Political science and IR society

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Reply 60

e-lover

This reminds me to ask, if you guys have got any Politics books that you may be looking to sell PM me please :smile:

Reply 61

Kitty Pimms

Bismarck

I never got the impression that the bargaining models were really constructivist; they just emphasized the deal-making process more than the reasons behind it (it's all nice and well to see how European integration takes place, but it doesn't make much sense without looking at the context of those negotiations, especially as it relates to which countries push for integration and why). And thanks for the offer. I really have no idea what to expect from first year of the doctorate program (since a masters isn't a prerequisite). Will see what happens. :smile:

Where are you planning to take your doctorate, and are you going for PT or FT? It sounds like you've got a fairly defined idea (and it doesn't involve all that much empirical legwork by the sounds of things, which is always a bonus).

Reply 62

Kitty Pimms

e-lover

This reminds me to ask, if you guys have got any Politics books that you may be looking to sell PM me please :smile:

*Clutches books protectively* You're not having mine!

Seriously though, there's always a massive amount of notes pinned around the department at this time of year as the final years try to offload their (often barely used) textbooks. If you can pop in it would probably be worth it - otherwise have a look on facebook marketplace amongst others.

Reply 63

Wise One

Ahoy-hoy.

What did I miss?

Reply 64

Kitty Pimms

Wise One

Ahoy-hoy.

What did I miss?

Hey you!

We had a discussion about realism a few pages back. 'Twas rather enlightening for a straight political scientist such as myself. :smile:

Did you give your research area some thought, btw?

Reply 65

Wise One

IlexAquifolium

Did you give your research area some thought, btw?

Was that when I was angsting out over postgraduate study? I know I'm taking at least a year in "the real world" first, but trying to work out whether pursue Anthropology, International Relations, or something like Digital Media ... if at all. Perhaps some weird mix of all three.

Guess I'll have to see how it goes.

Reply 66

Kitty Pimms

Wise One

It was indeed. I know you said you were planning to take a year out, but I thought I'd ask how you were getting on :smile:

Well after having taken a JH course, I'm guessing you'd be in a good position to put together a multi-disciplinary proposal taking both into account. To be frank, I am told the 1 part is going to be crushingly boring whichever subject you take it in.

Reply 67

unknown demon

I'm interested if you guys will have me :smile:

Reply 68

Kitty Pimms

Bismarck

U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (assuming those are meant to mean part-time and full-time, it will be full-time, as that's the only way to get funding, and I really don't want to drag this out anyway). I'm afraid it will require more empirical work than I'd like, as that's the direction of political science in the US. Not only that, but out of the 16 or so classes that one has to take before taking the main exams and moving on to the dissertation, 4-5 have to be in stats. And this program is pretty middle of the road as far as reliance on quantitative skills goes.

I think that's the direction all social science PhD programmes seem to be taking. The compulsory '1' part of my funded term has 5 out of the 6 modules on research (quants, quals, the research process, and politics-specific methods and analysis). I do sometimes wonder if they're trying to produce some kind of identically-trained army to take over the world.

Reply 69

Socrates

IlexAquifolium

I do sometimes wonder if they're trying to produce some kind of identically-trained army to take over the world.

You mean you didn't get the memo?

Reply 70

Kitty Pimms

Socrates

You mean you didn't get the memo?

Bismarck

I was conditionally accepted to a program that asked me if I'd be willing to not argue the merits of quantitative/qualitative research in class as the condition of acceptance (every professor there does quantitative, and as far as I can tell, as does every single student).

I don't mind research classes in general. I have a problem with stats. I'm not very good at it. So having to take 4-5 advanced stats classes isn't going to do wonders for my grades.

I am expecting to completely bomb at the MA. I am so bad at stats its untrue (hence why I made my PhD predominantly qualitative :redface:

) but luckily one of my supervisors is a fearsome quants wizard. So I am hoping some of that will rub off on me!

Reply 71

Kitty Pimms

Bismarck

As far as I could tell, Brits only have to take very basic quantitative classes. I wouldn't worry about those. The problem is when you get into advanced stats, which is basically another language. And having a quant wizard for a supervisor means getting screamed at for every minor quantitative mistake. :p:

I have to sit an advanced quants module which he teaches. Stop depressing me. :p:

Reply 72

EvilSheep

Ooooh, if the lecture was in Swahili I'd understand.. At least some of the words :biggrin:

I wouldn't understand anything of what he was actually talking about..

Anyways, were we supposed to introduce ourselves or something??
Well, I'm Malin from Bergen (Norway). I'm going to Notts this year to do Msci IR & Global Issues - Really excited about it.. Course looks very cool, with 2nd year abroad.. (I don't count England as abroad anymore!)
After that I'd like to do African studies at Oxford, and then do my Ph.D in Geneva... :biggrin:

But you never know what's going to happen, so we'll see..

Reply 73

Kitty Pimms

EvilSheep

Ooooh, if the lecture was in Swahili I'd understand.. At least some of the words :biggrin:

But you never know what's going to happen, so we'll see..

Hey Malin!

Oooh, have fun! That sounds like a really exciting course - I had a flick through the website. Are you particularly interested in African politics?

Reply 74

EvilSheep

IlexAquifolium

Hey Malin!

Oooh, have fun! That sounds like a really exciting course - I had a flick through the website. Are you particularly interested in African politics?

Yeah, African politics is one of the things I'm really interested in.. Want to work in/towards Africa one day, which was partly the reason why I started a Swahili course :biggrin:

Swahili is awesome btw!!

Reply 75

Kitty Pimms

EvilSheep

Yeah, African politics is one of the things I'm really interested in.. Want to work in/towards Africa one day, which was partly the reason why I started a Swahili course :biggrin:

Swahili is awesome btw!!

I spent some time learning Japanese, but I was absolutely rubbish at it. I have no flair for languages whatsoever, which is a bit of a bugger since I need to learn to read Spanish better than I do. :s-smilie:

Reply 76

EvilSheep

IlexAquifolium

The only thing that works (imo) is to go to the country where the language is spoken.. Or - if that's not possible - really immerse yourself in the language, via books, tv/radio etc... I love languages :biggrin:

My aim is to know 9.. Which means I have 4 left... :s-smilie:

Reply 77

Kitty Pimms

EvilSheep

My aim is to know 9.. Which means I have 4 left... :s-smilie:

Not a bad idea. I normally try reading newspapers, journal articles and such - I find textbooks really don't help me unless there's a different alphabet I need to get the hang of. Linguists scare me :smile:

What are the five your currently speak? (Norwegian, English and Swahili I assume are three!)

Reply 78

EvilSheep

IlexAquifolium

What are the five your currently speak? (Norwegian, English and Swahili I assume are three!)

Well, I don't really speak Swahili, I just know a couple of words.. My languages are Norwegian, Swedish and Danish (they are quite similar though, so they shouldn't really count, but they do!!), English and French. he languages I want to learn are Spanish (I understand lots of it already), Swahili (know a little), Greek (know a teeny tiny bit) and Russian (know nothing).. So yeah, I've got some things to look into!! Why do linguists scare you??

Reply 79

Kitty Pimms

EvilSheep

Impressive! Linguists scare me because I can barely speak English, let alone anything else! I'm just dire at learning other languages; I'm not entirely sure why but I find it really difficult and stressful. I'd love to pick up some others, though, so I am trying! :smile: