The class examines innovation as a core governance problem for modern states. After exploring foundational debates on the nature of innovation and the ways in which states have come to problematize it, the class moves into cutting-edge debates on the shape, workings, and discontents of contemporary innovation states with a major focus on Europe. Mid-term, the class features a hands-on data analysis workshop that introduces students to current European conventions and techniques to measure and compare innovation and innovation policies. Themes the course develops in more detail are cross-national institutional differences in the governance of innovation, links between national security, the military, and innovation policy, the interaction between policies meant to stimulate innovation and policies meant to regulate and contain it, and the policies structuring the financing of innovation. The last third of the class explores core aspects of the current European innovation state. Thematically, this block centres on problems of organising innovation policy in a characteristically weak supranational state structure, climate change and green innovation, semiconductor policy, regional innovation clusters, and the compensation of losers and losing regions in current knowledge economies.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Fagerberg, J. 2006. “Innovation: A Guide to the Literature. ” In The Oxford Handbook of Innova-
tion, edited by J. Fagerberg and D. C. Mowery, 1–26. Oxford: Oxford Academic.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students are required to prepare two memos and a final paper. Deadlines, subjects, structure, and requirements for the final paper will be discussed in session 1 and developed throughout the course.

Power is a core concept of the social sciences. At the same time, it is highly – perhaps “essentially” – contested. International Relations (IR) is no exception in this regard. What may add to the confusion is that, when reading IR theory, you may be left with two contradictory impressions: on the one hand, it may appear as though a concern with power – its sources, forms, and consequences – is the hallmark of a particular school of thought, to wit realism; on the other hand, you may just as easily be led to conclude that power operates as a shared point of reference of all IR theories, which, however, conceive of it in very different ways. In this seminar, we will first familiarize ourselves with competing or complementary concepts (or theories) of power that have gained traction in IR. Subsequently, we will examine how different notions of power play out in substantive research on world politics, with an emphasis on the sub-field of global governance.

Preparatory Reading

Barnett, Michael/Duvall, Raymond (2005): Power in International Politics. In: International Organization, 59 (1), 39-75. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3877878

Assignments and Credits

9 CP (IR-4: Seminar 1): term paper (5–7,000 words) (two thirds of the grade) and oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000-2,500 words) (one third of the grade)

6 CP (MAPW M3, GS, Erasmus): term paper (5–7,000 words)

3 CP (IR-4: Seminar 2, GS, Erasmus): oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000-2,500 words)

This course serves as an opportunity for students to aquire theoretical, methodological, and empirical knowledge on the development and current manifestations of the far right in Europe and to improve their competencies in conducting their own research. Taking into consideration political parties, movement and Vorfeld actors as well as the electorate, the seminar maps out relevant ideological, organizational, discursive, and epistemic (dis-)similarities within the contemporary European far right. In addition, two important trends are analyzed and critically discussed: the transnationalization of the far right in the transatlantic political space and the co-called mainstreaming of far-right ideologies that increasingly challenges the foundation of modern constitutional liberal democracies. The combination of learning methods that the course entails equips students with the tools a) to further develop their analytical and critical thinking skills and become more adept in and comfortable with self-directed learning, b) to improve their English language as well as their problem-solving skills when working on assignments in small teams and c) to strengthen their ability to reflect upon and effectively communicate systematic reasoning in group discussions as well as in individual text production.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Ashe SD, Busher J, Macklin G, and A Winter (2021): Researching the Far Right. Theory, Method and Practice, Routledge: London and New York.

Miller-Idriss C (2022): Hate in the Homeland. The New Global Far Right. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford.

Mondon A (2023): Epistemologies of ignorance in far right studies: the invisibilisation of racism and whiteness in times of populist hype. Acta Politica 58, 876–894.

