Teaching

In my academic career so far, as a teaching fellow first and as an instructor now, I have specialized in two areas: comparative politics and quantitative methods. I taught both at the graduate and undergraduate levels, created syllabi, and lectures, as well as organized the logistics, and coordinated teaching staff for large courses. I was awarded the Harvard Derek Bok Center Certificate for Excellence in Teaching, based on the anonymous evaluations done by the students. 

RECENT COURSES in COMPARATIVE POLITICS

Instructor of POLS UN 3951 (Columbia University): Voters without Borders.  

Description  Structure

In the last ten years, a new mass of voters without borders was born. Hundreds of millions of individuals live outside their country of origin (or home country), in a host country where they work, pay taxes, build families, and socialize. At the same time, institutional changes in the home country, like the enfranchisement of emigrants, have turned these same individuals into active political participants back home. Moreover, recent technological advancement in traveling and communication (e.g., the use of the internet and social media) has changed the pace of and accessibility to transnational politics: more emigrants can be in touch with peers in their home countries, follow the news of their country in real-time, and get involved directly in political campaigns on social media. The amount of information flowing from the home country to its diaspora and then back has increased exponentially, as well as the economic and political influence of diasporas on the internal politics of the home and host country. This new reality has produced multiple complex political connections across the world both at the individual and institutional levels. It has also spurred a new way of thinking about global politics and political intersections between countries, the need to study complex political identities, the concept of citizenship from abroad, and a new kind of voter and voting behavior. This course shows how the literature in political science has tried to address some of the most important questions arising from this phenomenon: why do countries allow their emigrants to vote? Who turn out to vote? What is the impact of this on the host and home country politics? And so on.

Seminar.

 

 

 

Instructor of POLS UN 3528 (Columbia University): New and Old Forms of Political Protest. 

 

Description Structure

This course will introduce the students to the important topic of political protest. Each week we will address different aspects of the phenomenon: from the determinants to the actors and strategies of protest. We will discuss how the forms of protest have changed and the current role of the internet in general and social media in particular. Finally, we will discuss the role of the state and state repression, in particular censorship in the dynamics of protest. Since this is a comparative politics course, we will cover a range of different countries, including the United States, as well as both democratic and authoritarian regimes. 

Lecture.

The innovative element of this course is the collaborative learning component. A part of the class will be based on your presentations of several case studies (exact number depending on final enrollment). From the beginning of the course, you will be assigned a case study (and a group depending on final enrollment numbers) and you will develop the analysis of the case. In this way, you (and your group) will become experts on one case. The presentations will contribute to the material of the class covered in the final essay/exam. The cases assigned are famous social movements or protest events. Information on these cases is available through academic publications, newspapers, library resources, and other online sources. Parts of documentaries, news pieces, and movies will also be included almost weekly in lectures. Some of them will be transformed into assignments through the innovative tool of Mediathread.

 

Instructor of POLS GR 5000 (Columbia University): MA Proseminar. LINK

 

 

RECENT COURSES in QUANTITATIVE METHODS:

Instructor of POLS UN 3720 (Columbia University): Scope and Methods. 

Description  

Structure

This class introduces students to a variety of statistical methods used to investigate political phenomena. We will address the principles behind these methods, their application, and their limitations. The course aims to provide anyone interested in political science with a proficient understanding of the intuitions behind several of the methods most commonly used to analyze political data and identify causal paths. By the end of the course, students will have acquired important analytical and practical skills and will be able to evaluate the quality and reliability of scholarly and journalistic work done using quantitative methods. Students will also learn basic statistical software skills (R).

 

 

 

Lecture. The course has three components: a lecture on the methods, a lecture on relevant examples from the literature, and a section with a teaching assistant. The lectures will include instances of discussion and interactive activities and will be framed for collaborative learning. For this reason, we will often use a tool for anonymous and instantaneous polls to do quizzes or surveys on the class content. It is important that students participate actively. During the discussion of the examples from the literature, we will also talk about the general content of the articles, the details of the methods used, the reasons for the choices of these methods, and the limitations of the articles’ methods (both as described by the authors and by the students). In sections the students will learn how to use R, analyze data, and, when possible, learn to reproduce some of the most basic applications found in the examples.

 

PAST COURSES in COMPARATIVE POLITICS:

Instructor: Gov 94 CS (Harvard University): To Vote or Not to Vote: voting behavior and electoral institutions. (Fall 2015).  Course overall evaluation: 4.7/5; Instructor overall evaluation 5/5.

Teaching Fellow: Gov 20 Harvard University: Foundations of Comparative Politics (Fall 2012): an introduction to key concepts and theoretical approaches in comparative politics. From the causes of democratization, economic development, ethnic conflict, and social revolutions; to the role of the state, political institutions, and civil society. (Score:4/5)

Head Teaching Fellow/Teaching Fellow: Gov 97 (Harvard University): Democracy (Spring 2012-13-14): the course covers a selection of topics on the theme of "Democracy", from political theory to comparative politics. (Head Teaching Fellow 2013, avg.score: 4.8/5, Certificate of Teaching Excellence for Spring 2012 and 2013.)

PAST COURSES in QUANTITATIVE METHODS:

Instructor: Gov 61 (Harvard University): Research Practice in Quantitative Methods (Spring 2016): the class introduces students to statistical methods and practices commonly used in political science and likely to be of utility to those undertaking a quantitative methods thesis in Government. 

Teaching Fellow: Gov 2000 (Harvard University): Introduction to Quantitative Methods I (Fall 2011): the course is an introduction to statistical research in political science with a focus on applied linear regression. (Score: 4.8/5 , Certificate of Teaching Excellence)

Teaching Fellow: API 209 (Harvard Kennedy school): Advanced Quantitative Methods I: Statistics (Fall 2010): The course focuses on conceptually understanding the statistical methods. It includes probability theory, sampling, estimation, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis. (Score: 4.11/5) 

Teaching Fellow: Math-prefresher for Political Scientists  (Harvard University), Summer 2011: the course introduces basic mathematics and computer skills needed for quantitative and formal modeling courses offered at Harvard.

Teaching Assistant: Quantitative Methods III (University of California, San Diego, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies), Spring 2009. 

Teaching Assistant: Introduction to Quantitative Methods (University of California, San Diego, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies), Summer 2008.