This course engages with research on state-sanctioned violence against individuals and groups. Topics covered include the relationship between repression, state violence, and political order; the perceived (il)legitimacy of different types of state violence; logics and effects of state-sanctioned violence against different segments of civilian populations in times of war and peace; patterns of human rights violations around the globe; repression in democratic and autocratic regimes; mass killings; disappearances; police violence; mass incarceration; the war on drugs; the implications of new information and communication technologies for repressive practices and surveillance.
Political Science