Vaughan A, Braune J, Tinsley M, and A Mondon (2024): The ethics of researching the far right. Critical approaches and reflections. Manchester University Press: Manchester.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3 CP (podcast and group discussion) / 6 CP (3-CP assignment + term paper) / MAIR students are eligible to acquire 9 CP (additional written assignment)

The class examines innovation as a core governance problem for modern states. After exploring foundational debates on the nature of innovation and the ways in which states have come to problematize it, the class moves into cutting-edge debates on the shape, workings, and discontents of contemporary innovation states with a major focus on Europe. Mid-term, the class features a hands-on data analysis workshop that introduces students to current European conventions and techniques to measure and compare innovation and innovation policies. Themes the course develops in more detail are cross-national institutional differences in the governance of innovation, links between national security, the military, and innovation policy, the interaction between policies meant to stimulate innovation and policies meant to regulate and contain it, and the policies structuring the financing of innovation. The last third of the class explores core aspects of the current European innovation state. Thematically, this block centres on problems of organising innovation policy in a characteristically weak supranational state structure, climate change and green innovation, semiconductor policy, regional innovation clusters, and the compensation of losers and losing regions in current knowledge economies.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Fagerberg, J. 2006. “Innovation: A Guide to the Literature. ” In The Oxford Handbook of Innova-
tion, edited by J. Fagerberg and D. C. Mowery, 1–26. Oxford: Oxford Academic.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students are required to prepare two memos and a final paper. Deadlines, subjects, structure, and requirements for the final paper will be discussed in session 1 and developed throughout the course.

Power is a core concept of the social sciences. At the same time, it is highly – perhaps “essentially” – contested. International Relations (IR) is no exception in this regard. What may add to the confusion is that, when reading IR theory, you may be left with two contradictory impressions: on the one hand, it may appear as though a concern with power – its sources, forms, and consequences – is the hallmark of a particular school of thought, to wit realism; on the other hand, you may just as easily be led to conclude that power operates as a shared point of reference of all IR theories, which, however, conceive of it in very different ways. In this seminar, we will first familiarize ourselves with competing or complementary concepts (or theories) of power that have gained traction in IR. Subsequently, we will examine how different notions of power play out in substantive research on world politics, with an emphasis on the sub-field of global governance.

Preparatory Reading

Barnett, Michael/Duvall, Raymond (2005): Power in International Politics. In: International Organization, 59 (1), 39-75. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3877878

Assignments and Credits

9 CP (IR-4: Seminar 1): term paper (5–7,000 words) (two thirds of the grade) and oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000-2,500 words) (one third of the grade)

6 CP (MAPW M3, GS, Erasmus): term paper (5–7,000 words)

3 CP (IR-4: Seminar 2, GS, Erasmus): oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000-2,500 words)

This course serves as an opportunity for students to aquire theoretical, methodological, and empirical knowledge on the development and current manifestations of the far right in Europe and to improve their competencies in conducting their own research. Taking into consideration political parties, movement and Vorfeld actors as well as the electorate, the seminar maps out relevant ideological, organizational, discursive, and epistemic (dis-)similarities within the contemporary European far right. In addition, two important trends are analyzed and critically discussed: the transnationalization of the far right in the transatlantic political space and the co-called mainstreaming of far-right ideologies that increasingly challenges the foundation of modern constitutional liberal democracies. The combination of learning methods that the course entails equips students with the tools a) to further develop their analytical and critical thinking skills and become more adept in and comfortable with self-directed learning, b) to improve their English language as well as their problem-solving skills when working on assignments in small teams and c) to strengthen their ability to reflect upon and effectively communicate systematic reasoning in group discussions as well as in individual text production.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Ashe SD, Busher J, Macklin G, and A Winter (2021): Researching the Far Right. Theory, Method and Practice, Routledge: London and New York.

Miller-Idriss C (2022): Hate in the Homeland. The New Global Far Right. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford.

Mondon A (2023): Epistemologies of ignorance in far right studies: the invisibilisation of racism and whiteness in times of populist hype. Acta Politica 58, 876–894.

