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Courses

Courses in Constitutional Studies come from across the university disciplines. Most semesters we offer 2-5 courses which are primarily sponsored by Con Studies. These courses are taught by our affiliated faculty members and are mostly taken by our minors. We also cross-list around 20-25 courses each semester that are primarily sponsored by other departments at Notre Dame (POLS, HIST, PHIL, AMST, SOC, etc). These cross-listed courses typically include 2-5 seats reserved for Constitutional Studies minors.

If you have questions or would like to request advising on which classes to take, please book an appointment with CCCG Associate Director Tyler Castle.

Book an Appointment

Spring 2027 Courses

As you peruse the spring course offerings below, we particularly want to flag the following courses which are primarily sponsored by Con Studies or are being taught by CCCG-affiliated faculty:

American Political & Constitutional Thought (CNST 50002), Prof. Tyler Castle (Gateway Course)
Sports, Law, and Society (CNST 30459), Prof. Brent Moberg
Civil Liberties (CNST 40001), Dr. Phillip Muñoz
Constitutional Law: Powers and Institutions (CNST 30407), Dr. Christina Bambrick
Politics of Conscience (CNST 30670), Dr. Mary Keys
Homer and Plato (CNST 30671), Dr. Patrick Deneen

In addition to these 3-credit courses, Con Studies is also sponsoring two 1-credit courses in the spring:

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: High Point in American Political Culture (CNST 30466), Dr. Don Stelluto
God, Man, and the Modern State (CNST 30673), Dr. Graedon Zorzi

Please note that seats listed under a "CNST" course number are reserved for students who have officially declared the Constitutional Studies minor. However, many of those courses also have a primary or parent department course number (e.g., POLS or HIST), which may or may not be open to anyone. Any course on our list is eligible for minor credit, no matter which section a student is enrolled in (a CNST section or otherwise).

CLICK ON THE COURSE BELOW TO SEE DESCRIPTION

*updated 11.3.26

Past courses

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: High Point in American Political Culture
- Instructor: Stelluto, Donald
- CNST Number: CNST 30466
- Time: TTh 3:30pm-4:45pm
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: High Point in American Political Culture
- Instructor: Stelluto, Donald
- CNST Number: CNST 30466
- Time: TTh 3:30pm-4:45pm
In 1858, the nation was captivated by the seven debates that pitted Democrat political giant Stephen A. Douglas against Republican newcomer Abraham Lincoln. Unlike any other political debates before then or since, these debates represented one of the most probative and extensive discussions in American history about the expansion of slavery in the territories. Candidates explored the political, moral, and legal status of slavery and their substantive and lengthy exchanges represent a high point in American politics. This is a new course and we will examine each of the seven debates with attention to their style and form, their content, and what made them so popular in their time. Class format will be part lecture and part discussion. Discussion will include the relevance of the debates to modern politics and what would be necessary to replicate this style of political debate in the 21st century.
Sports, Law, and Society
- Instructor: Moberg, Brent
- Primary Number: CNST 30459
- Time: MW 12:30pm-1:45pm
Sports, Law, and Society
- Instructor: Moberg, Brent
- Primary Number: CNST 30459
- Time: MW 12:30pm-1:45pm
This course explores the legal framework of the contemporary sports industry and its broader impact on the law, business, society, and culture through an emphasis on important legal issues affecting high school, college, professional sports, and Olympic sports. The class will provide a broad introduction to the United States legal system and to the major cases, laws, and regulations that together make up sports law. By the end of the semester, each student should become proficient in the identification of legal issues from a high-level perspective and be able to demonstrate critical analysis of the concepts, issues, and questions that arise during the course. Specific topics include, but are not limited to, discrimination, gender issues, disability issues, legislation, regulation and rights, agency, contract, labor, intellectual property and branding, administrative, antitrust, and constitutional law.
God, Man, and the Modern State
- Instructor: Zorzi, Graedon
- Primary Number: CNST 30673
- Time: TTh 3:30pm-4:45pm
God, Man, and the Modern State
- Instructor: Zorzi, Graedon
- Primary Number: CNST 30673
- Time: TTh 3:30pm-4:45pm
Politics is downstream from theology. What we believe about God shapes how we think about human nature, human flourishing, and the purpose of the state. This one-credit class traces those connections through two competing trajectories that have been profoundly influential in modern political thought. The first begins with the God of the Bible and ends by insisting upon strict limits on the authority of the modern state. The second begins with an immanent and impersonal God adapted from pagan philosophy and ends with an expansive, ambitious state. We examine where these traditions came from and how they still shape politics today.
American Political & Constitutional Thought
- Instructor: Castle, Tyler
- Primary Number: CNST 50002
- Time: TTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
American Political & Constitutional Thought
- Instructor: Castle, Tyler
- Primary Number: CNST 50002
- Time: TTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
In "American Political & Constitutional Thought," which serves as the primary gateway course for the Constitutional Studies minor, we shall study fundamental texts of the American constitutional and political tradition in an attempt to answer questions such as: What is the purpose of government? What is the meaning of political equality? What is political liberty and how is it best secured? Since we lack the time for a comprehensive survey of American political thinkers, we shall examine select statesmen and critical historical periods, focusing on the Founding era, Lincoln and the slavery crisis, and the Progressive era and New Deal.
