Teaching
I teach courses on International Relations and quantitative methods. This page includes information for students currently enrolled in one of my courses, documents from my teaching portfolio, and a list of courses I have taught.
STUDENTS:
TEACHING PORTFOLIO
STUDENTS:
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TEACHING PORTFOLIO
- Student and external evaluations of teaching
- Full teaching portfolio available upon request
- Below, I have included information for past courses that I have taught.
INSTRUCTOR OF RECORD
PS 106PK: Peacekeeping
University of California, Santa Barbara, Spring 2018
Civil wars are the prevailing political crises of our time. The international community devotes considerable financial and human resources to preventing civil wars from breaking out and stopping them once they do. Do such attempts succeed? In this course, we examine international efforts to create sustainable peace after civil wars from a variety of perspectives. Drawing upon theoretical and empirical analyses in Political Science, we investigate the effectiveness of peacekeeping troops deployed to keep warring parties from fighting as well as statebuilding initiatives that attempt to construct or re-construct domestic institutions in a post-conflict state. We also consider the spatial challenges facing peacekeeping operations, which may prevent certain operations from succeeding locally where they've succeeded nationally. Finally, we examine different types of peacekeepers, including the United Nations's extensive network of peacekeeping operations around the globe.
Syllabus
PS 106EC: Ethnic Conflict
University of California, Santa Barbara, Spring 2018
Ethnic conflicts have become the prevailing political crises of our times. This course will introduce students to the study of ethnic conflict in political science, overviewing both classics as well as more recent research in the field. We will study the sources of ethnic identification; debates about the role of ethnicity in the origins, fighting, and termination of conflict; and international intervention and peacekeeping. Students will learn about themes relating to ethnic conflict and specific countries, which they will select at the beginning of the course. Regions covered include (but are not limited to) Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Syllabus
PS 15: Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Political Science
University of California, Santa Barbara, Winter 2018
Political science is a discipline within social science that uses data employed through rigorous research design to understand and explain political phenomenon. The goal of this course is to understand the process social scientists use to test theories, and discover patterns in data.This course teaches basic statistical techniques that are useful for describing and making inferences from data. The course will also familiarize students with R, a widely used and free statistical platform for analyzing data. By the end of the course, students should be able to understand and critique research, and perform basic statistical analyses in R.
Syllabus
PS 106 (Upper Division Seminar): Legacies of Colonialism: Conflict, Development, and Identity
University of California, Santa Barbara, Fall 2017
Although the globe-spanning European colonial empires of centuries past are now mostly gone, societies around the world continue to deal with the aftermath of their dominion. In this course, students will learn about the diverse legacies of Western colonialism through the lens of analytical political science. We will review how colonialism has shaped post-colonial identity politics, development outcomes, and modern conflicts. The course will focus primarily on Sub-Saharan Africa but will also discuss other parts of the world, including Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East.
Syllabus
ITS 201: Introduction to International Studies
Miami University, Fall 2016
This course introduces an interdisciplinary approach to International Studies. It draws from history, political science, economics, anthropology, and geography to approach global issues of significance and address real international problems. The course is divided into disciplinary sections in order to familiarize each student with the nature of each of these fields and one of six areas of the world: the Middle East, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.
Syllabus.
Ethics, Politics, and Economics
Senior Essay Consultant
Yale University, 2015-2016
The Program on Ethics, Politics and Economics sponsors interdisciplinary teaching and research in the Social Sciences and Humanities at Yale. It is designed to foster informed debate about public policy in the light of disciplined reflection on the fundamentals of human association. The Program was created in the belief that, for all the value of specialized fields and subdisciplines, these should not displace attempts to integrate empirical, analytical and normative concerns that range over different disciplines in the modern university. The complex social realities of our time demand a wide-ranging understanding of the human sciences on the part of citizens and leaders alike; EP&E seeks to provide it. A senior essay is required for the major and should constitute an intellectual culmination of the student’s work in Ethics, Politics, and Economics. The senior essay reflects more extensive research than an ordinary Yale College seminar paper and employs a method of research appropriate to its topic, which should address a topic in each of the three dimensions – normative, institutional, and economic.
