Teaching

See here for a two-page summary of all of my "final course evaluations" (FCEs) from Fall 2016 through Spring 2023. Individual course evaluations are available upon request. I have also had several course observations from a senior teaching consultant from CMU's Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, including a fall 2019 course observation of my Diplomacy & Statecraft course and a spring 2020 course observation of my Nonviolent Conflict & Revolution course.

Instructor of Record: Lecture / Seminar Courses

Diplomacy and Statecraft (84-362/662), Carnegie Mellon University (offered six times)

Diplomacy and statecraft are the driving forces behind foreign policy and international politics. In the first part of the course, students are introduced to the concepts, theories, and history of diplomacy. Students examine key cases and statesmen and women in great power politics from World War II to the present. Finally, the class surveys contemporary diplomatic challenges related to international security, major power relations with Russia and China, human rights promotion, and global climate change. Both in the classroom and in writing, students are encouraged to think, act, and write like diplomats and to appreciate diplomacy as a vocation. Throughout the course, students build skills in foreign policy memo writing, participate in diplomatic role-playing simulations, build cultural intelligence, and connect diplomatic trend lines with today’s international headlines. 

Note: This course is part of the Dietrich College gen-ed curriculum ("Intercultural and Global Inquiry" category).

Syllabi: Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2022

Nonviolent Conflict and Revolution (84-322/622), Carnegie Mellon University (offered five times)

How can everyday people promote justice, equality, and democracy? Throughout history, many have looked to armed struggle and revolutionary violence. But over the course of the last century, nonviolent “people power” movements -- from Gandhi’s salt march to the Arab Spring to Black Lives Matter -- have been forces for social and political change. What are the causes, strategies, tactics, dynamics, and consequences of nonviolent conflict, and how do these differ from violent or armed conflict? When and how do unarmed “people power” campaigns topple repressive authoritarian regimes? This course addresses these questions and in the process engages contending theories of power, revolution, and insurgency. The course introduces students to key concepts, theories, strategies, and historical patterns of nonviolent conflict. The class probes the success and failure of nonviolence by analyzing landmark unarmed revolutions.

Note: This course is part of the Dietrich College gen-ed curriculum ("Perspectives on Justice and Injustice" category).

Syllabi: Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022

The Future of Democracy (84-324/624), Carnegie Mellon University (offered three times)

After the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama famously argued that humanity had reached the “end of history” insofar as liberal democracy had become the last viable form of government. Yet today, illiberal democracies and dictatorships persist, the world has witnessed the return of authoritarian great powers led by China and Russia, and populist movements challenge liberal democracies around the world. What is the future of democracy around the world, and how can we know? This course surveys the causes of historical rise (and fall) of democracy, the methods and pitfalls of democracy promotion, and a variety of challenges to democracy -- such as nationalism, polarization, and misinformation. By the end, students will be expected to write an intelligence memo and give an oral presentation on the future of democracy in a particular region or country.

Note: This course is part of the Dietrich College gen-ed curriculum ("Contextual Thinking" category).

Syllabi: Spring 2019, Summer 2020, Spring 2022

Theories of International Relations (84-326), Carnegie Mellon University (offered two times)

This course introduces students to the discipline of international relations (IR). In the first half of the course, students review the modern history of IR from colonialism to today and are introduced to core concepts such as the national interest, power, and international order. Students also survey a broad range of IR theories, including “grand paradigms” from realism to constructivism, mainstream “mid-level” theories that help explain global politics and aid in foreign policy analysis, as well as critical, feminist, and non-western IR theory. The second half of the course introduces students to two major sub-fields of IR, namely security studies (concerned with the causes of war and peace, the politics of alliances, etc.) and international political economy (concerned with the causes of protectionism and free trade, the politics of economic tools of statecraft such as foreign aid, sanctions, etc.). The course ends by considering contemporary challenges posed by armed non-state actors, climate change, and various threats to the post-World War II liberal international order. This course should help students to better understand the world we live in and equip students with tools for analyzing various international events and foreign policy challenges.

Note: As of Fall 2023, 84-326 is no longer offered. A less theory-centric introductory course, "International Relations" (84-226), is part of the Dietrich College gen-ed curriculum ("Disciplinary Perspectives: Social Science" category).

