Course Descriptions

Each year, the D.C. Winter Seminars offer a variety of unique courses spanning many academic disciplines. Designed to appeal to a wide range of interests, these seminars provide students from all majors with the opportunity to explore timely topics, engage with experts, and experience learning beyond the classroom in Washington, D.C. Most courses also carry a COLL 300 or 350 credit. For 2026, we are offering American Democracy Under Threat, Building Trust Through Diplomacy, Classical Shadows, Digging Deep, Foreign Economic Policy, and Identity, Power, and Profit.

(GOVT 391) American Democracy Under Threat

Taught by Professor Jamie Settle

Course Description:

Pundits and scholars alike are concerned that democracy is eroding in the United States. These concerns are supported empirically. For example, according to V-DEM, the United States is close to losing its status as a liberal democracy: its score on the Liberal Democracy Index decreased to 0.72 in 2020 after reaching a high of 0.85 in the period 2008-2015. This erased nearly 50 years of slow but generally steady gains. This short course will explore contemporary threats to American democracy by contextualizing them against the long history of the way that democracy has developed and been under attack in the U.S.

We will then focus on the tensions between how Americans perceive their democracy and how it actually has functioned over time. Americans in fact perceive that democracy is changing. In summarizing its most recent polling effort in the summer of 2023, Bright Line Watch reports that while its expert sample rated U.S. democracy above 70/100 for the first time since the study began in 2017, the public’s assessment has decreased and that people are pessimistic about the future of American democracy, anticipating further declines in democratic performance. The Pew Research Center found that 58% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way democracy is working in America (Schaeffer 2022). Yet, while Americans agree that democracy in the United States is under threat, they disagree on the nature and severity of that threat. A recent poll showing that 20% of Americans report the top problem the country faces is a threat to democracy found that 29% of Democrats provided this answer but only 12% of Republicans did, and each group provided very different descriptions of the problem in open-ended responses (Bowman 2022).

Finally, we explore the consequences of democratic erosion. Threats to democracy change the incentives and thus the behavior and interactions of various actors in the political system: elected officials, bureaucrats, political parties, interest groups, the media, and voters. We will explore the impacts of democratic erosion in America—considering how it manifests in electoral politics, policy debates, media coverage, and interpersonal interactions—to discuss the longer-term effects on our political system and culture.

What sets this institute apart from similar coursework you could take on campus is that you will hear directly from the policymakers and opinion leaders about their experiences with democracy under threat. There is significant dispute over what constitutes threat and how we should address it. By bringing in a range of individuals and exposing you to relevant arguments, you will be encouraged to come to your own conclusions about the phenomenon. 

(GOVT 391) Building Trust Through Diplomacy

Taught by Professor Marcus Holmes

Course Description:

This course explores the essential role of diplomacy in international relations, emphasizing the significance of different modes of interpersonal engagement (face-to-face, textually mediated, and digitally mediated will be covered on the course). Diplomacy serves as a cornerstone for understanding, cooperation and the potential for peaceful international relations in a world marked by global challenges, new technological developments, and growing tensions in great power relations. Trust, a central yet elusive element in diplomatic relations, presents a formidable challenge, especially between nations with histories of conflict and differing ideologies. This course delves into the intricacies of building trust, highlighting how misperceptions and biases can hinder this process and exploring conditions that foster trust even in challenging diplomatic environments.

Central to our understanding of international relations is the concept of the security dilemma, where uncertainties about the intentions of others can lead to defensive measures by one state that are misperceived as harbingers of offensive intent by another. This can lead to spirals of security competition that could have been prevented had both sides been able to properly communicate their peaceful intentions to the other.

This course examines this paradox and its implications for diplomacy, particularly focusing on the idea of 'Security Dilemma Sensibility'—the ability to discern and respond empathically to the intentions and fears of other states. By developing this sensibility, diplomats and leaders can differentiate defensive actions from offensive ones, reducing misunderstandings and potential conflicts. Pairing cutting-edge theory in political psychology and sociology with practical experiences and discussions with seasoned diplomats, the course offers students a comprehensive view of how theoretical concepts are applied in the complex world of diplomacy. Students will gain both theoretical knowledge and practical insights, preparing them to contribute meaningfully to the field of international relations.

(CLCV 390) Classical Shadows: Rome and the Making of Washington, D.C.

Taught by Professor Jessica Stephens

Course Description: 

This course examines how ancient Rome served as an intellectual, cultural, architectural, and iconographic model for Washington DC. Romans analyzed, marginalized, and categorized “others” while creating a privileged identity for themselves based on ideas of liberty, citizenship, and inclusion. In similar ways, the Founders did the same, albeit with the racial and ideological tensions embedded within that legacy that we still grapple with today. Their thoughts on such dichotomous subjects as liberty and racism, human rights and slavery, and secularism and religiosity shaped the development of the capital city of the United States.

(INTR 390) Digging Deep: Plants, People and the Eco-archaeology of Agriculture

Taught by Professors Harmony Dalgleish and Jennifer Kahn

Course Description:

The agricultural revolution, where plants and animals were first domesticated, was a significant tipping point in human history with widespread global impacts. Biologists usually approach the study of domestication through an organism-centric view, prioritizing the role that biology, ecology, and evolution has played in the domestication process. Anthropologists approach the study of domestication through a human-centric view, prioritizing the role of human agency. The over-arching goal of this COLL 300 course is for students to develop the skills needed to examine the human-agricultural nexus through a truly interdisciplinary, eco-archaeology lens. Throughout the course we will examine the entangled legacies of people, plants, and animals by exploring both the intended and unintended consequences of domestication. We will fuel student excitement in applying interdisciplinary approaches to solve contemporary problems such as food security and agricultural sustainability in the face of global climate change. This COLL 300 aims to challenge students’ ideas of domestication and the respective roles that both plants and people have had, and continue to have, in shaping our co-evolution throughout history in different locations across the world. Students will receive 3 credits towards ANTH, BIO, ENSP, NATV, AMES or APIA majors/minors in addition to the COLL 300 credit.

(GOVT 382) Foreign Economic Policy: Theory Meets Practice

Taught by Professor Dan Maliniak

Course Description:

How well do theories about the politics of trade, finance, and immigration hold up when compared to the real world of policy? What do academics miss when they theorize about policy-making in the area of the global economy? What do policymakers miss about their own work that researchers can better see with some distance? How do these ideas carry across cultural contexts? This class bridges this gap by pairing some of the major theories from the academic world with the experiences and observations of policymakers. Students will read a number of classic and cutting-edge academic works and then compare the theory, data, and findings to conversations with people engaged with the issues in the Washington DC area and look to other cultural contexts internationally.

(BUAD 433) Identity, Power, and Profit

Taught by Professor Phillip Wagner

Course Description:

This course is designed to expand your understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the modern world of work and to help you develop your distinctive voice as you explore your professional future. In this winter session, we’ll center real-lived human experience to help us shape and mold our professional approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion. While our goal is to better understand DIEO work in the context of the organizational sphere, we’ll reach that goal through highly-engaging trainings, off-site cultural immersions in the heart of D.C., engagement with high-profile DIEO leaders, activists, and allies, and conversation that you will remember long after we leave D.C. and return home to Williamsburg.