Dec 22, 2024  
2020-2021 Caspersen School of Graduate Studies (Admitted Fall 2020/Spring 2021) 
    
2020-2021 Caspersen School of Graduate Studies (Admitted Fall 2020/Spring 2021) [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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ARCR 820 - Policing, State and Security: Gender, Race and Citizenship

3 credits
The relation between police, state, and security has been a source of much interest in democracies. How does one define the state and the police and their role in ensuring security? Philosophers and theorists have defined the state in different ways –some thinking of it as an ideal entity, or as representing the interests of the ruling classes, or as a Weberian bureaucratic rational state. For some theorists, state has been completely replaced by the idea of government and a decentered entity. In the course, we will first discuss theories of state and their critique by Feminists and Critical Theorists. Next, we discuss policing- including the history of policing, global trends from Argentina, India, and Egypt, and the role policing plays in societies. U.S. debates on policing emerging out of Ferguson, MO and Baltimore, MD will also be analyzed in this context. Finally, we relate state and policing to the use of science. From the high number of crime shows such as CSILaw and Order and Dexter impacting jury trials and the increasing use of DNA evidence, neuromapping technologies and even truth serums (in some contexts) has made police and the legal system extremely dependent on the ability of scientific evidence to get to the truth. Drawing from Political Theory, films, TV shows and stories, we will trace the way in which state and policing interacts with science. Whether we discuss state, policing, or science, the experience of any of these institutions is mediated centrally by particular identities such as race, gender, and class, which will be discussed throughout the course. same as PSCI 232



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