32 courses with the subject POLS, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
POLS 1000United States Government3
Credit(s) Offered: every semester In modern American government, the major political institutions, such as the presidency, the Congress, and the Supreme Court, are examined. Their constitutional antecedents and their modern functions are presented. Special attention is given to the current bureaucracy, elections and the political actors in the election process.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: spring The course studies critical problems confronting the present international system. Armed conflict and internal violence, as well as prospects for the resolution of conflict are explored.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every semester The course provides a comparative analysis of modern national governments. The importance of the world’s political heritage and the implications for the emerging nations of liberal democracy, communism and dictatorship are explored.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: annually The class focuses upon current issues and politics in urban and state government and attempts to evaluate proposed solutions to issues.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every semester This course examines the interdependency of the world’s nations by focusing on current events in the international area and issues such as ozone depletion, pollution, the global economy, conflict and cooperation, population and hunger. Cross-listed with IDIS 1800
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: may be less than every two years In this introduction to the field of Peace Studies, through an interdisciplinary approach, the students will explore conflict, its origins, management, ramifications and attempts to move beyond it. Conflict will be explored on the individual, group, national and international levels. Cross-listed with IDIS 1900
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every semester of presidential election years, and Fall of off-year elections. This course examines the nomination and general election processes in great detail, along with the Constitutional basis and historical evolutions of these processes. In presidential election years the principal focus is on that contest, while in “off years,” congressional and state elections become the subjects of interest.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: annually It will build on the students’ knowledge from the preceding class, and introduce them to different issues, country perspectives, and policy initiatives of the United Nations and other international institutions. All students will attend at least one Model UN competition.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
1
Credits (max)
1
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
POLS 2040Poverty and Inequality in the Developing World3
Credit(s) Offered: every other year This course is an introduction to the developing world—the nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Through its focus upon the two themes of Poverty and Inequality, students will learn about the developing world—its history, politics, economics, societies, and cultures. Cross-listed with IDIS 2040
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
POLS 2070Public Policy Analysis: Case Studies in American Politics3
Credit(s) Offered: every other year The course covers four major divisions of public policy: health, education, labor and welfare. The aim is to attain an understanding of how the American political system works through a study of the policy that has come out of that system.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every other year Environmental Policy focuses on the science behind environmental problems and how political solutions are derived. Students in this course will review the three branches of government and their role in establishing environmental laws, discuss the history of environmental policies and laws, and investigate the role of agencies, outside organizations and influencers in environmental policy. Philosophical debates on environmental ethics, regulatory approaches and sustainable practices will also be explored. Cross-listed with GEOG 2080
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: may be less than every two years This introductory-level course is an interdisciplinary study of the issues of peace and war. It interweaves history, political science, philosophy, literature and psychology through readings, discussions, lectures, media and class presentations. Cross-listed with IDIS 2100
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every other year This course examines the origins and development of the American presidency from the eighteenth century to the present. It examines the executive branch of government and the development of the office in historical context. This enables us to examine the executive branch of government as it evolved in relation to the judicial and legislative branches of government in particular eras, to consider the role that contingency and individuals have had shaping the office, and to measure the evolution of the Presidency in times of war, amidst economic transformations, and in relation to public opinion and the media. Cross-listed with HIST 2202
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
HIST 1000 or HIST 1100 or HIST 1400 or HIST 1500 or POLS 1000 Meets
POLS 2203The Civil Rights Movement3
Credit(s) Offered: every semester This course examines the modern Civil Rights Movement in the larger historical context of the African-American freedom struggle, from its roots in abolitionism and Reconstruction through the period of legalized racial discrimination to the dismantling of legal segregation to the ongoing persistence of white privilege. Cross-listed with HIST 2203 / AAST 2203 / AMST 2203
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
AMST 1800 or ENGL 1200 or HON 1200 or HIST 1000 or HIST 1100 or HIST 1400 or HIST 1500 or POLS 1000
POLS 2206Europe Today3
Credit(s) Offered: every other year Europe today is an introduction to the major themes in modern European history and political science. The focus will be on the roots of contemporary Europe, European politics and economics, ethnic and religious conflict, citizenship and immigration, European culture and Europe’s place in the world and relationship with the United States. Cross-listed with HIST 2206
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: Spring In this age of globalization, global issues and threats increasingly require global solutions. Individual nation-states will not be able to unilaterally resolve global warming, terrorism, etc., but rather will need to work together to address them. That is why International Organizations such as the United Nations are so important. Using the United Nations as its primary case study, this course will explore different global issues, the challenges to resolving them, and the role of the United Nations in the global arena. All students will attend at least one Model UN competition.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every Semester This course serves as an introduction to the American legal system. Emphasis is placed on how courts and lawyers function, how cases are decided and the means by which courts interpret legislation. Cross-listed with CJ 2270
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
POLS 2360Understanding Government Decision Making3
Credit(s) The course focuses on understanding the inner workings and political dynamics of government decision making that affects us locally, regionally, and globally. We integrate our invited elected officials, senior-level policy makers, strategic researchers, business leaders, and nongovernmental organization directors into our daily exploration and application of cutting edge case studies and simulation crisis scenario exercises.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every other year American policies around the globe, and responses to such global issues as the environment, human rights or nuclear proliferation, have become increasingly significant on a national and international level. This course will introduce students to American foreign policy.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: fall This course applied to an interdisciplinary approach to identify the contexts, origins, causes, patterns, trends, and explanations of international terrorism. Students will study terrorist organizations, their structure, financing, agenda, objectives, methodology, international links and use of technology. They will also study anti-terrorist measures, state-sponsored terrorism and emergency management as it affects terrorist incidents. Cross-listed with CJ 2510
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every other year Constitutional Law is the product of interpretation, power and political calculation. The collusion and collision of these forces produces the parameters of our governmental system. The U.S. Supreme Court over the years has issued many decisions which have fundamentally shaped and altered the scope and distribution of government authority. This course is the study of the product of these decisions and the shaped our current system of government.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every semester This course introduces students to crucial global issues of our time, many of which principally concern developing, non-Western nations, but all of which will impact the future of the U.S. Through film viewings, readings, writing, and discussion, students will engage with global problems and learn to develop their own critical viewpoints on complex issues. Students will analyze both documentaries and narrative films as artistic treatments of human problems. Their final project will require an in-depth study of, and presentation on, media representations of global issues pertaining to one nation. Cross-listed with ENGL 2540 / IDIS 2540 .
