploitation of seabed resources, the individual in international
law, and cooperative patterns of socioeconomic relations at global
and regional level). Content may vary according to international
events.
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4 credits
TR 2:55-4:10
Carlson, A.
How important are regional groupings, non-governmental organizations,
narco-terrorists, ethnic groups and transnational environmental
issues, within international politics? These forces seem to be
occupying an increasingly central position in the international
arena, yet the factors that have caused their rise, and the degree to
which they have transformed the face of international politics, are
still poorly understood. In this course we will address such issues
through exploring how students of international politics have
described and explained the emergence of these new forces in the
international system during the post-Cold War period. In short, the
course will focus on determining the extent to which we are
witnessing a transformation of the international political system,
and why such a change is (or is not) taking place.
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4credits
TR 11:40-12:55
Campos, M.
Back to Government Course List
credits
M 2:30-4:25
Shefter, M.
This seminar analyzes some major changes in U.S. electoral and group
politics in recent decades. Topics to be considered include: partisan
realignment, the new conservatism, racial cleavages, "Identity
politics," and democratic decline.
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credits
T 2:30-4:25
Katzenstein, M.
How well do India's political institutions function in the face of
the social and economic challenges of the l990s? We will take up a
range of issues that have been hotly debated in India over the last
ten years -- economic restructuring, Hindu nationalism, child labor,
gender inequality, among others -- considering what these
controversies reveal about the character of the Indian state. Each
week will be organized around a controversial question as presented
in articles, books, and films.
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credits
M 10:10-12:05
Moehler, D.
This is an introductory course on the politics of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The goal is to provide students with historical background and
theoretical tools to understand present-day politics on the
continent. The first part of the course will survey African political
history, touching on: pre-colonial political structures, colonial
experiences and legacies, nationalism and independence movements,
post-independence optimism and state-building, the authoritarian
turn, economic crises, and recent political and economic
liberalizations. The second part of the course will examine some
contemporary political and economic issues. These include: the
effects of political and social identities in Africa (ethnicity,
social ties, class, citizenship); the politics of poverty, war, and
dysfunction; Africa in the international system; and current attempts
to strengthen democracy and rule of law on the continent.
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credits
W 2:30-4:25
Weiner, R
Political parties are the basic building blocks of democratic
politics. Why do politicians and voters create, change, and destroy
them? What do citizens and political scientists want from them, and
what affects how well parties meet these demands? Does it matter
which party a candidate belongs to, or which parties control the
government? With such questions in mind, this seminar assesses
comparative theories of political parties and how they apply across
different countries, levels of government, and periods of time. We
will focus on both established and new democracies in the Americas,
Europe, and Asia.
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4credits
R 10:10-12:05
Rubenstein, D.
(Also AMST 430.3) This course will examine the presidencies of
Reagan, Bush, and Clinton in relation to what scholars have called
"the postmodern presidency". While this term has been utilized by
institutionalist students of the presidency as a periodizing
hypothesis, our emphasis will be on the work of cultural critics and
historians. We will address the slippage between fact and fiction in
cinematic and popular representations of the presidency (biography,
novels, television). The construction of gender normativity
(especially masculinity) will be an attendant subtheme. The
postmodern presidency will be read as a site of political as well as
cultural contestation. The Kennedy assassination will serve as a case
study in the formation of a national icon. The larger question of
this approach to the presidency concerns the relationship between
everyday life practices and citizenship as well as the role of
national fantasy in American political culture today. As this is a
presidential election year, we will examine popular representations
of Campaign 2004.
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4 credits
R 2:30-4:25
Ryter, L.
Recent official concerns about the rise of Islamic militancy in
Southeast Asia have tended to be short on context. The relationship
between Islam and politics in Southeast Asia has been varied and
dynamic. A relatively late arrival to the region but already
significant by the dawn of Europeancolonialism, Islam has assumed
syncretic forms particular to local conditions. British, Dutch, and
Spanish policies towards Islam have resulted in differing relations
between Islam and the state in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the
Philippines. Within each of these countries, Islamic groups have
disputed the proper relationship between Islam and nationalism, the
nature of power, and much else. Consequently, Islamic groups have
formed NGOs, political parties, armed resistance movements, and also
military alliances. This seminar will adopt a theoretically grounded
comparative historical perspective. Some background knowledge of the
region is recommended but not required.
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4credits
TR 1:25-2:40
Buck-Morss, S.
This course is intended to introduce students to the complexities of
Islamism as a modern discourse of opposition that deals with issues
of social justice, legitimate power, and ethical life. Because the
literature on Islamism is part of the partisan debates, attention is
given to the political and theoretical presuppositions embedded in
the very concepts of "Islamism" and the "West," and how the struggle
to define them figures into the meanings of "modernity," "democracy,"
"universal rights," and "liberation." We will read philosophical
texts by Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini, Muhammad Iqbal, Ustadh Mahmoud
Taha, Sayyid Qutb, and Ali Shar'iati, and commentaries by academic
scholars: Mohammed Arkoun, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, Ahmet
Davoutoglu, Miriam Cooke, Roxanne Euben, Hamid Dabashi, Ali
Mirsipassi, Olivier Roy, Bobby Sayyid, Akbar Ahmed, Bassam Tibi,
Hisham Sharabi, Tariq Ali, Samir Amin, and others, as well as
historical and social-scientific analyses of political events
influenced by Islamism. As the major experiment in founding an
"Islamist Republic," Iran will be a focus. Themes will include
Islamism and feminism, Islamism and cinema, Islamism and diaspora
culture.
