Comparative Natural Resource Management

This course introduces undergraduate students to the current state of research into the politics of natural resource management around the world today, embedded within a broader tradition of research in the subfield of Comparative Politics. Students in this course read and discuss academic articles on resource management dilemmas at both micro (individual households and towns) and macro levels (countries, or regions within a country). Students are exposed to the relative methodological advantages of both qualitative and quantitative efforts.

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Social Science Inquiry

This sequence of courses (over an entire year) introduces undergraduate students to the philosophy of quantitative social science research. The sequence encourages students to think critically about how this style of research can help us produce more certain knowledge about the sources of social problems and potential solutions to them. Students in this sequence read classic and contemporary academic articles on the philosophy of social science inquiry, learn the basics of quantitative social science research design (including statistical techniques commonly used in this field), and get hands on experience developing their own research projects. Students also get experience using the R statistical computing environment.

Understanding Political Science Research

This course introduces undergraduate students to the basics of statistical techniques commonly used in the social sciences. It also provides more general lessons on the philosophy of science, and how that philosophy informs empirically-oriented political research of all forms. Students come out of this class better prepared to make sense of published work in political science, and more familiar with the fundamentals of good research design. This course is based around “the Fundamentals of Political Science Research” by Kellstedt and Whitten.

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Introduction to Game Theory

This course introduces undergraduate students to the fundamentals of game theory, and illustrates how game theoretic techniques are typically used in political science research. I educate students on the nuts-and-bolts of how to solve different classes of games, while also walking the class through models used in published research that are within reach of hardworking undergraduates. Readings for this class are a mix of assigned selections from Osborne’s “Introduction to Game Theory” as well as publications in various journals.

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Global Politics and Policy

This course introduces undergraduate students to the basics of two subfields of political science: Comparative Politics and International Relations. The goal is to prepare students to effectively engage in debates about the causes of public policy failures around the world at both domestic and international levels, as well as their potential solutions.

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Introduction to Comparative Politics

This course introduces undergraduate students to current state of research on Comparative Politics. It focuses on: (1) reviewing the major questions researchers in this subfield explore; and (2) giving students a basic primer on the philsophy of science and the methodological tools used by researchers in Comparative Politics today. I draw on Clark, Golder and Golder’s textbook, “Principles of Comparative Politics” when teaching this course.

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