The world is buzzing with news that Germany has introduced a 'third sex'- or, the option to leave a child's gender as indeterminate. This raises a slough of questions and long-overdue discussion. Speaking of gender, Californians are debating a new law in California...
Happy first day of Fall classes, at least at my university. A question for discussion: Is there any value whatsoever to a live lecture delivered in front of large numbers of students, given that...
In my grad class every semester, I always ask the students if IR is really the best field for studying human security. Undoubtedly, I get some students who respond that political science is the...
Steve Walt asked a great question the other day: Â Are U.S. Interests Really at Stake in Egypt, Syria, etc...? Â In posing the question, he cited a recent comment from Brendan Green, a visiting...
I have an update for those interested in the decision by the University of the West of England to shutter its Politics and IR programs. Last night, I sent the following message to UWE Vice Chancellor Steven West: 19 February 2013 Dear Vice Chancellor West, I learned today that the University of the West of England is seriously considering a decision to close its Politics and International Relations programs. I believe that would be a serious mistake and would urge you not to make it. From what I understand, the decision will be part of a university effort to refocus coursework around skills...
I apologize for my radio silence on the OIAS awards since we announced the finalists. The winners are being selected by a panel of judges for each award. Each panel is composed of staff from the Duck of Minerva and "outside experts." The latter have PhDs in political science and are "blog savvy," meaning that they either maintain blogs and/or are long-term consumers of academic blogs. Each judge is providing a "top two" ranking directly to me. I will tally the outcome using a basic Borda-count procedure. As detailed in previous posts: [W]e will announce winners at the annual meeting of the...
• Belusconi offers tax rebates. Opponents accuse him of seeking to "buy votes." The letter came in an official-looking envelope, headed: "Important notice: reimbursement of IMU 2012." "The refund will be available either through a transfer into your bank account, or to you personally at the counter of the post office," the letter said, according to Reuters. It was sent to millions of households in Sicily, Veneto, Campania and Lombardy - key regions which could decide the result of the election, which is held on Sunday and Monday. The IMU tax amounts to 0.4% of the value of a property...
Earlier today, I received an email alerting me to the fact that the University of the West of England’s Academic Board supported a recommendation from the Vice Chancellor’s Executive Group to close all international relations and politics programs. Apparently, the plan is to refocus the university (one of the ten largest in England) on skills-based learning and vocational courses, which essentially means that arts and social sciences have no place in future plans. As long-time Duck readers know, I think this is a very bad idea -- and some much-discussed research strongly supports the value...
Because "53 reasons" is just plain stupid, and increments of five are basically listicles, I provide three. 1. We are heading straight for maximum Star Wars saturation. Despite its ham-handed didacticism,  Star Trek's values are far preferable to those of Star Wars. We cannot allow aristocratic fantasy to bury republican virtue. 2. JJ Abrams is a pretty good action director, but he doesn't seem to understand the intellectual possibilities of science fiction. At its best, Star Trek has been one of the few non-cable programs to explore those possibilities. And it has almost invariably done so...
Only a handful of links this morning: Seth Masket investigates what happens when you raise the cost of voting. Unsurprising: minority and poor voters suffer more. Tim Burke pushes back against MOOCs and the failure of managerial class models of higher education. Nina Zumel provides a public service by transforming William Cleveland's plots into ggplot2. Gopnik on Galileo [The New Yorker] Xavier Marquez traces the spread of liberal norms:[I]t seems clear that many of these norms are liable to lose their force as they become globally dominant simply as a result of adaptation on the part of...
Okay, I don't have one. But I'd like to call attention to some excellent discussion of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Adam Kotsko asks "what is the business model for online education." Nigel Thrift analyzes the recent "media obsession" with MOOCs. Louis Betty makes unfortunate swipes at Apple in pursuit of a larger point about techno-faddishism, pedagogy, and higher education. Betty's piece recalls a great satirical post that Paul Musgrave wrote some time ago at the Duck. And Thoreau reminds us that the real problem in higher education is the debt bubble. You should go read all of...
Here's the ten eleven best West Wing episodes you should watch today: Noel Posse Comitatus A Proportional Response kludge