History and Historiography (HIST150 PO (original) (raw)

Rezai Syllabus Contentious Politics

COURSE DESCRIPTION Why, how, and when do people protest? Why do some collective protests last just one or a couple of days while others continue for months or even years? Why do some episodes of contention turn into social movements or even into tragic civil war (Syria), while others disappear? Why and how do some protest events transform into radical revolutionary movements with the aim to topple the existing political order in their respective countries? Why are there social movements, but no revolutions, in functioning democracies? These are among the questions we will be exploring, studying, and discussing comparatively this semester. We will examine different forms of coordinated collective actions of students, women, youth, ethnic minorities, and poor people in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa to see whether there are common causes for the emergence of these movements across time and locations. Furthermore, we will unearth the ideological, demographic, economic and cultural origins of these movements and the tactics and strategies employed by the actors involved to understand why some powerful movement succeed while other fail.

HRezai Syllabus Comparative Revolutions

COURSE DESCRIPTION In this course we will study comparative conceptual approaches to the causes, trajectories, and outcomes of the great revolutions of the modern world. Although infrequent, revolutions have profoundly transformed the political, cultural, and social structures of countries like France, Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam, and Iran. Utilizing theoretical models, we will discuss questions like these: is there a universal definition of revolution? Are there common causes for revolutions across time and space? What are the ideological, cultural, and economic origins of revolutions? And finally, why do some revolutions succeed and some fail?

Theories of Globalization (Graduate) (Spring 2017)

This seminar explores the multi-faceted contours, debates, and evolution of the term 'globalization' from a variety of contrasting theoretical perspectives. On par with terms like culture and nature, globalization has today become a highly contested concept. Regarded as both a verb (i.e., describing the expansion of economic markets, North Atlantic ideals, and political / economic decentralization), as well as a noun (i.e., highlighting the status quo of global capitalist hegemony, white racial patriarchy, and ecological domination), the politics of globalization go beyond merely material or intellectual disagreements. Globalization is itself a framing of life that disciplines perceptions, experiences, and expectations, particularly those of scholars who seek to better understand the world and their participation in it. Throughout the seminar we will explore the theories and politics of globalization from the perspective of various subfields of academic inquiry, for example: the history of political thought, political anthropology / sociology, political economy, feminist and eco-feminist theory, critical international relations, postcolonial theory, queer theory, disciplinary history, international history, and international ethics among others. To organize this wide range of lenses, we will employ three complementary analytic frameworks meant to understand the dynamics behind current theories (and theorizing) of globalization: globalization as imperialism, globalization as political economy, and globalization as existential domination. With this backdrop in mind, the course aims at developing an innovative scholarly and pedagogical approach. As a disciplinary endeavor within the field of Political Science, we will study classical texts and theories with attention to their normative assumptions about the world and the craft of theory. As an interdisciplinary exercise, however, we will also juxtapose foundational arguments and theories with contemporary critical perspectives from the margins of Political Science and beyond. The goal is to highlight that globalization is not so new within the history and sociology of the study of politics. Yet more than this, that reflexivity in the study of globalization can lead scholars to embrace the inherent dynamism of global processes, exchanges, and transformations within their own activity. Doing so may better equip contemporary globalization scholarship to do theory in more radically grounded ways, thus granting a clearer ethos to the old adage: " think globally, act locally " .

HRezai Syllabus Modern Political Theory

COURSE DESCRIPTION This course will introduce you to a range of issues concerning the kinds of communities— political, social, moral, and religious—that human beings construct for themselves and the values that inform and define such communities. We will study ideas that have played a formative role in the political and cultural history of our time in order to reflect more globally on what it means to be an active and engaged citizen. Course readings include canonical texts