Ciao!

I'll be back, I promise

12.11.2006

I apologize for the light blogging. But I've been swamped w/ the end-of-the-semester workload. In addition to planning my courses for next semester, I'm also hoping to (finally!) make headway on the post-defense revisions to my dissertation. Fortunately, I've finished all three syllabi for next semester as of earlier this afternoon. Now I can concentrate on the dissertation revisions (since next week I'll be grading almost 100 final exams).

If you're interested in a peak at my courses next semester, here they are:

Introduction to Comparative Politics (POSC 150)
(posc150syl.doc)
A substantially revamped version of the course I taught this semester, this time focusing much more on regime types, democratization, and electoral systems & party systems. From the syllabus, it looks like a lot of reading, but it's not any more than the students read this semester.

Heroes & Villains: Populism in Latin America (POSC 290)
(posc290syl.doc)
A brand new course inspired by much of the online (and in press media) discussions about the "new left" in Latin American politics (including this recent exchange w/ Matt Shugart at Fruits & Votes). Should be fun.

Democracy and Its Discontents (POSC 390)
(posc390syl.doc)
My first senior seminar. I taught a similar course a few years back at Western, but it wasn't a "senior seminar" so it had fewer readings. This time, I'm going to focus extensively on liberalism, socialism & communism, and fascism — and w/ a strong emphasis on their relationship to modern democratic theory. We're also going to watch several films (including some interesting Soviet animated propaganda from the 1930s-1950s).

In the meantime, I've been trying to keep up w/ the Bolivian political roller coaster. It's been intense. I've deliberately avoided writing about it because I wanted some time to write something more introspective, after I'd had time to think about what was going on — and since things change from day to day so rapidly, I've been worried about not having enough "distance" from events to really have a solid idea. But basically it's like "round X" of the will-they-or-won't-they-secede question going back almost two years now.

On the home front: K8 & I have enjoyed our first full week of blissfully married life. All the wonderful wedding gifts certainly help! And w/ our honeymoon coming up, I'm getting excited about some (relatively) quiet time traipsing through Italy & France (in part blogging is light because I've promised myself not to bring any work on my honeymoon — unlike the wedding weekend, when I did bring some Latin American politics work w/ me).

Oh, and as soon as I get some digital pictures of the wedding that I can post to Flickr, I'll rave all about them.

Posted by Miguel at 05:01 PM

Comments

Posted by: David C. at December 12, 2006 08:41 AM