Courses Taught as Lead Instructor
PS 149: “Careers in Political Science”
(Political Science Department, UCLA, Summer 2019)
What can you do with a degree in Political Science? It turns out, quite a lot. In this course we will examine a few of the various career paths open to students with an undergraduate degree in Political Science, practice interpersonal and analytical skills you’ll need to successfully start down any one of these paths, and generate written and online materials that you’ll need along the way.
By the end of this course, students will have:
researched careers open to UCLA Political Science alumni, and learned about how skills/ ideas/methods taught in this field can be applied in any of these careers.
practiced “soft skills” (e.g. interviewing, networking, and crafting resumes & cover letters) vital to students’ professional success after they leave UCLA.
heard from UCLA Political Science alumni guest speakers, and practiced interviewing & networking with alumni volunteers, and learned how to find further contacts in UCLA’s alumni network.
PS 495: “Teaching Political Science”
(Political Science Department, UCLA, Fall 2018)
This course is a weekly graduate seminar designed to help you excel in your first year of teaching political science in the context of a large American research university. In this, it is unique among graduate seminars in our department in its focus on the craft of teaching political science at the university level. To this end, our discussions in this course will explore fundamental questions of pedagogy relevant to teaching in this institutional and disciplinary context, such as: What does it mean to teach “political science” given the disciplinary, conceptual, and methodological breadth of this discipline? How does one go about beginning to teach and how can we improve our teaching? In addition to these broad theoretical discussions, we will also address more mundane but no less vital questions that arise for many novice teaching assistants, such as: What is the role that TAs play here at UCLA? What responsibilities do TAs have to their their students, their supervising instructors, their department and the University as a whole? And what trainings, resources, and supports are available to new and returning TAs?
The purpose of this seminar is not to teach you how to teach, but rather to provide you with examples and resources that you can use to find and hone your own teaching style. To this end, the subjects addressed in this course have been arranged in order to mirror the natural course of the undergraduate quarter, addressing important tasks like syllabi, lesson planning, and grading at least a week before you’ll need to complete them. In each session, you will be provided with information on teaching tools and best practices related to each of these teaching tasks and will participate in structured opportunities to practice these techniques in class. This course will also include a number of 30- or 45-minute presentations from guest speakers. Each of these presentations will be incorporated into the theme of the session in which they are scheduled and will take place at the beginning of the seminar session. The discussion afterward will focus on distilling and applying the skills and insights presented and adapting them to our experiences as TAs.
PS 239: “International Interventions: Political and Legal Responses to Crises, Crimes, and Atrocities”
(Political Science Department, UCLA, Summer 2018 & Summer 2017)
When faced with reports of crises, crimes or atrocities occurring within a given state, what can other states – acting individually or as part of the international community – do? How and when can states intervene when a given government has proven to be unable or unwilling to protect or provide for their own citizens? In this course, we will examine three ways that states can respond to such cases. We begin by discussing the concept of humanitarian intervention – the use of military force to prevent or curtail human rights abuses. We will then discuss the law and politics of the international refugee/asylum regime. Finally we will discuss the practice of prosecuting individuals suspected of committing international crimes or grave human rights abuses. In discussing each of these topics, we will first examine the relevant international legal and political frameworks and then discuss controversies related to the effectiveness, strategic value, or morality of each form of international intervention.
This course has three goals. The first is for students to receive a basic introduction to the political and legal frameworks governing these three responses to crises and atrocities. The second is for students to get a sense of the costs and benefits of each of these policy options, as well as the points of controversy around each. And finally, to give students an opportunity to grapple with these issues and controversies individually and as a group.
This course is an upper-division lecture/seminar designed for juniors and seniors that is designed to be interdisciplinary. This course will include discussions of international law doctrine, the form and function of international organizations and the strategic constraints of international politics. The assigned readings will invite students to engage these three topics from a number of different perspectives including those of international lawyers, scholars of international relations, international policy advocates and political theorists.
PS 20: Introduction to World Politics
(Political Science Department, UCLA, Summer 2018)
This course will be an introduction to the study of international relations. The course will address major paradigms by which scholars have understood relations between nation-states, and will examine the various methodological and conceptual tools that students can draw from each paradigm. This will be an introductory-level course and is designed for 1st- and 2nd-year students.