Teaching Philosophy
The university classroom is a space of contemplation and experimentation, and students have the most capacity to master material and hone skills of critical thinking and analysis when they have the opportunity to “circle around” challenging ideas. To provide students the framework of critical inquiry, and to engage them as partners in knowledge creation, I structure my courses around three pedagogical approaches: active learning, frequent and low-risk assessment, and authentic assignments. To create an inclusive learning environment, I take care to ensure that syllabi reflect diversity of thought, experiences, and identities. In an era of astronomical costs of university education, I integrate discussions of career paths and transferable skills into all of my courses.
Resources
Race Conscious IPE Syllabus
Jessica Calarco's excellent overview of writing a research paper is here.
Marketing a Liberal Arts degree
George Gopen on using peer journals for effective writing assignments
Jessica Calarco's excellent overview of writing a research paper is here.
Marketing a Liberal Arts degree
George Gopen on using peer journals for effective writing assignments
Courses Taught at Indiana University
INTL I103 - Global Business (most recently offered Fall 2022)
What does it mean to be a global corporation in the 21st Century? What kinds of dilemmas do business leaders face when operating in different counties with varying political, cultural, technological, and environmental landscapes? Who holds power in the global economy and how does this affect firm behaviors? How can communities harness the positive aspects of global business while managing the social, environmental, and security risks they generate? Should consumers and voters hold global businesses to high social and environmental standards, and if so, how? In this course, students learn how to analyze the opportunities and challenges multinational companies generate using real cases from global companies including: the NBA, Exxon Mobil, Nike, Patagonia, Starbucks, Apple, and even TikTok. Individually and with teams students will use political, economic, historical, and cultural knowledge to critically analyze, debate, and solve real-world problems that business, political, and community leaders face. Through studying and debating these cases, students will develop a set of valuable skills including risk analysis, ethical reasoning, and cultural competencies necessary to becoming an effective leader in corporate, community, and political environments as well as learn the basics of writing a policy memo
INTL I203 - Global Development (most recently offered Spring 2021)Why are some countries rich while other countries remain poor? Why are some societies characterized by relative equality of wealth among its members (i.e. Sweden, China before 1978), while others are vastly unequal (i.e. Brazil)? How do recent challenges such as globalization, democratic backsliding, and global climate change affect global, national, and local efforts at facilitating development? I-203 is the core course for the International Studies thematic concentration in Global Development. In this course students will learn about the post-WWII global architecture surrounding global development governance, study both institutional and behavioral factors that influence development outcomes, and use both theory and empirical observation to generate insight into the enduring challenges of development as well as the most promising pathways toward development at local, national, and global levels.
INTL-I300: The State Department and National Security Council – Decision Making and Memo Writing (most recently offered Spring 2022)
This short course will introduce students to the making of U.S. foreign policy, with an emphasis on the structure of decision-making in the State Department and the National Security Council (NSC). Students will also learn how to write effective policy memos and will participate in an NSC policy coordination committee simulation.
INTL I315/515 - Research Design in International Studies (most recently offered Spring 2022)
This course provides an introduction to the principles and techniques of social science research. Throughout the course, students will learn how to evaluate and conduct rigorous systematic social science research. We will begin by addressing core concepts and issues that cut across methods, including theories of causality, sampling, measurement, and ethics. We will then focus on six approaches used commonly in international studies, including case studies, ethnography and in-depth interviews, archival research and content analysis, surveys, statistical inference, and multimethod approaches. Our coverage will not provide in‐depth training in any particular method, but instead will focus on understanding the advantages and disadvantages of different techniques and matching methods appropriately to research questions. To provide a thematic grounding to the course and most of the examples used to further understanding of the research design and implementation process, we will read and interact with research on the topic of democratic erosion.
INTL I310 - Global Economic Governance (most recently offered Spring 2019)
This course arms students with the empirical knowledge and analytical skills necessary to make sense of why international politics is often characterized by cooperation and when we might expect interactions among states to be predominantly conflictual. We will focus primarily on the structure of international economic governance since World War II, and emphasize the politics of trade, monetary, and financial cooperation. We will also analyze the sources of challenges - especially the US-China rivalry - to the current constellation of global economic governance structures, and consider how these challenges will affect our global system of economic cooperation and conflict.
