Graduate

This group brings together students and faculty working at the intersection of politics and identity. Our goal is to foster community among anyone studying the role of social identities in politics and society, regardless of subfield, methods involved, and identities of interest. Anyone is welcome. Participants can present research, give and receive feedback, share research best practices, and work through challenges with fellow scholars in a collegial and welcoming environment. Discussion can center around research at any stage, from fully-drafted working papers, to proposed research designs (e.g., an experiment before it is run), to early-stage ideas and brainstorming. We will meet weekly for an hour for most of the semester. Food and drinks will be served.

Tuesdays 12:30-1:30
Harris Room, Philosophy Hall
Sept 10-Nov 19

*Course will be renumbered to PS290IP as of Fall 2025.

The primary purpose of this seminar is to introduce doctoral students to the literature on legislative politics -- a literature that is substantial, theoretically diverse, and methodologically eclectic.  We will sample from as many different approaches and perspectives as possible, including some comparative research, but we will concentrate on work related to the U.S. Congress.

The practice of carrying out research is an acquired skill. Everyone has to learn it, although traditionally most of it is self-taught. This course is designed to provide students with guidance, structure, and feedback that will help them to frame and execute well-specified and coherent research projects on American political behavior. The seminar also offers students an opportunity to work through their ideas and test their arguments in an informal, small, and collegial setting. Students will present their own research, comment on the research of their peers, and learn about different types of feedback mainly through example.

The workshop provides a forum for students to improve how they think about conducting research projects, to workshop early work, conference papers, and ideas for MA or PhD proposals, and, finally, to develop a community in which they can work through specific practices for research and problems that arise in conducting their projects. These main aims of the 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.

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.

https://polisci.berkeley.edu/research-and-teaching/lectures-colloquia/political-theory-workshop

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

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. 

This description is from Spring 2015