Of interest?

This short course on Hate Speech organized by the Council of Europe may be of interest to someone
Call for participants for the Training course for young online activists

Thank you

Hi
just to thank you all for having completed the feedback form for me, and also for all your hard work on the blog project and the course this year.
I also wanted to encourage you with your blog writing, to carry on your blogs or set up new ones, it's great for your English and maybe for your careers too!
I was just contacted by an ex-student, Alessia, who wrote a blog for her English assessment from Costa Rica where she was working then. She has now set up another blog danordasudparliamone (ok it's in Italian though!) which has attracted a lot of media attention
Please,  keep me updated on your blogging activity if you do carry on. It's also a great idea if you are going abroad on Erasmus to keep a blog.
So.... keep up the good work!

Francesca

Happy New Year

Hi everyone and happy new year!

Can I remind you all to fill in the feedback form for me, I know that some people have done it, but not all of you judging by the number of completed forms I have. Remember they are anonymous, please be sincere!
See you tomorrow, Tuesday and next week for our final conversations.

Francesca

Evaluation and Interviews

As I said today in class, you can sign up for your individual oral interviews in January when we will discuss your work. Just write your name and surname and indicate what day and time you want to come.
If you would like me to correct all of your work, you should give me a printout of your blog posts and comments. You can leave this for me in my pigeon hole in the department in via del Santo 77, or bring it to me when you come for your interview and I will give it back to you later, either during my office hours or when you come to register your marks.

I'd also be grateful if you could take the time to complete an ANONYMOUS feedback form on the course, to help me plan for next year.

Have a good holiday, and see you in January.

Francesca

The future of political sciences

In today's lesson we talked a bit about the future of political and social sciences. It's a pity more of you didn't come as it was a unique opportunity to hear some great thinkers in your field of study!
We spent some time discussing John Trent's paper which brought up several of the issues which you yourselves raised in your comments last week - such as specialization vs fragmentation, use of technology, importance of collaboration and team work ....
Here's the abstract of his paper. I will leave a copy of the full paper in the copy shop tomorrow.

The Next Generation of Political Studies:

Relevant or Irrelevant?

John E. Trent

Abstract: This presentation is based on a multi-year analysis of studies of the discipline of political science – global, national and sectorial – undertaken within Research Committee 33 of the International Political Science Association. The first, empirical section will report on what these studies tell us about the development of political science circa 1990-2012. The second, conjectural part will use this empirical base to seek to respond to the key questions posed by this Symposium concerning the challenges posed to political research and education by globalization. Essentially, my studies have shown that with regard to teaching, political science has become increasingly effective, global, standardized and professional. As regards research output, I find the discipline has become increasingly irrelevant to public opinion and the political class, governments, public debates and the media. The main culprits are our scientific and quantitative pretentions and the ensuing unconnected specializations that characterize our heavily Westernized political science today. These criticisms are not new. To surmount these problems we need to rethink our approaches and methodologies and spread our wings to include new populations, global complexities and pluralistic communities. Proposals are made…

Soliya next semester

If any of you are interested in participating in Soliya next semester (it could contribute to an online placement but would have to be discussed first), please read the information on their website. Also, here is a talk by Shamil Idriss, CEO of Soliya on TED Talks.  You might also want to read the final reflections of the Padova Soliya participants which you will find as comments to the posts in our blog.  If you decide you might want to participate, then please send me an email at francesca.helm@unipd.it

No lesson today

As I told you last week in class, there will be no lesson today, next lesson tomorrow 18th December.