All information in this guide is tentative and subject to change. Check with the Political Science Department Office for updates. The Real-time online schedule of classes is accessible through MySlice - Syracuse University

PSC 600 m001 Black Feminist Politics

Instructor: Jenn Jackson

Class#: 53630

Offered: T 12:30 pm – 3:15 pm

Frequency Offered: Special Offering

Prerequisites: None

Course Description

This seminar critically examines key issues and debates in post-civil rights Black Feminist thought, organizing, and political behavior. As such, we will understand that Black Feminism is global and diasporic and Blackness is global and diasporic. We will begin with a survey and broad analysis of Black Feminist theorizing in the western world and beyond. We will pay particular attention to how Black Feminists and Black Feminist thinkings make use of concepts like standpoint theory, Black nationalism, Black liberalism, liberal feminism, Black Marxism, and radical feminist thought. We will also investigate the simultaneity of race, gender, class, and sexual oppression and its relationship to power. This means that we will draw connections between traditional Black Feminist models of politics and contemporary queer and trans politics recognizing that there are many feminisms. In this course, we will also focus on Black feminist understandings of intersectionality, the history of this analytical frame, and how this framework has contributed to today’s politics.

The particular questions we will analyze include but are not limited to the following: How have Black women shaped the texture of freedom in the United States and internationally? What does it mean for Black Feminists to create and maintain our archives? What is the relationship between racism, gender based oppression, homophobia, and classism in Black women’s lives? What forms of resistance do many Black women engage in and to what ends? How do these decisions shape politics?

PSC 600 m301 European Integration

Instructor: Glyn Morgan

Class#: 44242

Offered: W 6:45 pm – 9:30 pm

Frequency Offered: Special Offering

Prerequisites: None

Course Description

From 1986 until 2005, the project to build an economically and politically integrated Europe proved remarkably successful. In the last few years, however, this project has confronted a number of interlocking difficulties—"or polycrises.” These difficulties include: populist nationalism; immigration; demographic decline; geopolitical conflict, and now the war sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These polycrises prompt the questions: (i) Does European integration have a future: (ii) If so, what form must it take to survive? More generally, the EU represents the first genuine attempt to find an alternative to the nation-state. If the EU fails, then what does this tell us about the nature and durability of the nation-state as a macropolitical form?

PSC 602 m001 Public Policy Analysis Theory & Practice

Instructor: Sarah Pralle

Class #: 45081

Offered: W 9:30 am – 12:15 pm

Course Description

This course examines the politics of public policy processes. The policy literature is characterized by attention to how politics shapes the set of issues on the policy agenda; the policy programs, solutions and instruments selected by the public and policymakers; the implementation of public policy; and how policies affect subsequent politics. We begin by exploring what is sometimes referred to as a "policy-centered" approach to understanding politics, as well as some classic texts that lay the groundwork for such an approach. Next, we investigate different stages of the policy process, including agenda-setting, policy change, design, and implementation. We also investigate specific policy institutions, such as the bureaucracy and interest groups. The course concludes with an examination of how policies, once created, may in turn restructure political processes and shape subsequent polices. Throughout the course, special attention is given to the U.S. context, although some cross-national comparisons are included.

PSC 621 m001 Theories of American Politics

Instructor: Chris Faricy

Class #: 53638

Offered: M 9:30 am-12:15 pm

Course Description

This graduate student field survey provides an overview of the scholarly study of American politics. The course has been designed for students who intend to specialize in American politics, as well as for those students whose primary interests are comparative politics, international relations, or political theory, but who desire an intensive introduction to the “American” style of political science.

