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Political Science 399 Third
Year Honours Seminar Winter session (Jan-April), 2005-06 -- Tuesday evenings, 6-9 pm Don Carmichael (Don.Carmichael@ualberta.ca) |
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.
In
the course of the term, students will be expected to develop a detailed (5-7
pp) proposal for their fourth year -- 499 -- project. Requirements will also include three short essays (two
during the term and one at the end) plus one or more critical commentaries on
other students’ seminar essays, and brief (1-2 pp) digests each week of the
assigned readings.
All
essays should be brief (5-7 pp) 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... ").
At least
one of the essays will be discussed in the seminar and the discussion of these
papers will begin with a critical commentary by one of the other
participants. Students are invited
to use their seminar papers to develop ideas relevant to their 499 projects.
Essays : (3 @ equal weight) 70%
Commentary(ies): 10%
Seminar contributions*: 20%
Reading digests are required each week before the
seminar, with two weeks off on dates of one’s own choosing. The reading digests
and 499 proposals will be graded only as satisfactory/ unsatisfactory but they
are a strict necessity; marks (up to two letter grades) will be deducted from
the final grade for missing or
unsatisfactory work on these requirements.
* 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: The texts below have been ordered
through the bookstore. Extensive
use will also be made of on-line materials and articles in e-journals.
Peter
Burnham, et al, Research Methods in Politics
Thomas
Pocklington and Allan Tupper, No Place to Learn
Supplementary
Readings for Third Year Honours Students (coursepack)
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 then simply email me with your
ID and I’ll have you enrolled (Don.Carmichael@ualberta.ca)
Due dates: Essays
are due on Friday, Feb 10th, and in class on March 21/22 and April
11/12.
Proposals
for 499 are due by Tues, April 25th.
Part 1: Public and Private
Jan 10 Course
Organization
Jan 17 Rights
and Democracy
Burnham
et al., Research Methods in Politics, introduction, chs 1 & 2 (pay special attention to ch 2)
Van
Evera, “How to write a paper” (reader)
Jones, “Forms of Right” (reader)
Boston
Review Forum on Democracy: “Do Rights Handcuff Democracy?” (1999) available online at:
http://bostonreview.net/BR24.2/contents.html
Read Meares and Kahan, “When Rights are Wrong” and these brief replies::
Dershowitz,
“Rights and Interests”
Waldron,
“Inalienable Rights”
Zimring,
“Mystery Terms”
Meares-Kahan, “Meares and Kahan Respond”
R
v Sharpe (the Supreme Court decision on possession of child pornography) (reader)
Tues
sem paper: Danielle Taschereau-Mamers commentary Aleks Ksiazkiewicz
Jan 24 Public
v private (1) : health care
Burnham, pp 184-88
(in ch 7) and ch 8 (archival and internet research)
Van Evera, “The Dissertation Proposal” (reader)
Chaoulli
v Quebec (Supreme Court decision on private health insurance) (reader)
Boston
Review Forum on Democracy: “Ruled by the Market?” (April-May 1999) online
at:
http://bostonreview.net/BR27.3/contents.html
Read
David Bollier, “Reclaiming
the Commons” and these brief replies:
McChesney,
“The Place of Politics”
Angell,
“Public Health”
Kohn
“The Cost of Community”
Bollier,
“David Bollier
Replies”
Tues
seminar paper: Alejandro Pachon commentary: Meena Gupta
Wed
seminar paper: Katrina Stewart commentary:
Michelle Lennox
Jan 31 Public
v private (2)
Burnham,
ch 3 - 4 (comparative methodology, surveys and opinion polls)
Arendt,
“The Public and the Private Realm” (ch 2 of The Human Condition) (reader)
Orwell, “Politics and The
English Language”, at
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm
Tues
seminar paper: Chris Gallop commentary: Danielle Taschereau-Mamers
Wed
seminar paper: Greg Lane commentary:
Maggie Bosse
Feb 7 Multiculturalism (K essays
due Friday)
Taylor,
“The Politics of Recognition”
(reader)
Carmichael,
“Multicultural Liberalism” (reader)
Panopalis,
“Moral Agency, Moral Harm, and The Demand for Recognition” (reader)
John
Bowen, “Muslims and
Citizens”, Boston Review
(2004): online at http://bostonreview.net/BR29.1/bowen.html
Boston
Review Debate on Feminism and Multiculturalism (1999). On line
at : http://bostonreview.net/BR22.5/toc.html
Okin, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?”
Pollitt,
“Whose Culture?”
Kymlicka.,
“Liberal Complacencies”.
Tues
seminar paper: Aleks Ksiazkiewicz commentary: Chris Gallop
Wed
seminar paper: Chris Emmerling commentary:
Mike Reeves
Part 2: Global Justice and Human Rights
Feb 14 The Challenge of Global Justice (1)
Burnham,
ch 5 (descriptive statistics)
Thucydides:
“The Melian Conference”
(reader)
Daedalus special issue (2003) on The
Challenge of Global Justice
Stanley
Hoffmann, “World
governance: beyond utopia”
Goldsmith
and Krasner, “The
limits of idealism”
Kaysen and Rathjens, “The
case for a UN force”
Nussbaum,
“Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism” (reader)
Tues seminar paper: Pawel Romanowski commentary: Alejandro Pachon
Wed
seminar paper: Maggie Bosse commentary: Janene Saunders
Feb 21 reading
week: no seminar
Feb 28 The
Challenge of Global Justice (2)
Hotel Rwanda
(movie)
Rubenfeld,
“The
Two World Orders”, Wilson
Quarterly 27:4 (2003)
Daedalus
special issue (2003) on The Challenge of Global Justice.
