Kirk A. Randazzo, Ph.D.

Course Information

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Undergraduate Course Descriptions:

POLI 391U  Moot Court and Legal Research

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to basic legal research techniques and develop legal writing skills, while providing students with a thorough understanding of Supreme Court decision making processes. The ultimate goal of the class is to prepare students to deliver sound legal arguments before a simulated Supreme Court session. Students will be assigned two hypothetical cases in which they participate as an attorney during one and as a justice of the Supreme Court for the other. With this objective in mind, the course will take a non-traditional pedagogical approach which will involve close interaction between students and the instructor during the semester. Moreover, the course structure will follow an unusual format with the instructor providing a limited number of in-class lectures and most class periods devoted to library research, designed to prepare students for Supreme Court simulations and arguments. The instructor will be available in the library during these periods to assist students in legal research and writing. This course is designed to provide students with an intensive research and writing experience, therefore, the course closely resembles an independent study format rather than a traditional lecture format. It is imperative that students participate vigorously in the class and remain focused on completion of the scheduled assignments.

POLI 450  Constitutional Law

This course is designed to familiarize students with the development of constitutional law in the United States. Specifically we will examine cases rendered by the Supreme Court in areas involving governmental authority, separation of powers and federalism.

POLI 451  Civil Liberties

This course is designed to familiarize students with the development of constitutional law in the United States. Specifically we will examine cases rendered by the Supreme Court in areas involving civil rights, civil liberties and criminal rights. Students will develop an understanding of how the Supreme Court operates when it reviews questions of constitutionality.

 

Graduate Course Descriptions:

POLI 706  Methods of Political Analysis (Regression)

This course provides students with the fundamental techniques to conduct political research. Over the semester we will focus almost exclusively on the most fundamental methodological technique – the linear regression model. We will learn the various aspects of the ‘classical’ regression model (including its basic assumptions) and its use in statistical inference. We will then explore situations in which one or more basic assumptions are violated. Our familiarity with the regression model will cover several topics, ranging from manual calculations of relationships to computational calculations using large empirical datasets.

POLI 798U  Models of Political Institutions

The primary goal of this course is to explore various manifestations of strategic behavior, including how to conceptualize, theorize, and analyze strategic relationships. Emphasis will be placed on thinking through precise relationships between theories of behavior and empirical estimation of those theories, including all of the explicit and implicit assumptions associated with model building and theory testing. Over the course of the semester we will become more familiar with the foundations of game theory and formal modeling in order to examine the literature in American politics, judicial politics, international relations, and comparative politics on strategic behavior.

POLI 803  Advanced Research Methods (Maximum Likelihood Estimation)

This course primarily deals with theoretical and empirical models of individual choice behavior. Emphasis will be placed on thinking through precise relationships between theories of behavior and empirical estimation of those theories, including all of the explicit and implicit assumptions associated with model building and theory testing. I assume that all students are familiar with the basic techniques and assumptions of ordinary least squares regression (as covered in POLI 706). Over the course of the semester our primary focus will involve developing accurate empirical models to test theoretical relationships. The core statistical analysis will involve maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), with specific topics covering logit/probit, ordered logit/probit, multinomial logit/probit, conditional/nested logit, event count models, selection models, and multilevel models. Note that this course number is shared, so please check with the instructor to determine the exact content for a given semester.

POLI 803  Advanced Research Methods (Dynamic Models of Space and Time)

A vast majority of political and social science research operates under the assumption (either explicit or implicit) that observations are static; that is, no variation across space or time. Dynamic models, in contrast, seek to explicitly capture this spatial and temporal variation in the analysis. This course will explore several models that are suitable to examining either panel data (several spatial observations across a limited number of time points) or time-series data (limited number of spatial observation across several time points). I assume that all students are familiar with the basic techniques and assumptions of ordinary least squares regression (as covered in POLI 706). If you need to refresh your memory of OLS, I have listed several sources that will help. Over the course of the semester our primary focus will involve developing accurate empirical models to test theoretical relationships. The core statistical analyses will build from OLS regression and Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE). Specific topics will cover fixed effects, random effects, hierarchical models, ARIMA, Box-Jenkins, Error Correction Models, VAR’s, and spatial models. Additionally, we will discuss how to accurately identify appropriate model structures and utilize important diagnostic tests. Note that this course number is shared, so please check with the instructor to determine the exact content for a given semester.