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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. 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. 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) |
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