When thinking about what things I most wish someone had told me in graduate school… I found it difficult to not write about work-life balance, particularly today.
It’s the last weekend in August, which means at least 1 of 2 things are happening: APSA drinking ABDs hurriedly working on their job market materials. Since (a) is still a week away, I thought I’d...
This is a guest post by both Nexon and Patrick Thaddeus Jackson. Standard disclaimers apply. Cullen Hendrix's guest post is a must read for anyone interested in citation metrics and...
The following is a guest post by Cullen Hendrix of the University of Denver.  If you’ve read or seen Moneyball, the following anecdote will be familiar to you: Baseball is a complex sport requiring...
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...
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...
The twentieth Duck of Minerva podcast features Phil Schrodt of Pennsylvania State University. The interview includes Professor Schrodt's views on a number of interesting topics, including the history of quantitative and computational conflict studies, his "seven deadly sins" project, advice for graduate students in political science, and an explanation of his decision to take up blogging. This is the third podcast to only feature an mp3 version. I don't get the sense that anyone is missing the m4a ("enhanced") enhanced podcasts, but please correct me if I am mistaken...
Ouch. This hurts. Satire by Alan Dove (via): In a groundbreaking new study, scientists at Some University have discovered that a single molecule may drive people to perform that complex behavior we’ve all observed. Though other researchers consider the results of the small, poorly structured experiment misleading, a well-written press release ensures that their criticisms will be restricted to brief quotes buried near the bottoms of most news stories on the work, if they’re included at all. “This is a real game-changer for our understanding of this complex behavior, which has affected so...
John Quiggin at Crooked Timber
My "Death to Job Talks!" provocation has produced some longer-form responses at other Political Science blogs. Jeremy Wallace defends the institution. Tom Pepinsky goes further and argues that "there is no alternative to the academic job talk." Nate Jensen gets to the heat of the matter by asking if the "academic hiring process [is] broken." Jeremy compares the current format of job talks favorably to a major alternative, the proseminar. He argues that the proseminar creates problems in terms of starting the conversation, introduces the problem of the conversation not taking off,...
I was part of a short conversation last night about the standard job-search process in political science. For those of you who aren't political scientists, but nonetheless feel compelled to read this, the process for junior candidates looks something like this: Starting in the late summer, political-science departments post position announcements with the American Political Science Association. Most job hunters read those announcements on e-jobs and decide whether or not to apply. Prospective hires send in materials to institutions. These typically include: (1) at least one writing sample --...
A little over four years ago the U.S. Department of Defense issued its first Minerva grants. These often substantial awards have produced a significant number of publications by some of the "best and brightest" (including long-term Duck of Minerva guest blogger Josh Busby) in the field and, whether directly or indirectly, shaped the nature of (at least) contemporary security studies. But it seems to me that we haven't had anything resembling a robust discussion about consequent costs and benefits to political science, international relations, and security studies. A brief search online...