Comparative Social Inquiry: Team-taught Common Curriculum course for first-year students: Term 1 2018 − 19, Term 1 2019 − 20, Term 1 2020 − 21
Introduction to Comparative Politics: Elective in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Major (PPE): Term 2 2015 − 16, Term 1 2016 − 17, Term 2 2017 − 18, Term 2 2018 − 19, Term 1 2021 − 22, Term 2 2021 − 22
Colonialism and Decolonization: Elective in PPE: Term 2 2020 − 21, Term 1 2021 − 22
Colonialism: Economic, Political, and Social Effects: Elective in PPE: Term 1 2016 − 17
Methods in the Social Sciences: Elective in PPE, Term 2 2016 − 17
Culture and Violence: Elective in PPE, Term 1 2015 − 16
Religion and Politics in South Asia: Elective in PPE, Term 2 2016 − 17
The Guru in Hinduism: Elective in PPE, Term 2 2018 − 19
Contemporary Political Comedy: Elective in PPE, Term 2 2017 − 18
I have taught Introduction to Comparative Politics seven times in the past six years. My primary goal in a politics course is to guide students to develop an analytical framework to understand political issues. Understanding how individuals make political decisions is central to this framework. We use several strategies to approach this question. One strategy is to work through discrete but interrelated steps in the decision process - beliefs, preferences, choices, strategies, and outcomes. Another strategy is to work through structural (institutional), behavioral (cultural), and rational choice approaches in the field and transcend these artificial distinctions. A third strategy is social choice – how are individual decisions aggregated at the level of electoral constituencies, political parties, interest groups, committees, ruling coalitions, or countries. A fourth strategy is to incorporate political economy - how do political decisions interact with economic interests.
In organizing the syllabus, I ensure that the readings reveal the debate in question. For instance, in the week on nationalism, I include Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities alongside Stephan et al.’s State-Nations. This juxtaposition allows us to ask not only how nations are imagined but also how nations are built. The presence of multi-nationals within a state complicates nation-building. We discuss if civic-national identities can overcome ethnic-national identities. This conversation connects with the week on Identity. Here, we read Daniel Posner’s (2004) article on the political salience of cultural difference alongside Mala Htun’s (2004) article on the political representation of gender and ethnicity. We are forced to think through the limits of constructivism in identity formation as well as the limits of essentialism (presuming identities to be cross-cutting or coinciding). In the week on Ideologies, we read Fareed Zakaria (1997) on the rise of illiberal democracies alongside a chapter from Chua Beng Huat’s book on Singaporean communitarianism and state capitalism. These readings allow us to examine liberal constitutionalism from one of its leading supporters and one of its leading critics. The limits of constitutionalism are central to our conversation. Is the limit set by super-majoritarianism? How are debates regarding static versus the living constitution resolved?
A typical week in the class involves an introduction to the readings and a background to the theme, a compilation of questions posed by the students, a structured group discussion on a specific set of questions, a student-led presentation, and a quiz. This structure ensures that we work through the material in different ways and that students are active in the classroom. These activities are curated on the course website. Towards the end, I assign students the task of summarizing the themes and the methods. They present the questions and debates we were able to participate in and the conundrums relegated to the future.
Students receive structured feedback. They are graded for class presentations, quizzes, structured participation in the classroom, and two referee reports spread across the term. In the past two iterations of the course, I have come to rely on the referee report as a fundamental tool to develop critical, analytical, and writing skills. We write a referee report in class, the students work in groups to do another one as a mid-term assignment, and they write an individual referee report for their final assignment. By the end of the term I am confident that the students can critically engage with articles in leading journals.