Summer & Fall Online Classes

Explore how dispute resolution shapes environmental and public-policy conflicts through U.S. and international case studies, mediator guest speakers, and interdisciplinary readings. 
Learn how mediation, courts, agencies, and emerging technologies (including AI) affect public participation, policy outcomes, and democratic processes.
Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement.
 

Theories of policy-formation are applied to several timely issues of US and global policy. Issues are grouped around a broad theme, such as environmental policy or security. Relevant experts/policymakers will help students complete policy simulations on our issues.

Learn how emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data, and algorithmic systems, reshape public administration, policy design, and service delivery. Students will examine the opportunities and risks of digital governance, with attention to ethics, public value, and practical implementation. Through case studies and applied analysis, students will develop strategic and managerial tools to lead innovation in complex, tech-driven public environments.

Study the contemporary public policy issues and debates. The course offers various perspectives on public policy, including equality, justice, and efficiency. The subjects covered are: environmental policy, affirmative action, immigration, welfare policy, education, health, and other public policies.Emphasis on in-class discussion and debates.
(Gen. Ed. SB, DU)

Examine the influence of political factors, including institutions and interests, on the initiation, formulation, and implementation of public policy. Analyze the role of information and expertise in politics. 

This is an advanced seminar focusing on public budgeting. Develop an understanding of the institutions, issues, and processes involved in budgeting as well as related analytical skills that will give you the ability to function in careers in financial analysis and budgeting.

Learn how local governments handle fiscal stress and economic development, and how elected officials build support and resources. Study New England case studies, examine the political DNA of the millennial generation, study the unique obstacles young people face when they run for office, examine the techniques for finding success in large, complicated government and legislative institutions, and closely analyze specific policy areas where millennial state legislators, mayors, and city councilors are making a real difference. Identify a real local problem, draft state/municipal legislation, and produce a strategic roadmap to secure its passage.
Requires full preparation and active participation.

Learn the language of behavioral research with an emphasis on designing social science research. Engage with measurement reliability and efficacy, internal or external research design validity and generalizability.

Grasp an overview of machine learning (ML) with special attention to applications for social and behavioral analytics. Machine learning combines insights from AI, probability theory, statistical inference, and information theory to help automate tasks involving pattern recognition, prediction, and classification.

A math boot camp for incoming DACSS and select PhD students, designed to build or refresh the math needed for applied statistics and computational work. Covers algebra, key calculus concepts, probability, and basic linear algebra as a fast-paced review of fundamentals.

Learn the basics of the R programming language while building essential data management and wrangling skills to meet the need for versatile data science expertise required for advanced quantitative coursework.

An introductory Python course for data science, focusing on core tools for working with data. Students learn Python basics, data analysis skills, and practical techniques especially useful for social data scientists and data professionals.

This course reviews different computational social science methods that are applied under different academic and professional situations. This includes different but complementary methods to format and explore data as tables, maps, graphs, and text.

Study networks across the sciences have exploded recently. Deep dive on the network scientific theory as it applies to the social sciences, network data collection and management, network visualization and description; and methods for the statistical analysis of networks. Will make extensive use of real-world applications to gain a thorough background in the use of network analytic software. 

Study the basic issues of law's relationship to contemporary society and how law affects almost all human activity. Interdisciplinary topics include the nature, historical, and social functions of law and the culture, tension between ideals and realities in law and the role of law in addressing contemporary social problems. This general education course, based on the assumption that "law is too important to be left to lawyers," is intended to foster analytical and critical skills and to discuss broad, interdisciplinary questions of individual responsibility, social morality, and justice.
(Gen.Ed. SB, DU)

Improve your ability to analyze and write about complicated legal issues. Learn how to read and understand court opinions and how to find your way around a law library. Writing assignments include your own resume and a job application letter, case briefs, memoranda, op-eds, and a research paper.
Open only to Legal Studies majors who have completed LEGAL 250 and College Writing (CW).

This is an interactive, interdisciplinary course on resolving environmental and public-policy disputes.
- Learn through U.S. and international case studies and guest mediators.
- Read core texts from legal studies, conflict resolution, political science, public policy, geography, computer science, public health, and more.
- Examine how dispute resolution affects democratic participation and how courts and agencies use mediation and ADR in high-stakes environmental conflicts.
- Explore the impact of technology and the emerging role of AI in public disputing.
- Ideal for students of law, policy, environment, conflict resolution, and anyone interested in practical, scholarly approaches to real-world disputes.
IE, Sr & Jr Legal Studies majors only, consent of the instructor for non-Legal Studies majors.

Explore how the Supreme Court has shaped American rights and liberties—historically and today.
Start with the power of textual rights protections and the rise of legal institutions that mobilized for individual rights.
Analyze landmark decisions and learn why some rights were recognized earlier than others.
Thematic focus: religious freedom, speech, guns, criminal defendants’ rights, and gender & sexuality discrimination.
Finish with recent constitutional controversies about personal freedom.
Ideal for students of law, political science, history, and anyone who wants to read and argue major Supreme Court cases.

Intensive, interdisciplinary course on human trafficking—its definitions, debates, and real-world responses.
Study legal definitions and policy frameworks in the U.S. and internationally.
Analyze debates over slavery vs. trafficking, and the meanings of choice, coercion, and victimization.
Learn how trafficking is measured, how victimhood is framed by different stakeholders, and ethical challenges in research and advocacy.
Examine law enforcement investigations and practical responses to trafficking in persons.
Ideal for students in law, policy, social work, criminology, public health, and human rights who want rigorous, applied understanding of modern forced labor and exploitation.

Learn empirical research in law, understand and conduct data-driven legal studies. Topics include forming research questions, collecting and visualizing data, and performing descriptive and inferential analyses to understand how data shapes modern law.

Improve your ability to analyze and write about complicated legal issues. Learn how to read and understand court opinions and how to find your way around a law library. Writing assignments include your own resume and a job application letter, case briefs, memoranda, op-eds, and a research paper.
Open only to Legal Studies majors who have completed LEGAL 250 and College Writing (CW).