INTL I427 - Harnessing Foreign Investment for Development (most recently offered Spring 2022)Corporations that operate across national boundaries powerfully structure the nature of production, consumption, and the distribution of wealth globally. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can help bring economic growth and shared prosperity to developing countries, but critics often emphasize the negative consequences such large global firms can have on local societies. How can states and international development organizations harness the positive potential of MNEs while minimizing their potential for exploitation? This course will provide students the empirical knowledge and analytical skills necessary to make sense of the influence of MNEs at both the local and global level, and the attempts to regulate their behavior.
INTL 500 - Practicum in International Policy Analysis (most recently offered Spring 2023)
This course provides students with practical knowledge regarding how to approach applied research and writing in international affairs careers. Student will learn about best practices in applied research design and the U.S. foreign policy inter-agency decision-making structure. They will practice the art of memo writing and work in groups to deliver a research report on a topic related to international affairs for an external client.
At the end of this course, students will have the research and writing skills necessary to engage in policy-relevant research, such as the type of research that think tanks undertake. To that end, students are expected to leave this course with the following skills: The ability to develop a research design for a policy-relevant question based on the standards of rigorous social science methods; Practical knowledge of how to implement a series of data collection efforts to the standards of social scientific methods including: surveys and survey experiments, interviews, qualitative coding of datasets, desk research for comparative research; The ability to discuss key issues in policy-oriented research including concerns over causality, conceptual stretching, and limitations of forward-looking policy assessment; The ability to write a well-constructed and concise policy memo and the ability to provide useful editorial feedback on others’ memos; The ability to work in a team to deliver a research report to a client, including the analysis, a well-designed policy report, a related written brief (memo), and an oral presentation.
INTL 521 - International Organizations and Global Governance (most recently offered Fall 2022)
This course provides students the empirical knowledge and analytical skills necessary to make sense of why international politics is often characterized by cooperation and when we might expect interactions among states to be predominantly conflictual. We will focus primarily on the structure of international governance since World War II, and emphasize the politics of security, trade, monetary, financial, and technical cooperation. We will also analyze the sources of challenges to the current constellation of global governance structures and consider how these challenges will affect our global system of cooperation and conflict.
At the end of this course, students will have a broad base of knowledge about the key structures of contemporary global governance: the UN, NATO, WTO, the IMF, regional trade and investment treaties, and informal clubs such as the G-7 and G-20. Students will be able to critically evaluate key distributive conflicts among states and market actors using theories and analytic tools of social science. Students will also be able to use their core knowledge and analytic training to interpret and explain contemporary threats to and changes in the global order.
What does it mean to be a global corporation in the 21st Century? What kinds of dilemmas do business leaders face when operating in different counties with varying political, cultural, technological, and environmental landscapes? Who holds power in the global economy and how does this affect firm behaviors? How can communities harness the positive aspects of global business while managing the social, environmental, and security risks they generate? Should consumers and voters hold global businesses to high social and environmental standards, and if so, how? In this course, students learn how to analyze the opportunities and challenges multinational companies generate using real cases from global companies including: the NBA, Exxon Mobil, Nike, Patagonia, Starbucks, Apple, and even TikTok. Individually and with teams students will use political, economic, historical, and cultural knowledge to critically analyze, debate, and solve real-world problems that business, political, and community leaders face. Through studying and debating these cases, students will develop a set of valuable skills including risk analysis, ethical reasoning, and cultural competencies necessary to becoming an effective leader in corporate, community, and political environments as well as learn the basics of writing a policy memo
INTL I203 - Global Development (most recently offered Spring 2021)Why are some countries rich while other countries remain poor? Why are some societies characterized by relative equality of wealth among its members (i.e. Sweden, China before 1978), while others are vastly unequal (i.e. Brazil)? How do recent challenges such as globalization, democratic backsliding, and global climate change affect global, national, and local efforts at facilitating development? I-203 is the core course for the International Studies thematic concentration in Global Development. In this course students will learn about the post-WWII global architecture surrounding global development governance, study both institutional and behavioral factors that influence development outcomes, and use both theory and empirical observation to generate insight into the enduring challenges of development as well as the most promising pathways toward development at local, national, and global levels.
