Democracy Course Guide

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences  

Professor Peter Furia

Studies the geographic, demographic, economic, and ideological factors conditioning the policies of states, and the methods and institutions of conflict and adjustment among states, including the functions of power, diplomacy, international law and organization. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor David Waldner 

Introduction to Comparative Politics surveys the major themes, theories, and methods of domestic politics around the globe in the modern era. Thematically, we examine the gap between rich and poor nations, between democracies and dictatorships, and between civil war and civic orders. Theoretically, we consider theories of political culture, political institutions, and political economy. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Tom Donahue-Ochoa

Introduces political philosophy as a mode of inquiry, and consideration of selected problems and writers in Western political theory. 

School of Education

Professor Sabrina Curtis

How can we be part of creating a more just world? In this course, we'll aim to answer that question for ourselves by examining practices of youth and community engagement through a critical and discerning lens. We'll reflect on our own practice engaging with youth and their communities, examine our roles in those relationships and interactions, explore the complexities and importance of culture, and consider our own cultural influences. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor TBA

Analyzes the causes and consequences of current social problems in the United States: race and ethnic relations, poverty, crime and delinquency, the environment, drugs, and problems of educational institutions. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Christa Dierksheide

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of United States history. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan 

This course is a survey introduction to the complex and increasingly pervasive impact of mass media in the U.S. and around the world. It provides a foundation for helping you to understand how mass media—as a business, as well as a set of texts—operates. The course also explores contextual issues—how media texts and businesses are received by audiences and by regulatory bodies.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Tessa Farmer 

This interdisciplinary course introduces students to critical global economic and cultural issues and examines globalization at a variety of scales of analysis (planetary, regional, national, individual). The goal is to provide understanding of the main conceptual approaches to global studies and thus enhance their ability to understand and evaluate important real-world issues and problems. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Neeti Nair 

Surveys 200 years of Indian history from the mid-18th century to the present, focusing on the imperial/colonial encounter with the British Raj before independence, and the social and political permutations of freedom in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka since.

School of Data Science

Professor Emanuel Moss 

Explores principles and applications of data ethics within a broader social framework that prioritizes conversations about policy, regulatory frameworks, accountability, transparency, and governance models. Will discuss who is responsible for doing responsible data science, question how our work shapes the world around us, and understand the impacts of big data on people and communities.

School of Data Science

Professor Farhana Faruqe

Explores principles and applications of data ethics within a broader social framework that prioritizes conversations about policy, regulatory frameworks, accountability, transparency, and governance models. Will discuss who is responsible for doing responsible data science, question how our work shapes the world around us, and understand the impacts of big data on people and communities.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Jacqueline Arthur-Montagne 

This course serves as a general introduction to the history, literature, social life, institutions, and ideology of ancient Greece.  All readings will be in translation, including focus on ancient texts and sources, including Homer, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Thucydides, Aristophanes, and Plato. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Justin Snedegar

The importance of moral philosophy to the study of the legal and political institutions of the modern state. In addition to exploring the nature of morality and moral reasoning, the course deals with basic questions about the concept of law and the justification of the state. Possible topics include inalienable rights, distributive justice, civil disobedience, secession, and the priority of liberty. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/ppl/. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Emily Burrill

We will explore the history of human rights through analysis of overviews that emphasize political and social transformations and events, as well as through the study of historical case studies. Our main questions will concern how a powerful rhetoric of human rights has developed, who has spoken on its behalf (and who has been heard), and how human rights claims have intersected with existing political, institutional, and legal structures over time. We will address human rights atrocities and affronts to humanity, but our emphasis in the class will be on social movements and efforts toward redress and repair through the challenge and the promise of human rights. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Jon Lendon

Studies the political, military, and social history of Ancient Greece from the Homeric age to the death of Alexander the Great, emphasizing the development and interactions of Sparta and Athens.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Sonal Pandya

Introduces core concepts in political economy, including the institutional bases for states and markets, and the way these interact through the exercise of exit, voice, and collective action. Empirical material drawn from the last five centuries.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Alexander Motchoulski

Examines and evaluates some basic practices and principles of Anglo-American law. Discusses the justification of punishment, the death penalty, legal liability, good samaritan laws, and the legal enforcement of morality. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. 

Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy 

Professor Peter Johannessen

This course will introduce students to both the process of public policy and the tools of policy analysis. The first part examines the actors, institutions, and procedures involved in the adoption, implementation, and evaluation of public policy. The second part introduces students to the basic concepts and tools of policy analysis including problem definition, specification of alternatives, and solution analysis. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor S. Deborah Kang

This course will trace the origins of today's immigration policy debates by providing students with a comprehensive overview of American immigration law and policy from the 18th century to the present. The course will also explore how state and federal policies impacted a wide array of immigrants, including the Irish, Chinese, and Mexican arrivals of the 19th and 20th centuries. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Nichole Flores

Engaging commentary from a range of religious traditions and media sources, this course examines the enduring intellectual and political challenges of engaging religion in a pluralistic and democratic context. In addition to religious studies and theology, course readings will include material from media studies, law, political science, philosophy, and cognitive psychology. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Samuel Rosenblum

Explores the theoretical ideas that informed the creation and development of America's political system and considers contemporary challenges to the maintenance of liberal democracy. Topics include the political thought of the Founders, constitutional changes wrought by the Civil War and Reconstruction, competing theories of constitutional interpretation and authority, and the contested responses to industrialization and economic modernization. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Daniel Blinderman

Explores the theoretical ideas that informed the creation and development of America's political system and considers contemporary challenges to the maintenance of liberal democracy. Topics include the political thought of the Founders, constitutional changes wrought by the Civil War and Reconstruction, competing theories of constitutional interpretation and authority, and the contested responses to industrialization and economic modernization.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Melissa Vise

Famously dubbed 'the Dark Ages' by Petrarch, the European Middle Ages live on in popular imagination as an age of faith, a time of cultured knights and ladies, and a period of relentless violence. The period from 1100-1500 in what came to be called Europe experienced significant advancements in the flowering of religious piety, economic prosperity, ethical philosophy, the centralization of state power, law, urban life, science and medicine, literature, art, and soaring feats of architecture.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Alexander Motchoulski

This course will survey the historical development of political philosophy in the Western tradition. We will trace the development of that tradition starting in ancient Athens, following it through to the Industrial Revolution. Over the course of this study, students will advance their understanding of central ideas and arguments in political philosophy that deal with concepts such as equality, freedom, democracy, and property, among others. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Sarah Richardson

Includes courses on writing studies, corporate communications, and digital writing. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.engl.virginia.edu/courses. Prerequisite: Completion of first writing requirement. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Penny Von Eschen

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of general history.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Andreja Siliunas

This course covers social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of inequality both within and between countries. We will discuss how systems like slavery, colonialism, and capitalism have entrenched unequal power relations across the globe; how structures of inequality are produced, legitimated, and reproduced at national and international scales; and how individuals experience and negotiate these structures. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Kate Sweeney

This course introduces you to the style and structure of news writing. The main goals are to sharpen your writing, reporting, and critical thinking skills, as well as teach you about news values and ethics. We will focus on writing “hard news” stories and feature stories, and we will draw from current events to discuss what makes news newsworthy.

The course is practical. It’s designed to teach you to think like a journalist and participate in the truth-telling process by learning to report and write accurate stories on deadline. You’ll receive feedback on your writing, and you will have the opportunity to revise your writing for inclusion in an end-of-the-semester portfolio. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Amir Syed

Surveys the main outlines of North African political, economic, and cultural history from the rise of Carthage as a Mediterranean power until the conclusion of the Algerian war for independence in 1962, and the creation of a system of nation-states in the region. It places the North African historical experience within the framework of both Mediterranean/European history and African history. Focuses mainly upon the area stretching from Morocco's Atlantic coast to the Nile Delta; also considered are Andalusia and Sicily, and the ties between Northwest Africa and sub-Saharan regions, particularly West Africa.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Keara Goin

This is a hands-on introduction to global media history. The course situates technologies, industries, texts and programs in the context of social, cultural, and political changes. Students will acquire basic competencies in historical research and writing: developing research questions, evaluating secondary sources, selecting archives, querying databases, managing notes, citing sources, sharing resources, and communicating findings as a team.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Lean Sweeney

Studies the history of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador from 19th-century fragmentation, oligarchic, foreign, and military rule, to the emergence of popular nationalisms.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Sylvia Tidey

This course takes an ethnographically informed approach to the question of how to understand corruption by examining practices of and perspectives on corruption from across the globe—including the so-called Global North. It aims to encourage students to 1) critically assess assumptions at the heart of international anti-corruption discourses; 2) examine tensions between global discourses of corruption and local practices; 3) compare and contrast corruption between different localities.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Robin Means Coleman

