The Politics of HBO’s “The Wire” (Yale)
This class uses HBO's groundbreaking series "The Wire" to investigate city's, their problems, and their politics. We will watch all five seasons of the show as social scientists and use it to learn about important social scientific concepts and theories, and apply those theories to such phenomena as the politics of crime, policing, and local elections. Each week, the assigned readings—social science articles and book excerpts, news articles, and podcasts—will highlight the concepts displayed in the show and provide context for lectures. All of the assignments work together to expose students to social science, how social science is conducted, and how political science can help us better understand the world around us.
The Politics of Crime and Punishment in American Cities (Yale)
What types of political decisions lead to some communities being more policed than others? What is the relationship between descriptive representation in state and local government institutions and criminal justice outcomes? How does contact with the criminal justice system affect individuals' future political participation? This course explores the relationship between politics and crime and punishment. We review literature focused on political behavior and political institutions to better understand the phenomena we hear about in the news from sentencing algorithms, to felon (dis)enfranchisement, to stop-and-frisk, and police use of force. In better understanding the relationship between politics and crime and punishment, this course examines why debates in this area are so often focused on urban environments, and what it is about cities, specifically, that makes us associate them with crime.
Methods of Political Analysis (Penn State)
This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the ways that political scientists study politics. We consider the components of good research design as we survey a variety of research methods used in the discipline. This course is intended to help students think about their own research projects and also develop their ability to evaluate others’ research.
Introduction to American National Government (Penn State)
The principal goal of this class is to help students understand American politics as they are likely to experience it. We discuss the basic structure of the government, how people participate in politics, and the institutions that connect people with their government. A second goal is to introduce the practice of political science. To that end, we spend some time talking about what political scientists studying American politics do, the types of questions they ask, and types of methods they employ to answer those questions. A third goal is to pose critical questions about democracy in the United States. What actions taken by government or political leaders would enhance or impede democracy? How much do elections matter? What kinds of choices are offered? How responsive is government to what the public wants? Why is it so difficult to change policy from the status quo? Are polarized parties a good thing? Who benefits when government acts or fails to act? By the end of the course, students should gain an appreciation for why the American government is setup as it is and why politics operate as they do. While there are a variety of perspectives that can be used to do this, we will focus primarily on how institutions developed and continue to structure political outcomes.
The Scientific Study of Politics (Penn State)
This course provides an introduction to the scientific study of politics and its role in advancing our understanding of politics. The course covers essential elements of scientific reasoning, introduces systematic approaches to research in political science through the use of major puzzles in the field, and introduces data sources and interpretation of graphical and tabular data.
The course consists of three parts. The first part covers the elements of scientific reasoning, including: characteristics of scientific knowledge, theory and hypotheses, the concepts of dependent and independent variables, and causal explanations. The second part of the course examines dominant approaches to political research, including: experiments, surveys, elite interviewing, archival research, the analysis of “big data”, and formal models. This course introduces the essential features and concepts underlying each approach, identifies exemplary data sources and puzzles that have been addressed with each approach, and the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. The final part of the course pulls together the course material, emphasizing some of the benefits of scientific approaches to researching politics.
This class uses HBO's groundbreaking series "The Wire" to investigate city's, their problems, and their politics. We will watch all five seasons of the show as social scientists and use it to learn about important social scientific concepts and theories, and apply those theories to such phenomena as the politics of crime, policing, and local elections. Each week, the assigned readings—social science articles and book excerpts, news articles, and podcasts—will highlight the concepts displayed in the show and provide context for lectures. All of the assignments work together to expose students to social science, how social science is conducted, and how political science can help us better understand the world around us.
The Politics of Crime and Punishment in American Cities (Yale)
What types of political decisions lead to some communities being more policed than others? What is the relationship between descriptive representation in state and local government institutions and criminal justice outcomes? How does contact with the criminal justice system affect individuals' future political participation? This course explores the relationship between politics and crime and punishment. We review literature focused on political behavior and political institutions to better understand the phenomena we hear about in the news from sentencing algorithms, to felon (dis)enfranchisement, to stop-and-frisk, and police use of force. In better understanding the relationship between politics and crime and punishment, this course examines why debates in this area are so often focused on urban environments, and what it is about cities, specifically, that makes us associate them with crime.
Methods of Political Analysis (Penn State)
This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the ways that political scientists study politics. We consider the components of good research design as we survey a variety of research methods used in the discipline. This course is intended to help students think about their own research projects and also develop their ability to evaluate others’ research.
Introduction to American National Government (Penn State)
The principal goal of this class is to help students understand American politics as they are likely to experience it. We discuss the basic structure of the government, how people participate in politics, and the institutions that connect people with their government. A second goal is to introduce the practice of political science. To that end, we spend some time talking about what political scientists studying American politics do, the types of questions they ask, and types of methods they employ to answer those questions. A third goal is to pose critical questions about democracy in the United States. What actions taken by government or political leaders would enhance or impede democracy? How much do elections matter? What kinds of choices are offered? How responsive is government to what the public wants? Why is it so difficult to change policy from the status quo? Are polarized parties a good thing? Who benefits when government acts or fails to act? By the end of the course, students should gain an appreciation for why the American government is setup as it is and why politics operate as they do. While there are a variety of perspectives that can be used to do this, we will focus primarily on how institutions developed and continue to structure political outcomes.
The Scientific Study of Politics (Penn State)
This course provides an introduction to the scientific study of politics and its role in advancing our understanding of politics. The course covers essential elements of scientific reasoning, introduces systematic approaches to research in political science through the use of major puzzles in the field, and introduces data sources and interpretation of graphical and tabular data.
The course consists of three parts. The first part covers the elements of scientific reasoning, including: characteristics of scientific knowledge, theory and hypotheses, the concepts of dependent and independent variables, and causal explanations. The second part of the course examines dominant approaches to political research, including: experiments, surveys, elite interviewing, archival research, the analysis of “big data”, and formal models. This course introduces the essential features and concepts underlying each approach, identifies exemplary data sources and puzzles that have been addressed with each approach, and the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. The final part of the course pulls together the course material, emphasizing some of the benefits of scientific approaches to researching politics.