The Civil Rights Movement & The Globe
- Instructor: Mitchell, Allison
- Primary Number: AFST 30079
- CNST Number: CNST 30467
- Time: MW 9:30am-10:45am
The Civil Rights Movement & The Globe
- Instructor: Mitchell, Allison
- Primary Number: AFST 30079
- CNST Number: CNST 30467
- Time: MW 9:30am-10:45am
This course will examine the long U.S. Civil Rights Movement in global contexts. From the 1930s to the 1990s, Black Americans' activism, organizing, and political efforts shaped their relationship with the Black Diaspora and U.S. Foreign Affairs. This class will cover an array of topics and historical moments such as Communism and the Red Scare, WWII, the Cold War, the formation of the United Nations, African Independents Movements, and Apartheid. We will study various activists, scholars, elected officials and Black travelers whose movements around the world transformed how they viewed the United States’ treatment of its Black citizens. By the end of this semester, students will know how Black Americans understood civil and human rights on U.S. soil and abroad.
Decolonial Theories
- Instructor: Forjwuor, Bernard
- Primary Number: AFST 33651
- CNST Number: CNST 30648
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
Decolonial Theories
- Instructor: Forjwuor, Bernard
- Primary Number: AFST 33651
- CNST Number: CNST 30648
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
What does it mean to “decolonize” a discipline, an institution, or even oneself? Rather than treating decoloniality as a single, rigid doctrine, this seminar approaches decolonial thought as a dynamic and contested field of ideas, political movements, and critical traditions. Students will explore how colonial power operates across past, present, and envisioned futures—examining its deep ties to modernity, race, knowledge, and identity. Drawing from anti-colonial struggles, subaltern intellectual traditions, Black radical thought, postcolonial studies, and critical race theory, this course investigates not simply what decolonial theories say, but asks: Who is “endowed” with the legitimate capacity to produce theory and philosophy? From where do theory and philosophy emerge? Under what intellectual conditions can theoretical interventions be considered decolonial? What counts as a legitimate knowledge tradition? What does it mean to “decolonize” a university, discipline, archive, methodology, or self? And what are the limits and contradictions of decolonial approaches?
History of American Capitalism
- Instructor: Garibaldi, Korey
- Primary Number: AMST 30108
- CNST Number: CNST 30414
- Time: TTh 3:30pm-4:45pm
History of American Capitalism
- Instructor: Garibaldi, Korey
- Primary Number: AMST 30108
- CNST Number: CNST 30414
- Time: TTh 3:30pm-4:45pm
This course offers a broad thematic overview of the history of capitalism from the early sixteenth century up to the late 1980s. As a discussion-based seminar, we will devote most of our conversations to discovering, analyzing and reflecting on the transformation of the U.S. from a newly-independent British colony, to the most influential economic power in the world. Topics and themes we will consider include: the rise of early modern transnational capitalism, European imperialism and trade, and indigenous dispossession after 1492; science and technological transformations; social and economic thought; slavery and servitude, broadly construed; and characteristics of prosperity, wealth, and economic flux. Our readings and viewings will be a mix of scholarly and primary sources, including an abundance of canonical literary and artistic material, such as novels, visual art, and film excerpts (e.g. Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879), Aaron Douglas's Building More Stately Mansions (1944), and Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence (1920)). Over the course of the semester, students will draw upon this eclectic combination of sources to synthesize the dominant historical dimensions of capitalism in and beyond the U.S. via four short essays (4 - 5 pages, double-spaced-between 1,100 and 1,400 words), and a final paper (10 - 12 pages, double-spaced) based on cumulative texts.
