LECTURING

I am adept at translating complex material into a format that is accessible to non-specialists and am comfortable giving talks in front of large, diverse audiences. An example of a class I developed and taught can be found below.

Introduction to Comparative Politics

This course is designed to introduce students to important concepts, ideas, and disputes in comparative politics, with the goal of preparing them to investigate the world more systematically and (possibly) to do more advanced work in other political science courses. The class is also intended to build students’ skills in reading social science texts critically and to have constructive conversations about them.

Comparative politics is the study and practice of comparing different political units and systems, either in whole or in part. It concerns the domestic politics of states other than the U.S. (This isn’t a hard and fast distinction, since you can compare the U.S. to other states, of course.) Comparative politics is used to address such puzzles as why levels of democracy vary across states, the causes of political and social conflict, development outcomes, and to inform debates about creating or designing new political orders.

A sample syllabus of this course can be downloaded here.