Central Michigan University

 

Intro to American Politics       Spring 2019 Syllabus

An introductory American politics course formatted to meet CMU's III-B (Studies in Social Structures) breadth requirement as well as the Writing Intensive competency.  The centerpiece of the course is the department's Democracy in Action program, which asks students to research a political problem and propose a solution in a semester-long research project.

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Political Behavior     Fall 2018 Syllabus      Spring 2019 Syllabus

This is an introductory-level political behavior course designed to meet CMU's III-A (Understanding Human Behavior) breadth requirement as well as the Writing Intensive competency.  We begin by discussing the nature and origins of public opinion, and then turn our focus to elections, voting, and turnout.  The final project involves researching a controversial issue then sharing their findings while serving on an expert panel similar to those found at academic and professional conferences.

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Introduction to Empirical Methods of Political Research       Fall 2018 Syllabus

In this course students will be introduced to research design and statistics, including the software SPSS. The course is formatted to meet CMU's QR (Quantitative Reasoning) competency.

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American Legislative Process (Congress)         Spring 2019 Syllabus

During the first half of the course, students are introduced to the mechanics of Congress, including leadership and the committee system.  The course then transitions into a legislative simulation in which students form their own Senate.  Students can draft their own bills, vote on legislation, and run for re-election.  Students emerge from the course with a deep understanding of the inner workings of Congress.

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Campaigns and Elections     Fall 2018 Syllabus

This course provides an in-depth look at campaigns in the United States.  For their final project, students were asked to write a research paper on one race from the most recent Congressional cycle.  Students presented their findings during an in-class mini conference.

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University of Notre Dame

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Presidential Power     Fall 2015 Syllabus

I taught this as an upper-level course at Notre Dame in Fall 2015.  The course begins with a theoretical overview of the powers of the presidency, then transitions to a series of case studies.  The final project for the course revolves around a series of Oxford-style academic debates some of the “big questions” in presidential power. 

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Research Seminar in Public Policy     Fall 2015 Syllabus

This unique seminar is for students who (a) are in Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Program in Public Service and (b) have interned over the summer with a public policy organization.  The students have already had Introduction to Public Policy and a social science research methods course. In this course, the focus is on writing a 20-25 page paper that explores a public policy program using social science methods.

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