Revolutionary America: Then and Now
- Instructor: McNeil, Adam
- Primary Number: AMST 30137
- CNST Number: CNST 30464
- Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
Revolutionary America: Then and Now
- Instructor: McNeil, Adam
- Primary Number: AMST 30137
- CNST Number: CNST 30464
- Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
This course explores the social, cultural, and political dimensions of the American Revolutionary Era (1763-1815) and it examines how generations of Americans have used the history, memory, and experience of the Revolution throughout U.S. history. The American Revolution was a historical event that has generated hotly contested debates about democracy, freedom, slavery, and equality. We will analyze why the founding era mattered, then and now, through print culture, public speeches, popular culture, music, documentaries, films, paintings, genealogy, and national parks. This course examines the American Revolution as a living, breathing tradition in American History. We will analyze how America celebrates the Revolution on key anniversaries such as 1876, 1976, and 2026. We will look at the representation of the Revolution in mid-twentieth century school books and in Mel Gibson's The Patriot. The course first treats Revolutionary era figures like Thomas Jefferson, Phillis Wheatley, and George Washington before examining the significant individuals who grappled with the legacy of the U.S. founding, such as Frederick Douglass, secessionist Confederates, Women’s Rights activists at Seneca Falls, immigrants, Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
America's Culture Wars
- Instructor: Cajka, Peter
- Primary Number: AMST 30147
- CNST Number: CNST 30429
- Time: MW 12:30pm-1:45pm
America's Culture Wars
- Instructor: Cajka, Peter
- Primary Number: AMST 30147
- CNST Number: CNST 30429
- Time: MW 12:30pm-1:45pm
Why are Americans so divided today? What explains the fracture? Why do Americans seem to live in different worlds? Why do we see reality in such divergent ways? This course suggests we can find answers to these pressing questions in the so-called Culture Wars of the late twentieth century. In the wake of the social movements of the 1960s, Americans attempted to push culture in very different directions. Some wanted to continue a cultural revolution, whereas others sought to check the brakes on this project. As a result of the push and pull, a range of intense disputes took place in political, legal, and cultural realms. This course considers a wide range of cultural flashpoints: the rise of the religious right, the advent of queer theory, the growth of radical feminism, and the birth of critical race theory. It looks at debates over censorship and art, public mores and sexuality, gender and race, academic curriculum and decolonization. We study some of the period’s most provocative films, pieces of art, music videos, and public demonstrations. It studies events such as the AIDS crisis, the Rodney King Riots, Bill Clinton’s impeachment, and the Anita Hill hearings. It attempts to bring together a wide range of voices – conservative, liberal, secular, religious, radical, and mainstream. In the end, we will speculate if the Culture War is still raging, and how we as Americans might find commonalities in our differences, in the name of reviving our own democratic traditions.
Business Law Concepts
- Instructor: Murphy, Tonia
- Primary Number: BALW 30100
- CNST Number: CNST 30456
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
Business Law Concepts
- Instructor: Murphy, Tonia
- Primary Number: BALW 30100
- CNST Number: CNST 30456
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
Whether you own or are employed by a business, you must understand your rights and obligations under the American legal system. This course touches on some of the most important aspects of the legal system as it affects business and employment, including the courts and legal proceedings, the law of contracts, agency, torts, and intellectual property. Students will develop an appreciation of how law affects business decision-making, of competing policy concerns underlying the law, and of ethical dimensions of legal issues and business situations.
Business and the Common Good
- Instructor: Hoipkemier, Mark
- Primary Number: BES 30310
- CNST Number: CNST 30654
- Time: TTh 3:30pm-4:45pm
WKIN - Core Integration; WRIT - Writing Intensive
Business and the Common Good
- Instructor: Hoipkemier, Mark
- Primary Number: BES 30310
- CNST Number: CNST 30654
- Time: TTh 3:30pm-4:45pm
This seminar focuses on the place of wealth and commerce in a well-ordered life, both for the individual and the community. Among other topics, the course takes a special interest in the rich Catholic tradition of reflection on these topics, especially the Catholic social teaching relevant to business that has emerged in the last two centuries.
AI Ethics and Society
- Instructor: Orchard, Alexi
- Primary Number: CDT 30802
- CNST Number: CNST 30665
- Time: TTh 12:30pm-1:45pm
AI Ethics and Society
- Instructor: Orchard, Alexi
- Primary Number: CDT 30802
- CNST Number: CNST 30665
- Time: TTh 12:30pm-1:45pm
In the last decade, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics has been receiving significant attention in academic, professional, and public discourses. AI ethics research not only faces and attempts to counter a variety of sociotechnical issues relating to algorithmic decision making, mis/disinformation, and fairness, accountability and transparency, but also must reckon with broader social, political, and economic forces. To engage with these conversations, this course will introduce modern AI and technical aspects of predictive systems, discuss the underlying social and political assumptions of AI development, analyze current and future impacts of AI on humanity and the environment, and consider the significance of these conversations in everyday terms. Through the lens of AI ethics discourse, students will learn to analyze persuasive arguments, describe genres, norms, and values of communication, and understand concepts including perception, expertise, meaning making, and responsibility. Students are asked to complete oral and written communication assignments, engage in debates and discussions, and participate in experimental research-creation workshops to think critically about the AI ethics issues at hand.
Introduction to International Human Rights
- Instructor: Buzas, Zoltan
- Primary Number: CHR 30715
- CNST Number: CNST 30463
- Time: TTh 12:30pm-1:45pm
Introduction to International Human Rights
- Instructor: Buzas, Zoltan
- Primary Number: CHR 30715
- CNST Number: CNST 30463
- Time: TTh 12:30pm-1:45pm
Are human rights modern inventions or are they as old as humankind? Are they universal or culturally specific? How much progress, if any, has transnational human rights advocacy achieved? How and to what extent should human rights influence foreign policy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of encoding human rights in international law? By examining these and similar questions, this course initiates students in the study of international human rights. In addition to informative readings, intriguing podcasts, and interactive lectures the course features in-class debates on the most pressing human rights problems.
