Graduate Courses
Navigating Academia as Raced and Gendered Space
This course is committed to achieving racial and gender justice in academia. This course covers the following topics from the perspective of racialized and gendered minorities in academia: how to conduct research, publish an article, submit to academic conferences, balance work and life, navigate graduate school applications, navigate the academic job market, and navigate alternative academic job markets. Students will learn highly practical skills that will serve them in graduate school and beyond. The course is rooted in theoretical and empirical research on minority experiences in academia. Students will also learn how to research peer reviewed journals for possible publication, how to write a journal article, and how to write a cover letter. Students will develop their own abstracts, literature reviews, proposals, articles, and more through peer and professor mentorship. Students will read empirical research about best practices when it comes to writing, time management, and work life balance. In addition, students will read ethnographic and autoethnographic research on how to be successful as a minority within academia. Lastly, students will participate in peer writing groups, which function as peer accountability, mentoring, and reviewer groups.
Feminist Action Research
This course introduces student to feminist and anti-racist inquiry, methods, and research. Framed by critiques of objectivity, neutrality, and narrow definitions of power, this course aims to dismantle conventional social scientific methodology. We will consider the following questions: What constitutes knowledge? What do we want to know and why do we want to know it? What research methods are best designed to meet our goals? How can we collect and utilize our data in an ethical way? What is the relationship between our own lives and our research participants? What do we mean by “methodology,” “feminist,” “women,” “gender,” and “race”? How do these concepts influence our approach to research? What should we do with the knowledge that we create? And how can our research promote feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial goals within and beyond our communities? Topics to be considered will include: feminist inquiry and methodology; interpretive methods; political ethnography; political autoethnography; positionality and reflexivity; and feminist action research.
Global Feminisms
This course examines the relationship between Western and “Third World” feminisms. Framed by critiques of “universal sisterhood,” this course aims to dismantle the conventional Western story of feminism as something that began here and then spread elsewhere. We will consider: (1) the use of woman as homogenous category reflecting the common essence of all women; (2) experiences of multiple interlocking forms of subordinations; (3) a decentering of white, western, heterosexual, middle-class woman; (4) a pluralized feminism sensitive to and inclusive of difference; and (5) our own epistemologies and use epistemology that is self-consciously reflective of its own incompleteness. Topics to be considered will include: feminist inquiry and methodology; Black feminist thought; Postcolonial feminist thought; Third World feminist thought; Women of Color; transnational feminist activism; and feminisms and NGOs.
This course is committed to achieving racial and gender justice in academia. This course covers the following topics from the perspective of racialized and gendered minorities in academia: how to conduct research, publish an article, submit to academic conferences, balance work and life, navigate graduate school applications, navigate the academic job market, and navigate alternative academic job markets. Students will learn highly practical skills that will serve them in graduate school and beyond. The course is rooted in theoretical and empirical research on minority experiences in academia. Students will also learn how to research peer reviewed journals for possible publication, how to write a journal article, and how to write a cover letter. Students will develop their own abstracts, literature reviews, proposals, articles, and more through peer and professor mentorship. Students will read empirical research about best practices when it comes to writing, time management, and work life balance. In addition, students will read ethnographic and autoethnographic research on how to be successful as a minority within academia. Lastly, students will participate in peer writing groups, which function as peer accountability, mentoring, and reviewer groups.
Feminist Action Research
This course introduces student to feminist and anti-racist inquiry, methods, and research. Framed by critiques of objectivity, neutrality, and narrow definitions of power, this course aims to dismantle conventional social scientific methodology. We will consider the following questions: What constitutes knowledge? What do we want to know and why do we want to know it? What research methods are best designed to meet our goals? How can we collect and utilize our data in an ethical way? What is the relationship between our own lives and our research participants? What do we mean by “methodology,” “feminist,” “women,” “gender,” and “race”? How do these concepts influence our approach to research? What should we do with the knowledge that we create? And how can our research promote feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial goals within and beyond our communities? Topics to be considered will include: feminist inquiry and methodology; interpretive methods; political ethnography; political autoethnography; positionality and reflexivity; and feminist action research.
