First class

Course outline

Grades

Texts

How to enrol

Topics and readings

 

 

Political Science 399

Third Year Honours Seminar

Winter session (Jan-April), 2004-05 --  Tuesday afternoons, 1-4 pm 

 

Don Carmichael (Don.Carmichael@ualberta.ca)

 

 


 

NB: First Class  (Tues, Jan. 11)

 

The first class will be an important session (about 90 minutes), and will include the choice of essay topics and other assignments.  Students who are unable for any reason to attend this session should contact me before the class to discuss possible assignments.

 

 


Course Outline:

 

This course is designed for students who will be in the fourth year of the honours programme next year, in part to help them prepare for work on the honours essay (Pol S 499).  That is, the course is open both to students now in third year honours, and to those who are not yet in honours but intend to come into the programme in their fourth year.  The course is recommended (but not required) for all such students.

 

Seminar topics will include issues of theory construction, university governance, global human rights and selected current world issues.  Please see the list of seminar topics and readings for more detail.

 

The course will be conducted as a seminar.  Participants will be expected to contribute actively and constructively in discussions, and the seminar will be organized around the presentation and discussion of student papers.  The seminar readings will not be extensive, but participants will be expected to read them, and all of them, carefully before the seminar each week.

 

Two short seminar papers (5‑7 pp) will be required, plus a somewhat longer paper at the end of the term.  All papers should be "positional".  One or both of the shorter papers will be discussed in the seminar.   Each participant will be asked to open the discussion of  the seminar papers with a brief commentary. In addition, participants will be asked to prepare for each seminar by doing brief digests (1‑2 pp) of the assigned readings.

 

 

Grades*       Essays : (3 @ equal weight)    70%

 

                       Commentary:                         10%

 

                       Seminar contributions*:           20%

 

Reading digests are required each week before the seminar, with two weeks off on dates of one’s own choosing. These will be graded only as satisfactory/ unsatisfactory but they are a necessity and marks will be deducted from the final grade (up to two stanine equivalents) for missing digests.

 

* Seminar contributions will be evaluated by the quality of oral contributions, including questions.  One can contribute effectively to the quality of a seminar without speaking much, or even at all.  Students who are uncomfortable speaking in public are invited to discuss alternative forms of seminar contribution  with me.

 

 

Texts:            

 

please note:     Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom is no longer being used in the course (although it was ordered).  The following texts have been ordered through the bookstore:

 

                        Jonathan Sachs, The Dignity of Difference

 

                        Thomas Pocklington and Allan Tupper, No Place to Learn

 

                        Stephen Van Evera, Guide to methods for Students of Political Science

 

                        Supplementary Readings for Third Year Honours Students  (coursepack)

 

 

Essay Assignments

 

All essays should be terse, analytical, and "positional" ‑‑ arguing a definite thesis in relation to some aspect of the readings.  Students are encouraged to develop their own views in these essays ‑‑ eg, by contesting a specific claim in the text, or by arguing a rival thesis on the topic, or (in certain cases) by writing a critical response to a fellow student in the seminar.  The only requirement is that the essay argue a specific and explicitly stated thesis  ("In this essay I will argue that... ").

 

 

How to enrol

 

This course is not open to on-line registration.  If you are in third honours, simply email Cindy (at cindy.anderson@ualberta.ca) with your ID, and she will enroll you.  If you are not yet in honours but plan to take fourth year honours next year (and please note, this means that you must be doing Pol S 315 this year) then simply email me with your ID and I’ll have you enrolled (Don.Carmichael@ualberta.ca)

 


 

TOPICS AND READINGS (provisional)

 

 

            Part 1: Split Sessions on Theory Construction and World Issues

 

Jan 11            Introduction

 

Jan  18           Theory Construction and World Issues (1)

Sachs, The Dignity of Difference, chs 1-3 (67)

Sophocles, Antigone (35) on line at: http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/sophocles/antigone.htm

 

Jan  25           Theory Construction and World Issues (2)

Kenneth Waltz, Man, The State and War, chs 1, 2, 4 (80)  (skim chs 3 and 5) use library copies

                                 Sachs, The Dignity of Difference, ch 4 (19)

 

Feb 1             Theory Construction and World Issues (3)

Kenneth Waltz, Man, The State and War, chs  6, 8 (40) (skim ch 7)

                                 Sachs, The Dignity of Difference, ch 5-6 (38)

Van Evera, Guide to Methods, appendix: “How to write a paper” (5)

Orwell, “Politics and The English Language” (10), at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

 

Feb 8             Theory Construction and World Issues (4)

Flanagan, selections from Game Theory and Canadian Politics (30)

            Ward, Rational Choice Theory (18)

                                 Sachs, The Dignity of Difference, chs 7-8 (35)

                                

Feb 15           Theory Construction and World Issues (5)

Van Evera, Guide to Methods, ch 1 (40)

            Sachs, The Dignity of Difference, chs 9-11 (50)

 

Feb 23           reading week: no seminar

 

                     Part 2: University Issues and Governance

 

Mar  1           University Issues and Governance (1)

            Pocklington and Tupper, No Place to Learn, chs 1-4 (75)

            Van Evera, Guide to Methods, ch 3 (8)

 

Mar 8            University Issues and Governance (2)

Pocklington and Tupper, No Place to Learn, chs 5-7 (60)

Piper, “Building A Civil Society: A New Role for The Human Sciences”, at  http://www.president.ubc.ca/president/speeches/24oct02_killam.pdf

                                 Van Evera, Guide to Methods, ch 4-5 (10)

 

Mar  15         University Issues and Governance (3)

Pocklington and Tupper, No Place to Learn, chs 8-10 (60)

                                 Van Evera, Guide to Methods, ch 6 (5)

 

Part 3: And Now for Something (completely?)Different

                                    

Mar  22         “Public v Private”: Arendt

            Arendt, “The Public and the Private Realm” (ch 2 of The Human Condition) (55)

Taylor, “The Politics of Recognition” (15) 

                    

Mar  29         Religion, Myth and Politics –  readings tba from

            Weil, “ The Iliad, Poem of Might” (30)

Malise Ruthven, Islam: A Very Short Introduction.   Available through the university electronic collection: BP 161.2 R86

                                 Van Evera, Guide to Methods, ch 2 (40)

                                 Wagner, Gottadamerung

 

Part 4: Sessions on Global Human Rights

 

April  5          Human Rights (1)     

Jones,  “Forms of Right”   (13)

                                 Pocklington, “Against Inflating Human Rights”   (10)

            Cranston, Human Rights, Real and Supposed   (6)

            Rorty, Human Rights, Rationality and Sentimentality (15) 

Nussbaum, “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism” (6)

 

April  12        Human Rights (2)     

            Brown Universal Human Rights: A Critique (11)

Jones,  “Justifying Human Rights” (25)

            Parekh, Non-ethnocentric Universalism (15)