Vaughan A, Braune J, Tinsley M, and A Mondon (2024): The ethics of researching the far right. Critical approaches and reflections. Manchester University Press: Manchester.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3 CP (podcast and group discussion) / 6 CP (3-CP assignment + term paper) / MAIR students are eligible to acquire 9 CP (additional written assignment)

The term “political polarization” generally describes social processes of differentiation, and reinforcement of differences in political attitudes and behavior. To approach the phenomenon of political polarization theoretically and empirically, the research seminar consists of a theoretical and a practical component.
Theoretical Part: This section follows the structure of a literature review. It begins with an overview of fundamental theories of election and decision-making research, before focusing on national and international contributions to election and decision-making research on the topic of political polarization. Polarization processes can be observed in a wide variety of policy fields (populism, climate policy, migration, demography, understanding of science, social policy, moral policy, etc.). Particular attention will be paid to the question of how social group affiliations and social identities affect the differentiation of political attitudes and political behavior in these areas. Effective instruments to counteract political polarization processes at the national and international levels will be discussed.
Methodological part: Based on the literature section, theoretical expectations about the possible causes and effects of political polarization will be derived and then operationalized for empirical analysis. The theoretical content is therefore closely linked to an application-oriented teaching of the statistical analysis of survey data with R. The methodological part of the seminar includes a brief introduction to data and methods of empirical research. First, relevant data sources are presented in order to examine phenomena of political polarization from a micro-based perspective (in particular ALLBUS and GLES). This is followed by an introduction to the analysis of survey data with R, with a focus on the visualization of empirical results.
The goal of the seminar is to develop original theory-driven empirical research projects, in order to contribute to a better understanding and analysis of political polarization processes.

Preparatory literature:
Bischof, D. and Wagner, M. 2019. Do Voters Polarize When Radical Parties Enter Parliament? American Journal of Political Science, 63: 888-904.
Broockman, D.E., Kalla, J.L. and Westwood, S.J. 2023. Does Affective Polarization Undermine Democratic Norms or Accountability? Maybe Not. American Journal of Political Science 67(3): 808-828.
Bueno De Mesquita, E. and Fowler, A. (2021) Thinking Clearly with Data: A Guide to Quantitative Reasoning and Analysis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jankowski, Michael, Christina-Marie Juen and Markus Tepe 2023. Voting Against Parties: Populist Attitudes, Party Supply, and Support for Non-Partisan Actors, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties (online first).
Mau, S., Lux, T. and Westheuser, L. (2023) Triggerpunkte: Konsens und Konflikt in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

Type of examination (CP) [credits and assignments]:

12 credit points. The examination consists of five parts.

Session chair (15%): The session chairs provide an overview of a journal article (required readings), introduce questions and discussion topics, and moderate the subsequent discussion. As a basis for the discussion, the chairs prepare a 5-minute critical review of the journal article.

Presentation of the project idea (not graded): In a 10-minute presentation, students present their research question, the theoretical framework, the hypothesis derived from it, and the preliminary research design. They receive feedback from their fellow students and the instructors,which they incorporate into their further project work.

Presentation of the statistical analysis (not graded): Based on existing survey data, the participants operationalize their theoretical constructs and test their hypotheses using statistical methods.

Scientific poster (20%): Summary of the empirical results and defense of the project work in the form of a scientific poster.

Research note (65%): Writing up the theory-driven empirical research work in the form of a research note (max. 5000 words).

This course wants to enable students to run their own (quantitative) research project in R. In the process, they will learn basic data wrangling and data visualisation in R. Every student will choose a project that they want to conduct using publicly available data of their choosing (some examples will be provided) and will, in consultation with the course coordinator, work towards a project report at the end of the course that they will present to the other students. Students will analyse their data in the open-source programme R and will be encouraged to write their final reports in it, too. The course will be a mixture of lectures on practical issues and a project based working sessions in exchange with the course coordinator and other students to make use of peer-to-peer learning. The lecture will be tailored to the needs and levels of the participating students.

In this course students are encouraged to run their own small-scale analysis project using R from beginning to end: choosing a topic and research question they find interesting, selecting and downloading the relevant data, using simple (presumably mostly) descriptive statistics such as means, and writing a report about their findings. They will be encouraged to use Quarto/ Rmarkdown, the integrated tool within R-Studio, to write their final reports and export them into PDF to automatically integrate updated findings. Also, students will be encouraged to upload and maintain their project on git. This course teaches practical skills and combines it with theoretical grounding in reproducible science. Hence it can be used as a good foundation for quantitative bachelor or master theses, and to learn skills that can be used also outside of academia.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

