Courses
Ph.D. students are required to select a specific track, which will serve as a guiding framework for the coursework component of their program requirements. This track not only helps to tailor their academic journey to align with their research interests, but also ensures that students engage in a cohesive set of courses that deepen their expertise in their chosen area:
Standard: Four courses each in two of the department’s five major fields, three methodology courses (including Proseminar and Introduction to Quantitative Methods), and three electives
Constitutional Studies: Four courses in Constitutional Studies, four courses in one of the department’s other major field, three methodology courses (including the Proseminar) and three electives
Methods: Four courses in one of the department’s five major fields, two courses in one of the department’s other major fields, six methodology courses, and two electives
Theory: Four courses in Political Theory, four courses in one of the department’s other major fields, the Proseminar, and five electives
Regardless of the track you choose, all first- year Ph.D. students are required to enroll in POLS 63800 Proseminar. This is commonly referred to as a “scope and methods” course; that is, a course designed to survey the great variety of themes and approaches in political science and to guide you through the fundamental debates about what political science is or should be.
The second requirement of the Ph.D. program is to sit for a comprehensive exam in your first field. To ensure you are well-prepared for the exam, some fields may necessitate completing specific courses that align with the exam’s content. These preparatory courses are designed to deepen your understanding of key concepts and methodologies, equipping you with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed.
Please visit Class Search for our full range of courses.
Field required courses:
American Politics Required Courses
American Political Behavior
This is the core course in American political behavior- a central focus of empirical political science for nearly 70 years. We will begin considering normative questions about the role that ordinary citizens should play and realistically can be expected to play in a democratic polity. The goal for the course is not only to immerse students in the vast literature on American political behavior, but also provide the foundation for original research. To that end, we will spend a fair amount of time discussing research methods and approaches. Students also will be expected to offer critiques of the ideas and methodologies presented in the literature, with an eye toward improving and finding new directions in research of political behavior.
American Political Institutions
This course explores the role of national institutions in the American political system, with an emphasis on Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. Students will consider three functions commonly ascribed to political institutions in relation to elite behavior; channeling individual preferences, constraining strategic choices, and structuring political opportunities. The goal of the course is for students to gain basic understanding of American political institutions, synthesize the main themes in the literature, and grapple with current debates in the field.
International Relations Required Courses
Theories of International Relations
This graduate seminar provides a survey of major theoretical traditions and their applications in the study of international relations. The course explores recent changes in and debates on the key theoretical approaches (realism, liberalism, and constructivism) with a particular emphasis on identifying and criticizing their central assumptions and causal logics. A second objective of the course is to clarify and assess various methodological perspectives, ranging from empiricism to constructivism, and their consequences for the design and conduct of research.
International Political Economy
What are global markets and how are they governed? The aim of this seminar is to introduce students to empirical trends and academic debates on the political underpinnings of the global economy. We will examine a range of actors involved in the politics of global markets- governments, international organizations as well as a range of private actors. We will think about how institutions, ideas and interests shape local and global economies. This course serves as a basis for future research in international political economy and prepares students for the international relations comprehensive exam
International Security
This seminar offers an introduction to the field of international security studies. We will survey the dominant and emerging theories of international conflict and analyze various efforts to use these theories to understand important substantive areas of international politics.
Recent course offerings
POLS 60028 American State Politics
This course will focus on the study of American state politics from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The topics we will cover range widely across those commonly examined in political science, including studies of elections, mass behavior, public opinion, institutions, and policy making. We will focus on how the contextual and institutional factors that vary across states impact the process of democratic governance.
POLS 60108: Islamic Law and Constitutions (Counts towards Constitutional Studies or International Relations course requirement)
This seminar offers an introduction to Islamic law, Islamic international law, and Islamic constitutionalism. Lectures and readings focus on sources and functioning of classical Islamic law as well as on the characteristics of modern Islamic constitutional and subconstitutional legal systems across Muslim-majority states. Students will consider the meaning of Islamic justice, its embodiment in the legal system, its execution, the way it has evolved, and the principles that underpin it. We will examine the role of Islamic jurisprudence in the shaping of law, and how a faith-based concept of law relates to modern domestic governance and modern international law.
POLS 60456 The Logic of Political Violence
The purpose of this seminar course is to understand the logic and dynamics of state repression and insurgent collective action. We will explore the transformation of social movements (seeking social justice) and criminal organizations (seeking profits) into armed insurgencies. Our focus is on the state: Failed states may be a privileged terrain for the emergence of criminal organizations and for rebel and terrorist groups, but repressive states in authoritarian regimes and electoral autocracies may also contribute to the transformation of peaceful dissent into violence. The course covers material from different theoretical and methodological persuasions. We will read game-theoretic research, as well as large-N statistical analyses, comparative case studies, ethnographies, and studies that combine different approaches. Geographically, the course covers cases from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.
POLS 60471 Comparative Authoritarianism
This seminar examines the nature and varieties of modern authoritarian regimes, the causes of their emergence, and the processes that lead to their endurance as well as their destruction. We will examine both the recent and (to a lesser extent) the older literature on dictatorship to analyze the origins, structure, and practices of contemporary authoritarian regimes throughout the world, along with some earlier examples of authoritarian policies, such as communist regimes, that have largely passed from the political scene. The focus is on course issues that are central to the analysis of all regimes, whether democratic or authoritarian- for example- institutional design; competing arguments about regime origins; the relationship between the state and the economy, the state and the international system, and the regime and society; the management of both competition for power and leadership succession; and issues of regime legitimacy and accountability.
POLS 60655 Plato: Political Philosophy
This seminar focuses on Plato’s Republic, with supplements from other dialogues and from the political, literary, and religious culture with which Plato is in conversation. As time allows, we will also discuss influential modern interpretations from Leo Strauss and Martin Heidegger. Assignments will include a reading journal, two in-class 30-minute oral examinations, and an oral final examination.
POLS 60699 Hegel and His 20th Century Appropriators and Critics
A little over the first half of this course will be devoted to the reading of Hegel’s “Lectures on the Philosophy of History” and his “Philosophy of Right.” The second half will be devoted to reading a few prominent 20th century critics and appropriators of his thought, including Alexandre Kojeve, Georg Lukacs, Theodor Adorno, Jean-Paul Sartrem and Simone de Beauvoir.