Departments:

Code Name Description
PO101 SOC: UNITED STATES POLITICS The U.S. political system in theory and practice; political processes, institutions, individual and group behavior; the relationship of the political system to the organizational and economic environments.
PO102 SOC: COMPARATIVE POLITICS Introduction to the study of political behavior and institutions through a comparative perspective.
PO103 ISJ: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Origin, nature, and development of the modern state system. International conflict and its management by political and legal means. Concepts include sovereignty, nationalism, national power and security, balance of power. Contemporary international i...
PO104 SOC: POLITICAL THOUGHT Examination of the assumptions, methods, and substantive positions of selected political theorists as a basis of analyzing political life. Themes include sovereignty, power, equality, slavery, peace, representation, identity, force, and violence.
PO105 QA: POLITICAL ANALYSIS Introduces students to foundational quantitative analysis in a political context, specifically describing and representing data, posing precise and testable questions, drawing inferences from data, analyzing data, and understanding appropriate statis...
PO106 INTRODUCTION TO LAW AND SOCIETY An inquiry into the relationship between the law and social structure, both in the US and global contexts. Includes considerations of how laws are formulated, enforced, and challenged. Will explore how legislatures, courts, enforcement, and correctio...
PO200 INTRODUCTION TO METHODS Introduces various approaches used in the social sciences to understand the socio-political world and provide causal explanation for its discernible patterns and features. Includes the basics of forming a research hypothesis and a review of the liter...
PO203 QA: POLITICS AND MAPPING Introduction to the spatial representation of political data through computer-based processing tools, specifically geographic information systems (GIS). Fundamentals of creating maps, including spatial analysis, thematic mapping, and data quality. Ap...
PO205 EGC: HEALTHCARE ACCESS IN LATIN AMERICA Integrates immersion experience with the realities of health care access in Latin America. Topics include the cycle of poverty in Latin American countries, the link between health care access and poverty, and the specific case of the rural Honduran h...
PO213 LINK: WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS Examines theories explaining why wrongful convictions occur, including discussions of witness identification, false confessions, perjured testimony from informants, ineffective counsel, and police and prosecutorial misconduct. Addresses consequences...
PO220 EGC: EUROPEAN UNION SIMULATION Simulation course that models the lawmaking process within the European Union. Includes a three-day conference in November in Washington, D.C. Each student takes on the role of a political decision-maker from an EU member-state. Prerequisite: EN 125...
PO241 EGC: HISTORY, CULTURE, AND POLITICS Explores ways that relationships among history, culture, and politics are expressed within nations and across national borders. Incorporates comparative perspectives.
PO241A HISTORY, CULTURE, & POLITICS Explores ways that relationships among religion, culture, and politics are expressed within nations and across national borders. Incorporates comparative perspectives and field opportunities.
PO241B HISTORY, CULTURE, & POLITICS Explores ways that relationships among religion, culture, and politics are expressed within nations and across national borders. Incorporates comparative perspectives and field opportunities.
PO242 ISJ: POLITICS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY Explores a critical introduction to rights-based thinking, structural and ideological foundations of injustices, and approaches to social change through social movements. Philosophical examination of responsibility for structural injustice and transf...
PO243 EGC: GLOBAL DEBT AND JUSTICE Examines debt from an interdisciplinary perspective, including how different religions and cultures understand debt, interest, profit, and obligation; the political economy of debt between nation-states and global institutions; and debt justice movem...
PO256 GLOBALIZATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Introduction to the major political and economic forces shaping the development of the global economy.
PO294 LINK: CLIMATE LAW AND POLICY This class will explore climate change from the legal, policy, and political perspectives at the local, state, national and international levels. Climate Change: Law and Policy will explore the implications of climate change for equity and environmen...
PO295 SPECIAL TOPICS IN UNITED STATES POLITICS Course title will be listed in the semester course schedule. Special-topics courses at the 200 level are designed for first- and second-year students or for prospective majors.
PO296 SPECIAL TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS Course title will be listed in the semester course schedule. Special-topics courses at the 200 level are designed for first- and second-year students or for prospective majors
PO296A SPECIAL TOPICS:COMPAR POLITICS Course title will be listed in the semester course schedule. Special-topics courses at the 200-level are designed for first- and second-year students or for prospective majors.
PO297 SPECIAL TOPICS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Course title will be listed in the semester course schedule. Special-topics courses at the 200 level are designed for first- and second-year students or for prospective majors.
PO298 SPECIAL TOPICS IN POLITICAL THOUGHT Course title will be listed in the semester course schedule. Special-topics courses at the 200 level are designed for first- and second-year students or for prospective majors.
PO298A SP TOPICS: POLITICAL THOUGHT Course title will be listed in the semester course schedule. Special-topics courses at the 200 level are designed for first- and second-year students or for prospective majors.
PO300L POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH METHODS LAB Corequisite: PO 300.
PO302 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS The principles and tools of political (and social) science research, including variables, hypotheses, measurement, research designs, sampling, data collection, and data analysis. Emphasis on practical application by learning the use of professional a...