PSC 694 m001 Qualitative Political Analysis

Instructor: Audie Klotz

Class #: 42504

Offered: W 12:45 pm-3:30 pm

Course Description

This course introduces the three methodological techniques most often associated in Political Science with the qualitative label: ethnography, discourse analysis, and historiography. Through homework assignments, you will learn to apply each tool in research of your choice. To situate these methods within a research proposal—the final assignment—we will also query distinctions between qualitative and quantitative (as well as other) methods. Your research design will mimic a funding proposal, as appropriate for the project (e.g., master’s thesis, pilot study, or dissertation). Thus, the course should be useful both to those in the early stages of graduate work and to those starting dissertations.

PSC 700 m001 Interest Group Politics

Instructor: Danny Daneri

Class #: 53486

Offered: T 6:30 pm – 9:15 pm

Course Description

This seminar investigates the central theoretical and empirical debates regarding the role of interest groups and social movements in American political processes. The course begins with a survey of the classic texts regarding interest groups, social movements and inequality, including works by participants in major movements for civil rights, economic justice, and women’s suffrage. We then explore basic concepts such as representation, lobbying, and the collective action problem. After laying this foundation, we engage the more contemporary scholarly debates regarding money in politics and the role of political institutions in creating or limiting opportunities for interest groups and social movements to affect social and political change. Students will be expected to workshop research ideas throughout the course in preparation for a final research proposal. 

PSC 700 m002 Sociology of IR

Instructor: Ryan Griffiths

Class #: 53488

Offered: T 9:30 am – 12:15 pm

Course Description

This course is intended to introduce students to the research frontier in international relations and develop critical analysis skills. Each class will feature a single book by a first-time author. Students will be assigned to write a critical analysis of not only the book, but also its development from the dissertation stage through the related articles on the way to the book. Each student will write two weekly analyses and will have the opportunity to choose the books.

PSC 700 m003 Politics of the Middle East

Instructor: Yael Zeira

Class #: 53640

Offered: M 12:45 pm – 3:30 pm

Course Description

In this course, we will engage with key questions in the study of Middle East and North Africa politics (and of the Global South more generally), with a focus on authoritarian regimes and their persistence, opposition parties and movements, and the causes and consequences of the Arab Uprisings, including democratic transitions and reversals, war, and social change. We will explore these questions using cases from across the region, including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and the Gulf, with an eye towards comparison with other world regions. The main goal of the course is to introduce you to some of the main questions driving contemporary research on Middle East and North Africa politics, the most important contributions made to answering these questions to date, and the gaps that remain in our understanding of these questions. In doing so, it aims to give you not only a survey of the relevant literature but also the tools you will need to engage with and evaluate new research, including your own. 

 A second and equally important aim of the course is to prepare you to develop an independent, empirical research project on the subject of Middle East and North Africa politics. You will design such a project over the course of the semester, culminating in a grant proposal, polished research design, or pre-analysis plan that is ready to be submitted for a national grant or fellowship, pre-registered (e.g. with EGAP), etc. After completing this course, you should be able to:

•  Know and understand the contemporary academic literature on Middle East and North Africa politics

•  Critically evaluate quantitative and qualitative research on Middle East and North Africa politics in terms of its theory, contributions, and methodology

•  Develop an independent, empirical research project related to the study of Middle East and North Africa politics

•  Successfully answer comprehensive exam questions about Middle East and North Africa politics, as well as about related thematic topics

PSC 752 m001 International Law & Organizations

Instructor: Lamis Abdelaaty

Class #: 53472

Offered: Th 9:30 am – 12:15 pm

Course Description

Global governance, from formal organizations to soft law, establishes the “rules of the game” in international affairs. This course surveys the varying character and density of these rules across issues. Topics may include war, intervention, human rights, trade, development, self-determination, migration, and environment. Students will delve deeper through research papers.

