Global Arc

Investigation of a major theme in comparative politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in comparative politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in international relations. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in international relations. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature.

Investigation of a major theme in international relations. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in international relations. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in methods of political science. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Media and journalism are undergoing what many observers are describing as a profound structural change. How we view the consequences of this change for democracy depends on what we normatively expect from the relationship between the media and politics in the first place. Hence we shall start with basic questions about this relationship and critically examine previous transformations and what were perceived as crises in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We finish with a closer normative and empirical look at the role of social media and attempts transnationally to re-shape media landscapes. There will be a number of guest speakers.

This course examines political thinkers who profoundly shaped normative thinking about politics in Indian, Islamic, African and Chinese contexts. The course will examine non-Western ideas of modernity, and justified forms of moral and political order. It will shed new light on key ideas of modern political thought: rights, justice, nationalism, identity, violence, perfectionism, democracy and power. The thinkers in this course such as Gandhi, Iqbal, Ambedkar, Qutub, Fanon, Cesaire, Mao and others, not only contribute to political theory. Their arguments also define fault lines in contemporary politics.

We protect expressive liberty in the US even when it takes the form of racist hate speech, pornography, and (much) lying: Should we follow other countries and permit more restrictions on harmful speech? Or will that undermine truth-seeking and other values? Can we rely on the restraining effect of social norms? Should universities restrict more campus speech? And what should we - as political communities and universities - honor and memorialize? How should we balance the recognition of heritage and the inclusion of people from diverse cultures? Seminars will often include debates. Active weekly participation required of all.