Introduction to Economics and Catholic Thought
- Instructor: Kaboski, Joseph
- Primary Number: ECON 33150
- CNST Number: CNST 30650
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
WKCD-Core Cathol & Disciplines; WRIT - Writing Intensive
Introduction to Economics and Catholic Thought
- Instructor: Kaboski, Joseph
- Primary Number: ECON 33150
- CNST Number: CNST 30650
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
In this course we will discuss the relationship between economics and Catholic social teaching. We will learn about key principles in Catholic social thought, read key Papal encyclicals and other writings. We will then discuss key economic concepts and empirical facts known from the field of economics, and how these relate to Catholic social teaching. Finally, we will apply these ideas to discussions on labor, capital, finance, the environment, globalization, and development.
Citizenship and the American Novel
- Instructor: Gustafson, Sandra
- Primary Number: ENGL 40624
- CNST Number: CNST 43001
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
Citizenship and the American Novel
- Instructor: Gustafson, Sandra
- Primary Number: ENGL 40624
- CNST Number: CNST 43001
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
This course will explore how civic life is represented in American fiction. We will take up questions of form and style as they relate to distinctive visions of the common good in such novels as Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Henry Adams's Democracy: An American Romance, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, and Chang-Rae Lee's Native Speaker.
Early Childhood Ed Policy
- Instructor: Fulcher-Dawson, Rachel
- Primary Number: ESS 30629
- CNST Number: CNST 30405
- Time: TTh 11:00am-12:15pm
CENG- Community Engagement; WKSS - Core Social Science; WRIT - Writing Intensive
Early Childhood Ed Policy
- Instructor: Fulcher-Dawson, Rachel
- Primary Number: ESS 30629
- CNST Number: CNST 30405
- Time: TTh 11:00am-12:15pm
This course covers the various issues relevant to the current early childhood education landscape. This includes theories of early learning and child development, policy development in the United States, the issues of inequality and the achievement gap (particularly related to K-12 Education Reform) and research on interventions or what works" in early childhood programming. The advantage to understanding the theories of child development, the policy context and the intervention research is that it gives future teachers and future policymakers a foundational premise upon which to grow, analyze, learn and teach. Topics covered will include: Theories of Child Development (Infant Schools to Present), Head Start and the CCDBG, State Preschool, Inequality and the Achievement Gap in the Early Years and Interventions in Early Childhood (HighScope/Perry Preschool, Abecedarian and Chicago Parent Studies, Head Start Research). The goal of this class is to come away with a greater understanding of the language, the history, the goals and the possibilities in this policy area as well as its connections to other social welfare programs and to K-12 schooling. Students will become more fluent in the language of early childhood education and will gain the foundational knowledge of past and current theories, laws, policies and educational interventions."
Religion, Education, and Democracy: Generational Responsibility for the American Proposition
- Instructor: Sandberg, Kevin
- Primary Number: ESS 33523
- CNST Number: CNST 30442
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
WKCD-Core Cathol & Disciplines
Religion, Education, and Democracy: Generational Responsibility for the American Proposition
- Instructor: Sandberg, Kevin
- Primary Number: ESS 33523
- CNST Number: CNST 30442
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
This is a course in the philosophy of education. The goal of the course is to produce a philosophy of education that engenders in the current generation of students (i.e., you) responsibility for what has been called the ÒAmerican proposition.Ó The notion of ÒAmericaÓ is distinct from the United States of America, but is often conflated with and conveyed by the latter. It sits at the intersection of religion, education, and democracy, an intersection at which the atrophy of each is seen by many to be caused by the values of the other. With the discipline of education as its platform and Catholicism, among other voices, as a particular conversation partner, the course examines historical, contemporaneous, and ecclesial resources, including notions of the common good, humanism, and ecological thinking, to ask, among other questions: Are religion, education, and democracy commensurable or incommensurable in such ways as to facilitate social coherence in the 21st century? If not, what accounts for decades, if not centuries, of robust educational systems designed to bolster democratic and religious institutions alike? Assuming a Catholic philosophy of education as a normative reference point (as is required for the Catholicism & the Disciplines ways of knowing attribute), we will examine what relationship religion does, can, and should have with education if the latter is fundamental to democracy while democracy itself serves as the guarantor of the former, particularly in terms of religious liberty.
The Politics of Schooling: Who and What Shape Education Policy
- Instructor: Waddington, Joseph
- Primary Number: ESS 33615
- CNST Number: CNST 30465
- Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
The Politics of Schooling: Who and What Shape Education Policy
- Instructor: Waddington, Joseph
- Primary Number: ESS 33615
- CNST Number: CNST 30465
- Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
How do today’s biggest education policy debates shape the future of America’s schools? This course invites students to explore the urgent questions at the center of federal and state K-12 policymaking. From the controversy surrounding vouchers and charter schools, to debates over how best to prepare and retain high-quality teachers, to disputes about curriculum and cultural representation, and the ongoing fight for equitable funding—this course will examine the challenges and trade-offs that define education policymaking. Students will study the theoretical foundations of each issue and analyze what the latest research reveals about their impacts on students, schools, and society. A distinctive feature of the course is a series of conversations with leading experts in education policy, practice, and research. These dialogues will give students first hand insight into how policymakers, practitioners, and researchers grapple with these issues in real time and shape the future of K-12 education.