Nussbaum, “Compassion
and Terror”
Elshtain, “The responsibility of nations: a moral case for coercive justice”
Tues
seminar paper: Christopher
Alderson commentary: Caleb Basnett
Wed
seminar paper: Mike Reeves commentary: Katrina Stewart
Mar 7 World
Poverty and Human Rights
Burnham, ch 6
(making inferences)
World
Poverty and Human Rights:
symposium in Ethics & International Affairs 19:1 (2005)
Thomas
Pogge, “World
Poverty and Human Rights”
Debra
Satz “What
Do We Owe the Global Poor?”
Global
Poverty Relief : symposium in Ethics & International Affairs 16:1 (2002) :
Andrew
Kuper, “More
than Charity”
Peter
Singer, “Poverty, Facts and Political Philosophies”
Tues
seminar paper: Caleb Basnett commentary:
Alex Rozmus
Wed
seminar paper: Janene
Saunders commentary:
Nicole Go
Mar 14 Are
There Human Rights?
Burnham,
ch 9 (elite interviewing)
Pocklington,
“Against Inflating Human Rights” (reader)
Cranston, Human Rights, Real and Supposed (reader)
Beitz,
“What
Human Rights Mean”
Daedalus (2003)
Yeatman, “Right, the State and the Conception of the Person”, Citizenship Studies 8:4 (2004)
Tues
seminar paper: Meena Gupta commentary:
Andrea Balon
Wed
seminar paper: Nicole Go commentary: Chris Emmerling
Mar 21 Human
Rights: Issues of Justification (K
essays due)
Burnham,
ch 10 (participant observation)
Brown
Universal Human Rights: A Critique
(reader)
Jones, “Justifying Human Rights” (reader)
Parekh,
Non-ethnocentric Universalism (reader)
Tues
seminar paper: Irene Ng commentary:
Christopher Alderson
Wed seminar paper: Rob Ballingall commentary: Jason Morris
Part 3: University
Issues and Governance
Mar 28 University Issues
and Governance (1)
Burnham, ch 11 (ethics)
Pocklington and
Tupper, No Place to Learn, chs 1- 4
Tues seminar paper: Christopher Alderson commentary: Andrea Balon
Wed
seminar paper: Jason Morris commentary: Meghan Potkins
April 4 University
Issues and Governance (2)
Burnham, ch 12 (qualititative v quantitative research)
Pocklington
and Tupper, No Place to Learn, chs 5-7
Recommended: Piper, “Building
A Civil Society: A New Role for The Human Sciences”, at http://www.president.ubc.ca/president/speeches/24oct02_killam.pdf
(webpage)
Tues
seminar paper: Andrea Balon commentary:
Heather Chapple
Wed seminar paper: Meghan Potkins commentary:
Rob Ballingall
April 11 University Issues
and Governance (3) (K
essays due)
Pocklington
and Tupper, No Place to
Learn, chs 8-10
Tues
seminar paper: Heather Chapple commentary: Irene Ng
Wed
seminar paper: Michelle Lennox commentary: Greg Lane
April 25 K 499
Proposals Due
Mar 21 Human
Rights: Issues of Justification (K
essays due)
Parekh,
Non-ethnocentric Universalism (reader)
Pocklington, “Against Inflating Human
Rights” (reader)
(review)
Tues
seminar paper: Irene Ng commentary:
Christopher Alderson
Wed seminar paper: Rob Ballingall commentary: Jason Morris
Part 3: University
Issues and Governance
Mar 28 University Issues
and Governance (1)
Pocklington and
Tupper, No Place to Learn, chs 1- 4
Tues
seminar paper: Christopher
Alderson commentary: Andrea Balon
Wed
seminar paper: Jason Morris commentary: Meghan Potkins
Wed
seminar paper: Nicole Go commentary: Chris Emmerling
April 4 University
Issues and Governance (2)
Pocklington
and Tupper, No Place to Learn, chs 5, 8-10
Recommended: Piper, “Building
A Civil Society: A New Role for The Human Sciences”, at http://www.president.ubc.ca/president/speeches/24oct02_killam.pdf
(webpage)
Tues
seminar paper: Andrea Balon commentary:
Heather Chapple
Tues
seminar paper: Alex Rozmus commentary: Pawel Romanowski
Wed seminar paper: Meghan Potkins commentary:
Rob Ballingall
April 11 University Issues
and Governance (3) (K
essays due)
topic tba (probably Hotel Rwanda reconsidered) , in which case we'll read: Hotel Rwanda: Hollywood and the
holocaust in Central Africa by Keith Harmon Snow http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SN20051016&articleId=1096
Tues seminar paper: Heather Chapple commentary: Irene Ng & Alejandro Pachon
Wed
seminar paper: Michelle Lennox commentary: Greg Lane
April 25 K 499
Proposals Due