Teaching

Recent Courses

• How to Change the World, Harris Masters seminar (syllabus)
  • No slides (this is a discussion seminar) but a short course or series of posts is upcoming
• Order & Violence, Harris Masters seminar (syllabus)
  • Course page and slides to come
  • Pre-order the main book, Why We Fight
• Political Development & Public Policy, Harris Masters seminar (syllabus)
  1. Introduction
  2. Reasons for violence I
  3. Reasons for violence II
  4. Reasons for violence III
  5. State Development I
  6. State Development II
  7. Origin of inclusive institutions I
  8. Origins of inclusive institutions II
  9. Bargaining power and the roots of democratization
  10. Sources of societal bargaining power
  11. Legacies of imperialism
  12. Post colonial economic and political crisis
  13. Late 20th century economic and political disorder
  14. Peace interventions I
  15. Peace interventions II
  16. The politics of foreign aid
  17. Fostering stronger states and good governance
  18. Democratization
  19. Democracy, development, & wrap-up
• Political Economy of Development, PhD seminar with James Robinson (syllabus)
  • Robinson half
    1. A crash course in political economy
    2. The state – Origins
    3. The state – Consequences
    4. The regime I – Dictatorship
    5. The regime II – Democracy
    6. The architecture of democracy
    7. Social institutions
    8. “Deep” institutional variation
    9. Interactions
  • Blattman half
    1. Ethnic politics
    2. Social identity and preferences
    3. Social engineering 
    4. Rationalist warfare
    5. Non-standard theories of fighting
    6. Frontiers of violence research
    7. Organized crime & gangs I
    8. Organized crime & gangs II
    9. Protest (student presentations)
  • Final two classes: Student research proposal presentations

Past Courses

• Columbia University undergraduate: Order and violence
• Columbia University SIPA MIA candidates: Political economy of development
• Columbia Political Science PhDs: Political Economy of Development
• Yale undergraduates: African Poverty and Western Aid
• Yale undergraduates: The Political Economy of Civil War and Terrorism
• Yale Political Science PhDs: Causal Inference and Research Design

Advising and office hours

University of Chicago students, please feel free to email me or sign up for office hours online. Others should email me before signing up for office hours.

Before writing or coming by office hours, please read the advising section that applies to you:

• PhD advising
• Undergraduate/Masters theses and independent study supervision
• General undergraduate advising (including course tips)
• Will I write you a letter of recommendation?

Also important: See the list of advice posts on the right sidebar for thoughts on development, careers and graduate school. If you’re interested in careers in development, or how to make the most of your degree, then this gets the routine advice out of the way and we can have a more tailored and focused discussion.