• Wickham, Hadley, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, and Garrett Grolemund. ‘Introduction’. In R for Data Science, 2nd Edition, Second edition. O’Reilley, https://r4ds.hadley.nz/intro.html.
• Munafò, Marcus R., Brian A. Nosek, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, et al. ‘A Manifesto for Reproducible Science’. Nature Human Behaviour 1, no. 1 (2017): 0021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0021.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students can take the course for 3 CP or 6 CP. The final assessment will depend on the amount of CP students chose. Both assessments include the simple progress report every two weeks (just about one paragraph in an unstructured form, including reasons for no progress, which will always happen, is no problem and part of the process) and the final script of the project. Beyond that, the two different levels encompass the following two assessments:

3 CP:
• Short presentation (10 minutes)
• Short final research note with references (~5 pages, at least one high-quality graph)
6 CP:
• Long presentation (20 minutes)
• Long final research note with references (~10 pages, at least two high-quality graphs)

The seminar explores and examines the phenomenon of disinformation in international politics, with a focus on current trends and developments. Topics of the seminar include disinformation in elections, crises and conflicts; the political utility of fake news; information warfare; digital technology; deepfakes; strategic motivations of various (non-)state actors; the impact of disinformation on democratic processes; regulatory efforts; and ways of identifying fact-based knowledge and of verifying information. The seminar takes an interdisciplinary perspective for a fuller understanding of how disinformation functions and how democratic societies may guard against it.

Learning goals: The seminar content is taught with a participatory, case-study approach. Students will be able to understand key concepts; deconstruct and analyse disinformation campaigns regarding their source, motivations, target audiences and objectives; critically assess cases in light of the tension between free speech and threat mitigation; and strengthen their capacities of identifying reliable information. Students will also strengthen their analytical, writing and presentation skills. Gained knowledge serves both further academic studies of the topic and the application to other professional areas.

Regular participation in the seminar is an important basis to achieve the seminar's learning goals. Preparatory reading is recommended.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Chan, Kenddrick and Chris Alden. n.d. Understanding and Mitigating Disinformation: A Primer for Policymakers and Stakeholders. LSE. Download: https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/Assets/Documents/project-docs/LSE-Meta-GK-Primer-on-Disinformation.pdf

USAID. Center for Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance. 2021. Disinformation Primer.
Download: https://www.echocommunity.org/resources/319e91d9-41ef-4fd7-aff3-d429b5774801

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion
6 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion & research paper (5,000 words ±10%, excluding references)
9 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion (40 % of grade) & research paper (8,000 words ±10%,, excluding references) (60 % of grade)
Papers to be turned in by end of the semester (Sep. 30, 2026)

The class provides an introduction to core concepts of international relations theory. The focus is on what different theories consider to be the key drivers of international and transnational relations. global politics, focusing on key concepts and issues of theories of international relations: states, sovereignty, conflict, cooperation, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, delegation and (indirect) global governance. The course starts with a focus on classical, Western literatures but concludes with sessions on gender, race, colonialism and the end of the Western-dominated liberal international order. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand and apply the key concepts in their own research.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

any textbook on IR

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Requirements

Attendance: Students are expected to be present and prepared for every class session. Active participation during seminar discussions is essential. If unavoidable circumstances arise which prevent attendance or preparation, the instructor should be advised in advance by email.

Reseearch paper:Each student submits a brief paper at the end of the seminar. The paper should engage with one of the readings of this class, summarize the main argument and comment on it. Grading will consider the rigor of the analysis, and the quality of writing. The word limit is 3000 words everything included. Each student presents his or her paper idea in a short presentation during the final session. .

Maps are powerful tools for understanding and communicating political phenomena. In this block seminar you will learn to use the statistical software R to produce customisable, publication-quality maps and other data visualisations. No prior knowledge of R is required. Participants are encouraged to use data from their own research projects, but test datasets will also be provided.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
3CP

What does solidarity mean and how is it realised? This seminar examines the concept of solidarity and its role in domestic and international politics. We discuss how solidarity has been conceptualised in social theory and invoked by politicians, scholars, and activists across different contexts. We analyse its empirical manifestations in areas such as domestic social policy, international cooperation, and transnational social movements.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
3CP or 6CP

https://www.uni-bremen.de/fb8/international/internationales-modul
3 CP/ECTS for this course, +3 CP/ECTS extra credit

