DWA 320 Junior Seminar: Researching Transnational Social Movements

When and why do people mobilize to make demands against their states and societies? What contextual conditions enable such mobilization, and under what conditions does mobilization decline? Finally, do movements actually matter for bringing about change? This course is designed to gain leverage on these questions by surveying an eclectic literature (from various disciplines) on social movements. The goal of the course is to better understand a series of movements that have captured the world’s attention across various moments in time, while developing the conceptual skills that provide an introduction to social movement theory in international relations. A comparative and transnational analysis of these movements across multiple domestic contexts should give us an angle with which to critically assess the theoretical concepts we will engage. We will touch on a broad array of movements in our weekly current events seminars, and you are welcome to explore other movements that you find interesting in your written work. 

This course is also intended to improve your writing and research design skills. In academic scholarship, engaging an interesting topic—in our case, social movements—combined with a tool kit of well-developed methodological and writing skills is essential for articulating ideas to a wider audience. Most social science disciplines necessitate the ability to present evidence pertaining to an issue, engage with counter evidence, and ultimately present a convincing argument for a particular position on that issue. Under the rubric of writing broadly for multiple academic disciplines and popular audiences, we will engage several stages of the writing process, which include: (1) note taking and careful analysis of relevant texts; (2) proper use of secondary and primary sources, as well as citation style; (3) drafting texts; (4) revising and peer review (both in class and individually with the instructor); and (5) presenting a polished final research design paper that uses effective grammar, punctuation, and style. Open only to DWA majors with junior or senior standing.