This course explores the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in political struggles over the distribution and uses of power in the American constitutional system. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and governmental regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the powers of individuals to make basic choices, such as a woman's power to have an abortion. We will pay special attention to how the tasks of justifying the Supreme Court's own power, and constitutionalism more broadly, contribute to logically debatable, but politically powerful constitutional arguments. Readings include Supreme Court decisions and background materials on their historical and political context.

This course explores the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in political struggles over the distribution and uses of power in the American constitutional system. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and governmental regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the powers of individuals to make basic choices, such as a woman's power to have an abortion. We will pay special attention to how the tasks of justifying the Supreme Court's own power, and constitutionalism more broadly, contribute to logically debatable, but politically powerful constitutional arguments. Readings include Supreme Court decisions and background materials on their historical and political context.

This class examines the strategy and politics of warfare, focusing on the way actors plan military campaigns and the factors that are likely to lead to victory and defeat. The course readings center in particular on the factors driving changes in warfare and civil-military relations. The course will cover a wide range of topics from theories of war-fighting to historical military campaigns to insurgency warfare, terrorism, and the future of war.

This class examines the strategy and politics of warfare, focusing on the way actors plan military campaigns and the factors that are likely to lead to victory and defeat. The course readings center in particular on the factors driving changes in warfare and civil-military relations. The course will cover a wide range of topics from theories of war-fighting to historical military campaigns to insurgency warfare, terrorism, and the future of war.

This class examines the strategy and politics of warfare, focusing on the way actors plan military campaigns and the factors that are likely to lead to victory and defeat. The course readings center in particular on the factors driving changes in warfare and civil-military relations. The course will cover a wide range of topics from theories of war-fighting to historical military campaigns to insurgency warfare, terrorism, and the future of war.

This class examines the strategy and politics of warfare, focusing on the way actors plan military campaigns and the factors that are likely to lead to victory and defeat. The course readings center in particular on the factors driving changes in warfare and civil-military relations. The course will cover a wide range of topics from theories of war-fighting to historical military campaigns to insurgency warfare, terrorism, and the future of war.

This course is an introduction to the field of political communication, conceptual approaches to analyzing communication in various forms, including advertising, speech making, campaign debates, and candidates' and office-holders' uses of news. The focus of this course is on the interplay in the U.S. between television and politics. The course includes a history of televised campaign practices from the 1952 presidential contest onward.

Gender has been a primary way of organizing power relations throughout history.This class asks how transformations in the global economy, technological change, new patterns of household formation, and social movements, have influenced women's access to economic and political positions over the past two centuries. We will examine how women's mobilization contributed to the abolition of slavery, reform of property and franchise laws, and to the formation of the welfare state. Next, we turn to thinking about how women's increasing labor force participation was hindered by institutions like marriage bars and union policy. Third, we look at cross-national patterns of women's political participation and descriptive representation including whether and how the adoption of electoral quotas influences gender equality more generally. Finally we study how institutional norms and gender stereotypes affect political representation. This class will draw on examples from around the world, and will look a experiences of women from all economic, social, and ascriptive backgrounds.

This course examines the relationship between politics and the health of populations in the worlds rich democracies, including the Unites States. The key questions the course addresses are how and why countries differ in their health care policies, public health policies, and policies that affect the social determinants of health. There are no prerequisites, but prior coursework in comparative politics at the 100 or 200 level will be helpful.