PSC 753 m001 International Political Economy

Instructor: Daniel McDowell

Class #: 53639

Offered: W 12:45 pm – 3:30 pm

Course Description

Economic globalization is being reshaped by strategic considerations. The transformation under way reflects a variety of contemporary forces, including a shifting global distribution of power, intensifying interstate conflict, and the increased use of economic sanctions. These shocks to the “globalization status quo” are causing a foreign economic policy re-think in capitals around the world. The perceived benefits of deep integration are shrinking relative to expanding fears of strategic vulnerabilities from interdependence. This course surveys how strategic and security considerations are transforming interstate economic relations, including how states wield their economic power toward coercive ends, but also how they work to enhance their strategic autonomy and resilience in a riskier, more crisis prone world. The topics we will survey include economic sanctions, domestic reactions to economic coercion, financial statecraft, the weaponization of energy, private sector responses to geopolitical risk, de-risking in international trade and investment, and more. Weekly readings draw on academic research and some policy-oriented writing. We will engage with historical cases for additional context and comparison, though contemporary issues are the main event.

PSC 769 m001 Comparative Parties and Politics

Instructor: Seth Jolly

Class #: 53391

Offered: T 12:30 pm - 3:15pm

Course Description

The course provides an overview of concepts and theories employed in the study of political parties in competitive democracies. The course will develop theoretical arguments and employ empirical examples primarily from the literature on party systems in advanced postindustrial democracies. In the first section, we will focus on pure, general theories of parties as coalitions of politicians and party systems as arenas for competition among such coalitions.

In the second part of class, we consider democratic institutions, and more specifically electoral systems, as rules that constrain and enable politicians to choose strategies. In the third section, we consider societal (political-economic, cultural) conditions as forces impinging upon the nature of competition among parties and the internal process of strategy formation and resource pooling inside parties. In the final part of class, we consider change in both parties and party systems, paying special attention to the entry of new parties.

PSC 787 m001 Democracy & Democratization

Instructor: Matthew Cleary

Class #: 53446

Offered: M 3:45 pm - 6:30pm

Course Description

One of the central endeavors in comparative political science is to explore the conditions that generate and sustain democratic institutions. This course introduces students to the voluminous literature on democracy and democratization. The first half of the course focuses on classic theories of democratization drawn from historical sociology, modernization theory, rational choice, structural and economic explanations, and institutional theory. The second half reviews recent literature on contemporary problems of democracy, including populism, coercive forms of citizen-party linkage, party system decline, institutional design and horizontal accountability, and democratic backsliding. Course readings represent cutting-edge research on these themes from all world regions.

PSC 794 m001 Advanced Quantitative Political Analysis

Instructor:  Baobao Zhang

Class #: 53502

Offered: T 3:30 pm – 6:15 pm

Course Description

This course has several goals. First, to provide you with the ability to understand, utilize, and evaluate the classical linear regression model in an informed manner. Second, to explore alternative specifications and modeling approaches that better conform to the nature of your data and your questions. Third, to think carefully about the interpretations you draw from statistical analysis and to improve inference by design. Specific topics to be covered include, bivariate and multivariate linear regression, non-linear and limited dependent variables, panel and spatial data, experimental methods, and quasi-experimental methods like instrumental variables estimation and regression discontinuity.  The connection between the course material and applied research will be highlighted throughout the course.  Students will have regular problem sets, practice with statistical software, mainly Stata, and an exam.

PSC 997 Master’s Thesis

Register for class # 43119, PSC 997 m001, 6 credit hours –or-

Register for class # 42930, PSC 997 m002, 0 credit hours

PSC 999 Dissertation Credits

Register for class # 41750 for 1 to 15 credits

GRD 998 Degree in Progress (Zero Hour Registration)

Register for class number # 48426 - GRD 998.001-or-

Register for class number # 48427 - GRD 998.002

When you have completed all your coursework and your dissertation credits, you should register each fall and spring semester for “Degree in Progress”, GRD 998, to maintain your active student status.  Please see Candy Brooks if you have any questions about your credits.

Remember to complete a “Certification of Full-Time Status” form each time you register for zero credit hours to continue your full time status. You can find an electronic Certification of Full-Time Status form for matriculated graduate students with the following link from the Answers page. Forms - Graduate School - Answers (syr.edu)