Recent Course Offerings:
Introduction to Comparative Politics - UF Online (Fall 2025)
Syllabus
Great Divergence: Europe versus Asia (Spring 2025) - Syllabus
Why did Europe industrialize first instead of Asia? Why did Asia not develop as Europe? Was Europe’s exceptional development an ‘accident’ or the result of ‘fortuitous circumstances’? These questions lie at the heart of one of the most interesting debates in global history – the Great Divergence. This course will examine the reasons behind the huge gap in the levels of development, growth and wealth between these two parts of the world. In the recent years, scholars no longer view Asian states like India and China during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as extremely underdeveloped and poor, especially compared to their European counterparts. In fact, they see several similarities between the European and Asian states indicating that there was nothing unique about Europe that many Eurocentric historians claimed as the reason behind that region’s unprecedented growth. What then were the reasons behind the divergent outcomes? The course will rely on scholarly works from political science, history, sociology, and economics. The focus will be on Europe and Asia i.e., our readings will deal with both – reasons behind Europe’s exceptional growth and lack of it in Asia. By the end of the semester, students will have a better understanding of why Europe and Asia developed differently despite having similar starting points.
Introduction to Comparative Politics (Summer B 2023, 2024, 2025) - Syllabus
This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to comparative politics. These are supplemented with a selection of real-world case studies from various regions of the world. By the end of the semester, students will have a better understanding of a broad range of thematic topics such as political institutions, ethnic conflict, political violence, democratic and authoritarian regimes and political economy. Students will also become familiar with the political, social and economic developments and problems in some of the largest countries in the world.
Introduction to International Relations (Fall 2023, Spring 2024) - Syllabus
What do actors want from politics? When and why do actors cooperate? Whom do institutions benefit? Can the United Nations keep the peace? What are the benefits and drawbacks of free trade, and why do tariffs and other barriers endure in spite of the benefits of free trade proclaimed by economists? How do states and non-state actors respond to human rights issues? How does international law protect refugees and migrants? These are some of the questions that have intrigued political scientists from time to time and continue to draw our attention. This class will explore such questions both theoretically and (somewhat) practically.
Politics of Ethnic Conflict (Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024) - Syllabus
Ethnicity is at the center of politics in almost every country and poses to be a source of challenge to the states, both domestically and internationally. This is because ethnic identity is strongly felt, and behavior based on ethnicity is normatively sanctioned. Ethnic conflict then, is a worldwide and recurrent phenomenon. But is ethnicity truly the cause of all these conflicts? What is it about ethnic affiliations that make them conducive to severe conflict? Moreover, are only poorer countries victims of ethnic conflicts, or do rich countries experience them as well? Under what conditions do ethnic groups coexist peacefully?These are some of the questions we will attempt to answer in the course of this semester. In the last three decades (or so), copious amount of research has been undertaken in the subfield of ethnicity. This course will introduce students to some of the major approaches and works on ethnicity and ethnic conflicts. By the end of this semester, students would have a basic understanding of the role played by ethnicity in politics.