Pedagogical Approaches to Political Economy Instruction

I am a proud recipient of the 2025 Division of Social Science Award for Excellence and Commitment to Teaching at Columbia.  My pedagogical goal is to equip students with transferable, interwoven skill-sets so that they can extend analytical insights from one issue area to another using sound theoretical frameworks.  To this end, I have developed innovative case study based curricula and co-authored and published a number of instructional case studies to teach students a wide range of topics in international and comparative political economy. 

The case study approach inculcates and reinforces four distinct skills:  (1) Substantive historical and contemporary knowledge to approach governance problems from a comparative perspective, (2) familiarity with methods of handling both quantitative and qualitative empirical data in order to evaluate arguments and be attuned to problems of inference, (3) analytical tools for employing theory and data to confront real-world decisions made on the basis of complicated and at times insufficient information, and (4) written and oral skills in presenting, countering and defending arguments in the classroom. 

This pedagogical approach was awarded multiple Vice Provost’s Hybrid Learning Course Redesign and Delivery Grants at Columbia University.  Feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about this method of active learning.  Details regarding my published case studies and courses taught can be found below.

Instructional Case Studies

Clark, Richard, Nikhar Gaikwad, and Kenneth Scheve.  2019.  “Global Climate Cooperation and Conflict:  Brazil and the Paris Agreement."  Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Case P-98.
Gaikwad, Nikhar, Kenneth Scheve, and Elisabeth van Lieshout.  2019.  “Ratification Politics and Preferential Trade Agreements:  Malaysia and the CPTPP."  Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Case P-99.
Gaikwad, Nikhar and Kenneth Scheve.  2016.  “Willkommen to Europe:  The Political Economy of Migration Policy in Germany.”  Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Case P-85.
Gaikwad, Nikhar and Kenneth Scheve.  2016.  “India:  Liberalize in the Face of Crisis?”  Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Case P-86.
Gaikwad, Nikhar, Kenneth Scheve and Jason Weinreb.  2015.  “To Grexit or Not:  Politics and Greece’s Sovereign Debt Crisis.”  Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Case P-88.
Clark, Richard, Nikhar Gaikwad, and Kenneth Scheve.  2022.  “AstraZeneca, Global Supply Chains, and COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution."  In Progress. 

Clark, Richard, Nikhar Gaikwad, and Kenneth Scheve.  2022.  “Contentious Trade:  Political Economy of the US-China Trade War."  In Progress.

Clark, Richard, Nikhar Gaikwad, and Kenneth Scheve.  2022.  “African Development and the Politics of Word Bank Policymaking."  In Progress.

Courses Taught at Columbia University

Political Science 3648:  Governing the Global Economy (Undergraduate Lecture).
  • Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023.
Political Science 8804:  Colloquium on International Political Economy (Graduate Seminar).
  • Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2022, Fall 2024.
Political Science 4863:  International Political Economy of Developing Countries (Undergraduate/Graduate Seminar).
  • Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024.
Political Science 3961:  Trade, Migration, and Climate Politics (Undergraduate Seminar).
  • Spring 2025.