Philanthropy & the Common Good
- Instructor: Hannah, Jon
- Primary Number: HESB 30348
- CNST Number: CNST 30423
- Time: M 6:00pm-8:30pm
CSTE - CST Elective
Philanthropy & the Common Good
- Instructor: Hannah, Jon
- Primary Number: HESB 30348
- CNST Number: CNST 30423
- Time: M 6:00pm-8:30pm
This course will explore the roots of philanthropy in American society, the role philanthropy plays within the modern economy, and how philanthropic activity helps us create a better world and strive for the common good. The key component of the course requires students to act as a Board of Directors and use thoughtful analysis to award real grants to deserving nonprofits (a sum up to $50,000). Students are expected to come to each class prepared to discuss course readings, and to offer ideas and suggestions regarding the grant making process. Each student is also expected to complete two site visits to nonprofit organizations outside of normal class hours. Students will nominate nonprofits for awards and the class will systematically discuss, analyze, and ultimately vote to award the grants. Students interested in this course who are unable to register through their major/minor should contact the instructor for permission to register.
U.S. History Since 1877
- Instructor: Barton, Nathalie
- Primary Number: HIST 20605
- CNST Number: CNST 30468
- Time: TTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
U.S. History Since 1877
- Instructor: Barton, Nathalie
- Primary Number: HIST 20605
- CNST Number: CNST 30468
- Time: TTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
This course will trace the history of the United States since the end of Reconstruction through the early twenty-first century. Students will explore how the major political, economic, and intellectual developments manifested in Americans’ everyday lives. We will pay particular attention to the remaking of the role of government, the ongoing process of defining citizenship, as well as debates over American homes and workplaces. Topics include but are not limited to: the rise of Jim Crow, industrial labor and urban migrations, the Great Depression, various social movements of the 1960s, and the cultural wars of the late twentieth century. Students will read scholarly works on these topics in addition to encountering a wide range of primary sources.
The American Revolution
- Instructor: Carter, Katlyn and Basulto, Victoria
- Primary Number: HIST 30602
- CNST Number: CNST 30012
- Time: MW 9:25am-10:15am
The American Revolution
- Instructor: Carter, Katlyn and Basulto, Victoria
- Primary Number: HIST 30602
- CNST Number: CNST 30012
- Time: MW 9:25am-10:15am
When speaking of the American Revolution, many writers reach for a comment made by John Adams in 1818 that, "[T]he Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. . ." Whether this assertion is true historically or not, it still does not adequately describe what that revolution was. The American Revolution obviously had its political elements, primarily the formation of the United States. To reach its political goals, military means were necessary. Without a successful War for Independence, there would have been no revolution. To leave matters there, however, would be insufficient. A fuller understanding of the revolution would need to address how it affected the whole spectrum of American life. It would consider the revolution as a social movement that challenged the political and social hierarchies of the day. It would also ask how the revolution affected those who were not white males, especially women, slaves, and Native Americans. Without considering the possible negative implications of the revolution, any telling would be incomplete. This class will take up these challenges and attempt to make a full-orbed presentation of the events surrounding the American Revolution. It will introduce students both to elites and to those whom the popular narrative glosses over. It will attempt to count the losses, as well as the gains, which flowed from the move to independence from Britain. Finally, it will attempt to describe the many changes through this period, which resulted, not only in a new political nation, but in a new society and culture--changes that in varying degrees are still with us today and of which contemporary Americans are the inheritors.
U.S. Civil War Era, 1848-1877
- Instructor: Przybyszewski, Linda
- Primary Number: HIST 30604
- CNST Number: CNST 30003
- Time: MW 2pm-3:15pm
WKHI - Core History
U.S. Civil War Era, 1848-1877
- Instructor: Przybyszewski, Linda
- Primary Number: HIST 30604
- CNST Number: CNST 30003
- Time: MW 2pm-3:15pm
This course begins in 1848 and examines the coming of the Civil War, the experience of the war itself, and the period of Reconstruction up to 1877. The emphasis will be on the political, social, cultural, and legal events and decisions that were made by governmental and civilian participants, by men and women, by whites and blacks. Why were so many willing to go to war? What did they believe each side was fighting for? The sectional conflict touched every aspect of American life. In order to understand it fully, we will read not only political speeches, military reports, and judicial decisions, but also poetry, fiction, and private letters. We will examine the beliefs and values of veterans and nurses, of abolitionists and slave owners, of politicians and voters. We will also consider the way historians evaluate the war and the way in which the public remembers it.
