IPS 84316: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS (FALL 2022) The changing international world order due to China's rise as a global economic superpower and the rise of authoritarianism and populism in developed economies have created new challenges and opportunities in the transatlantic community. This course examines the key economic issues in current transatlantic relations. Our focus will be on the economic cooperation and tensions between the two largest economies and the largest trade and investment partners in the twenty-first century, the United States and the European Union. We will identify the recent disruptive global economic events, including the financial crises, Brexit, China's accession to the World Trade Organization, regulatory affairs, COVID-19, and supply chain problems, and discuss the governance and institutional structures the US and the EU have put in place to overcome these challenges. Additionally, we will analyze the populist and nationalist challenges to the liberal democracy and how domestic political forces have resulted in environmental, economic, and human rights crises on both sides of the Atlantic, as seen in recent failed international agreements, and the refugee crisis. Students will leave the course with a stronger appreciation for the US and the EU's commitment to advance a rules-based international order and strategic cooperation despite the challenges they face and their distinct approaches to security and economic policy. CLICK HERE FOR THE COURSE SYLLABUS.
PLIR 3500: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GLOBALIZATION (SUMMER 2020, FALL 2020) Economic globalization is the process by which the world's economies become connected and interdependent through the flows of goods, services, investment, people and capital. This course examines the interaction between global economic integration and domestic politics, focusing on four main cross-border economic flows - international trade, foreign direct investment, international migration and international finance. The goal of this course is to introduce students theories behind domestic preference formation, and how these preferences are aggregated through institutions to inform foreign economic policies. We will study the distributive consequences of economic globalization that attaches the status of "winners" versus "losers" to different political actors, and how tension between two groups influence domestic and international politics. Students will gain familiarity with political economy data sources and address important questions by introductory quantitative analysis. By the end of the course, students should have the analytical and conceptual skills necessary to address important debates that center around backlash against globalization in recent years. CLICK HERE FOR THE COURSE SYLLABUS. CLICK HERE FOR THE EU DATA EXERCISE MATERIALS.
Teaching Assistant
PLAP 1010: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS - JAMES CEASER (FALL 2019) This course surveys the fundamentals of American government and politics. It emphasizes constitutional development and the role of political science in analyzing and evaluating institutional and cultural change since the founding period. Both historical and contemporary readings have been selected to aid the student’s understanding of American politics.
PLCP 3330: POLITICS OF LATIN AMERICA - DANIEL GINGERICH (SPRING 2018) This course provides a sweeping overview of political life in Latin America. We consider the organization of the New World colonies, the legacies of the colonial period for present day development, the nature and scope of political competition in Latin America’s newly independent states, import-ˇsubstituting industrialization, populism, and the forging of the modern state, the emergence and eclipse of military regimes, the transition to democracy and free markets, and the performance of democracy in the present day.
PLIR 1010: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - PETER FURIA (FALL 2017, SPRING 2021) International relations traditionally refers to the study of conflict and cooperation among sovereign states. Increasingly, however, international relations also considers the role of a variety of “non-state actors,” including terrorist organizations like al Qaeda, multi-national corporations like Google, “inter-governmental” organizations like the International Monetary Fund and “non-governmental” organizations like Doctors Without Borders. Whereas at one time most “IR” scholars were centrally interested in great power rivalry, many are now interested in one or more global public policy issues, including, but by no means limited to: terrorism, weapons proliferation, migration, global poverty, international finance, international human rights and international environmental policy. Given the increasing breadth of the field that it introduces, this course is extremely wide-ranging.
PLIR 3010: THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - JEFFREY LEGRO (SPRING 2017) This course is a romp through the great ideas that explain the world we live in. It addresses such issues as war, globalization, international law, terrorism, imperialism, crisis management, grand strategy, psychotic leaders, and more. Although "theory" is sometimes seen as dull, intimidating, irrelevant, or all the above, this course will be engaging, accessible, and essential for how to think about and manage international politics.
PLIR 3500: TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE - PHILIP POTTER (FALL 2015, 2016) This course is a romp through the great ideas that explain the world we live in. It addresses such issues as war, globalization, international law, terrorism, imperialism, crisis management, grand strategy, psychotic leaders, and more. Although "theory" is sometimes seen as dull, intimidating, irrelevant, or all the above, this course will be engaging, accessible, and essential for how to think about and manage international politics.
PLIR 3500: THE DOMESTIC POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - PHILIP POTTER (SPRING 2016) In this course we will analyze how the political, economic, and social structures of states influence foreign policy and international relations. We will focus on several distinct substantive areas, including the domestic politics surrounding the use of force, trade, and international organizations. You will leave the course with a stronger appreciation for the domestic pressures that influence state leaders when they conduct foreign policy and an improved ability to design and conduct your own research.
Workshops
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMAND LINE (UVA LIBRARY)
This workshop provides an introduction to the command-line interface. We’ll learn how to use commands to perform basic operations in the terminal — creating or navigating directories, listing and displaying files, moving or copying files — as well as searching files, managing file permissions, and creating symbolic links. Working in the command line, we can combine existing programs, automate repetitive tasks, and connect to remote resources. CLICK HERE FOR THE WORKSHOP MATERIALS.
Guest Lecturer
"Data Exercise on Eurozone and the Brexit" - PLIR 4500: BACKLASH AGAINST ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION, FALL 2019
"Is the the international system shaped by shared norms or a particular distribution of values?" - PLIR 3010: THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, SPRING 2017
"Counterterrorism: Decapitation" - PLIR 3500: TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE, FALL 2015 CLICK HERE FOR THE SLIDES.
Training
CENTER FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR TODAY - PROGRAM PARTICIPANT
Tomorrow’s Professor Today (TPT) is a professional development program for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Designed to facilitate the transition from student to academic professional, the program focuses on improving preparedness primarily in teaching at the college level, with additional emphases in professional development and adjustment to a university career. Activities to support this endeavor include participating in a hybrid course design seminar, attending workshops, observing faculty and peers teach, preparing teaching documents, and peer-mentoring fellow participants. The program divides these activities into introductory and advanced tiers.
CENTER FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE AUGUST TEACHING WORKSHOP - WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR
I served as a co-facilitator for a session on "Getting Started: Teaching the First Days and Creating an Inclusive Environment." This session covered strategies for beginning a class (or discussion section, lab, etc.) with confidence and for creating an inclusive classroom and addressing critical incidents that may occur outside the classroom but that affect students’ academic lives and work. Students' departments who attended the workshop ranged from Chemistry to Astrology, all of them were departments in Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
SUMMER TRANSITION PROGRAM - GRADUATE ASSISTANT
I served as a graduate assistant for the Summer Transition Program. The purpose of the STP is to assist pre-matriculated first-year students make a smooth transition from high school to college. I worked with a small group of students (5-7) who are enrolled in two summer session courses: a critical thinking course and a co-requisite course from one of a number of different disciplines. Daily, I met with the students in one-hour meetings and supervised various activities that would strengthen their time-management, reading, writing, presentation and technical (computational) skills - skills that they will need to succeed in college life.