The class examines innovation as a core governance problem for modern states. After exploring foundational debates on the nature of innovation and the ways in which states have come to problematize it, the class moves into cutting-edge debates on the shape, workings, and discontents of contemporary innovation states with a major focus on Europe. Mid-term, the class features a hands-on data analysis workshop that introduces students to current European conventions and techniques to measure and compare innovation and innovation policies. Themes the course develops in more detail are cross-national institutional differences in the governance of innovation, links between national security, the military, and innovation policy, the interaction between policies meant to stimulate innovation and policies meant to regulate and contain it, and the policies structuring the financing of innovation. The last third of the class explores core aspects of the current European innovation state. Thematically, this block centres on problems of organising innovation policy in a characteristically weak supranational state structure, climate change and green innovation, semiconductor policy, regional innovation clusters, and the compensation of losers and losing regions in current knowledge economies.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Fagerberg, J. 2006. “Innovation: A Guide to the Literature. ” In The Oxford Handbook of Innova-
tion, edited by J. Fagerberg and D. C. Mowery, 1–26. Oxford: Oxford Academic.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students are required to prepare two memos and a final paper. Deadlines, subjects, structure, and requirements for the final paper will be discussed in session 1 and developed throughout the course.

Power is a core concept of the social sciences. At the same time, it is highly – perhaps “essentially” – contested. International Relations (IR) is no exception in this regard. What may add to the confusion is that, when reading IR theory, you may be left with two contradictory impressions: on the one hand, it may appear as though a concern with power – its sources, forms, and consequences – is the hallmark of a particular school of thought, to wit realism; on the other hand, you may just as easily be led to conclude that power operates as a shared point of reference of all IR theories, which, however, conceive of it in very different ways. In this seminar, we will first familiarize ourselves with competing or complementary concepts (or theories) of power that have gained traction in IR. Subsequently, we will examine how different notions of power play out in substantive research on world politics, with an emphasis on the sub-field of global governance.

Preparatory Reading

Barnett, Michael/Duvall, Raymond (2005): Power in International Politics. In: International Organization, 59 (1), 39-75. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3877878

Assignments and Credits

9 CP (IR-4: Seminar 1): term paper (5–7,000 words) (two thirds of the grade) and oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000-2,500 words) (one third of the grade)

6 CP (MAPW M3, GS, Erasmus): term paper (5–7,000 words)

3 CP (IR-4: Seminar 2, GS, Erasmus): oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000-2,500 words)

This course serves as an opportunity for students to aquire theoretical, methodological, and empirical knowledge on the development and current manifestations of the far right in Europe and to improve their competencies in conducting their own research. Taking into consideration political parties, movement and Vorfeld actors as well as the electorate, the seminar maps out relevant ideological, organizational, discursive, and epistemic (dis-)similarities within the contemporary European far right. In addition, two important trends are analyzed and critically discussed: the transnationalization of the far right in the transatlantic political space and the co-called mainstreaming of far-right ideologies that increasingly challenges the foundation of modern constitutional liberal democracies. The combination of learning methods that the course entails equips students with the tools a) to further develop their analytical and critical thinking skills and become more adept in and comfortable with self-directed learning, b) to improve their English language as well as their problem-solving skills when working on assignments in small teams and c) to strengthen their ability to reflect upon and effectively communicate systematic reasoning in group discussions as well as in individual text production.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Ashe SD, Busher J, Macklin G, and A Winter (2021): Researching the Far Right. Theory, Method and Practice, Routledge: London and New York.

Miller-Idriss C (2022): Hate in the Homeland. The New Global Far Right. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford.

Mondon A (2023): Epistemologies of ignorance in far right studies: the invisibilisation of racism and whiteness in times of populist hype. Acta Politica 58, 876–894.