US Foreign Policy in the Cold War
- Instructor: Soares, John
- Primary Number: HIST 30805
- CNST Number: CNST 30411
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
WKHI - Core History
US Foreign Policy in the Cold War
- Instructor: Soares, John
- Primary Number: HIST 30805
- CNST Number: CNST 30411
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
This course covers the main developments in American foreign policy from World War II through the end of the Cold War. The principal topics of investigation will be wartime diplomacy and the origins of the Cold War; the Cold War and containment in Europe and Asia; Eisenhower/Dulles diplomacy; Kennedy-Johnson and Vietnam; Nixon-Kissinger and dŽtente; Carter and the diplomacy of Human Rights; Reagan and the revival of containment; Bush and the end of the Cold War.
Race, Violence, and American Memory
- Instructor: Billups, Robert
- Primary Number: HIST 33610
- CNST Number: CNST 30461
- Time: MW 12:30pm-1:45pm
Race, Violence, and American Memory
- Instructor: Billups, Robert
- Primary Number: HIST 33610
- CNST Number: CNST 30461
- Time: MW 12:30pm-1:45pm
This senior seminar explores how major wars and periods of racial conflict have shaped American identity and memory since the late 1600s. Through engagement with a burgeoning literature on American memory and primary sources ranging from artistic productions to federal documents, students will learn to analyze collective memory as a historical phenomenon. Along the way, they will consider how settler-indigenous conflict, the Revolutionary founding, slavery and emancipation, vigilantism, and traditional warfare have repeatedly transformed Americans' views of their government and themselves. The final outcome will be a major research paper on a course-related topic of the student's choosing.
Democracy and Journalism for the 21st Century: Reporting on Solutions
- Instructor: Laski, Gregory
- Primary Number: JED 30166
- CNST Number: CNST 30458
- Time: TTh 11:00am-12:15pm
Democracy and Journalism for the 21st Century: Reporting on Solutions
- Instructor: Laski, Gregory
- Primary Number: JED 30166
- CNST Number: CNST 30458
- Time: TTh 11:00am-12:15pm
In the United States, democracy and journalism go together: the Continental Congress placed ads in local newspapers to crowdsource the grievances that appeared in the Declaration of Independence; the framers of the Constitution enshrined freedom of the press as the First Amendment; Black and immigrant journalists centered community collaboration to make change in the 19th century and beyond. Today, however, both democracy and journalism are in decline. Roughly 3,500 local papers have vanished across the past two decades, and political scientists have argued that in 2025, the American political system is best described not by “democracy” but “competitive authoritarianism.” Tracking these dual crises, this course seeks to discover and follow mutually supportive paths for revitalizing democracy and journalism. As we seek answers in theory and practice, we’ll adopt a pro-democracy, but non-partisan lens, and we’ll take a local, rather than national, focus to observe how democracy operates from the ground up and what we miss when local journalism goes missing. As we report on solutions that citizens bring to bear on democratic problems, we’ll endeavor to make the abstract values of liberty and equality into something people can feel and touch, rendering democracy as tangible an issue as the functionality of Wi-Fi in your dorm room or the wages paid the person who prepares your dinner. The course will conclude with a phased reporting project that centers a concrete element of democracy in a student-produced story (medium open). This course is sponsored by the Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy, but insofar as journalism and democracy shape our common future, the course aims to engage students from all majors and minors, and it will embrace diverse disciplinary lenses and ideological points of view.
Philosophy of Law
- Instructor: Murphy, Mark
- Primary Number: PHIL 20408
- CNST Number: CNST 30672
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
Philosophy of Law
- Instructor: Murphy, Mark
- Primary Number: PHIL 20408
- CNST Number: CNST 30672
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
This course is about law, a very distinctive sort of social structure. The first part of the course will be focused on general questions about law’s nature and how being under law changes the normative situation for one. The second part of the course will be focused on a couple of special areas of law — criminal law and tort law — to investigate what makes these sorts of law distinctive, how they are to be justified, and what makes for better or worse realizations of them.
World Politics
- Instructor: Gould, Andy
- Primary Number: POLS 10400
- CNST Number: CNST 20200
- Time: MW 10:30am-11:20am
WKSS - Core Social Science
World Politics
- Instructor: Gould, Andy
- Primary Number: POLS 10400
- CNST Number: CNST 20200
- Time: MW 10:30am-11:20am
This course will focus on the relationship between democratic institutions, peace, and economic/human development. While drawing on lessons from North America and Europe, we will focus largely on countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. During the semester, we will discuss and debate the merits of various explanations or hypotheses that political scientists have proposed to answer the following questions: Why are some countries more "developed" and democratic than others? Is development necessary for democracy or democracy necessary for development? What is the relationship between culture, development, and democracy? How do different types of political institutions affect the prospects for development and democracy? Should/how should U.S. and other established democracies promote democratization? By the end of the course, the objectives are that students (1) learn the most important theories intended to explain why some countries are more democratic and "developed" than others, (2) understand the complexity of any relationship between democracy and development, and (3) grow in the ability to think about and intelligently assess the strengths and weaknesses of strategies intended to promote democracy and development.
