One-year course that covers the basics of Italian language and culture and allows students to enroll in ITL 220 or ITL 230 (when offered) in the following year. Preference given to first-year students. Three class meetings per week plus required weekly multimedia work and a discussion session which meets outside class time. Enrollment limited to 20 per section. Students entering in the spring need permission of the department and must take a placement exam. In the second semester, students may change sections only with permission of the instructors. Course may not be taken S/U.

One-year course that covers the basics of Italian language and culture and allows students to enroll in ITL 220 or ITL 230 (when offered) in the following year. Preference given to first-year students. Three class meetings per week plus required weekly multimedia work and a discussion session which meets outside class time. Enrollment limited to 20 per section. Students entering in the spring need permission of the department and must take a placement exam. In the second semester, students may change sections only with permission of the instructors. Course may not be taken S/U.

This course examines the relationship between social movements and the state in Latin America. There is a focus on environmental, gender, and indigenous issues and movements and their relationship with state institutions.

This seminar in political theory examines contemporary theories and practices of dissent, from civil disobedience to armed resistance to political exit. Are citizens morally obligated to obey unjust laws? What makes a law or political arrangement unjust? What kinds of protest actions are justified? What are the promises and limitations of nonviolence -- or violence? What effect do different forms of resistance have, and what is their political value? Is exiting -- quitting politics or leaving the polity -- a meaningful form of resistance?

Topics course: This course considers the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through an international relations lens, exploring how the region broadly interacts with the rest of the world. It introduces students to the diversity of challenges facing the region and gives students the tools for a more substantive analysis of its ever-changing context.

Regarded by some as a province of China, by others as a sovereign country, and by still others as somewhere in the middle, Taiwan is a longstanding source of tension in the US-China relationship. Taiwan has also undergone remarkable political and economic changes since the 1940s. This course in comparative politics and international relations will address the historical roots, current challenges, and possible future of the US-PRC-Taiwan relationship.

Topics course: A comparative examination of McCarthyism, Watergate and Iran-Contra. A look at how our political institutions function under stress. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in American government.

An examination of the great thinkers of the classical and (time permitting) medieval periods. Possible topics include family and the state, freedom and the gods, warfare faction, politics and philosophy, secular and religious authority, justice, citizenship, regimes and natural law. Selected authors include: Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Cicero, Lucretius, Augustine, Aquinas and Marsilius.

This course examines the most important issues facing the U.S./Mexico border: NAFTA, industrialization and the emergence of the maquiladoras (twin plants); labor migration and immigration; the environment; drug trafficking; the militarization of the border; and border culture and identity. The course begins with a comparison of contending perspectives on globalization before proceeding to a short overview of the historical literature on the creation of the U.S./Mexico border.

How do politics shape markets, and markets shape politics? Why do some countries become rich while others stay poor? Why does capitalism take many different forms, and what do these differences mean for societies, firms, and individuals? This class will be divided into three units. First, we will explore the core theoretical texts of political economy. Second, we learn about the “varieties of capitalism” and the different forms that transitions from communism to capitalism have taken.