Course Offerings

This course provides an introduction to the analysis of economic and political inequalities and the interplay between these inequalities and development.

What are the justifications and implications of using markets, and what arrangements are necessary to establish and protect the commons? This course studies foundational texts of (neo-)liberal economics that aim to legitimize market mechanisms; philosophical treatments and critiques of key concepts, such as rationality and motivation, property and common goods; political analyses of how allocative institutions produce distributional outcomes.

International human rights law established the norms, jurisprudence and legal infrastructure necessary to promote the implementation of international human rights standards. This course introduces key substantive and institutional issues and explores the establishment of standards, international human rights treaties, their implementation mechanisms and the expanding body of jurisprudence that make up this discipline at the crossroads of law and development.

This course examines core ideas arounds the practice of war and the making of peace. By doing so, we will focus on actors involved both in conflict and peace processes. We will also discuss why, when, and where they fight are directly related to our social characteristics: environment, values, beliefs, political preferences, and other features. The course also investigates how wars are fought, and peace is built. It draws on theoretical approaches of international relations as well as historical and contemporary case studies. The goal is to detangle how the linkage between war, peace, and society plays out globally. Most importantly, the course calls to discuss the necessary conditions for sustained peace that enables citizens to live and flourish. Overall, students will be exposed to and required to engage in various social science methodologies, including history, political science, economics, law, sociology, and anthropology.