Vaughan A, Braune J, Tinsley M, and A Mondon (2024): The ethics of researching the far right. Critical approaches and reflections. Manchester University Press: Manchester.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3 CP (podcast and group discussion) / 6 CP (3-CP assignment + term paper) / MAIR students are eligible to acquire 9 CP (additional written assignment)

The class examines innovation as a core governance problem for modern states. After exploring foundational debates on the nature of innovation and the ways in which states have come to problematize it, the class moves into cutting-edge debates on the shape, workings, and discontents of contemporary innovation states with a major focus on Europe. Mid-term, the class features a hands-on data analysis workshop that introduces students to current European conventions and techniques to measure and compare innovation and innovation policies. Themes the course develops in more detail are cross-national institutional differences in the governance of innovation, links between national security, the military, and innovation policy, the interaction between policies meant to stimulate innovation and policies meant to regulate and contain it, and the policies structuring the financing of innovation. The last third of the class explores core aspects of the current European innovation state. Thematically, this block centres on problems of organising innovation policy in a characteristically weak supranational state structure, climate change and green innovation, semiconductor policy, regional innovation clusters, and the compensation of losers and losing regions in current knowledge economies.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Fagerberg, J. 2006. “Innovation: A Guide to the Literature. ” In The Oxford Handbook of Innova-
tion, edited by J. Fagerberg and D. C. Mowery, 1–26. Oxford: Oxford Academic.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students are required to prepare two memos and a final paper. Deadlines, subjects, structure, and requirements for the final paper will be discussed in session 1 and developed throughout the course.

Power is a core concept of the social sciences. At the same time, it is highly – perhaps “essentially” – contested. International Relations (IR) is no exception in this regard. What may add to the confusion is that, when reading IR theory, you may be left with two contradictory impressions: on the one hand, it may appear as though a concern with power – its sources, forms, and consequences – is the hallmark of a particular school of thought, to wit realism; on the other hand, you may just as easily be led to conclude that power operates as a shared point of reference of all IR theories, which, however, conceive of it in very different ways. In this seminar, we will first familiarize ourselves with competing or complementary concepts (or theories) of power that have gained traction in IR. Subsequently, we will examine how different notions of power play out in substantive research on world politics, with an emphasis on the sub-field of global governance.

Preparatory Reading

Barnett, Michael/Duvall, Raymond (2005): Power in International Politics. In: International Organization, 59 (1), 39-75. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3877878

Assignments and Credits

9 CP (IR-4: Seminar 1): term paper (5–7,000 words) (two thirds of the grade) and oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000-2,500 words) (one third of the grade)

6 CP (MAPW M3, GS, Erasmus): term paper (5–7,000 words)

3 CP (IR-4: Seminar 2, GS, Erasmus): oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000-2,500 words)

This course serves as an opportunity for students to aquire theoretical, methodological, and empirical knowledge on the development and current manifestations of the far right in Europe and to improve their competencies in conducting their own research. Taking into consideration political parties, movement and Vorfeld actors as well as the electorate, the seminar maps out relevant ideological, organizational, discursive, and epistemic (dis-)similarities within the contemporary European far right. In addition, two important trends are analyzed and critically discussed: the transnationalization of the far right in the transatlantic political space and the co-called mainstreaming of far-right ideologies that increasingly challenges the foundation of modern constitutional liberal democracies. The combination of learning methods that the course entails equips students with the tools a) to further develop their analytical and critical thinking skills and become more adept in and comfortable with self-directed learning, b) to improve their English language as well as their problem-solving skills when working on assignments in small teams and c) to strengthen their ability to reflect upon and effectively communicate systematic reasoning in group discussions as well as in individual text production.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Ashe SD, Busher J, Macklin G, and A Winter (2021): Researching the Far Right. Theory, Method and Practice, Routledge: London and New York.

Miller-Idriss C (2022): Hate in the Homeland. The New Global Far Right. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford.

Mondon A (2023): Epistemologies of ignorance in far right studies: the invisibilisation of racism and whiteness in times of populist hype. Acta Politica 58, 876–894.

