Teaching
Welcome to my teaching page! In recent years I have taught classes on international political economy, political science research design and methods, African politics, climate change, civil and international conflict, international relations theory, foreign policy, international organizations, the politics of development, and political methodology. Information about these courses including syllabi are available from the links below.
Current/recent classes
In 2025 I taught International Political Economy and taught into Global Cooperation and Institutions. In 2023 and 2024 I taught Contemporary Political Analysis, Conflict and Change in sub-Saharan Africa, and Environment, Human Security, and Conflict. During the first half of 2021 I taught a small honours seminar, Civilian Protection in Conflict and Post-Conflict Zones.
Classes I have taught
Australian National University
Graduate/honours (crosslisted)
-Research training scope and methods (POLS4011/8058)
Undergraduate
-International Political Economy (POLS2094) 2025, 2026
-Global Cooperation and Institutions (POLS2133) 2025
-Contemporary Political Analysis (POLS2044) 2022, 2023, 2024
-Environment, Human Security, and Conflict (POLS3033) 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024
-Conflict and Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (POLS3040) 2019, 2021, 2023
-Civilian Protection in Conflict and Post-Conflict Zones (POLS4021) 2021
-Introduction to International Relations (POLS1005) 2015-2018
-International Relations Theory (POLS3017) 2015-2017
University of New Orleans
Graduate
-Maximum Likelihood Estimation (POLI 6003) 2010, 2012
-Civil Conflict (POLI 6990) 2010, 2012
-International Conflict (POLI 6885) 2009, 2011
-American Foreign Policy (POLI 6245) 2011
Undergraduate/Graduate (cross-listed)
-Concepts and Patterns of International Politics (POLI 4800) 2012
-Conflict and Diplomacy (POLI 4885) 2010, 2012
-International Organizations (POLI 4820) 2010, 2012
-Politics of Developing Areas (POLI 4710) 2009, 2011
-Dangers of Globalization (POLI 4990) 2011
Binghamton University (SUNY)
Undergraduate
-Poverty and Conflict (PLSC 486T) 2008
-Political Economy of Civil War (PLSC 389G) 2008
Resources
Over the years I have created a number of resources for my students and tutors including guides for writing literature reviews and research proposals. I have collected a number of these resources on my teaching resources page.
Finally, for an introductory course on international relations I used to teach I developed a semester-long simulation centered on the ongoing Syrian conflict. In 2017 I won a college teaching award for the simulation design, and I published an article with Dr. Jessica Genauer describing it in more detail. This article outlines the costs and benefits of simulation design options towards encouraging students’ understanding of international relations concepts, and it proposes a course plan for tightly integrating lectures, readings, assessment, and simulation, regardless of class size or length. You can find the paper at the journal here. If your institution does not subscript to PS, do let me know. Finally, you may be interested to know that this simulation has been updated by the current course conveners (Ben Goldsmith and Ernest Akuamoah) to focus on the current Ukrainian/Russian war.
I have also uploaded all my slides from my 2012 graduate maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) class on the class page. They start with the intuition behind and assumptions underlying each type of model before giving hands-on examples in Stata. I found this approach very useful when I was learning these models, and I hope others find them useful as well. Please forgive the rather dated formatting of these slides!