18 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 1011(Political Theory) or equivalent. This colloquium examines
how the law can participate in the justification of various forms of violence, exclusion, and inequality. It focuses on the power of law to determine which subjects get recognized as persons entitled to rights. Possible topics include slavery, migration, gender, sexual orientation, disability, homelessness, and nonhuman animals Fall 2025: POLS BC3435 Course Section/Call Times/Location Instructor Points Enrol
POLS 3017001/00665 T Th 10:10am - 11:25am Jonathan 3.00 40/60
152 Horace Mann Hall Keller Barnard College Catalogue 2025-2026 439 RELI UN3027 Muslims of New York. 3.00 points. Looking at both historical and lived realities of Muslims in NYC, moving from the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan to Harlem as Mecca. The course would engage both with cultural production, such as music, plays, and street art, and living communities around the
POLS 3025001/00647 M W 10:10am - 11:25am Katherine 3 30/40
203 Diana Center Krimmel POLS BC3031 THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY. 3.00 points. This course explores the role of the presidency in U.S. politics. Presidents have long been at the center of politics, yet the nature of the presidency has changed dramatically over time. The first part of the course will examine these long-run changes. It begins with debates over the form of the presidency at the U.S.’s founding and examines how the institution has been altered – and with what effects – at key historical moments. Having gained foundational historical knowledge during the first part of the course, the course’s second part will focus on various theories of the presidency. These theories primarily address, in various ways, one primary question: which factors best explain presidential “success”? By the end of the course, students should be able to systematically assess contemporary presidential politics using various scholarly theories and by putting the president’s actions into a broader historical context. The course, occurring during the 2020 presidential primaries, will also include “sidebars” in which we will discuss the election
POLS 3213001/12574 M W 6:10pm - 7:25pm Carlos Vargas- 3.00 47/90
ent 329 Pupin Laboratories Ramos POLS UN3250 AMERICAN POLITICAL BEHAVIOR. 3.00 points. This course will focus on the mechanisms that drive political behavior in the United States. “Political behavior” is a broad concept, and can include many areas of engagement with civic life such as voting, donating, organizing, advocating, protesting, and more. As we consider “behavior,” we must therefore also take on its foundations: Public opinion, ideology, and partisanship. We will focus primarily (but not exclusively) on mass politics—beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of ordinary citizens—rather than on behaviors of activists or elites. We will also explore the connection between behavior and other factors such as race and place Fall 2025: POLS UN3250 Course Section/Call Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
POLS 3250001/13994 T Th 10:10am - 11:25am Yamil Velez 3.00 93/100
142 Uris Hall POLS UN3290 VOTING AND AMERICAN POLITICS. 3.00 points. Elections and public opinion; history of U.S. electoral politics; the problem of voter participation; partisanship and voting; accounting for voting decisions; explaining and forecasting election outcomes; elections and divided government; money and elections; electoral politics and representative democracy. POLS UN3560 PLCS URBAN DEV LATIN AMERICA. 3.00 points. What shapes the ways cities develop politically and socioeconomically? Why do some cities become seeming "models" of urban governance whereas others struggle with perpetual corruption, inequality, and crime and violence? How do formal and informal political and social institutions interact to shape patterns of urban development? How do relations between cities and other levels of the state, including regional and national governments, impact local ent democracy and development? Are impoverished urban peripheries fertile grounds for political revolution? These are some of the questions that we will tackle in this course through a focus on urban politics and development in Latin America. Perceptions among both scholars and policymakers regarding Latin America's urbanization are polarized. Some see the region's development including innovative forms of governance, like participatory budgeting, social urbanism through participatory planning, and community policing. Others view the swift and unprecedented pace of clientelism, and violence. Our task this semester is to mediate between these two perspectives as we explore and analyze urban politics and development in the region.
POLS 3285001/14101 T Th 2:40pm - 3:55pm Lee Bollinger 3.00 183/199
Cin Alfred Lerner Hall HRTS BC3360 Our Bodies and the Struggle to Define Personal Autonomy. 4.00 points. One of the most hotly debated issues of today is the extent to which the state can legitimately dictate or impinge on one’s bodily autonomy. This is a long-running debate in the area of sexual and reproductive rights, but also is relevant to such current debates as the right to die / right to death with dignity; the right to use drugs for recreational or ritual purposes; engaging in hunger strikes as a protected form of freedom of expression; and the debate about whether the state can mandate vaccines. It is a debate that is highly gendered but also raises questions about how political power and socio-economic status influences how governments act on individuals and communities Spring 2026: HRTS BC3360 Course Section/Call Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollmen
POLS 3407001/00947 T Th 4:10pm - 5:25pm Marjorie 3.00 21/35
203 Diana Center Castle RELI UN3407 Muslims in Diaspora. 4 points. CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement Consideration of controversies surrounding mosque-building, headscarves, honor killing, and other publicized issues that expose tensions surrounding citizenship and belonging for Muslims in North America and Europe. Exploration of film and other media representations of Muslims in the West. There will be additional meeting times for film screenings POLS BC3411 *Colloquium on Building Peace. 4 points. Admission by application through the Barnard department only. Enrollment limited to 16 students. How can we build peace in the aftermath of extensive violence? How can international actors help in this process? This colloquium focuses on international peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding efforts in recent conflicts. It covers general concepts, theories, and debates, as well as specific cases of peacebuilding successes and failures. Cross- listed with Human Rights.
