POL S 564: Law and the Politics of Social Change
Winter Quarter 2026
This seminar explores how law can transform, enable, or hinder efforts to affect social change. We will examine how and why individuals and groups, particularly social movements, appeal to the law, especially but not exclusively the courts. We will also assess the narratives and tactics activists utilize when engaging with state and professional legal actors, such as elected officials, policy-makers, and lawyers. However, this course does not conceptualize the legal system as an omnipotent, yet unchanging force, instead engaging with the dynamic and co-constitutive relationship between the law and social movements across time. In this course, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of how socio-legal scholars and political scientists have theorized and empirically studied the power and possibilities of legal mobilization. We will also utilize an interdisciplinary lens to critically examine the tension of appealing to rights, particularly for queer, feminist, racial justice, immigrant, and disability rights movements, in which the law can be mobilized to garner support for their causes, but can also be weaponized to curtail their agendas. While this course will focus primarily on law and social change within the U.S. context, students will be encouraged to extrapolate these themes to a comparative or international context.
This is a PhD level course and can be applied to the course requirements for the following fields in the Political Science Department: Public Law, American Politics, and Race and Ethnicity Politics (REP).
Assignments:
- Discussant-Presenter Assignment
Students will each assist in leading one of the class discussions during the quarter. Discussants will develop questions based on the readings to guide the seminar, make connections to the larger themes of the course, historically contextualize the class content and social movements pertaining to the week, and discuss the contemporary implications for law, society, and politics. Discussants will also be tasked with incorporating the response papers for each week.
- Two response papers
Students will upload two response papers (2-3 pages double-spaced) throughout the quarter for a week of their choosing. The papers will be distributed to all class members via Canvas by 5pm on the Sunday before class. These response papers should incorporate interesting takeaways, critiques, strengths and weaknesses of the proposed arguments, and/or outstanding questions regarding the course materials. Response papers should not summarize the readings, but instead focus on a specific topic or idea either from a specific reading or across all of the readings assigned for the week. These response papers should also address the overarching questions for the module of the course in which they are assigned, which are outlined in the syllabus. Students are also invited to connect readings to previous materials from the course, as well as current events both domestically and abroad. All students are expected to read the submitted response papers in preparation for class. I, as well as the presenters for the week, will incorporate these response papers into the class discussion.
- Final Paper
Students will submit a 15 to 20 page double spaced paper exploring one or more research questions incorporating the topics and materials covered throughout the course. These questions can be addressed either through a critical analysis of scholarly literature pertaining to your topic, including material not covered directly in the course. Students can also propose or undertake an empirical study to address their research question(s) and detail how this project will inform and expand upon existing research contending with law and social change. Students also have the option to apply the content and theories that emerge from the course to a specific instance that has not been discussed in class in which the law has been mobilized for social change. While the final paper will require additional research and secondary materials, the assigned readings for the course should serve as the primary sources.
- Paper Proposal and Peer Feedback
Each student will submit a one-page, single-spaced proposal for their final paper by week 5 of the quarter. This proposal should include the research questions for your final paper, how you plan to address these questions, and how your project will inform existing scholarship on law and social movements. This proposal should also include a list of potential sources, which will not count towards the page limit. Students will submit their proposals to me via Canvas and I will then separate students into pairs for a short peer review. Students will be required to read the proposal of their peer-partner and provide substantive feedback on the research questions and project proposal. There will be time in class to meet with your peer-partner to elaborate on your and address any comments, concerns, and questions raised. At the end of the quarter, students will write a 1 page single-spaced reflection on how this feedback informed their final paper.