The horror genre provides daring, unflinching lessons. It is a syllabus of our social, political, and racial world. Black horror, in particular, has established itself as a primer on the quest for social justice. What can such a boundary-pushing genre teach us about paths to solidarity and democracy? What can we learn about disrupting racism, misogyny, and anti-Blackness? 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Muhammad Tayyab Safdar

How do developing countries in the global South navigate the emergence of renewed great power competition? This class will explore the impact of European and non-European imperialism on large parts of the developing World. We will seek to answer this question by looking at the engagement of countries and actors in the global south with established and emerging powers in an increasingly multi-polar world. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Paul Freedman 

Examines the role of mass media in the political process including such topics as print, broadcast, and online news, media and election campaigns, political advertising, and media effects on public opinion and political participation.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Lawrie Balfour

This course explores the critical and the constructive dimensions of African American political thought from slavery to the present. We will assess the claims that black Americans have made upon the polity, how they have defined themselves, and how they have sought to redefine key terms of political life such as citizenship, equality, freedom, and power.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Kenneth Stroupe

Provides students with the opportunity to be directly involved with the research, programming, operations, and outreach of the University's non-profit, non-partisan Center for Politics. Includes projects focused on state and national politics, political history, civic engagement, voter behavior, media and politics, campaign finance and political analysis. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Bruce Williams 

This course examines the ways a changing media system is altering the dynamics of public discourse and democratic politics in the United States. Throughout the course we will critically analyze the ways in which scholars from a wide range of disciplines have studied the connection between media and politics, the methods they have employed, and the validity of their findings and approaches in the new media environment in which we now live.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Milton Vickerman 

Introduces the study of race and ethnic relations, including the social and economic conditions promoting prejudice, racism, discrimination, and segregation.  Examines contemporary American conditions, and historical and international materials.

School of Education and Human Development 

Professor Bethany Bell

This course provides a historical overview of major social problems and the social contexts, policies, and programs developed in response. Attention is paid to the experiences of vulnerable groups and processes and contexts that facilitate or constrain social change. Using a historical analysis, students gain an understanding of how policies, institutions, and organizations shape and respond to complex human needs and issues of social justice. 

School of Education and Human Development 

Professor Alexa Rodriguez 

In this course, students will use course texts and classroom discussions to explore how schools have been integral to teaching what the role and responsibilities of citizens in a U.S.-style democracy, as well as how schools also reveal the boundaries of this form of citizenship. The course will start from the formation of the common schools in the United States and span the 20th century, and will feature readings that employ a transnational lens.

School of Education and Human Development

TBA 

Will civil discourse save democracy or deepen oppression? Why does speech matter so much to political struggles? What does it mean for political dialogue to be successful? This course integrates theory with practice as students engage in political dialogue, then draw on their experiences, primary source research, the popular press, and political theory to analyze the relationship between political dialogue and democracy. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Stephen Parks

This course provides the opportunity to offer new topics in global studies. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Andrew Kahrl

The history of local government and local politics in shaping American life. Course examines issues, themes, and problems of local democracy in historical and contemporary contexts. Class meetings combine lectures and discussions. Course includes local civic engagement component. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Alexander Motchoulski

This course will consider three central questions in political philosophy: Why do political societies exist? What kind of political society is best? And, what is the proper role of the state in the social and economic affairs of its citizens? Rather than a comprehensive overview of the subject, this course will offer a chance to carefully examine some of the most influential attempts to answer to these core questions. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Adam Slez

Social movements are an historical and global phenomenon of great complexity and variety. Because the topic can be so broad, the course is organized around case studies of civil rights, the industrial workers' movement, environmentalism, religious fundamentalism, and the counter movements to globalization. These cases will be used to illustrate variety of themes and principles, and you'll learn about specific events, personalities, organizations, and dynamics that shaped these movements. By this method, you will gain specific knowledge about important social movements, as well as an overview and general orientation to the sociology of this dynamic area of social life. Prerequisite: SOC 1010 or instructor permission. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Laurent Dubois 

Explores the history of soccer to understand how and why it has become the most popular sport on the planet. We focus on the culture, economics and politics of the sport. Examples are drawn from Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, and include a focus on women's soccer. Class materials include scholarly works, essays, fiction, and film; students work on digital projects related to upcoming international tournaments. 

