2019 -- Present

• Advocacy Organizations and Policy Change    
  At various points in history, social movements, interest groups, and advocacy organizations have had a substantial impact on social policy and politics. This course explores how policy is done – the actors involved, the issues covered, and how actions of social movements, advocacy organizations, nonprofits, and interest groups affect the development, passage, and implementation of policy. Over the semester, we will examine a wide range of topics related to how organizations get involved in policymaking, including: political contexts and opportunities, elites/policymakers, political parties, policy arenas and agendas, the effects of institutional and extra-institutional (e.g. protest) actions, and public discourse or framing of issues.

• Graduate Seminar in Quantitative Methods        
  This course provides students with advanced analytical skills necessary for understanding, interpreting and drawing conclusions from statistical analysis of data. We briefly review univariate and bivariate statistics before covering multivariate methods, including ANOVA (RMANOVA, MANCOVA); OLS regression, logistic regression (binary, ordered, multinomial), and count models (Poisson and negative binomial). Advanced methods such as event history/survival analysis, time series analysis, multilevel modeling, and structural equation models are introduced.

• Graduate Seminar in Methods of Analysis in Public and Urban Affairs      
  An introduction to methods of social research. This course is designed to help students critically evaluate research and conduct research of their own. Topics covered include the ethics of research, the relationship between theory and research, variables and measurement, causality, types of research (qualitative fieldwork and interviews, content analysis, and quantitative analysis), and the writing of research.

• Law in Society    
  In this course, we examine the functions and purpose of law within society. We focus on the American legal system, where law comes from, and how it shapes our daily lives - theorganization of society, our relationships, and our behaviors. We discuss theorists' distinct perspectives on law to understand its function and its role in maintaining and distributing power in contemporary American society. We conclude the course with critiques of how law is done in practice, and offer some fresh alternatives to the implementation of laws in the U.S.

• Investigation & Report    
  During this course, students will expand their skills by learning how to analyze and interpret data, use effective data visualization techniques, and how to report their analyses. Students will also read and discuss research relevant to the field of criminal justice.

Past

• Collective Behavior & Social Movements  
  This course explores the origins, dynamics, and consequences of social movements. We examine a wide range of topics including: the emergence of movements, recruitment, interactions between social movements and the general public or political officials, tactics, and the factors contributing to the success and failure of movements.

• Justice Studies  
  This course explores economic, social, and criminal justice issues by means of sociological, philosophical, and legal perspectives and methodologies. Students critically assess the obstacles and opportunities central to the pursuit of justice in the United States. In this class, we will critically interrogate the meaning of "justice" in an attempt to answer the question: "justice for whom?"

• Graduate Statistics  
  This course provides students with advanced analytical skills necessary for understanding, interpreting and drawing conclusions from statistical analysis of data.

• Statistics for the Social Sciences  
  This course provides students with the skills necessary for understanding, interpreting and drawing conclusions from statistical analysis of data. We cover univariate and bivariate statistics, including probability and the normal curve; measures of central tendency, variation/dispersion, and confidence intervals; comparing means and proportions for two groups (t-tests); comparing means for more than two groups (ANOVA); correlation, and regression.

• Social Research Methods  
  An introduction to methods of sociological research. This course is designed to help students critically evaluate research and conduct research of their own. Topics covered include the ethics of research, the relationship between theory and research, variables and measurement, causality, types of research (qualitative fieldwork and interviews, content analysis, and quantitative analysis), and the writing of research.

Exercise: Using Machine Learning to Predict Legalization  
An brief introduction to machine learning applied to a specific research problem: predicting statewide legalization in the U.S.