This course is designed to guide students in developing a deeper understanding of key social science concepts and theories regarding identity, ethnicity and nationalism. Students learn how to employ the comparative social science method to better understand compelling political and social issues that are becoming increasingly relevant and contentious under the conflicting conditions and aspirations of globalization, localization and nativism in the early 21st century.

Although China can lay claim to both the world's longest continuous civilization and the first modern state, in just the past half century, China has experienced tumultuous political revolution, sweeping reform and most recently painful retrenchment. This begs the questions: Will the growing divisions between rich and poor, coastal and provincial, urban and peasant tear China apart? Can the center hold?

This course is designed to familiarize students both with the institutions of the Japanese political economy and with a breadth of issues relevant to a deeper understanding of how political and economic processes actually work in Japan. It is comparative in nature and deals primarily with issues since 1945.

Why are the world's most successful examples of economic and political modernization of the last 50 years all located in Asia? Is the explanation Confucian culture? Japanese imperialism? American aid? Or is it something about the domestic political institutions? And what are the trade-offs of these institutions? This course employs the tools of comparative political economy to analyze eight Asian cases in seeking answers to these questions.

Students explore the concepts of citizenship and personhood in the American political imagination as filtered through a racial valence. Perhaps what is most striking about this valence is the way that it and Americans' conceptions of whiteness, citizenship, and personhood has evolved through America's history. Students will consider what role such images play in constructing a "shared" political community, and to what extent the exclusions they engender strengthen or undermine this community.

In the words of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, "Europe was created by history; America was created by philosophy." The history and character of the United States cannot be understood without careful examination of the ideas, theories, and philosophies that underpin the American nation. This course examines the various strands of American Political Thought, beginning with the early political thought of the Puritans.

This course in American politics focuses on key questions about local governance. Students explore institutional structure, civic engagement, local economics, and demographics to understand how decisions are made, power is wielded, and community needs are met. Students interact with local practitioners. Students could engage in sustained field work throughout the term.

The course surveys the state of civil liberties in the U.S. and the world. Primary emphasis is given to institutions in the United States and how they enforce, obstruct, or affect the protection of civil liberties. Specific topics include free expression, free belief, freedom of religion, and emerging rights and claims.

This course introduces students to the nature, functions, and processes of law. The course surveys criminal and civil trials in the U.S., England, and France, appellate deliberations in several countries, constitutional courts and public law, and specific extra-judicial legal institutions. The latter third of the course details lessons of the first two-thirds by case study of litigation in the United States.

Examination of the role of the Supreme Court in the American constitutional systems with particular emphasis on its role in establishing a national government and national economy, and in protecting the rights of individuals. Views Supreme Court from historical, political, and legal perspectives to understand its responses to changing interests and conditions.