This course introduces students to the field of comparative law by exploring how legal systems reflect and shape the societies in which they operate. Students examine major legal traditions—including civil, common, and indigenous law—and analyze how law functions in democratic, authoritarian, and post- colonial contexts. Through case studies, role play, and collaborative analysis, students investigate law as a social construct and develop foundational skills in legal reasoning, comparative analysis, and academic research. Comparative case studies such as hate speech regulation and legal responses to climate change will help students apply theoretical frameworks to real-world legal challenges and deepen their understanding of law’s role across jurisdictions and cultures.

This course examines the politics of global economic relations, focusing on how states, firms, and international institutions navigate globalization and interdependence. Students engage with both classic and contemporary debates on free trade and protectionism, monetary systems, foreign direct investment, regional integration, and the role of international institutions like the WTO, IMF, and World Bank. The course emphasizes linking theory to practice by analyzing contemporary issues such as inequality, migration, climate change, and global health.

In this course, we will focus on patterns of illegal activity in the international economy. Students will study phenomena such as illegal trade in arms, animals, and drugs, and the trafficking and smuggling of human beings. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the systematic analysis of the illicit global economy. Students will be taught to examine the causes of illicit markets, the actors involved (entrepreneurs, consumers, governments), and how markets respond to efforts to combat them. The objective is for students to understand the phenomenon and its drivers, and to translate this understanding into a critical evaluation of current policy approaches. (International Relations and Foreign Policy)

Currently, both forced and voluntary migration is at historic highs. Simultaneously, immigration control is becoming a global phenomenon. The rise of border control contrasts with the vulnerability of many migrants today. This course will give an overview of migration and forced migration and then look at issues and rationales in migration control from a comparative perspective.

The questions we will ask are: What drives migration? What are the historical roots of migration? What is the purpose of immigration control? What are the politics of migration control in comparative perspective?

This course incorporates various levels of analysis (international, national, subnational, transnational) and draws on interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks. Students will gain an understanding of migration and the legal frameworks governing the process. Students will then explore how migration relates to state sovereignty, human rights, and international law. Students will also interrogate the process of creating immigration policies, and the actors and stakeholders driving this process. (International Relations and Foreign Policy)

This course is part of the Mellon Foundation Public Humanities Labs Initiative on Migration supported by the Axinn Center for the Humanities. As such, you will complete a public facing digital product as your main assignment, and you will be working with a Gambian Partner Organization in the process.

This course introduces basic concepts of political science, the comparative study of political systems, and the logic of comparative inquiry. The course is organized around three modules, each motivated by a big question comparativists ask: What is the modern state? Why and how do they fail? Why are some countries democratic and others authoritarian? Why are some rich and others poor? Each module starts with a basic introduction to key concepts and ideas and advances with more complex theories. We focus on specific countries to study how concepts and ideas apply to real cases. By the end of the course students will learn how to classify, compare, and analyze governments, and think critically about big problems that motivate comparative political inquiry.