School of Education and Human Development 

Professor Rachel Wahl

This course builds on the skills students develop through the Civic Cornerstone Fellowship and applies them to local civic issues. Students will develop their ability to understand myriad perspectives on political dilemmas and enhance their capacity to work across ideological differences to construct solutions to these challenges. The semester will culminate in student-led collaboration on a proposed policy, program, or creative project. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Jennifer Rubenstein 

Examines politics surrounding claims that large-scale issues (e.g. terrorism, climate change) are emergencies and responses to those claims. Should laws accommodate emergencies or should emergency responses be "outside" the law? What happens if emergency action violates democratic and justice-based norms?  What is the difference between bottom-up and top-down emergency response? Readings draw primarily from political theory, sociology, and law.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Nicholas Winter 

A seminar introducing students to the study of political psychology. Topics include authoritarianism, tolerance, altruism, ethnocentrism, the role of affect and cognition in political choice, the role of racial stereotyping in political campaigns, and psychological challenges to rational choice models of political decision-making. Prerequisite: One course in PLAP or instructor permission.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Len Schoppa 

Explores why policies on issues like health care, social welfare, education, and immigration differ markedly from nation to nation, focusing on how contrasting cultures, state institutions, and societal organizations shape the historical trajectory of public policies. The primary focus of the course is on policies in advanced industrialized nations such as Britain, the U.S., Japan, and Sweden. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Carol Mershon

Examines political parties in a variety of institutional and socioeconomic settings, focusing on parties in the democratic political systems of Europe, the United States, and Japan. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Denise Walsh 

This course focuses on marginalized groups and the production of injustice with a focus on the global South. It draws on multidisciplinary scholarship that is theoretically challenging, empirically rich, and politically provocative. Readings span the globe and address topics such as drugs, migration, and policing. 

Frank Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy 

Professor Paul Martin

This class explores the intersection between how we perform elections and how we craft public policy. We investigate two broad questions (1) the effect of policy on elections—how rules around voting, funding, and the organization of elections influence election outcomes and larger policy discourse, and (2) the effect of elections on policy—how elections shape elite motivations and citizen expectations around the development and passage of policy. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Peter Furia 

This course examines both academic and policy debates about democracy and foreign policy. We begin by reviewing the theory and practice of democracy and the literature on democracy in international politics. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Daniel Blinderman

Investigates a selected issue in American government or American political development. Prerequisite: One course in PLAP or instructor permission. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Gerard Alexander

Intensive analysis of selected issues and concepts in comparative government. Prerequisite: One course in PLCP or instructor permission. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Anne Meng

Intensive analysis of selected issues and concepts in comparative government. Prerequisite: One course in PLCP or instructor permission.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Jennifer Rubenstein 

Investigates a special problem of political theory such as political corruption, religion and politics, science and politics, or the nature of justice. Prerequisite: One course in PLPT or instructor permission. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Christa Dierksheide

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Felix Maradiaga 

This course is taught by Felix Maradiaga, internationally recognized Nicaraguan democratic and human rights advocate recently nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. This course explores the global democratic ecosystem, focusing on civil society’s role in resisting autocracy. It examines activist networks, autocratic collaboration, and how pro-democracy forces counter them. Covering human rights, free elections, and transparency, it combines theory with practical activism. The course also considers global democratic regression’s impact on U.S. democracy and the potential for a new wave of democratization. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Lisa Cacho  

New course in the subject of American Studies. 

Frank Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy 

Professor Paul Martin

Northern Ireland offers a rich and compelling opportunity to learn from a society that has seen policy-driven ethnic exclusion, a civil rights movement that mutated into a violent conflict, and an ongoing peace process that directly reckons with long-standing harms from punitive policing; housing, employment, and educational discrimination; active disenfranchisement and exclusionary institutions. The Brexit vote destabilized decades of work toward peacebuilding and provides further study of the work to rebuild a post-conflict society. The class dives into understanding what happened in Northern Ireland and what lessons we can glean from their experience. Class includes a required field study in Northern Ireland during spring break of 2026. Significant financial aid is available to students who (according to SFS) demonstrate financial need. Out of pocket costs can be as low as $400 for students with high need. 

School of Law 

Professors Risa Goluboff, Saikrishna Prakash, Deborah Hellman, and others

This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses. 

School of Education and Human Development 

Professor Alexa Rodriguez 

This course seeks to uncover and address questions of educational inequality through a historical perspective. Students will consider questions including, What have been the forms of inequality and the processes that support it throughout U.S. history? How has societal inequality historically shaped American education? How have schools served to disrupt and perpetuate societal inequalities in the U.S.?

