It’s no surprise that current events regularly lead us to update our syllabi. That doesn’t mean we can’t make “surprise” an important feature of our courses.
Our syllabi should be full of surprises
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Recent Posts
The ULTIMATE Academic Job Market Guide
The following is a guest post by K. Anne Watson, a PhD candidate in Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs. The...
Are Generic Drugs Safe? Big Claims in a New Book
I was in the car when the Dallas radio station KERA came on with an interview with the journalist Katherine Eban, author of the new book Bottle of Lies, in which she claims that the...
US should support environmental peacebuilding and humanitarian efforts for Palestinians
This is a guest post from Erika Weinthal, a Professor at Duke University and Jeannie Sowers, an Associate Professor at the University of New Hampshire What is often referred to as environmental...
More Recent Posts
Negotiating with Terrorists
When governments offer concessions to dissident groups in the midst of a terror campaign, they often see an increase in violence take place afterwards. For example, between 1968 and 1977, attacks conducted by the ETA claimed the lives of 73 people. Partial autonomy was granted to the Basque...
Podcast No. 12 – SF and Pedagogy Panel at ISA-NE 2012
Audio from the Speculative Fiction and Pedagogy panel at the International Studies Association-Northeast 2012 convention.
Mandates!
Krauthammer says that Obama doesn't have a "mandate." In 2004 he argued that Bush had one. According to Krauthammer: [Obama] won by going very small, very negative," said Krauthammer, speaking on FOX News as throngs of Obama supporters danced in celebration over Obama's re-election victory. "This...
Podcast No. 12 – ISA-NE2012 SF and Pedagogy Panel (mp3)
This is the audio (in mp3 format) from the Speculative Fiction and Pedagogy panel at the International Studies Association-Northeast 2012 convention. The panel featured Henry Farrell, Dan Nexon, Jennifer Lobasz, and PTJ. Notes: The new feed for Duck of Minerva podcasts is here. I will continue to...
Podcast No. 12 – ISA-NE2012 SF and Pedagogy Panel (m4a)
This is the audio (in m4a format) from the Speculative Fiction and Pedagogy panel at the International Studies Association-Northeast 2012 convention. The panel featured Henry Farrell, Dan Nexon, Jennifer Lobasz, and PTJ. Notes: The new feed for Duck of Minerva podcasts is here. I will continue to...
Wednesday Morning Election Reaction
One nice thing about a status-quo election: it doesn't leave international-affairs experts with a great deal to prognosticate on. It will be interesting to see if the administration does, indeed, show more "flexibility" on BMD cooperation with Moscow and if it makes a push on Israel-Palestine. We...
Hey! Poll Adjusters: Unskew This!
It was sort of sad watching conservatives play the same game that we did in 2004. Poll aggregation + 1; bubblethought -15.
Why I Voted for Barack Obama Today
Amazing how the Simpsons is still pretty funny after 25 years… In the interest of full disclosure, I thought I’d list the reasons why I voted the way I did. I know conservative media regularly accuse professors of politicizing the classroom, but an honest discussion of why one chooses the...
A Test of the New Podcast Feed
One reason we decided to move to WordPress is superior podcast support. Of course, there's a learning curve involved. So this is a test run of the new podcast feed. If it works, you should have the option of playing my interview with Janice Bially Mattern directly from this post. That's all,...
Tuesday Morning Linkage
US citizens who haven't voted early should exercise axiological rationality and cast their ballots. If you live in Maryland, please consider voting "yes" on Question 6. John Sides takes umbrage at Michael Gerson's attacks on political science. If you squint hard enough at Gerson's arguments then...
Some US 2012 Election Predictions (Updated)
Electoral Outcomes For obvious reasons, I'm much less confident of my predictions in 2012 than in 2008. I think there's a good chance that Florida, Colorado, and Virginia might go the other way. North Carolina and New Hampshire could as well. Regardless, it looks pretty likely that Obama is going...
THE ACTIVISTS: War, Peace, and Politics in the Streets
My good friend and awesome protest/network scholar Michael Heaney at the University of Michigan has released a documentary film, THE ACTIVISTS: WAR, PEACE, AND POLITICS IN THE STREETS. The film is with Melody Weinstein and Marco Roldán and, in addition to the central message of the film, shows the...