PO302L QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS LAB Lab for PO 302. Corequisite: PO 302.
PO303 APPLIED POLITICS Seminar on applied politics; covers topics such as political campaign budgeting and strategy, predictive modeling, lobbying, legislative politics (including state/local), fundraising, and communications.
PO304 INTRODUCTION TO POLICY ANALYSIS Introduction to the public policy process; institutions that structure and implement policy response, models of decision-making, analytical and evaluative methodologies, epistemological approaches, normative concerns. Policy areas are investigated to...
PO312 LAW AND SOCIETY Law and Society explores the multidimensional relationship between law and society in the United States. Through course readings, written assignments, discussions, and other activities, PO 312 students will gain deeper knowledge of the legal-politica...
PO313 ISJ: POLITICS OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS Examines theories explaining why wrongful convictions occur, including discussions of witness identification, false confessions, perjured testimony from informants, ineffective counsel, and police and prosecutorial misconduct. Critically explores the...
PO314A AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRE-1865 Analysis of the U.S. Constitution and the system of government which it established. Emphasis on the historical context in which it was negotiated, ratified, and implemented.
PO314B AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 1865-1965 Development of the American Constitutional System from the Second Founding at the conclusion of the Civil War through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Emphasis on legal change over time between capital and labor, political regulations of the e...
PO315 CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES Conflict in American society between majority rule and minority rights. Case-study approach to freedom of speech, press, and association, the protections of due process, the rights of the accused, the equal protection of the laws, voting rights, and...
PO316 SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Focusing primarily on the U.S., how and why social movements form in a democratic society, the use of extra-institutional political tactics, the ways they maintain themselves against strenuous opposition, and the dynamics of movement decline.Prerequi...
PO317 JUDICIAL POLITICS Analysis of the role of the courts in the political process and the impact of law on society: structure of federal and state judiciaries, judicial selection, models of judicial decision-making, and the implementation of judicial decisions.Prerequisit...
PO318 INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES How interest groups affect the American political process. Analysis of interest-group behavior in electoral politics and in the policy process; theory and structure of groups; the rise of political action committees (PACs) and single-issue voters; th...
PO319 U.S. ELECTIONS Analysis of candidate recruitment, nomination processes, campaign strategies, campaign finance, voting behavior, and reform proposals in congressional and presidential elections.Offered: Every two years on the election cycle.
PO321 THE POLITICS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION A more advanced course on the European Union than PO 220, going well beyond its history, institutions, and processes. Analyzes in detail some key issues and controversies within the EU concerning its structure of governance, its purpose, and its futu...
PO332 EGC: AFRICAN POLITICS Historical perspective on topics of colonialism, independence movements, neopatrimonialism, nationalism, democratization, conflict, genocide, women's movements, civil society, and HIV/AIDS, with an emphasis on variation across space and time.Prerequi...
PO333 INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT AND SECURITY Focuses on the sources of and responses to insecurity for states and individuals, including genocide, insurgency, civil wars, interstate conflicts, terrorism, and other global threats in the kinetic, cyber, neurocognitive, and narrative space. Prereq...
PO334 INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, LAW, AND HUMAN RIGHTS Focus on international organizations such as the International Criminal Court that help the international community cope with egregious abusers of human rights. Analysis of their structure, theory, procedure, operation, and problems, as well as their...
PO335 GENOCIDE AND WAR CRIMES Examines the period from the First World War to the present. Close study of the evolution of international understanding of genocide, crimes against humanity, and human rights violations through selected case studies. Focus on social, political, econ...
PO337 COMPARATIVE HEALTH POLICY Introduction to the basic concepts, issues, and dilemmas of public health and healthcare policy. Provides students with the vocabulary and tools of comparative public health/healthcare policy analysis by examining in detail the promises and problems...
PO340 LAW AND FILM Explores the interplay between law and popular culture as represented by film. Also considers important themes in the study of law and judicial politics, including the relationship between law and justice, the practice of law, and the role of courts...
PO342 MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT Impact of science on the study of politics, rise of the “individual” and social contract theory; the relationship between Enlightenment and revolutionary thought; critiques of Enlightenment and liberalism; examination of European biases and their mea...
PO343 CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THOUGHT The relationship between morality and politics; impact of Rawls and the social contract tradition; feminist responses to the definition of the political; the meaning of the Holocaust to Enlightenment-influenced political thought; application of post-...
PO351 EGC: BERLIN SEMINAR Intensive introduction to the city of Berlin, Germany, focusing on Berlin as capital of empire, republic, and the Nazi regime; as divided city during the Cold War; and as center of the reunified Federal Republic. Includes a ten-day study tour of Berl...
PO352 SUMMER LONDON EXPERIENCE This course is required for all students participating in the Summer London program. The course topics are the history and contemporary issues of the city of London. Some reading and research assignments are to be completed ahead of departure. In Lon...
PO353 GENDER, SEXUALITY AND THE LAW A historic and contemporary overview of the ways gender and sexuality have been defined, protected, policed, and (sometimes, partially) resolved in the United States. Examination of how both law and public policy have shifted over time, reflecting an...