Syllabi: Fall 2021, Fall 2022

International Human Rights (84-303A), Carnegie Mellon University (offered one time)

This mini-course surveys the causes of human rights violations around the world and the internal and external forces that combat them. The course begins by asking how political scientists conceptualize and measure human rights; we also review the origins and evolution of the international human rights movement and debates over whether human rights are (or should be) universal. We then survey the correlates of human rights abuses and review what progress has been made towards global forecast models of genocide and mass killing. We then examine forces & actors that attempt to promote human rights and assess the efficacy of international human rights law, international human rights NGOs, and human rights diplomacy. The course concludes by surveying the geopolitics of human rights, the U.S.’ recent human rights record, and the future of human rights globally. By the end of this course, you should come away with an appreciation for the ongoing struggle to achieve the global aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Syllabus: Spring 2023

Civil-Military Relations (84-319/619), Carnegie Mellon University (offered one time)

Why do militaries (people with guns) ever obey civilians (people without guns)? What is the proper role of the armed forces and military officers in a democratic society? When, why, and how do militaries achieve autonomy, battlefield effectiveness, or political rule? Students will confront such questions by surveying theories, cases, and ethical challenges of modern civil-military relations. The first half of the course surveys the theoretical, empirical, and normative literature on problems in civil-military relations, particularly the causes of military loyalty to civilian rule, colonial legacies in civil-military relations, difference in civilian and military mindsets/cultures, the relationship between civil-military relations and battlefield effectiveness, military repression and defection during civilian protests, and the determinants and outcomes of military coups and mutinies. In the second half of the course, the class will survey civil-military relations in selected regions and countries (including the United States, Russia, and China). By the end, students will write an original case study explaining civil-military relations in a particular state.

Syllabus: Summer 2022

Writing for Political Science and Policy (84-250), Carnegie Mellon University (offered one time)

The aim of this course is to equip students with the essential skills necessary to successfully write academic research papers and theses in political science and professional documents such as policy memos, op-eds, political speeches, briefs, and PowerPoint slides. Students thus learn fundamentals of writing for political science and public policy. Key topics include principles of rhetoric, evidence-based argumentation and citation, concision, and framing. Students also learn how to cite properly using citation management software EndNote and construct powerful tables and figures using quantitative datasets. This is a writing-intensive course in which students practice writing, edit peers’ writing, read about how to write, and analyze examples of stellar writing. A final project entails writing a draft senior thesis proposal.

Note: This course is now taught by my brilliant colleague, Associate Professor of the Practice Haleigh Bartos.

Syllabus: Spring 2020

Instructor of Record: Project-Based Learning Courses

Collaborative Research in Political Science (84-440/640), Carnegie Mellon University (offered one time)

Are you interested in joining an inter-disciplinary, collaborative research team that could eventually lead to publishing a co-authored article in political science? This course invites interested students to join as active participants in one of several ongoing research projects by a political science faculty member. Students will be grouped into small teams of co-authors based on interest and skills. Some students may take the lead with data collection and cleaning, others with writing a literature review or case studies, others still with analyzing and visualizing data. The goal will be to draft a co-authored paper by the end of the semester that may be presented at a conference and, ideally, published in a journal. Students from all backgrounds are welcome, especially those with an interest in politics, history, international relations, or social science applications of statistics, data science, and/or machine learning.

Syllabus: Spring 2023

Collaborative Research Through Projects (99-519, specific projects vary by year) 

Academic Advising / Mentorship Courses

Humanities & Social Science Senior Honors Thesis I&II (66-501/502) 

International Relations & Politics Graduate Thesis (84-799) 

Summer Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship (99-270), Summer 2017-2021, 2023

Dietrich College Freshman-Sophomore Research Training (84-198), Spring 2019, 2022-23

Undergraduate Research (84-498), Fall 2016-2020 and 2022-23, Spring 2017-2023

Teaching Assistant / Graduate Student Instructor

Introduction to International Relations (POL 240), Princeton University (two semesters)

Precept Syllabi: Fall 2012, Spring 2013

Applied Regression Analysis (PUBPOL 569), University of Michigan (one semester)

Evaluation: Fall 2007

Intermediate Microeconomics (ECON 2), University of Michigan Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (one semester, Summer 2008)

Calculus (MATH 2), University of Michigan Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (one semester, Summer 2008)