Vaughan A, Braune J, Tinsley M, and A Mondon (2024): The ethics of researching the far right. Critical approaches and reflections. Manchester University Press: Manchester.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3 CP (podcast and group discussion) / 6 CP (3-CP assignment + term paper) / MAIR students are eligible to acquire 9 CP (additional written assignment)

The term “political polarization” generally describes social processes of differentiation, and reinforcement of differences in political attitudes and behavior. To approach the phenomenon of political polarization theoretically and empirically, the research seminar consists of a theoretical and a practical component.
Theoretical Part: This section follows the structure of a literature review. It begins with an overview of fundamental theories of election and decision-making research, before focusing on national and international contributions to election and decision-making research on the topic of political polarization. Polarization processes can be observed in a wide variety of policy fields (populism, climate policy, migration, demography, understanding of science, social policy, moral policy, etc.). Particular attention will be paid to the question of how social group affiliations and social identities affect the differentiation of political attitudes and political behavior in these areas. Effective instruments to counteract political polarization processes at the national and international levels will be discussed.
Methodological part: Based on the literature section, theoretical expectations about the possible causes and effects of political polarization will be derived and then operationalized for empirical analysis. The theoretical content is therefore closely linked to an application-oriented teaching of the statistical analysis of survey data with R. The methodological part of the seminar includes a brief introduction to data and methods of empirical research. First, relevant data sources are presented in order to examine phenomena of political polarization from a micro-based perspective (in particular ALLBUS and GLES). This is followed by an introduction to the analysis of survey data with R, with a focus on the visualization of empirical results.
The goal of the seminar is to develop original theory-driven empirical research projects, in order to contribute to a better understanding and analysis of political polarization processes.

Preparatory literature:
Bischof, D. and Wagner, M. 2019. Do Voters Polarize When Radical Parties Enter Parliament? American Journal of Political Science, 63: 888-904.
Broockman, D.E., Kalla, J.L. and Westwood, S.J. 2023. Does Affective Polarization Undermine Democratic Norms or Accountability? Maybe Not. American Journal of Political Science 67(3): 808-828.
Bueno De Mesquita, E. and Fowler, A. (2021) Thinking Clearly with Data: A Guide to Quantitative Reasoning and Analysis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jankowski, Michael, Christina-Marie Juen and Markus Tepe 2023. Voting Against Parties: Populist Attitudes, Party Supply, and Support for Non-Partisan Actors, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties (online first).
Mau, S., Lux, T. and Westheuser, L. (2023) Triggerpunkte: Konsens und Konflikt in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

Type of examination (CP) [credits and assignments]:

12 credit points. The examination consists of five parts.

Session chair (15%): The session chairs provide an overview of a journal article (required readings), introduce questions and discussion topics, and moderate the subsequent discussion. As a basis for the discussion, the chairs prepare a 5-minute critical review of the journal article.

Presentation of the project idea (not graded): In a 10-minute presentation, students present their research question, the theoretical framework, the hypothesis derived from it, and the preliminary research design. They receive feedback from their fellow students and the instructors,which they incorporate into their further project work.

Presentation of the statistical analysis (not graded): Based on existing survey data, the participants operationalize their theoretical constructs and test their hypotheses using statistical methods.

Scientific poster (20%): Summary of the empirical results and defense of the project work in the form of a scientific poster.

Research note (65%): Writing up the theory-driven empirical research work in the form of a research note (max. 5000 words).

This course wants to enable students to run their own (quantitative) research project in R. In the process, they will learn basic data wrangling and data visualisation in R. Every student will choose a project that they want to conduct using publicly available data of their choosing (some examples will be provided) and will, in consultation with the course coordinator, work towards a project report at the end of the course that they will present to the other students. Students will analyse their data in the open-source programme R and will be encouraged to write their final reports in it, too. The course will be a mixture of lectures on practical issues and a project based working sessions in exchange with the course coordinator and other students to make use of peer-to-peer learning. The lecture will be tailored to the needs and levels of the participating students.

In this course students are encouraged to run their own small-scale analysis project using R from beginning to end: choosing a topic and research question they find interesting, selecting and downloading the relevant data, using simple (presumably mostly) descriptive statistics such as means, and writing a report about their findings. They will be encouraged to use Quarto/ Rmarkdown, the integrated tool within R-Studio, to write their final reports and export them into PDF to automatically integrate updated findings. Also, students will be encouraged to upload and maintain their project on git. This course teaches practical skills and combines it with theoretical grounding in reproducible science. Hence it can be used as a good foundation for quantitative bachelor or master theses, and to learn skills that can be used also outside of academia.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