I served as the principal advisor (along with a faculty mentor) for 40 Yale College seniors writing their senior thesis in Ethics, Politics, and Economics (EPE). I have left some of the resources I made available to the students online:
Guide for Yearlong writers
TEACHING FELLOW
PLSC 130: Nuclear Politics
Yale University, Fall 2014, Spring 2017
Professor Alexandre Debs
This is a course on the history and politics of the use, non-use, and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Why were nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What is the effect of nuclear weapons on interstate crises? Why do states acquire nuclear weapons? Students will gain a better understanding of the role of nuclear weapons in international relations, the history of the Cold War, and new challenges in stemming nuclear proliferation. Some of the references use game theory or statistics, but no prior knowledge of such methodologies is required.
PLSC 126: Balance of Power
Yale University, Spring 2014
Professor Nuno Monteiro
This lecture course explores the evolution of the international balance of power since the outset of the twentieth century. Specifically, we will cover the causes and conduct of World Wars I and II and the Cold War, as well as the evolution of international politics since the demise of the Soviet Union. We will frame this historical overview using different theoretical views on the role played by the balance of power in international relations. The emphasis is therefore both analytic and historical. By the end of the course, students should have a broad picture of the rise and fall of great powers in the last hundred years as well as of the challenges facing the contemporary United States. The course meets three times a week: twice for a lecture plus once for a discussion section. Syllabus.
The following are resources for students, which I have left online:
Policy Sheet.
Assignment Schedule.
PLSC 347: Post-Conflict Politics
Yale University, Fall 2013
Professor David Simon
Although their incidence ebbs and flows, intrastate conflicts are an indelible feature of global politics. All conflicts (or almost all) come to an end, though – or at least attain a temporary respite. This class asks “What happens when they do?” and “What does it take to keep conflict from erupting again?” It does so by examining a range of issues, from the negotiation of peace accords and peacekeeping efforts, to state- and nation-building and economic reconstruction, to mechanisms of transitional justice and reconciliation.
PS 106PK: Peacekeeping
University of California, Santa Barbara, Spring 2018
Civil wars are the prevailing political crises of our time. The international community devotes considerable financial and human resources to preventing civil wars from breaking out and stopping them once they do. Do such attempts succeed? In this course, we examine international efforts to create sustainable peace after civil wars from a variety of perspectives. Drawing upon theoretical and empirical analyses in Political Science, we investigate the effectiveness of peacekeeping troops deployed to keep warring parties from fighting as well as statebuilding initiatives that attempt to construct or re-construct domestic institutions in a post-conflict state. We also consider the spatial challenges facing peacekeeping operations, which may prevent certain operations from succeeding locally where they've succeeded nationally. Finally, we examine different types of peacekeepers, including the United Nations's extensive network of peacekeeping operations around the globe.
Syllabus
PS 106EC: Ethnic Conflict
University of California, Santa Barbara, Spring 2018
Ethnic conflicts have become the prevailing political crises of our times. This course will introduce students to the study of ethnic conflict in political science, overviewing both classics as well as more recent research in the field. We will study the sources of ethnic identification; debates about the role of ethnicity in the origins, fighting, and termination of conflict; and international intervention and peacekeeping. Students will learn about themes relating to ethnic conflict and specific countries, which they will select at the beginning of the course. Regions covered include (but are not limited to) Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Syllabus
PS 15: Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Political Science
University of California, Santa Barbara, Winter 2018
Political science is a discipline within social science that uses data employed through rigorous research design to understand and explain political phenomenon. The goal of this course is to understand the process social scientists use to test theories, and discover patterns in data.This course teaches basic statistical techniques that are useful for describing and making inferences from data. The course will also familiarize students with R, a widely used and free statistical platform for analyzing data. By the end of the course, students should be able to understand and critique research, and perform basic statistical analyses in R.