Global Feminisms
This course examines the relationship between Western and “Third World” feminisms. Framed by critiques of “universal sisterhood,” this course aims to dismantle the conventional Western story of feminism as something that began here and then spread elsewhere. We will consider: (1) the use of woman as homogenous category reflecting the common essence of all women; (2) experiences of multiple interlocking forms of subordinations; (3) a decentering of white, western, heterosexual, middle-class woman; (4) a pluralized feminism sensitive to and inclusive of difference; and (5) our own epistemologies and use epistemology that is self-consciously reflective of its own incompleteness. Topics to be considered will include: feminist inquiry and methodology; Black feminist thought; Postcolonial feminist thought; Third World feminist thought; Women of Color; transnational feminist activism; and feminisms and NGOs.
Undergraduate Courses
Comparative Politics
The purpose of this course is to survey important themes and questions that animate the field of comparative politics. We will consider: (1) What is comparative politics? (2) What are the methodological tools available for pursuing comparative research in political science? (3) We will read empirically grounded theoretical literature on the concepts of democratization, democracy, civil society, citizenship, and political resistance with cases from Asia, Latin America, and North America. Overall, the course will help students understand the immense value of doing empirical research about specific regions of the world and the ways in which we can use these particular insights to theorize about political science concepts more generally.
Politics of India
The purpose of this course is to understand the relationship between democracy, citizenship and difference, specifically ethnic, religious, gender, and caste difference, within the context of post-colonial India. The course asks: can liberal democracies be sustained in the midst of ethnic, gender, caste, and religious diversity? What is the relationship between liberal democracy, citizenship, and civil society in post-colonial India? How does difference impact the meaning and lived experience of citizenship, minority and majority group membership, and democratic participation? Topics to be considered will include: Hindu nationalism and minority rights, gender and the law, and caste and political empowerment.
Everyday Forms of Political Resistance
This course adopts a more expansive definition of the “political” to understand the often-overlooked politics of marginalized groups. The course focuses on the everyday forms of resistance among marginalized populations in an effort to give voice to a “politics of the people.” To understand political behavior among subordinated groups, the course relies on James Scott and Michael Hanchard, who argue that the politics of subordinated groups is best understood as neither overt collective defiance nor complete hegemonic compliance, but as everyday forms of political resistance. To understand everyday resistance, the course introduces an intersectional approach through Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherrie Moraga, Patricia Hill Collins, and Chandra Mohanty, who argue that racism, sexism, homophobia, and colonialism are interlocking systems that must be resisted simultaneously. Topics to be considered will include: hip-hop in the U.S. and third world women’s writings as manifestations of everyday political resistance.
The purpose of this course is to survey important themes and questions that animate the field of comparative politics. We will consider: (1) What is comparative politics? (2) What are the methodological tools available for pursuing comparative research in political science? (3) We will read empirically grounded theoretical literature on the concepts of democratization, democracy, civil society, citizenship, and political resistance with cases from Asia, Latin America, and North America. Overall, the course will help students understand the immense value of doing empirical research about specific regions of the world and the ways in which we can use these particular insights to theorize about political science concepts more generally.
Politics of India
The purpose of this course is to understand the relationship between democracy, citizenship and difference, specifically ethnic, religious, gender, and caste difference, within the context of post-colonial India. The course asks: can liberal democracies be sustained in the midst of ethnic, gender, caste, and religious diversity? What is the relationship between liberal democracy, citizenship, and civil society in post-colonial India? How does difference impact the meaning and lived experience of citizenship, minority and majority group membership, and democratic participation? Topics to be considered will include: Hindu nationalism and minority rights, gender and the law, and caste and political empowerment.
Everyday Forms of Political Resistance
This course adopts a more expansive definition of the “political” to understand the often-overlooked politics of marginalized groups. The course focuses on the everyday forms of resistance among marginalized populations in an effort to give voice to a “politics of the people.” To understand political behavior among subordinated groups, the course relies on James Scott and Michael Hanchard, who argue that the politics of subordinated groups is best understood as neither overt collective defiance nor complete hegemonic compliance, but as everyday forms of political resistance. To understand everyday resistance, the course introduces an intersectional approach through Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherrie Moraga, Patricia Hill Collins, and Chandra Mohanty, who argue that racism, sexism, homophobia, and colonialism are interlocking systems that must be resisted simultaneously. Topics to be considered will include: hip-hop in the U.S. and third world women’s writings as manifestations of everyday political resistance.