Fall 2021

PS 375 is a two-credit course designed for first-time Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs).  The course seeks to introduce students to practical teaching methods and to foster discussion about effective pedagogy. It also focuses on professional development, in particular on developing skills that are closely related to effective teaching such as presentation skills. The course features student presentations on selected pedagogical topics, panels on key issues related to teaching and to professional development, and discussion of weekly assignments in relation to challenges encountered by GSIs in the course of their teaching.

This course is a  seminar which can be taken for 0 - 2 units, Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory with the following course description:

A forum for the presentation and discussion of research in progress by graduate students. To receive credit for the course, the student will participate fully, including, as asked, either making a presentation of work in progress or serving as lead  discussant for another student's work. Appropriate works-in-progress include  (but are not limited to) a paper in preparation for submission to a journal, a dissertation prospectus (including early drafts), a dissertation chapter, or a job market paper. Anyone working on theory is welcome.

Please see click on the link below for more information regrarding MIRTH

http://polisci.berkeley.edu/research-and-teaching/lectures-colloquia/monday-international-relations-thoughts-series-mirth

A forum for the presentation and discussion of research in quantitativemodeling. Anyone working on quantitative modeling or empirical testing of quantitative models is welcome to attend. To receive credit for the course, a student must attend regularly, participate actively, and make at least two presentations per semester. Presentations can be of the student's own work-in-progress or of work by other scholars (including both influential/classic works or interesting current working papers).

Variable Unit Course: 1.0 to 3.0

This colloquium exposes graduate students and faculty to work by leading scholars of comparative politics working in diverse substantive areas. Graduate students are expected to read circulated papers of visiting speakers ahead of the colloquium and participate actively in raising questions and making comments.  They are encouraged to meet visiting speakers in their areas of interest in group or one-on-one sessions. 

NOTE: This description is from Spring 2015

The main aims of this workshop are met through a forum in which faculty and graduate students at various career stages work closely together. It is an applied workshop with an emphasis on learning by doing and on learning how to be a more constructive colleague. Rather than segregate PhD students by cohort, the workshop is designed to bring cohorts together in order to facilitate the student-to-student transfer of skills and knowledge.

The goal of this yearlong course is to provide a forum in which students propose, develop, and complete a research project that produces a journal-length paper of publishable quality. This paper will typically serve as students' second-year M.A. essay, and the course is intended as a complement to that requirement. This course is primarily oriented towards second-year Ph.D. students in any subfield (students in other years may participate with the professors’ consent). The course meets regularly during parts of the fall semester and irregularly during the spring semester. In the first few weeks of the course, we discuss the process of moving from research topic to research question; and we survey published articles by recent Ph.D. students/assistant professors, focusing on the structure and nature of the writing and presentation as well the quality of the argument and evidence. We then move to students’ research proposals for the rest of the fall semester. During the spring semester, students meet individually with the course instructors and their advisors, develop and revise drafts of their papers, and present their work at a department “APSA-style” conference. In order to complete the course and receive credit, students must complete the requirements for both semesters.

This graduate seminar is designed to introduce students to the comparative study of ethnic politics. It provides an overview of theoretical frameworks and methodological innovations across topics such as group mobilization, cleavage activation, identity representation, redistributive politics, and political violence. The readings are drawn from various political science subfields as well as other disciplines, reflecting a range of regional and country contexts. The purpose of the course is to provide graduate students with the background necessary for undertaking original research on questions relating to various forms of identity politics. The seminar should enable them to critically engage recent scholarship, understanding which theories have yet to be adequately tested and which theoretically interesting questions have yet to be asked. Students will ultimately be able to produce a research paper that serves as the basis for a prospectus, dissertation chapter, or publishable article.

This course introduces graduate students to study design and data collection in political science,
both large-n (“quantitative”) and small-n (“qualitative”), though with more emphasis on the
former than the latter. It will consider both general claims about particular methods and many
examples. Specific topics include (1) Positivism vs. Interpretivism, (2) Causal inference (3)
Measurement, (4) Experimental Design, (5) Quasi-Experimental Design, (6) Sampling, (7)
Survey Research, (8) In-Depth Interviewing, (9) Field Research, (10) Aggregate Data and
Linkage Designs, (11) Content Analysis, (12) Case Studies and Case selection, and (13)
Comparative and Multi-method research design. In addition to completing a final exam, students
write four short (5-page) papers over the course of the semester designed to help them relate
course material to their own research interests and objectives: one on measurement, one on
sampling, one on research design, and one that carries out a mini-project involving surveying,
interviewing, content analysis, or dataset construction and statistical analysis. Class time is a
mix of lecture, Q&A, and discussion/presentations regarding student projects. During the Fall
2021 semester, the class will meet twice per week (virtually)—for two hours on Wednesday and
one hour on Friday. The reading load is heavy but guided, with brief summaries provided to help
students pick and choose what to read carefully vs. just skim. Students should emerge better
equipped to undertake their own research and better able to evaluate the work of others.