NYU Abu Dhabi
Capstone Seminar
POLSC-UH 4000 · Undergraduate · Year-long senior thesis seminar
Students develop a research question, construct a research design that allows them to test potential answers to that question, collect relevant data, analyze the results, and write a senior thesis.
Taught in 2026–2027.
Research Design and Causality
SOCSC-UH 2212 · Undergraduate
This course provides students with the foundations to undertake research in social science. Students learn how to identify an interesting research question and are introduced to the different approaches that social scientists take to answer such questions. The course also discusses other key issues for good research, such as transparency and ethics. It is hands-on: students create their own research design and use examples to critically evaluate existing research.
Teaching in Spring 2027.
Latin American Politics
POLSC-UH 2429 · Undergraduate
This introductory course on Latin American politics delves into the critical issues debated in the literature regarding the region’s historical political developments while exploring the main theoretical approaches and concepts used to elucidate these events. The course spans Latin American history, seeking to identify the changes that occurred in different periods, the driving forces behind these changes, and their repercussions. It begins with an examination of colonialism and its enduring effects, progressing to the processes of independence and nation-building in the early 19th century. Subsequently, it explores the region’s shift to capitalism, leading to oligarchic political regimes and liberal institutions (late 19th to early 20th centuries). The course then examines the era of early democratization, industrialization, and corporatism (1920s–60s), as well as the erosion of democracy and the ascent of authoritarianism throughout the region. Finally, it concludes with an exploration of more recent transitions to democracy, the persistent challenges of instability, weak rule of law, and violence, as well as debates about climate change and the environment.
Taught in Spring 2026.
Introduction to Comparative Politics
POLSC-UH 1111 · Undergraduate
This course introduces students to the study of comparative politics and the study of domestic political institutions around the world. The course emphasizes the use of theory and evidence to generate and test hypotheses about both the causes and consequences of the observed variation in domestic political institutions. For example, the course investigates the factors that lead some countries to democratize, and others to institute authoritarian governments, as well as the consequences of those institutional choices for policy outcomes. The course also looks at the variations in institutional arrangements within both democratic and non-democratic governments.
Taught in Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, and Spring 2026.
Inequality
CCOL-UH 1035 · Undergraduate
Inequality is a fundamental issue with which every human society, past and present, has had to deal. This course explores why inequality occurs and why it matters, questions which have taken on critical importance in this time of deepening global inequalities. The course will approach these questions by considering inequality in comparative and historical perspective so that students will gain a deeper perspective on today’s debates. How does governmental action influence inequality, and why? Does the presence of inequality influence what type of government is possible? To answer these questions the course will draw on sources from a range of academic disciplines including political science, history, economics, philosophy, and literature.
Taught in Fall 2019.