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.

Presentation from Global Voices talk last week

Here are the slides from the talk we had on Global Voices on Thursday 6th December

 

Presentazione gv 06 dic2012(1) from Francesca Helm

Placements, cover letters ...

I've seen from a lot of your comments about the Future of Political and Social Sciences that one of the main issues you have is that of internships and career opportunities, with which you feel that the university does not help you a great deal. At the beginning of the course some of you had also asked me to do a lesson on writing good cover letters to support your applications for jobs. So this week, as well as discussing education we will also look at cover letters and brainstorm on what kind of support you would find useful.

University of Kent has an excellent university website providing advice for graduates on writing cvs, cover letters, online application forms.
iHipo This is a useful website with links to international internships and jobs, and also advice on cv and coverletter writing
Wikihow has advice on How to write a letter of Intent
Eurodesk is one of the sites recommended by the You (th)in Motion group blog, amongst the many useful resources they have found for you all.

Here are some internships which I have recently seen advertised
ILO internships
ECAS - European Citizen Action Service


Imagine you are writing a cover letter to apply for the following internship at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.

More on Future of Political Sciences

Here are some resources so you can learn more about some of the speakers who will be at the Future of Political Sciences Conference (if you are not already familiar with them).

Jan Aart Scholte
Jan Aart Scholte is Professor in PAIS and Professorial Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (CSGR) at the University of Warwick. He is also Academic Lead of the University's Global Research Priorities in Global Governance. His main research covers globalisation, global governance, civil society in global politics, and global democracy.



Lynn Mario de Souza
A Brazilian educator who has worked in many educational projects, including Learning to Read the world through Other Eyes (TOE). Based on postcolonial and poststructuralist theories, TOE focuses on indigenous knowledge systems as epistemologies (or ways of knowing) that offer different ontological choices (or choices related to the ways we see reality and being) to those of the so-called ‘Western’ mainstream cultures.  

Derrick Cogburn
Derrick Cogburn is Associate Professor of International Relations at the School of International Service at American University. In addition, he is Senior Scientist and Chief Research Director at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University.
He has written a lot about globally disrtributed learning collaborative learning and is director of COTELCO,
The Center for Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Communities. He has also set up the Institute for Disability and Public Policy in Thailand.

Saskia Sassen

Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
Co-Chair Committee on Global Thought, Columbia UniversitySaskia Sassen's research and writing focuses on globalization (including social, economic and political dimensions), immigration, global cities (including cities and terrorism), the new technologies, and changes within the liberal state that result from current transnational conditions.

 Or if you'd prefer to read here is an interview on the same topic.

The Future of Political and Social Sciencees

Next week is supposed to be dedicated to the improvement of university teaching and I'd like to open a discussion with you on this topic, also in view of the event which will be taking place in the Department on the 14th and 15th December, the Future of Political and Social Sciences, which is part of a broader project: Next Generation Global Studies. I'd like you to consider how you think this university could help you to become critical, creative and responsible global citizens and political scientists. What and how would you like to learn? What is the role of foreign languages in this process? New technologies? Global networks?

Here are a couple of videos to get you thinking, please comment with your thoughts on this topic and try to start a dialogue about this which we can continue in class. You could also think about making a short collective statement  - in the form of a document, a video, a powerpoint... the possibilties are endless - which could be presented at some point during the event.  

This week's lessons and assignments

First of all congratulations on your presentations today - it was really interesting listening to and watching your presentations about speeches, I certainly learnt from you all and I'm sure you learnt from each other too.
On the language work page I have put the file from Monday with the transformation exercises we did on the active and passive, as well as the other texts we looked at for participants and processes.
You have two possibilities for your assignments for next week:
- post on your blog, (you could focus on how participants and processes are portrayed in a text on your topic if you want) and comment on another blog
- post a comment to my blog post about the Future of Political and Social Sciences and a post to another student blog.
- post on your blog, (you could focus on how participants and processes are portrayed in a text on your topic if you want) and comment on my blog post about the Future of Political and Social Sciences.