Spring 2024 Political Science GU4434 section 001

ETH POL ACROS POST-SOV EURASIA

ETH POL ACROS POST-SOV EU

Call Number 13225
Day & Time
Location
R 2:10pm-4:00pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Elise Giuliano
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description

Various forms of ethnic politics have characterized politics in many states throughout Eurasia since 1991, from nationalist separatism to violent conflict to political competition among ethnic minorities and majorities. This course is designed to encourage students to think deeply about the relationship between ethnicity and politics. We will consider several questions. First, why does ethnicity become politicized? We investigate this question by examining nationalist secessionism and ethnic conflict—phenomena that mushroomed at the end of the Cold War. We will focus on East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, devoting special attention to the cases of Yugoslavia, the USSR, Moldova, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Chechnya. However, we will also study cases in which the dog didn’t bark, i.e. places where nationalist mobilization and ethnic violence either did not occur, or emerged and then receded as in the ethnic republics of the Russian Federation (including the “Muslim” regions of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, etc.). In the second part of the course, we will analyze ethnic politics after independent statehood was achieved throughout the post-Soviet space. How do nationalist state-builders try to construct a nation and a state at the same time? Have they incorporated or discriminated against minorities living within “their” states? How have ethnic minorities responded? We will study Ukraine, the Baltics and Kazakhstan where ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking populations form large portions of the population, devoting particular attention to the crisis in Ukraine. We will also examine how the post-conflict regions of Bosnia and Kosovo have dealt with ethnic pluralism. These cases allow us to gain greater understanding of how multi-ethnic states use forms of federalism, consociationalism, and power-sharing as state-building strategies.

Web Site Vergil
Department Political Science
Enrollment 16 students (20 max) as of 9:05PM Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Subject Political Science
Number GU4434
Section 001
Division Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Note No direct registration; those interested should join waitlis
Section key 20241POLS4434G001