The United States Congress
- Instructor: Curry, James
- Primary Number: POLS 30005
- CNST Number: CNST 30460
- Time: MW 9:30-10:45
The United States Congress
- Instructor: Curry, James
- Primary Number: POLS 30005
- CNST Number: CNST 30460
- Time: MW 9:30-10:45
This course is a comprehensive introduction to the workings of the contemporary U.S. Congress. We will examine who runs for and who wins seats in Congress, the lawmaking processes in the House and Senate, and the roles of parties and leaders in the two chambers. The purpose of this course is to examine two fundamental questions: (1) what do members of Congress do and why and (2) how do the individual and collective actions of members of Congress explain national policy? We will examine the process of legislating as well as the role of political parties, leaders, and interest groups. Throughout the semester, we will debate the common criticism that “Congress is broken” and consider its effectiveness as an institution. Is policymaking too partisan? Is the public’s disapproval of Congress justified?
Constitutional Law: Powers and Institutions
- Instructor: Bambrick, Christina
- Primary Number: POLS 30073
- CNST Number: CNST 30407
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
Constitutional Law: Powers and Institutions
- Instructor: Bambrick, Christina
- Primary Number: POLS 30073
- CNST Number: CNST 30407
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
This course will examine constitutional law and interpretation in the United States, focusing on the division of powers and the authority of key institutions under the Constitution. We will consider the Court's interpretation of the scope of power granted to Congress, the executive branch, and the federal judiciary, in addition to the powers reserved to the states. We will examine the ways in which constitutional interpretation of powers and authority has changed over time and gain an understanding of where the Court stands on these issues today. In each section we will discuss pivotal moments in interpretation, such as congressional power after the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, the expansion of the commerce power during the New Deal, and the resurgence of state powers during the Rehnquist Court's federalism revolution. We will also deal with cases currently before the Court, including those that involve the Affordable Care Act, and cases that will likely come before the Court, such as challenges to President Obama's executive changes to immigration policy. This approach will help students to consider how political factors and the changing membership of the Court affect constitutional interpretation.
U.S. Foreign Policy
- Instructor: Lindley, Dan
- Primary Number: POLS 30201
- CNST Number: CNST 30441
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
WKSS - Core Social Science
U.S. Foreign Policy
- Instructor: Lindley, Dan
- Primary Number: POLS 30201
- CNST Number: CNST 30441
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
The United States is the most powerful state in the world today. Its actions are important not just for US citizens, but they also affect whether others go to war, whether they will win their wars, whether they receive economic aid, whether they will go broke, or whether they will starve. What determines US foreign policy? What is the national interest? When do we go to war? Would you send US soldiers into war? If so, into which wars and for what reasons? How do our economic policies affect others? Does trade help or hurt the US economy and its citizens? We first study several theories about foreign policy. We then examine the US foreign policy process, including the President, Congress, the bureaucracy, the media, and public opinion. To see how this all works, we turn to the history of US foreign policy, from Washington's farewell address through the World Wars and the Cold War to the Gulf War. We then study several major issue areas, including weapons of mass destruction, trade and economics, and the environment. Finally, we develop and debate forecasts and strategies for the future.
Politics of Conscience
- Instructor: Keys, Mary
- Primary Number: POLS 30653
- CNST Number: CNST 30670
- Time: MW 2:00-3:15pm
Politics of Conscience
- Instructor: Keys, Mary
- Primary Number: POLS 30653
- CNST Number: CNST 30670
- Time: MW 2:00-3:15pm
Against a backdrop of large-scale society, mass movements, and technological bureaucracy, the invocation of "conscience" recalls the individual human person as a meaningful actor in the political sphere. But what is conscience, and what are its rights and responsibilities? What is it about conscience that ought to command governmental respect? Are there limits to its autonomy? What role should conscience play in questions of war and peace, law-abidingness and civil disobedience, citizenship and political leadership? And how does the notion of conscience relate to concepts of natural law and natural rights, rationality and prudence, religion and toleration? This course engages such questions through readings from the Catholic intellectual tradition (Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas More, Fransisco de Vitoria, Desiderius Erasmus, John Henry Newman, Karol Wojty'a/John Paul II, and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI) and other writers of the history of ethical-political thought (Cicero, Seneca, John Locke, Mahatma Ghandi, Jan Pato'ka, and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn). We consider also various contemporary reflections on conscience expressed in films, essays, letters, plays, short stories, speeches, and declarations, beginning with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and Václav Havel's speech "Politics and Conscience." This class serves as both the capstone course for the interdisciplinary minor Philosophy in the Catholic Tradition and an upper-level elective for Political Science majors and Peace Studies minors. Its format combines lecture and seminar-style discussion.
Homer and Plato
- Instructor: Deneen, Patrick
- Primary Number: POLS 30715
- CNST Number: CNST 30671
- Time: MW 9:30am-10:45am
Homer and Plato
- Instructor: Deneen, Patrick
- Primary Number: POLS 30715
- CNST Number: CNST 30671
- Time: MW 9:30am-10:45am
In this seminar we will read and digest two books: Homer’s Odyssey and Plato’s Republic. These two works are among the handful of works that constitute the basis of the Western tradition, and we will explore both works in order to discern the nature of that tradition and inheritance.
