Course design
Teaching approach
These lectures treat theory as analytical practice. Students compare explanations, apply them to cases and examine the supporting evidence. They also consider where the categories used in international relations came from.
- Starting point
- A question to investigate
- Classroom mode
- Lecture and applied inquiry
- Evidence
- Texts, cases and classroom data
Five design principles
- Each session begins with a contestable question, such as why states cooperate or acquire nuclear weapons. Concepts enter as tools for answering that problem.
- Students compare explanations on the same case. Holding the case constant clarifies what each theory emphasizes, takes for granted or struggles to explain.
- Every reading has a distinct job. Textbook chapters establish the common vocabulary, while research articles specify a mechanism or challenge the scope of that framework.
- Classroom inquiry requires careful interpretation. Survey experiments and knowledge checks make abstract claims observable, but small volunteer samples provide evidence about that class alone.
- The course treats the origins of a concept as part of the theory. Students examine the historical cases on which the discipline's concepts were built and consider how other experiences might revise them.
A recurring classroom sequence
Establish the puzzle and its contemporary stakes. Introduce the vocabulary needed to compare explanations.
Work through the assumptions behind the main positions and trace their causal logic.
Use a current or historical case to identify the evidence that each explanation treats as relevant.
Test confidence in the argument through a classroom study, discussion or counterexample.
Return to the opening question. State what the evidence supports and what remains unresolved.
Classroom data practice
Participation in the classroom surveys is voluntary, and the instruments are used for teaching. This site documents their designs without publishing response-level data, identifying fields or open-text feedback. Any reported result describes the participating class alone.
Random assignment can support a within-class comparison when implementation succeeds. Convenience participation and limited sample size still constrain what the exercise establishes, especially when an instrument measures several outcomes.