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every other year This course examines the long history of discrimination in the United States on the basis of race and gender. It examines in detail the guarantee of equal protection of the law found in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and how the meaning of what is equal have evolved over time. Topics covered will include how to define and measure equality, affirmative action, racial preferences in college admissions, voting rights, distinction based on gender, equality based on physical differences between men and woman, the evolution of the right of privacy, abortion and sexual harassment.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every other year This course examines the basic rights and freedoms derived from the First Amendment to the Constitution. The course will examine in depth great controversies of freedom of speech, press and religion. Topics covered will include protection for hate speech, speech codes on college campuses, prior restraints on the press, and free exercises of religion, and governmental limitations on the establishment of religion.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
POLS 2700Criminal Procedure: Rights of the Accused3
Credit(s) Offered: every other year This course examines the basic rights and freedoms derived from the portions of the Bill of Rights addressing criminal procedure. The course will examine in depth the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth Amendments to the Constitution. Topics covered will include protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, self-incrimination, double jeopardy, due process of law, the right to counsel, the right to confront witnesses, trial by jury and the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment. Cross-listed with CJ 2700
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every other year The frequent international decisions confronting country and international organizational leaderships, as well as nongovernmental organizations and private sector leaderships underscore how this course focuses on some of the biggest contemporary international issues in the twenty-first century. The course aims to strengthen the student’s grasp of and judgment about political, economic and security/military issue areas of global politics and the impact of international organizations, successful or not.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every semester This course traces the development of political philosophy from the early modern up to the birth of the modern. In a series of readings we will examine such concepts as the “state of nature” and its concomitants, natural law, natural rights, civil society, the “primitive,” the right to property (private or otherwise) as well as the material foundations of social and political arrangements, warfare and its role in the state of nature and/or civil society, the power of the executive, and even slavery. By its very nature this course is interdisciplinary, as it is both an introduction to the history of ideas and a survey of political philosophy. Cross-listed with HIST 3305
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: annually Political Science Research Methods (PSRM) introduces students to the scientific and quantitative study of politics. It introduces the scientific method and concepts, measurement techniques, research design, data gathering techniques (univariate, bivariate, and multivariate), and the limitations to the study of politics via science and quantitative techniques.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: fall The mission of this course is twofold: first to engage original research in the field of Political Science and second to develop an integrative portfolio demonstrating that students have mastered the skills needed to graduate with a degree in Political Science. Students will engage in a semester-long research project on aspects of current importance in the discipline. This will include topic selection, literature review, methodology, and extrapolation of Political Science theory. Secondly, students will organize work products retained from previous courses in a portfolio, which must be submitted and evaluated as part of this course. Using these work products as evidence, students will complete an integrative analysis of their competencies in Political Science. This analysis will thoughtfully describe how and what they have learned as a Political Science major.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
POLS 3410 and Senior standing as a Political Science major
POLS 4350Moot Court3
Credit(s) Offered: fall In this course, students will intensively study a specific area of law for the purpose of arguing in a moot court competition. Moot court involves teams of student-contestants, clients burdened by a legal problem, briefs and oratory detailing the dimensions of the legal problem before an appellate court, and the judging of performances by panels of faculty and attorneys. The top teams emerging from this course will be eligible to represent the university at the national tournament.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) The Independent Study is open to students who have the permission of the supervising instructor and the department. The course of study, meetings, and credit are arranged upon approval.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Credit(s) Offered: every semester Off-campus or on-campus internship opportunities for a minimum of three credit hours in local, state and federal government offices, including legal internships in public administration agencies, at law offices, with political campaigns, with political organizations, with appropriate placements abroad, or at the University, by permission of the Political Science Internship Coordinator and in accordance with the University’s internship policy. If a student’s GPA falls below the 2.5 minimum, with at least one semester remaining before graduation, then those students would conduct directed research as part of POLS 4940. Students with GPAs above 2.5 can also do directed research.
Subject
POLS
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
12
Credit unit
Credit(s)
Type
course
Edition
2025-2026
Catalog
Fitchburg State University 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
