Courses
Below you can find information on the courses I am teaching at the University of Chicago.
In 2024-2025, I am teaching American Political Economy and Race in the Spring Quarter. Office hours are by appointment. Please click here to sign up.
American Political Economy and Race
Undergraduate | PLSC 26205: Political Science | CRES 26205: Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture | Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024; Winter 2023-2020
This course will explore how individual or group identity and social location is understood in economics. Specifically, we will use a political economy framework, which emerges from the premise that economic life has material, cultural, and political dimensions and that an individual’s (or group’s) identity or social location–e.g., race, gender, and class–may constrain or empower agents in their participation in economic and political life. The readings will draw from diverse disciplines including political science, economics, and sociology and will focus primarily on the intersection of race and class.
Power, Identity, Resistance II
Undergraduate | SOSC 11500: Social Sciences Core | Terms Offered: Winter 2025; Winter 2024; Winter 2023; Winter 2022
One central feature of the emergence of the modern world was the rapid economic and social transformations beginning in the late eighteenth century and culminating with industrialization in the nineteenth century. This would soon come to be described as ‘capitalism.’ Our texts for this quarter are attempting to wrestle with the origins, meanings, and consequences of these transformations. We will examine theories of the emergence, structure, and historical trajectory of capitalist economies. The thinkers we engage think through the birth of modern society, by identifying new processes, identities, and languages of social and political life. Through exposure to these canonical texts, this seminar will provide you with tools for thinking through social problems and will enhance your persuasive writing skills. More broadly, it will help you develop your capacity for critical reasoning and writing.
American Politics Field Seminar II
Graduate | PLSC 30401: Political Science | Terms Offered: Spring 2024
This is the second part of the field seminar in American Politics. While the topics in this second part will generally draw from more "behavioral" aspects of American Politics research, you will find that "institutional" questions will seep into the material here (just as there wasn't a clean division between "behavior" and "institutions" in the first seminar). You will also notice a persistent theme in the readings in this quarter: the United States is a very unequal place, where differences among people lead to dominance of one group of people over other groups (to lean on Catherine Mackinnon's felicitous phrasing). These differences arise by economic strata, gender, sex, ethnicities, and most prominently and persistently, by white dominance over other racial groups.
American Political Economy and Race
Graduate | PLSC 36205: Political Science | CRES 36205: Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture | Terms Offered: Winter 2024; Fall 2022
This seminar is designed to explore what we know about American political economy and race, and what we need to find out. It starts from the premise that American political and economic development cannot be separated from race, race-making, and/or race relations in the United States. This seminar focuses less on seminal works and history of ideas about political economy (broadly defined) and more on the current state of the literature. The idea is to assess where the literature currently stands on topics of interests to race scholars (e.g., education, credit access), while at the same time identifying gaps in the literature and directions for future work. The readings will draw from diverse disciplines including political science, economics, and sociology and will focus primarily on the intersection of race and class. The readings will also draw on a variety of methodological approache .
Political Geographies of Race and Capitalism
Graduate | PLSC 30401: Political Science | Terms Offered: Spring 2025
This seminar offers a theoretical and historical overview of the emerging study of race and capitalism. It builds on the idea of "racial capitalism," which argues that race cannot be viewed as separate from economic processes and challenges the notion that racism is merely an external issue or a cultural byproduct of capitalism. The seminar emphasizes that the movement, settlement, and hierarchical structures of people of African descent are deeply intertwined with capital accumulation. Focusing on the United States, the course will explore topics such as racial slavery, urban underdevelopment, exploitation in the Black Belt, and the profitability of the private sector.
Students, do you need a letter of recommendation?
When requesting a letter from me, your email should include what the letter is for and the submission requirements, including the deadline. Generally, reach out at least six to eight weeks before the deadline. My general rule of thumb is to write letters only for students who have taken at least one class with me and received a final grade of B+ or higher and/or worked with me as a research assistant. If that does not apply to you, but you have reason to think I would be a good recommender, please sign up for my office hours to chat.