POLS 1601 (Intro to International Politics) or equivalent.
POLS 3528001/12579 T Th 10:10am - 11:25am Chiara Superti 3.00 43/40
307 Uris Hall Barnard College Catalogue 2025-2026 449 POLS BC3543 COLL:NON-STATE GOV CRIME/WAR. 4.00 points. and civil war are linked to disorder. But these are far from disorderly and ungoverned spaces. Unpacking these settings reveals complex forms of non-state governance constructed by a range of actors, including rebel and guerillas, gangs, vigilantes, and protection rackets lment – sometimes facilitated by the state Spring 2026: POLS BC3543 Course Section/Call Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
(POLS UN1501) (POLS UN1501) The conventional wisdom is that crime
POLS 3540001/00810 M 2:10pm - 4:00pm Sheri Berman 4.00 7/12
214 Milbank Hall POLS BC3500 COLL:POLIT ECON:CORRPTN/CONTRL. 4.00 points. lment Prerequisites: POLS V1501 or the equivalent. Admission by application through the Barnard department only. Enrollment limited to 16 students. Barnard syllabus. Comparative political economy course which addresses some important questions concerning corruption and its control: the concept, causes, patterns, consequences, and control of corruption. Introduces students to and engages them in several key social science debates on the causes and effects of political corruption POLS BC3501 COLL: URBAN VIOLENCE. 4.00 points. POLS BC3505 COLL: MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK. 4.00 points. Beginning in the mid-1970s a democratic wave swept the globe. It started in Southern Europe, spread throughout Latin America, parts of East Asia and Africa, and engulfed the former Soviet bloc. In all, dozens of new democracies emerged during the late twentieth century and by the early 21st century there were more democracies in the world than there had ever been before. Over the last decade and a half, however, a democratic undertow has sent in. Many new democracies have slid back towards dictatorship and many old democracies have experienced significant problems as well. This colloquium will exam the literature on democratic consolidation and backsliding, providing students with an overview of the most important theories about what makes democracy work—or not
POLS 3565001/00809 M W 8:40am - 9:55am Eduardo 4.00 42/60
152 Horace Mann Hall Moncada AFRS BC3585 POOR IN AMERICA: THE EXPERIENCE AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL DEPRIVATION. 4.00 points. This course focuses on the life experiences and impact of poverty in the contemporary United States. We will be exploring the consequences of financial and material deprivation on work, housing, health, parenting, children, as well as the limits and opportunities for inter-generational mobility and how each of these intersect with gender, racial and ethnic identities. We will be learning about the experiences of individual persons as well as how these particular experiences reflect the overarching patterns of social, political and economic trends in the United States. The course will incorporate a diverse set of disciplinary perspectives to shed light on the challenges faced by persons living in poverty. In addition, there will be an emphasis on learning about and critically assessing methodological approaches applied in the literature. No prior knowledge of methods is required and any technical references will be explained in class AFRS BC3589 BLK SEXUAL PLTCS U.S.POP CLTR. 4.00 points.
POLS 3801001/00497 Th 4:10pm - 6:00pm Xiaobo Lu 4.00 11/12
ent 119 Milstein Center POLS BC3810 *Colloquium on Aid, Politics & Violence in Africa. 4 points. through the Barnard department only. Enrollment limited to 16 students. Barnard syllabus. Explores the concepts, theoretical traditions and debates around development and humanitarian aid, focusing on the relationships between aid, politics, and violence. It looks at the political and military impacts of aid, the linkage between humanitarian aid and conflict resolution, and aid's contribution to perpetuating subtle forms of domination. (Cross-listed by the Africana Studies and the Human
POLS W4445Politics of the Middle East and North Africa. 3 points
Not offered during 2024-2025 academic year. students. L-course sign-up through eBear. Barnard syllabus. This course has two objectives: studying the political economy and history of the Arab states, Israel, Turkey, and Iran, and reviewing major themes in the Middle East political science literature. Topics include: historical legacies of colonialism, the political economy of state-society relations, the politics of religion, the politics of democratization, and ly burgeoning forms of new media.