School of Law 

Professor Payvand Ahdout 

This course is about the federal judicial system and its relationship to various other decision-makers, including Congress and the state courts. We will examine the jurisdiction of the federal courts; the elements of a justiciable case or controversy; the role of state law and so-called "federal common law" in federal courts; implied causes of action; and state sovereign immunity.

School of Architecture 

Professor Barbara Wilson

Explores methods beyond the conventional town-hall meeting to gather insights from communities on planning issues. Topics will include more traditional methods of qualitative research such as focus groups, interviews, charrettes, participatory action research, and scenario planning, as well as strategies like asset mapping, visual preference surveys, games, art-based visioning, participatory budgeting. 

Frank Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy 

Professor TBA

In this course students will learn how to create change in the public policy arena by understanding political actors, their interests, and the institutions they inhabit. Students will learn how issues move through the policy process, at which points they are most amenable to influence, and how to create and use professional work products to influence them.

School of Data Science 

Professor Jess Reia

Combines topics in data ethics, critical data studies, public policy, governance, and regulation. Address challenges by topic (Health, Education, Culture & Entertainment, Security & Defense, Cities, Environment, Labor). Research how data-centric systems are deployed within socioeconomic ecosystems and shape the world. Interrogate connections between data science, governments, industry, civil society organizations, and communities. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Sidney Milkis 

This seminar will critically examine both classic and current scholarship in American Political Development (APD)—a sub-field of American Politics that explores the historical roots of politics and government in the United States.

School of Law 

Professor Andrew Block and Annie Kim 

This course will introduce students to law and public service, broadly defined to include all careers that serve the public interest, from litigating civil rights cases to prosecuting and defending criminal suspects to providing legal services for indigent clients to representing local, state, and federal government agencies to working for an international human rights organization and everything in between.

School of Law 

Professor Michael Gilbert 

A web of constitutional, statutory, and judge-made laws regulate the American political process. This course will examine these laws and their implications for three broad and important issues: participation, aggregation, and governance. Participation involves the right to vote and various restrictions thereon, aggregation involves apportionment and redistricting, and governance involves campaign finance and the role of political parties.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Denise Walsh 

This course begins with the relationship of political science to identity politics. Next, we study the shift in treating identity as a given to a process and consider four approaches to identity formation. We then turn to two pressing challenges: how to study identity and the interactions of identity groups with one another. The final section of the course addresses the consequences of identity politics, such a mobilization and voting. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Paulina Ochoa Espejo

This course is a continuation of a fall semester course examining the role of borders and boundaries in democracies. We will ask questions about territorial borders and other social boundaries. Topics will include immigration, territorial control and colonialism, membership, sovereignty, the unity of the nation state, and indigenous peoples’ and environmental rights. We will seek answers to our questions from the perspective of several disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. 

School of Law 

Professor Charles Barzun

This short course will examine the philosophical foundations of some of the most pressing debates in contemporary constitutional theory and explore the implications of these debates for how we think about law, politics, and public policy. Some topics that we will discuss include the following: originalism, legal positivism, and the rule of law. 

School of Law 

Professor Leslie Kendrick

This course offers an intensive, albeit introductory, study of First Amendment law relating to freedom of speech and press (and corollary freedoms, such as freedom of political association). 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Justin Kirkland 

Studies the legislative process in the U.S. Congress, U.S. state legislatures, and some examination of comparative legislatures. Topics include the internal distribution of power, influences on legislative behavior, institutional changes in legislatures and their effects, relationships with other political institutions, the place of legislatures in the American polity, and the problems associated with it. 

School of Law 

Professors Lisa Lorish and Timothy Heaphy

Protest or riot? Civil disobedience or insurrection? Cities, universities, and other governmental entities must simultaneously protect free speech and public safety while managing mass demonstration events. The legal, ethical, and practical issues presented by these events will be the focus of this course. 

School of Law 

Professors Amanda Frost and Anja Bossow 

This seminar examines the development of U.S. citizenship through law, history, and politics, including topics such as naturalization, birthright citizenship (jus soli), citizenship by descent (jus sanguinis), and expatriation/denaturalization.

School of Law 

Professor Kimberly Robinson

In the United States, education serves as the foundation of our democracy and economy. Law and policy determine the quality of educational opportunities in the United States. Although law and policy have made substantial inroads in reducing discrimination in education, they also tolerate and exacerbate inequalities in educational opportunities that influence the academic, professional, and social outcomes of students and communities.