Teaching

I have taught the following undergraduate courses across a variety of formats (asynchronous, synchronous, in person, and hybrid):

  • Introduction to US Politics
  • Introduction to International Relations/World Politics
  • Introduction to Comparative Politics
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Politics of Economic Statecraft
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction
  • European and EU Politics
  • Global Governance (Fall 202, Fall 2023)
  • International Organizations
  • International Law (Spring 2023)
  • Homeland Security
  • Research Methods and Writing for Social Science

*Syllabi are available upon request.

Games, Simulations, Activities and Assignments

  • Coming soon: At Miami University, I finally got to teach a course on the Politics of Economic Statecraft. The course has two assignments: a sanctions design project and a foreign aid analysis. For the first project, I designed a series of vignettes that challenge to students to think how US policymakers will respond to the problem outlined in their vignette. Students in the class are assigned a vignette at random, and students work on their own to design a policy response that utilizes economic sanctions. The activity gets students thinking about stakeholders (both domestically and globally), domestic and international costs of sanctions, benefits of sanctions, who might sanctions bust, how they will be evaded and how the US might mitigate such actions, and so on. This activity requires students to think about how the country they are targeting might respond and how that response might impact US foreign policy goals and interests.
  • Coming soon: When I teach Global Governance or International Organizations, I make up a set of “random international organizations” along with a premise and ask students to think about the rational design of their organization. Students work in groups to develop rules for membership, how to enforce rules, what activities they engage in, how members vote, and so on. On the second day (optional), I then introduce a problem that their institution they have designed must address and how the institution will respond within the parameters they have outlined. I then ask how they might alter the form and function of their institution, if that is possible given the rules they have created, and what might make such an activity difficult.
  • Check out an active learning exercise for online teaching (for these COVID-19 times) I constructed for my course on Global Governance and International Organizations for helping students think about rational design of international organizations.
  • For my course on Global Governance and International Organizations, I created a simulation (pre-COVID-19 in class) on interstate conflict and climate change based on Stephen Walt’s Foreign Policy article “Who Will Save the Amazon (and How)?” Depending on the size of the class, students work in teams representing countries on UN Security Council: US and China (two permanent members), and the Maldives, Brazil, Germany, and Zimbabwe. If there are more students, I add more permanent and non-permanent members. Otherwise, the remaining members of the Security Council are considered non-playing ‘characters’ (NPCs) that I play to make the simulation more interesting. Each group receives a packet of preparatory readings on their country’s politics, their countries response to climate change, and the impact of climate change on their country’s domestic and global politics.
  • In my courses on US politics, Introduction to international relations, or US foreign policy, I have a student activity and assignment that asks students to investigate and learn about the provenance of everyday goods they purchase and what affects the availability and price of these goods. I use this activity to highlight politics and complexity of supply chains and other issues related to trade and substitution.