INTL-I300: The State Department and National Security Council – Decision Making and Memo Writing (most recently offered Spring 2022)
This short course will introduce students to the making of U.S. foreign policy, with an emphasis on the structure of decision-making in the State Department and the National Security Council (NSC). Students will also learn how to write effective policy memos and will participate in an NSC policy coordination committee simulation.
INTL I315/515 - Research Design in International Studies (most recently offered Spring 2022)
This course provides an introduction to the principles and techniques of social science research. Throughout the course, students will learn how to evaluate and conduct rigorous systematic social science research. We will begin by addressing core concepts and issues that cut across methods, including theories of causality, sampling, measurement, and ethics. We will then focus on six approaches used commonly in international studies, including case studies, ethnography and in-depth interviews, archival research and content analysis, surveys, statistical inference, and multimethod approaches. Our coverage will not provide in‐depth training in any particular method, but instead will focus on understanding the advantages and disadvantages of different techniques and matching methods appropriately to research questions. To provide a thematic grounding to the course and most of the examples used to further understanding of the research design and implementation process, we will read and interact with research on the topic of democratic erosion.
INTL I310 - Global Economic Governance (most recently offered Spring 2019)
This course arms students with the empirical knowledge and analytical skills necessary to make sense of why international politics is often characterized by cooperation and when we might expect interactions among states to be predominantly conflictual. We will focus primarily on the structure of international economic governance since World War II, and emphasize the politics of trade, monetary, and financial cooperation. We will also analyze the sources of challenges - especially the US-China rivalry - to the current constellation of global economic governance structures, and consider how these challenges will affect our global system of economic cooperation and conflict.
INTL I427 - Harnessing Foreign Investment for Development (most recently offered Spring 2022)Corporations that operate across national boundaries powerfully structure the nature of production, consumption, and the distribution of wealth globally. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can help bring economic growth and shared prosperity to developing countries, but critics often emphasize the negative consequences such large global firms can have on local societies. How can states and international development organizations harness the positive potential of MNEs while minimizing their potential for exploitation? This course will provide students the empirical knowledge and analytical skills necessary to make sense of the influence of MNEs at both the local and global level, and the attempts to regulate their behavior.
INTL 500 - Practicum in International Policy Analysis (most recently offered Spring 2023)
This course provides students with practical knowledge regarding how to approach applied research and writing in international affairs careers. Student will learn about best practices in applied research design and the U.S. foreign policy inter-agency decision-making structure. They will practice the art of memo writing and work in groups to deliver a research report on a topic related to international affairs for an external client.
At the end of this course, students will have the research and writing skills necessary to engage in policy-relevant research, such as the type of research that think tanks undertake. To that end, students are expected to leave this course with the following skills: The ability to develop a research design for a policy-relevant question based on the standards of rigorous social science methods; Practical knowledge of how to implement a series of data collection efforts to the standards of social scientific methods including: surveys and survey experiments, interviews, qualitative coding of datasets, desk research for comparative research; The ability to discuss key issues in policy-oriented research including concerns over causality, conceptual stretching, and limitations of forward-looking policy assessment; The ability to write a well-constructed and concise policy memo and the ability to provide useful editorial feedback on others’ memos; The ability to work in a team to deliver a research report to a client, including the analysis, a well-designed policy report, a related written brief (memo), and an oral presentation.
INTL 521 - International Organizations and Global Governance (most recently offered Fall 2022)
This course provides students the empirical knowledge and analytical skills necessary to make sense of why international politics is often characterized by cooperation and when we might expect interactions among states to be predominantly conflictual. We will focus primarily on the structure of international governance since World War II, and emphasize the politics of security, trade, monetary, financial, and technical cooperation. We will also analyze the sources of challenges to the current constellation of global governance structures and consider how these challenges will affect our global system of cooperation and conflict.
At the end of this course, students will have a broad base of knowledge about the key structures of contemporary global governance: the UN, NATO, WTO, the IMF, regional trade and investment treaties, and informal clubs such as the G-7 and G-20. Students will be able to critically evaluate key distributive conflicts among states and market actors using theories and analytic tools of social science. Students will also be able to use their core knowledge and analytic training to interpret and explain contemporary threats to and changes in the global order.