2024-2025

Theory of International Relations
What drives state behavior in the international system? What are the major causes of international and civil conflict? Why do states cooperate with one another on issues such as trade, migration, human rights, and peace? How does power, hierarchy, gender, and race shape global politics? What does the future look like for international relations?

Theory is essential to answering these questions and explaining the complex dynamics of global politics. This PhD-level course is designed to prepare students to conduct research and coursework in international relations. The course introduces students to core theories and empirical analysis of international relations in a scientific and rigorous way. 

We begin the course with the fundamental concepts and theories of international relations. We then transition to an overview of what causes countries to engage in international conflict and cooperation. From there, we explore key themes and approaches within the subfields of international organizations, international political economy, and conflict and political violence. We conclude with a discussion of where international relations theory should head next.

Graduate syllabus

Text as Data
Automated text analysis has become widely used in the social sciences following recent innovations in machine learning and the increased digitalization of political texts. This PhD-level course introduces students to the theoretical underpinnings of text analysis and the different techniques for systematically extracting and analyzing text with applications to political science topics. The focus of the course is on practical applications that allow students to apply cutting edge statistical and computational methods to their own research. 

We start the course with the conceptual foundations of quantitative text analysis. We then proceed to consider how we can extract, pre-process, and describe social text data. After that, we explore supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods that can be used to measure and analyze textual content. Students will become familiar with web scraping, dictionary methods, supervised classification models, sentiment analysis, clustering, structural topic models, word embeddings, large language models, and replication and validation.

Each week, students will complete the assigned readings, provide insights on the topics, and complete in-class programming activities. Students will develop a general understanding of the text as data literature and will focus in-depth on one method from the course by developing an independent research data paper.

Graduate syllabus

International Institutions and Cooperation
How do international institutions foster cooperation, manage conflict, and address today’s most critical challenges like human rights, climate change, the economy, political violence, and technology? What shapes the design, legitimacy, enforcement, and effectiveness of international organizations? How do states use, politicize, or even co-opt these institutions to serve their national interests? 

The PhD-level course engages key theoretical debates and empirical evidence on international cooperation and conflict at domestic, regional, and global levels. We study various intergovernmental institutions, from international organizations like the UN, the WTO, Interpol, and the ICC; to regional institutions such as the EU, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the African Union. We analyze their evolution, structure, and ability to address complex transnational issues. 

We begin by covering foundational theories of international institutions and cooperation, then examine how states design institutions to mitigate collective action problems. Next, we analyze how domestic politics influence cooperation on human rights through organizations, criminal courts, and international law. Following that, we discuss the challenges of institutionalized cooperation on peace, security, trade, and development. We conclude with student presentations and independent research papers.

Graduate syllabus

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Human Rights
Graduate syllabus
Undergraduate syllabus

Civil Conflict
Graduate syllabus 
Undergraduate syllabus
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Terrorism and Political Violence
​Graduate syllabus
Undergraduate syllabus