Syllabus
PS 106 (Upper Division Seminar): Legacies of Colonialism: Conflict, Development, and Identity
University of California, Santa Barbara, Fall 2017
Although the globe-spanning European colonial empires of centuries past are now mostly gone, societies around the world continue to deal with the aftermath of their dominion. In this course, students will learn about the diverse legacies of Western colonialism through the lens of analytical political science. We will review how colonialism has shaped post-colonial identity politics, development outcomes, and modern conflicts. The course will focus primarily on Sub-Saharan Africa but will also discuss other parts of the world, including Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East.
Syllabus
ITS 201: Introduction to International Studies
Miami University, Fall 2016
This course introduces an interdisciplinary approach to International Studies. It draws from history, political science, economics, anthropology, and geography to approach global issues of significance and address real international problems. The course is divided into disciplinary sections in order to familiarize each student with the nature of each of these fields and one of six areas of the world: the Middle East, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.
Syllabus.
Ethics, Politics, and Economics
Senior Essay Consultant
Yale University, 2015-2016
The Program on Ethics, Politics and Economics sponsors interdisciplinary teaching and research in the Social Sciences and Humanities at Yale. It is designed to foster informed debate about public policy in the light of disciplined reflection on the fundamentals of human association. The Program was created in the belief that, for all the value of specialized fields and subdisciplines, these should not displace attempts to integrate empirical, analytical and normative concerns that range over different disciplines in the modern university. The complex social realities of our time demand a wide-ranging understanding of the human sciences on the part of citizens and leaders alike; EP&E seeks to provide it. A senior essay is required for the major and should constitute an intellectual culmination of the student’s work in Ethics, Politics, and Economics. The senior essay reflects more extensive research than an ordinary Yale College seminar paper and employs a method of research appropriate to its topic, which should address a topic in each of the three dimensions – normative, institutional, and economic.
I served as the principal advisor (along with a faculty mentor) for 40 Yale College seniors writing their senior thesis in Ethics, Politics, and Economics (EPE). I have left some of the resources I made available to the students online:
Guide for Yearlong writers
TEACHING FELLOW
PLSC 130: Nuclear Politics
Yale University, Fall 2014, Spring 2017
Professor Alexandre Debs
This is a course on the history and politics of the use, non-use, and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Why were nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What is the effect of nuclear weapons on interstate crises? Why do states acquire nuclear weapons? Students will gain a better understanding of the role of nuclear weapons in international relations, the history of the Cold War, and new challenges in stemming nuclear proliferation. Some of the references use game theory or statistics, but no prior knowledge of such methodologies is required.
PLSC 126: Balance of Power
Yale University, Spring 2014
Professor Nuno Monteiro
This lecture course explores the evolution of the international balance of power since the outset of the twentieth century. Specifically, we will cover the causes and conduct of World Wars I and II and the Cold War, as well as the evolution of international politics since the demise of the Soviet Union. We will frame this historical overview using different theoretical views on the role played by the balance of power in international relations. The emphasis is therefore both analytic and historical. By the end of the course, students should have a broad picture of the rise and fall of great powers in the last hundred years as well as of the challenges facing the contemporary United States. The course meets three times a week: twice for a lecture plus once for a discussion section. Syllabus.
The following are resources for students, which I have left online:
Policy Sheet.
Assignment Schedule.
PLSC 347: Post-Conflict Politics
Yale University, Fall 2013
Professor David Simon
Although their incidence ebbs and flows, intrastate conflicts are an indelible feature of global politics. All conflicts (or almost all) come to an end, though – or at least attain a temporary respite. This class asks “What happens when they do?” and “What does it take to keep conflict from erupting again?” It does so by examining a range of issues, from the negotiation of peace accords and peacekeeping efforts, to state- and nation-building and economic reconstruction, to mechanisms of transitional justice and reconciliation.
