How do we end political violence and achieve peace? This course focuses on the context for negotiation and bargaining strategies, including what types of actors are involved in negotiations, the contours of the mediation environment, the timing of intervention and talks, the use of leverage to get warring parties to the table, and the transformation of processes across multiple stages from initial mediation to implementation to enforcement.

This course examines migration and transnational processes from a comparative perspective. It focuses on the relationship between globalization and international migration, with special attention to transnational networks and diaspora politics. We will explore major theories, forms, and patterns of migration in global politics; the involvement of diaspora organizations in the politics of host and home states; and the implications of migration and refugee flows for state sovereignty, national identity, and citizenship.

This course examines the political, economic, and cultural forces driving debates around the creation, expansion, and reform of the European Union. It examines the economic and political logic for integration, as well as the cultural and economic challenges pushing against integration, and provides an in-depth look at the specific challenges facing the EU.

This course examines public housing policy in the United States from the 1930s to the present. It will examine the historical, social, and political factors in the development of social housing in the U.S. In particular it will focus on the role of class, ethnicity, race, and immigration on the evolution of social housing policy. It investigates the more recent impact of neoliberalism on the nation's ability to provide affordable housing to its citizens. Students will engage in community-based research on affordable housing in communities in the Pioneer Valley.

This course presents the rise (and sometimes collapse) of modern states in the Middle East; the nature of legitimacy, modernization, state-civil society relations, and political culture and economy; and the role of religion with specific reference to Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey.

This course addresses the federal Constitution and civil liberties. Topics include the authority of the courts to read new rights into the Constitution; equal protection of the laws and affirmative action for racial minorities, women, gays, and non-citizens. Also, freedoms of expression, association, and the press. Emphasis on the appropriateness of different methods of interpreting law. Case method.

"Black Metropolis" refers to the more than half a million black people jammed into a South Side ghetto in Chicago at mid-twentieth century that featured an entrenched black political machine, a prosperous black middle class, and a thriving black cultural scene in the midst of massive poverty and systemic inequality. This course will follow the political, economic, and cultural developments of what scholars considered to be the typical urban community in postwar United States.

This course explores the overlapping dualities of the feminine and the masculine, the private and the public, the home and the world. We examine different forms of power over the body; the ways gender and sexual identities reinforce or challenge the established order; and the cultural determinants of 'women's emancipation.' We emphasize the politics of feminism, dealing with themes that include culture, democracy, and the particularly political role of theory and on theoretical attempts to grasp the complex ties and tensions between sex, gender, and power.

This course introduces students to the study of political thought, focusing on such concepts as freedom, power, equality, justice, and democracy. Over the course of the semester, students will develop a theoretical vocabulary with which to analyze both the history of political thought and contemporary politics. This course is writing-intensive; students will have the opportunity to rigorously analyze texts and hone their ability to write confidently and effectively.

This course is a survey of contending approaches to the study of conflict and cooperation in world politics. Examines key concepts--including balance of power, imperialism, collective security, deterrence, and interdependence--with historical examples ranging from the Peloponnesian War to the post-cold war world. Analyzes the emerging world order.