Teaching

Recent and current courses at the University of Virginia. Syllabi from past offerings are posted here so prospective students can see what the courses look like in practice.

Undergraduate Seminars

PLAD 4430 — Migration, Sorting, and Democratic Representation

Spring 2026. How residential sorting — driven by housing markets, public goods provision, and preferences — shapes political geography and democratic representation in the United States. Foundational theories of internal migration and Tiebout sorting, the homevoter hypothesis, partisan/ideological/racial sorting, and the political consequences: gerrymandering, malapportionment, electoral outcomes, and democratic responsiveness. → Syllabus (PDF)

PLIR 4380 — America in a World Economy

Spring 2026. The seminar deconstructs the “America First” international economic agenda by juxtaposing two competing frameworks — economic factor models and nativist political theory — across four policy domains: trade, money, crypto, and migration. Combines rigorous academic readings with interactive simulations placing students in policymaker roles. → Syllabus (PDF)

PLAD 4500 — US Immigration Policy in Real Time

Spring 2025. A research seminar built around US immigration policy as it unfolded across the first months of the second Trump administration. Students worked in groups producing translational social science — public dashboards, policy briefs, podcasts, and short videos — based on close reading of new sources and live policy enactments. → Syllabus (PDF)

Undergraduate Lectures

PLAD 2500 — The Politics of Migration

Fall 2025. The politics of migration without modifiers — why people move, why others stay, how host and home communities encourage or discourage mobility, and how those who move stay connected to those who remain. Draws on a wide source base: music and art, biblical and cinematic narratives, episodes from US and world history, and contemporary real-time cases. → Syllabus (PDF)

Graduate Seminars

PLIR 7390 — Political Economy of International Migration and Finance

Spring 2022. PhD-level course on international political economy with a substantive focus on migration and international financial/monetary politics. The primary objective is teaching students to conduct original and independent research; assessment is built around literature extensions, an original concept note, and intensive participation. → Syllabus (PDF)

IPE Independent Study

Spring 2024. Doctoral-level directed reading on globalization, trade, money, migration, and the politics of the global economy. Weekly meetings centered on assigned articles plus recommended extensions, with discussion organized around understanding arguments, connecting across literatures, identifying limits, and developing extensions. → Reading list (PDF)