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4credits
R 2:30-4:25
Smith, A. M.
Radical Democratic Feminisms is an advanced feminist theory seminar.
We will focus on contemporary political discourses that are
influenced by socialist feminism, radical democratic pluralism,
critical race theory and radical anti-racist and anti-heterosexist
multiculturalism. We will also consider various public policy
debates, such as welfare reform, abortion law, and same-sex marriage.
Note: Permission of the instructor is required. Applicants should be
advanced undergraduates with some background in feminist theory,
political theory, and /or social theory. Students interested in
taking the course should send an e-mail message to Prof. Anna Marie
Smith (ams3@cornell.edu) with details about their previous
coursework.
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4credits
TR 1:25-2:40
Reppy, J.
Military organizations are seen paradoxically as both inflexible,
hide-bound institutions and avid proponents of new technology. In
this seminar we examine changes over time in the attitude of the
military toward new technology and analyze competing explanations,
including concepts from science studies, for these changes. The
course concludes with an analysis of the so-called "Revolution in
Military Affairs." Readings include John Ellis, The Social History of
the Machine Gun and Steven Rosen, Winning the Next War.
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4credits
T 12:20-2:15
Carlson, A.
Throughout the 1990s it has been part of the conventional wisdom of
international relations scholarship that Asia was, in the words of
Aaron Friedberg, "ripe for rivalry." In this seminar we explore the
accuracy of such an assessment through studying Asia's historical and
contemporary security situation. Such an examination will be oriented
toward introducing students to the main security issues confronting
Asia, alongside an exploration of the extent to which competing
explanations drawn from different strands of IR theory and the
security field can explain such issues. In addition, we will ask
students to challenge the limitations of traditional security studies
through considering the importance of new actors and issue areas
within the region. In short, while the Seminar will have a regional
focus on east Asia, it will be framed within the broader literature
of the field.
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4credits
TR 8:40-9:55
Carlson, A.
The seminar will meet twice weekly under the supervision of a senior
faculty member with numerous classes being led by other members of
the department faculty. The seminar will survey the broad range of
what we mean by "the study of politics" and the various methods we
enlist to carry out the study. The seminar will be writing intensive,
requiring probably at least five papers.
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4credits
TBA
Staff
Back to Government Course List
1-6credits
TBA
Staff
Must fill out an application form and have it stamped by department
in order to be officially enrolled.
Back to Government Course List
4credits
T 3-4:30 and R 7:30-9:00
Winter/Way
This course provides an introduction to some of the quantitative
methods used in the social sciences. Topics we shall discuss include:
elementary probability theory, random variables, functions of random
variables, and sampling distributions; concepts of inference,
including point estimation, confidence intervals, and hypothesis
testing; bivariate regression; and multiple regression.
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4credits
W 4:30-6:30
Sanders, E.
The basic issues and institutions of American government and the
various subfields of American politics are introduced. The focus is
on substantive information and theoretical analysis and problems of
teaching and research.
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4credits
M 6:00-8:00
Bensel, R.
This course reviews the extensive literature on the political economy
of comparative state formation, economic development, and
institutional change. Among the topics covered will be war-making and
state expansion, regime evolution and modernization, and market
processes and class transformation. The focus will range from the
micro-economic foundations of political choice through the grand
historical forces that have shaped the contemporary world economy.
Although much of the reading and discussion will focus on European
cases, the limits of this experience as a theoretical model for the
remainder of the world will also be considered.
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4credits
T 7:00-10:00 p.m.
Pontusson/Herring
Every society necessarily authorizes mechanisms to answer basic
economic questions: what is to be produced? how is it to be produced?
how is it to be distributed? and so forth. Answers may include
customary arrangements, markets, or state institutions, typically
some composite of these. Both the choice of mechanisms and the
dynamics generated by such choices are ultimately political. The mix
of choices varies across nations, regions and sectors, as well as
over time. Such choices are both affected by and affect parallel
choice politics of the international economic system and by powerful
actors and ideas operating on a global scale. Utilizing the great
debates about economic change in relatively less-industrialized as
well as industrialized societies, we seek to understand the political
economy of development.
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4credits
W 10:10-12:05
Moehler, D.
This seminar on comparative political participation examines the
causes, consequences, and forms of public participation throughout
the world. Much of the existing research on political participation
comes from the study of American politics. Students will be
encouraged to read these as case studies, with the goals of
extracting hypotheses that can be tested in other contexts and
revising theories to fit a broader set of cases. As much as possible,
the readings will incorporate studies of participation from other
developed democracies, developing democracies, and even
non-democracies. Topics will include: individual level predictors of
participation; the role of elite mobilization and social ties;
culture and political behavior; political attitudes and public
opinion; how institutions and contexts affect political behavior; and
the effects of participation on individuals and the system.
