In this article I discuss an approach to teaching about the Russian war in Ukraine that uses the war as a focal point for teaching about topics in comparative politics and international relations. I discuss the pedagogical advantages for political science teaching, including meeting the interests of students, introducing students to theories in…

This study brings together insights from the Science Education Initiative with a new course, "Spy Novel Diplomacy: Propaganda and International Relations," which has been taught as a General Education Seminar for first year students. The class will continue on an annual basis from the spring semester of 2020 onward. Thus what follows is…

This essay gives a broad overview of a team-taught course on Alexander Hamilton that merges discourses in music theory and political science. Authors describe pedagogical approaches to teaching both the musical "Hamilton" to non-musician students and Hamilton's history and politics to students not majoring in these fields. Contrasting…

In recent decades, nationalism has emerged from the distant purview of history to become the primary driver of some of the world's biggest news. Given the prominence of nationalist conflict, students in political science increasingly study the subject with modern references in mind. This article describes the design for a timely undergraduate…

This article shows how a gallery walk exercise can be used to encourage broad participation and higher-level thinking among undergraduate students of political science. Asked to visualize the future of different political ideologies, the students work together in groups to create posters that they then present for each other during a…

The simulation that we present here was designed to introduce students not only to climate change policy making but also to the Green Climate Fund and the process of negotiation. Rather than concentrating on either the political debate about climate change or doom and gloom scenarios, the focus of this simulation is on taking action and…

Political theory instructors are often familiar with the syllabus themed "Liberalism and its Critics." Liberalism, however, is often narrowly and teleologically defined as the progressive expansion of human freedom. Further, counter or alternative narratives leave students as mere critics without constructive insight into the balance of…

During the 2016 election season, the authors--a collection of staff, faculty, and students at a rural, four-year comprehensive college--piloted a new format for a student-driven, campus-wide, nonpartisan voter mobilization campaign anchored in a political science course and supported by a credit-bearing internship and advanced graphic design…

In Fall 2019 I taught the course "Race and Gender: The Politics of Intersection" and spent the semester to discussing how intersectionality functioned within the Asian Pacific American (APA) communities in the United States and in the larger global context. In the course, we discussed various aspects of intersectionality including how…

Universities, colleges, and their academic programs are under increasing pressure to demonstrate positive job outcomes for graduates. A degree in political science confers on students a host of transferrable skills, but career paths for using those skills are not always clear. We present one method for leveraging the resources of the campus career…

University instructors have increasingly turned to flipped classrooms as a way to promote engaged, student-centered learning. At the same time, scholars across disciplines have shown the power of visual assignments for developing critical thinking and achieving higher level learning. In this article I discuss a flipped class design that uses…

This article provides an overview of a classroom project, titled the Priorities Project, which is designed to promote responsible and informed civic engagement on the part of students in upper level political science courses at Drake University. It provides an overview of the Priorities Project, a brief summary highlighting the process and results…

This article is an overview of a comprehensive film-based course that covers basic topics appropriate for an introduction to international relations (or world politics) course. Film provides a new and novel perspective by which to view international interactions. I explore how various aspects of international politics are covered by movies with…

The traditional format for teaching courses to undergraduate students has long been that of lecture when professors speak and students listen. However, as times have evolved so too have the pedagogical methods in the classroom. In teaching a course on diversity and discrimination in the society, this instructor opted to combine several teaching…

This paper outlines an integrative approach to teaching (qualitative) comparative methods at the introductory undergraduate level. The integrative approach does not view methodological instruction as a topic to be treated cursorily at the outset of a course, but rather one to be intertwined throughout an academic term as students simultaneously…