Sample Syllabi & Teaching Materials
Democracy and Care for the World
For syllabus download (PDF), click the above image
pepperdine University
Political Science Division, seaver college
Course Objective:
This Political Theory class explores the topic of “public care” in five three-week sections. These sections examine what it might mean to care for the political “things,” “spaces,” and “bodies” that comprise our “world.” To this end, this course begins with an introduction and overview of the topics of democracy, public care, and what it means to “do” political theory. It then focuses on each of the following topics: political “things”; political space(s); earth and world alienation; and, finally, the topic of “world” reparation and what it might mean to care for the world in a forward-looking, futural sense. In sum, this is a political theory class about being and becoming better—more “caring” and careful—citizens (caretakers?) of our shared world; the things and spaces that comprise it; and the relationships that hold it together.
For syllabus download (PDF), click the above image
pepperdine University
Political Science Division, seaver college
American People and Politics (POSC 104) is a lower-division Political Science class It is meant to provide students with a broad overview of the political system that the American people have developed over the course of their history as a nation.
International Relations: An Introduction
For syllabus download (PDF), click the above image.
University of St. Andrews
International Education Institute (IEI)
Course Objective:
This IEI course was designed to introduce international students to the study of international relations from an Anglophone perspective. Specifically, it seeks to introduce students to the ways in which major scholars and schools of thought, both historical and contemporary, have theorized about international relations. This foundational module sought to hone students’ understanding of international relations and global politics, providing them with a variety of different perspectives from which to think about, question, and understand the factors, forces, and figures that give shape to the international political realm. The purpose of this course was to: examine the key concepts of international relations and global politics; survey several of the predominant theories of international relations (especially Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism); and help familiarize students with academic essay writing and sub-honours work in the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews.
International Relations: A Continued Introduction
For syllabus download (PDF), click the above image.
University of St. Andrews
International Education Institute (IEI)
Course Objective:
Continuing the discussion from the spring semester, this module aims to: examine more closely the key concepts of international relations and global politics; survey the predominant theories of international relations (especially the constitutive/critical theories of Marxism, Feminism, and Postcolonialism); and familiarize students more fully with academic essay writing and essay writing for IR at the University of St Andrews.
Continental Thought & the Grounds of ‘the Political’: A Study of Late Modern Political Theory
For syllabus download (PDF), click the above image.
Working Syllabus* (based on PhD research)
Course Description
This class explores the political thought of late modernity. It offers a study of several key Continental thinkers in order to reconsider what it means – and meant – to exist, think, and act (politically) in a period of human history marked by tremendous change and rapidly-evolving frameworks of understanding, meaning, and knowledge formation. This course examines, in particular, the work of Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Gayatri Spivak. Throughout this course, students will be asked to consider the meaning of ‘history,’ as well as how systems of thought changed with Enlightenment thinking and more liberal conceptualizations of the ‘self’; the advancement of processes of industrialization and mass society; questions of race and racism; and the changing dynamics of the nation-state in (global) politics. Providing a forum for students to discuss the ethico-political implications of the ideational, material, and social dynamics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this course investigates the ways in which life during the late modern period called into question – maybe even destroyed entirely – the grounds of ‘the political’.
Several Sample Teaching resources
Tutorial Exercise
Realist IR Theory and the Zombie Apocalypse
For a PDF copy of this exercise (game rules and worksheet), click HERE.
IR Theory Lecture
For a link to the Prezi lecture (Google Chrome works best), click HERE.
‘Great Debates’ of IR Lecture
For a link to the Prezi lecture (Google Chrome works best), click HERE.
Tutorial Exercise
International Conference-themed exercise about the politics of climate change.
For a PDF copy of this exercise (game rules and worksheet), click HERE.