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4credits
M 7:00-9:00
Turner, L.
Examines contemporary efforts in advanced industrial democracies to
reform industrial relations. The first half of the course will
examine contemporary industrial relations; reform efforts in the
United States, including innovative organizing strategies; new calls
for union militance; business strategies for a "union-free"
environment; efforts at labor-management cooperation; and the report
of the Dunlop Commission. The second half wil cover Britain--the
Thatcher reforms of the 1980s and the current labor-backed works
council movement; France---the Auroux Laws of the 1980s and their
effects; and German7--the transformation of industrial relations in
eastern Germany since 1989.
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4credits
T 10:10-12:05
Brettell, Anna
Students will review and assess several of the major currently
competing approaches to the study of Chinese politics. We will
discuss and evaluate leading works in the field analyzing Chinese
state and society (citizenship, interest articulation, and
democratization, etc…), policymaking and policy implementation,
law, elite politics, political culture, and political economy. Course
work will emphasize both qualitative and quantitative methods in
comparative politics.
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4 credits
R 2:30-4:25
Ryter, L.
Recent official concerns about the rise of Islamic militancy in
Southeast Asia have tended to be short on context. The relationship
between Islam and politics in Southeast Asia has been varied and
dynamic. A relatively late arrival to the region but already
significant by the dawn of Europeancolonialism, Islam has assumed
syncretic forms particular to local conditions. British, Dutch, and
Spanish policies towards Islam have resulted in differing relations
between Islam and the state in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the
Philippines. Within each of these countries, Islamic groups have
disputed the proper relationship between Islam and nationalism, the
nature of power, and much else. Consequently, Islamic groups have
formed NGOs, political parties, armed resistance movements, and also
military alliances. This seminar will adopt a theoretically grounded
comparative historical perspective. Some background knowledge of the
region is recommended but not required.
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4credits
T 7-9pm
Buck-Morss, S.
Topics vary. The title for spring 2004 is: Towards a New Aesthetics:
The Politics of Perception in a Global Field. This is a
cross-disciplinary seminar in visual studies. The visual is
approached not only as content, but as method. Topics will include
"Aesthetics I" (Kant, Arendt); "Aesthetics II" (Simmel, Benjamin) ;
and "Towards a New Aesthetics," that allows us to consider
"Globalization as an Aesthetic Field."
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4credits
W 2:30-4:25
Way, C.
An exploration into a range of contemporary theories and research
topics in the field of international political economy. The seminar
will cover different theoretical perspectives and a number of
substantive problems.
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4credits
T 12:20-2:15
Carlson, A
Throughout the 1990s it has been part of the conventional wisdom of
international relations scholarship that Asia was, in the words of
Aaron Friedberg, "ripe for rivalry." In this seminar we explore the
accuracy of such an assessment through studying Asia's historical and
contemporary security situation. Such an examination will be oriented
toward introducing students to the main security issues confronting
Asia, alongside an exploration of the extent to which competing
explanations drawn from different strands of IR theory and the
security field can explain such issues. In addition, we will ask
students to challenge the limitations of traditional security studies
through considering the importance of new actors and issue areas
within the region. In short, while the Seminar will have a regional
focus on east Asia, it will be framed within the broader literature
of the field.
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4credits
M 2:30-5:00
Uphoff, N.
The political, bureaucratic, economic, and technical environments of
administration for agricultural and rural development; the various
functions involved in administration (personnel managment, planning,
budgeting, economic analysis, information systems); several major
tasks (research, extension services, and infrastructure development);
and specific problems of integrating activities, interfacing with
rural populations, and utilizing external assistance. Intended
primarily for persons who expect to have some future responsibilities
in agricultural or rural development administration and Third World
countries.
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credits
R 4:30-6:00
Dotson
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credits
TBA
Staff
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4credits
T 10:10-12:05
Smith, AM
An advanced feminist theory/political theory/ queer theory/legal
theory seminar for graduate students and law students. The seminar
will deal first with theoretical approaches to sexuality that build
on and interrogate the post-structuralist approach that defines
sexuality as a social construction, rather than an expression of
a-historical instincts. Then we will explore a series of major legal
and political issues: the right to privacy with respect to
contraception and abortion; the restriction of abortion rights; the
exclusion of homosexual sodomy from the practices protected by the
right to privacy; the racial regulation of marriage; same-sex
marriage; Fineman's "sexual family" critique of family law; the moral
regulation of poor women in early welfare law; the sexual regulation
of poor single mothers in contemporary welfare law; the question of
suspect class status for lesbians and gay men; and homosexuality and
military service. Throughout the course, we will examine the extent
to which sexuality is constructed in articulation with gender, class
and race differences. Our reading list will include theoretical works
(Foucault, Butler, Cohen and Martin), Supreme Court decisions; and
critical commentaries by feminist legal theorists. Advanced
undergraduates are welcome to apply for admission to the seminar;
please contact the instructor by e-mail before classes begin.
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