Bert Johnson

Frontiers in Political Science Research
Nothing is more controversial among political scientists than the topic of how to study politics. In this course, we consider a variety of advanced techniques for studying political phenomena, including statistical methods, game theory, institutional analysis, case study techniques, experiments, and agent-based modeling. We will work with concrete examples (drawn from major political science journals) of how scholars have used these techniques, and consider the ongoing philosophical controversies associated with each approach. Students will have the opportunity to conduct original research using a method and subject of their choosing. (Any political science courses) 3 hrs. lect.disc (Methods)

Federalism, State and Local Politics
What are the unique political opportunities and constraints facing state and local governments? How have these changed over time? In this course we examine the relationships between different levels of government in the U.S. federal system, considering the particular tasks and dilemmas facing states and cities, and scrutinizing the complex interactions between governments that characterize federalism in the United States. Topics include local political culture, intergovernmental grants, state parties, and state political economy. Vermont, New York, and California will receive special scrutiny. 3 hrs. lect./disc. (American Politics)

The Future of U.S. Democracy
Pessimism abounds among analysts of 21st Century U.S. politics. What is the nature of the nation’s problems? Are they rooted mostly in social divides – of identity, ideology, geography, and inequality? Are they mostly the result of dysfunctional institutions – such as Congress, the presidency, and the courts? Do we face policy problems that are more profound and dire than previous generations? Is there any cause for optimism? In this seminar we engage with these debates and try to answer some of these questions about the volatile contemporary American political environment. (PSCI 102 or PSCI 104) 3 hrs. sem. (American Politics)

The U.S. Politics of Race, Gender, and Class
Race, gender, and class have long shaped American politics. They have formed the basis for social movements, have structured institutions, and have affected the way political actors–from voters to activists to elected officials–have made their day-to-day decisions. What do political scientists know about the roles that race, gender, and class play in politics, separately and together, and what do we yet have to learn? (PSCI 0102 or PSCI 0104) 3 hrs. sem. (American Politics) /(Critical Race Feminisms)

City Politics
Cities have always been central to political life in the United States, but scholars disagree over how power is distributed in cities, which groups exercise the most authority, how cities relate to their economic and political environments, and whether it is legitimate to view cities as microcosms of state or national politics. We will consider these general debates as we read major works on U.S. urban politics, addressing issues such as racial and ethnic politics, immigration, suburbanization, and cities' positions in the global economy. (PSCI 0102 or PSCI 0104) 3 hrs. sem. (American Politics)

Data Science Across Disciplines
In this course, we will gain exposure to the entire data science pipeline—obtaining and cleaning large and messy data sets, exploring these data and creating engaging visualizations, and communicating insights from the data in a meaningful manner. During morning sessions, we will learn the tools and techniques required to explore new and exciting data sets. During afternoon sessions, students will work in small groups with one of several faculty members on domain-specific research projects in Biology, Interdepartmental, Political Science, and Statistics. This course will use the R programming language. No prior experience with programming is necessary. (Not open to students who have taken STAT 0118, STAT 0201, ANTH 1230, BIOL 1230, CLAS 1230, ECON 1230, ECSC 1230, ENVS 1230, FMMC 1230, GEOG 1230, HARC 1230, HIST 1230, INTD 1230, JAPN 1230, LNGT 1230, MATH 1230, MUSC 1230, NSCI 1230, PSCI 1230, SOCI 1230, STAT 1230, or WRPR 1230.)

BIOL 1230: Why does one island in the Gulf of Maine have red foxes and its neighbor none? In this section we will work with historical museum records and present-day community-science observations of mammals collected on Maine’s coastal islands. Islands are ecology’s classic natural experiment: their size and their distances from the mainland can shape which species arrive, which persist, and which blink out. Students will organize and visualize these collected records to test predictions first made in the 1980s about what influences species richness, colonization, and extinction. Beyond answering interesting ecological questions, these analyses will contribute to community engaged work with regional conservation organizations. Final projects will follow a question of each student’s own choosing, from a single species to a whole archipelago.

INTD 1230: How does artificial intelligence shape the way we learn and how can we understand those impacts? Drawing on research from the learning sciences and critical technology studies, we will explore the questions of what we gain and what we lose when we rely on AI to help us think, write, study, and create. We will explore how data science can help us understand the impacts of AI on learning and where it might fall short. Students will analyze data related to the use of AI in learning at Middlebury, including patterns of use and beliefs about AI in learning, and human vs. AI writing.

MUSC 1230: Music in its various forms (listening, playing, writing) establishes a series of psychological expectations within the human mind that, when challenged or affirmed, can invoke emotions, encourage movement, and even trigger latent memories. In this course, we will leverage the power of data science to unearth music’s expectational features in large datasets — corpora — of digitally encoded music. Students will learn how music is translated into machine-readable formats, practice parsing databases for categorical information, and generate accessible visualizations of musical-feature distributions. Such activities will culminate in a poster project where students investigate a specific research question using course corpora. In doing so, students will come to better understand the nature of psychological expectations as they shape everyday musical experiences.

PSCI 1230: What do young Americans think about democracy, political institutions, and public issues? How polarized are these views? How do these views compare with those of older generations in the United States and people in other countries? In this session, we will use the tools of data science and cross-national survey data to explore these and other questions about young people's political attitudes. The session will also introduce students to the basics of survey research and the study of public opinion. Students will complete a final project showcasing the concepts and tools learned in class.

STAT 1230: In this course, students will experience the world of data science by working with species abundance data. Species abundance data is crucial to ecologists for tracking biodiversity, developing tools for community outreach, and informing conservation planning; however, perfect data collection is expensive and often impossible in ecology. Students will thus learn the tools and techniques required to process this data. Specifically, students will gain experience with all steps of the data science pipeline from data scraping and wrangling to visualizing and performing basic statistical inference. Statistical topics we will work with may include clustering, regression, and experimental design. Throughout these topics, communicating results to all audiences clearly and honestly will be an overarching theme.