On-Campus Course Schedule for Summer 2021

Democracy: Theory and Practice

Political philosophers have argued that people always strive for liberty under just governments. Political historians have figured that democracy's global spread was inevitable. Now pundits talk about democracy's retreat, "illiberal" democracy, and a "post truth" world. Defining the genuine nature of democracy, setting valid criteria for democratic governing, and ranking countries from most to least democratic, is now more important than ever. We will explore theories of human rights, civil liberties, social justice, and citizen participation to observe their work in practice across a variety of established and newer democracies. What will be democracy's future? The strategies of anti-democratic agendas, domestic and foreign, also compel the question of whether a democracy like the United States can resist misinformation and propaganda more effectively than undemocratic nations.

Found of American Constitution

Note: For students in the Madison program only.

MALS Continuous Reg. (HT)

Note: This course is for MALS students who need an additional semester to complete their thesis and should only be taken after MALS Thesis Writing.

MALS FND: Humanities

Note: This course is required for all MALS students who matriculated during and after the fall 2019 semester. MALS students only.

MALS Thesis Proposal

During the MALS Thesis Proposal course, students work directly with the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies faculty director to produce an annotated bibliography (including the state of the question and the 20 most important works on the topic) and thesis statement, which prepare students for thesis writing in the subsequent semester. Students are expected to attend all class sessions, meetings with the University librarians for research consultations and any additional meetings determined by the faculty director.

Note: This 3 credit course is required for all MALS students who matriculated in fall 2019 and after.

MALS Thesis Writing

The MALS Thesis Writing course must be taken upon completion of the MALS Thesis Proposal course (LSHV 800) in the subsequent fall or spring semester and is the final curricular requirement for the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree. In the MALS Thesis Writing course, students will work directly with their appointed thesis mentor to produce a master’s thesis and participate in a thesis defense. Students are expected to work directly with their thesis mentor and library representatives to actively write and produce the thesis argument. At the commencement of the thesis writing semester, students will develop milestones in consultation with the thesis mentor to ensure consistent progress.

Note: This 3 credit course is required for all MALS students who matriculated in fall 2019 and after.

MALS Thesis Writing (HT)

Note: This section is for students who are completing the old MALS curriculum thesis (0 credit thesis proposal, 3 credit thesis). Students can only register for this section after completing LSHV 981.

Nation-State &the; Islamic Veil

cThis course will take a ‘government and international affairs’ approach to examining the geopolitics of the veil in three nation states, with the primary focus on Turkey. We will examine 1. Secularist rationales for eliminating the veil in nation-states and what it cues to nascent nationalistic groups, 2. The forces of modernity and Westernization in MENA countries, 3. Turkey’s half-European half-Central Asian cultural foci, 4. France’s colonial policies in Algeria and their impact on current events.

Note: This course is open to MALS and DLS students.

The Court, The Constitution, and the Shaping of the American Nation

Alexander Hamilton, in making his pitch for ratification of the Constitution, wrote in The Federalist No.78: "Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them.... It proves incontestably, that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power." Hamilton's soothing minimalist assurances notwithstanding, Chief Justice John Marshall proved not only to be a major annoyance to President Jefferson (and Congress, as well as State governors, legislatures and judges); he established the until-then quiescent Supreme Court as a power center. On and on it went. This course takes a contra-Rushmorean approach to the exercise of power in the United States. Tracing the development of the nation through key Supreme Court decisions from Marbury v. Madison to the just-completed Fall 2019-Spring 2020 Term of the Court, it focuses on the unelected power center at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Consider: Marshall, not Jefferson, laid the groundwork for the modern American nation by articulating decidedly non-Jeffersonian concepts in Marbury and McCulloch. Earl Warren, not Congress or the President, reinvigorated the Fourteenth Amendment and implemented the Second Reconstruction through Brown v. Board of Education. And Warren Burger toppled a vast criminal enterprise operated out of the Oval Office, saying in essence, the emperor is not clothed in executive privilege Teflon (United States v. Nixon). So much for "the weakest branch." On and on it goes.

Treason, Terrorism, Betrayal

This course will employ an interdisciplinary approach to examine the motivations and situations that lead some individuals to pose a threat to U.S. national security. The course will draw on a range of disciplines and approaches including anthropology, psychology (cognitive, cultural, social, forensic), linguistics, narratology, and positioning theory, among others, to gain insight into the decision-making calculus that lead certain individuals to “cross the line”, i.e. to make personal decisions to take actions that will ultimately damage U.S. national security. The course qualitatively divides threats by individuals to U.S. national security into three categories: treason, terrorism and betrayal. The first third of the course will focus on individuals who have agreed to work as an agent of a foreign government to provide protected U.S. information damaging to U.S. national security. Various frameworks and analytic approaches that have been used to understand their behavior will be introduced and critiqued. The second third of the course will focus on terrorism and the analytic attempts to understand the pathways that lead to radicalization and potentially extremist behavior directed at the U.S. by individuals. The final third of the course will focus on betrayal by individuals who have obtained security clearances but have violated their secrecy agreement through the unauthorized release of classified information to the public that endangers U.S. national security.