Civil Liberties
- Instructor: Muñoz, Vincent
- Primary Number: POLS 40074
- CNST Number: CNST 40001
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
Civil Liberties
- Instructor: Muñoz, Vincent
- Primary Number: POLS 40074
- CNST Number: CNST 40001
- Time: TTh 9:30am-10:45am
Most courses in constitutional law narrate the Supreme Court's evolving positions on constitutional rights and institutions. This course starts not with the Supreme Court but with the <i>Federalist Papers</i>, from which it develops a general theory of the social and economic goals or ends of constitutional government in America. It then uses this theory as a framework for assessing the Supreme Court's position on property rights, race relations, personal privacy, and the place of religion in American life. This exercise can yield results that make for lively class discussion, not only about the Court, but about the adequacy of the Constitution itself. Grades will be based on a midterm and a final exam, with a paper option in lieu of the final.
God & Slavery in the Americas
- Instructor: Lantigua, David
- Primary Number: THEO 20674
- CNST Number: CNST 30037
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
God & Slavery in the Americas
- Instructor: Lantigua, David
- Primary Number: THEO 20674
- CNST Number: CNST 30037
- Time: MW 11:00am-12:15pm
More than a century before African slaves were trafficked to the Virginia colony in 1619, Christopher Columbus transported captured Indigenous peoples to Spain from the New World. The dispossession and enslavement of non-Europeans in the colonization of the Americas was justified by Christians but also condemned by Christians with different economic and political interests. This development course in theology introduces students to the challenging intersection of faith, slavery, and freedom by exploring key figures, events, and movements that have shaped the complex historical legacy of Christianity in the Americas, a hemispheric past that remains ever bound together. In addition to Christianity's role in colonial expansion and racial ideology, the course especially considers how lived faith in God provided a catalyst for the empowerment and resistance of the oppressed and their advocates in shared struggles to attain greater social justice, racial equality, and political autonomy. From the "Protector of the Indians" Bartolomé de las Casas to César Chávez, and the "Black Moses" Harriet Tubman to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the course explores these and other extraordinary figures of hope in the Americas who gave their lives to protest institutional violence and promote authentic expressions of faith. In the course, students will engage this turbulent past through a contextual approach to theology that examines idolatry, migration, land, liberty, poverty, social sin, nonviolence, and solidarity as normative categories relevant for addressing contemporary social crises afflicting our nation and the earth.
Faith and Human Flourishing
- Instructor: Mattison, William
- Primary Number: THEO 20680
- CNST Number: CNST 30662
- Time: TTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
Faith and Human Flourishing
- Instructor: Mattison, William
- Primary Number: THEO 20680
- CNST Number: CNST 30662
- Time: TTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
What does it mean to live a good life, to flourish as a human being? What does faith have to do with it? This "everyday ethics" course begins by resituating morality into the context of true happiness. We then examine various virtues, with attention to how the virtuous life is distinctive in the context of the Christian faith. We examine some particular issues (alcohol use, sexuality, end of life decisions), but our main emphasis is on how to live virtuous, fulfilling everyday lives, with careful attention to the difference faith makes in doing so.
Artificial Intelligence and Human Flourishing
- Instructor: Scherz, Paul
- Primary Number: THEO 20684
- CNST Number: CNST 30663
- Time: MW 8:00am-9:15am
Artificial Intelligence and Human Flourishing
- Instructor: Scherz, Paul
- Primary Number: THEO 20684
- CNST Number: CNST 30663
- Time: MW 8:00am-9:15am
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming society, impacting how we live as individuals and communities. This course will examine the issues raised by AI from the perspective of the Catholic understanding of the human person, Catholic theological anthropology. The course will particularly focus on how to ensure that AI promotes rather than prevents human flourishing. In the process of exploring those broad concerns, the course will address specific issues related to AI, such as whether AI could be a person, relationships with chatbots, surveillance capitalism, the implications of Catholic Social Teaching for AI, AI in warfare, bias, transhumanism, and the impacts of social media.
Modern Idolatries and the Social Teachings of the Popes
- Instructor: Lantigua, David
- Primary Number: THEO 40667
- CNST Number: CNST 30674
- Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
Modern Idolatries and the Social Teachings of the Popes
- Instructor: Lantigua, David
- Primary Number: THEO 40667
- CNST Number: CNST 30674
- Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
This course provides an in-depth and comprehensive overview of modern Catholic social teaching emerging from key papal writings on the question of labor inside and outside Western Europe. With special attention to ecclesial documents and social movements, the course explores the theological, ethical, and historical foundations of Catholic social doctrine and its modern papal development in response to the Industrial Revolution and economic globalization. As universal shepherds of the world’s largest faith tradition, the modern popes have proclaimed the transcendent dignity of the human person made in God’s image, the preferential option for the poor identified with Christ, and the integral ecology of God’s creation. The course explores the social teachings of the popes both as an evangelical challenge to Christian lifestyles in the West and as a safeguard against the modern idolatries of the market, partisan and statist politics, and technology.