• Wickham, Hadley, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, and Garrett Grolemund. ‘Introduction’. In R for Data Science, 2nd Edition, Second edition. O’Reilley, https://r4ds.hadley.nz/intro.html.
• Munafò, Marcus R., Brian A. Nosek, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, et al. ‘A Manifesto for Reproducible Science’. Nature Human Behaviour 1, no. 1 (2017): 0021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0021.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students can take the course for 3 CP or 6 CP. The final assessment will depend on the amount of CP students chose. Both assessments include the simple progress report every two weeks (just about one paragraph in an unstructured form, including reasons for no progress, which will always happen, is no problem and part of the process) and the final script of the project. Beyond that, the two different levels encompass the following two assessments:

3 CP:
• Short presentation (10 minutes)
• Short final research note with references (~5 pages, at least one high-quality graph)
6 CP:
• Long presentation (20 minutes)
• Long final research note with references (~10 pages, at least two high-quality graphs)

The seminar explores and examines the phenomenon of disinformation in international politics, with a focus on current trends and developments. Topics of the seminar include disinformation in elections, crises and conflicts; the political utility of fake news; information warfare; digital technology; deepfakes; strategic motivations of various (non-)state actors; the impact of disinformation on democratic processes; regulatory efforts; and ways of identifying fact-based knowledge and of verifying information. The seminar takes an interdisciplinary perspective for a fuller understanding of how disinformation functions and how democratic societies may guard against it.

Learning goals: The seminar content is taught with a participatory, case-study approach. Students will be able to understand key concepts; deconstruct and analyse disinformation campaigns regarding their source, motivations, target audiences and objectives; critically assess cases in light of the tension between free speech and threat mitigation; and strengthen their capacities of identifying reliable information. Students will also strengthen their analytical, writing and presentation skills. Gained knowledge serves both further academic studies of the topic and the application to other professional areas.

Regular participation in the seminar is an important basis to achieve the seminar's learning goals. Preparatory reading is recommended.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Chan, Kenddrick and Chris Alden. n.d. Understanding and Mitigating Disinformation: A Primer for Policymakers and Stakeholders. LSE. Download: https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/Assets/Documents/project-docs/LSE-Meta-GK-Primer-on-Disinformation.pdf

USAID. Center for Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance. 2021. Disinformation Primer.
Download: https://www.echocommunity.org/resources/319e91d9-41ef-4fd7-aff3-d429b5774801

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion
6 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion & research paper (5,000 words ±10%, excluding references)
9 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion (40 % of grade) & research paper (8,000 words ±10%,, excluding references) (60 % of grade)
Papers to be turned in by end of the semester (Sep. 30, 2026)

The class provides an introduction to core concepts of international relations theory. The focus is on what different theories consider to be the key drivers of international and transnational relations. global politics, focusing on key concepts and issues of theories of international relations: states, sovereignty, conflict, cooperation, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, delegation and (indirect) global governance. The course starts with a focus on classical, Western literatures but concludes with sessions on gender, race, colonialism and the end of the Western-dominated liberal international order. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand and apply the key concepts in their own research.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

any textbook on IR

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Requirements

Attendance: Students are expected to be present and prepared for every class session. Active participation during seminar discussions is essential. If unavoidable circumstances arise which prevent attendance or preparation, the instructor should be advised in advance by email.

Reseearch paper:Each student submits a brief paper at the end of the seminar. The paper should engage with one of the readings of this class, summarize the main argument and comment on it. Grading will consider the rigor of the analysis, and the quality of writing. The word limit is 3000 words everything included. Each student presents his or her paper idea in a short presentation during the final session. .

Maps are powerful tools for understanding and communicating political phenomena. In this block seminar you will learn to use the statistical software R to produce customisable, publication-quality maps and other data visualisations. No prior knowledge of R is required. Participants are encouraged to use data from their own research projects, but test datasets will also be provided.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
3CP

What does solidarity mean and how is it realised? This seminar examines the concept of solidarity and its role in domestic and international politics. We discuss how solidarity has been conceptualised in social theory and invoked by politicians, scholars, and activists across different contexts. We analyse its empirical manifestations in areas such as domestic social policy, international cooperation, and transnational social movements.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
3CP or 6CP

https://www.uni-bremen.de/fb8/international/internationales-modul
3 CP/ECTS for this course, +3 CP/ECTS extra credit