Teaching
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PLSC 1300: Global Politics
At Ohio State, I taught Global Politics, an introductory survey of the major issues in International Relations (IR), seven times during Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. Depending on the semester, this course was attended by 50-100 undergraduate students. In this course, we examined the many facets of global politics, including how they are organized and operate, through the lens of IR theory. We addressed the key issues around which International Relations revolve, with a special emphasis on the ways in which international relationships affect people’s lives on social, political, and economic dimensions.
Each semester began with an identification of the key actors in IR and a discussion of the most prominent theories explaining how they interact. Having identified the actors and established a shared theoretical framework for thinking about their interactions, we explored why conflicts arise among actors. This includes looking at the uses of force, coercion, and terrorism and the many institutions designed to manage these conflicts. In the latter half of the semester, we delved further into the complex relationship between between politics, economics, and the environment. We studied the many economic and environmental relationships, institutions, and interdependencies that shape international relations. We concluded the semester with lessons on poverty, global inequality, and development, during which we discussed the role of politics in shaping the development, use, and distribution of human, natural, and economic resources across the globe.
Syllabi
You can download my syllabi for this course by clicking on the desired semester below:
Fall 2016 (15-week semester)
Summer 2016 (4-week semester)
PLSC 486K: Seminar in Atrocity Prevention and Conflict Resolution
I developed and taught this course in Spring 2018 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University. The goal of this course was to explore the major issues related to violence and atrocity prevention and conflict resolution. We achieve this goal by discussing the sources of violence and conflict, as well as how violence affects people’s lives on social, political, and economic dimensions; exploring the meaning of peace and justice; discussing the foundations and applications of international human rights and humanitarian law; and introducing a variety of strategies to achieve peace. This course was attended by about 25 masters and advanced undergraduate students.
GVPT 409A: Peace, Justice, and Conflict Resolution
I regularly teach this course as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. This course is usually attended by about 30 upper-level undergraduate students. In this course, we examine classic and contemporary perspectives on peace, justice, and conflict resolution after armed conflict. The goal of this course is to expose students to the advantages, risks, and challenges of the most prominent methods of conflict mitigation and resolution and violence prevention, including mediation and arbitration; peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding; the protection of civilians, Responsibility to Protect, and humanitarian assistance; elections, democratization, and power-sharing; and transitional reconciliation and justice. We do this by reading, discussing, and synthesizing classic and cutting-edge Political Science research on these topics.
Click here to download my syllabus.
GVPT 808B: Conflict and World Politics
This graduate seminar centered on the study of conflict. I taught this course to 12 PhD students in the department Government and Politics at the University of Maryland in Spring 2019. We discussed the major theoretical concepts related to the outbreak and resolution of conflict, as well as theories related to conflict processes such as recruitment, human rights abuses, and repression. Rather than focusing on categories of approaches, we examined extant literature by topic of interest. This course favored significant recent advances in these literatures, though we did delve into the roots of each research agenda in discussion as well.
Click here to download my syllabus.
GVPT 708A: Seminar in International Relations Theory
This graduate seminar introduces students to key theoretical, methodological, and substantive concerns in international relations scholarship. The course is designed as the core seminar for PhD students enrolled in the Government and Politics graduate program who have chosen international relations as one of their areas of specialization. I taught this course to PhD students in the department Government and Politics at the University of Maryland in Fall 2019 and Fall 2020. The course began with an overview of major approaches to the field. We then examined specific substantive issues relating to international conflict, international political economy, international institutions and organizations, and international normative change. The course is conducted in seminar format; students are expected to be prepared to discuss the readings in class each week.