PO357 VIRTUE AND POLITICAL ORDER FROM PLATO TO THE PRESENT Examines the political implications of the human desire for happiness.
PO358 ISJ: WOMEN, GENDER, AND POLITICS Examines the connections between gender, power, and politics. Pays particular attention to how women differ among themselves in the realm of politics, particularly when their identities as women intersect with race, ethnicity, economic class, and sex...
PO359 POLITICS AND CONSPIRACY In 1964, historian Richard Hofstadter described the “paranoid style” as an enduring and endemic feature of U.S. politics. Characterized by “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy,” the paranoid view of the world that Hofstadt...
PO360 MUSIC AND POLITICAL POWER Music is political. It helps us define our social and political identities, offers critical commentary on systems and institutions, and can be used as a tool for both consolidating political power and enacting social change. In this course we will ex...
PO389 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE EXTERNSHIP This course awards transcript recognition for a meaningfully PO-related professional experience, usually shadowing or project-based. An externship normally encompasses at least 3-5 days in a supervised setting in which the student works directly with...
PO390 INTERNSHIP Internship in government and political organizations. Internship prerequisites to be arranged with intern advisor (only 3 credits may count toward political science major or minor).
PO390A INTERNSHIP Internship in government and political organizations. Internship prerequisites to be arranged with intern advisor. (Only 3 credits may count toward political science major or minor.)
PO390B INTERNSHIP Internship in government and political organizations. Internship prerequisites to be arranged with intern advisor. (Only 3 credits may count toward political science major or minor.)
PO390C INTERNSHIP Internship in government and political organizations. Internship prerequisites to be arranged with intern advisor. (Only 3 credits may count toward political science major or minor.)
PO390D INTERNSHIP Internship in government and political organizations. Internship prerequisites to be arranged with intern advisor. (Only 3 credits may count toward political science major or minor.)
PO391 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Undergraduate research experience for advanced students chosen to work on a faculty member’s original research project. Using one or a variety of methods, students will work with a faculty member to conduct comparative, analytic, historical, data-ori...
PO395 SPECIAL TOPICS IN UNITED STATES POLITICS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 395 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO395A SPECIAL TOPICS: U.S. POLITICS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 395 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO395B SPECIAL TOPICS: U.S. POLITICS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 395 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO395C SPECIAL TOPICS: U.S. POLITICS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 395 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO396 SPECIAL TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 396 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO396A SPECIAL TOPICS:COMPAR POLITICS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 396 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO396B SPECIAL TOPICS:COMPAR POLITICS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 396 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO396C SPECIAL TOPICS:COMPAR POLITICS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 396 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO397 SPECIAL TOPICS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 397 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO397A SP TOPICS:INTERNAT RELATIONS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 397 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO397B SP TOPICS:INTERNAT RELATIONS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 397 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO397C SP TOPICS:INTERNAT RELATIONS Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 397 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO398 SPECIAL TOPICS IN POLITICAL THOUGHT Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 398 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO398A SP TOPICS: POLITICAL THOUGHT Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 398 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO398B SP TOPICS: POLITICAL THOUGHT Topic listed in semester schedule. Students may register for more than one 398 course on advice of academic advisor.
PO399 INDEPENDENT STUDY Directed reading or individual research.Prerequisite: Permission of Department Chair.
PO399A INDEPENDENT STUDY Prerequisite: permission of chair. Directed reading or individual research.
PO399B INDEPENDENT STUDY Prerequisite: permission of chair. Directed reading or individual research.
PO399C INDEPENDENT STUDY Prerequisite: permission of chair. Directed reading or individual research.
PO401 SENIOR THESIS Research of topic in political science. Reviewing past research, developing a research plan, carrying out the research plan, and writing the thesis.Prerequisite: PO 301 and PO 302 and PO 302L; Permission of instructor required.
PO417 THE U.S. SUPREME COURT History and role of the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. politics. Special attention as to how and why the Court renders decisions, how it determines its docket and case load, and the impact of its decisions. Includes significant independent research.Prere...
PO430 SEMINAR: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ON THE BLEEDING EDGE: IMAGINING TOMORROW Explores topics in current international relations pertaining to security, intelligence, and defense applications. Wars today take place in physical space, cyberspace, and narrative space, i.e., social media. Also examines application of neuroscience...
PO445 NATIONALISM AND CITIZENSHIP The two dominant ways of interpreting political identity today, with both a theoretical and empirical component. Relationship between ascriptive identity and democracy, meaning of patriotism, impact of colonialism and race-thinking, and examination o...
PO498 ADVANCED INDEPENDENT STUDY Senior- and/or graduate-level directed reading or independent research.Prerequisite: Permission of Department Chair.
PO498C ADVANCED INDEPENDENT STUDY No Description Set
PO499 SEMINAR Courses on a variety of topics taught in a seminar format.
PO499A SEMINAR Courses on a variety of topics taught in a seminar format.
PO499B SEMINAR Courses on a variety of topics taught in a seminar format.
PO499C SEMINAR Courses on a variety of topics taught in a seminar format.