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BIS 324 SYLLABUS |
BIS 324: International Political Economy
Spring Quarter, 2008 Tuesday and Thursday 8:00-10:05 PM, UW1 040
Colin Danby, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Bothell
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Office: UWI-245 |
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(425) 352-5285 |
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Office Hours Tuesday and Thursday 6:00 to 7:45 PM, and by appointment |
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Description
and learning objectives
Why does the
We will use short lectures, handouts, exercises, and small-group work on problems to make sure everyone masters fundamental concepts like comparative advantage and the balance of payments. Exams will include definitions, problems, and short essays. You will be given advance notice of the content of exams, and opportunity for in-class practice.
Most importantly, you will learn by doing your own research. Each participant will be assigned a country and will carry out a series of research tasks on that country over the quarter, producing two research memoranda. In structured exercises in class, you will compare the results or your research with the results of other participants, gaining a comparative and integrative understanding of the larger world. This will give you experience working with real-world data and applying the ideas learned in the course. You will leave the course not just with theoretical knowledge, but with practice in investigating specific questions related to the international economy, and communicating the results of your work.
Requirements
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Completing
question sets and worksheets on time: 10%
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Participation and
in-class worksheets: 10%
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Three exams: 45%
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Research Memos:
35%
Question
sets and worksheets receive full credit if they represent a reasonable effort
to answer all the questions – the answers don’t all have to be
right to get full credit. They can be accessed from the web version of
this syllabus. Participation will be assessed mainly on the basis of your
work in several in-class group sessions: those are currently scheduled for
April 29, May 6, May 15, and May 27; I may add one or two more. Exam
questions and practice problems will be made available before the exams.
The syllabus contains links to the research memo assignments.
Policies
Late work: late submissions will be penalized
15% (of the total possible grade) up to the first week they are late; 30%
thereafter. No late assignments will be accepted after the last day of
class meetings (June 5). It's your responsibility to organize your
life so work gets done on time, reliably. Please do not tell me about
malfunctioning disks, broken printers, bad software, and so forth. There
are no exceptions to the late-work policy -- there simply is no way that I can
fairly assess the personal emergencies, job pressures, and other factors that
impinge on different people's lives, and adjust their assignments
accordingly. Please do not try to show me doctors' notes, court orders,
or anything like that. There is however one appeal: if you feel that
for any reason, part of your grade does not reflect your learning
in the course, write me a short e-mail explaining why, and I will take that
into account when assessing the final grade.
Question sets,
worksheets, and research memos are to be turned in are via Collect
It.
There is no reason to
tell me if you are going to miss class. However if a serious illness or
personal emergency is going to affect course work over a week or more, please
tell me so we can plan how to get you back on track as quickly as possible.
For a few other points see Occasionally-Asked
Questions, How I
Assess Writing, and Notes on Formats
for written work.
Our scheduled classes are
times for work. Focusing on the task at hand is important for your own
learning; it also makes you a better participant in small-group discussions and
other activities that will help others learn. It is therefore expected
that you will use class time for class work.
Even more importantly, I expect
that you will not do anything to distract
other students from class work. This means, for example, avoiding
private conversations, and turning off and putting away cell
phones. In the interest of avoiding distraction this will be a
laptop-free classroom. If you have to arrive late, please walk
in the back door as quietly as possible. Please return from break on time
(my breaks are five minutes). It is my
responsibility, and prerogative, to determine what is appropriate classroom
behavior.
If you believe that you
have a disability and would like academic accommodations, please contact
Disability Support Services at 425.352.5307, TDD 425.352.5303, FAX
425.352.5455, or at rlundborg@uwb.edu.
In most cases, you will need to provide documentation of your disability as
part of the review process.
You are reading a web
document. It can be located by putting "danby" into the faculty
directory accessible via the main uwb page, or (usually) by putting "colin
danby" into a search engine like google. Changes in readings
or assignments will be made on the web version, as well as being announced in
class. If you miss classes, you need to check for any modifications to
assignments.
I encourage you to see
the regular class time as only part of the service provided to you in this
course. Please feel no hesitation about contacting me outside of class, about
using the scheduled office hours, and about setting up meetings at other times.
Aside from visiting during the scheduled office hours or chatting after class,
the best way to get in touch is e-mail. I don't use the voice mail system.
You have a UW e-mail
address, which I may use to communicate with you. You should check the
mailbox regularly, and if you have another primary e-mail address, set your UW
mailbox to forward to that primary address.
It is easier for me to keep track of e-mail from you if you use your UW
e-mail account to contact me. If you
must use another e-mail address, please make sure it is set up so that your full name appears in the
“sender” field.
This course includes
writing, and it is assumed that written work is your own, and that when another
person’s ideas or words are used they are fully acknowledged. This is
what the UWB catalog says:
"Plagiarism
is the use of the creations, ideas or words of someone else without formally
acknowledging the author or source through the use of quotation marks,
references, and the like. Plagiarizing is stealing someone’s work and
presenting it as one’s own work or thought. Student work in which
plagiarism occurs will ordinarily not be accepted as satisfactory by the
instructor, and may lead to disciplinary action against the student submitting
it. Any student who is uncertain whether his or her use of the work of others
constitutes plagiarism should consult the course instructor for guidance before
formally submitting the course work involved."
You
must use quotation marks and references whenever you use someone else's
writing, whether you use their words or their ideas. Mere paraphrase does not exempt you from this
requirement. Plagiarism has been a problem in this course in the
past. Please see these additional notes on
plagiarism. If you are ever in any
doubt about how to credit a source, ask me or a reference librarian. Penalties for plagiarism at UWB include a
zero on the assignment and referral to the disciplinary process overseen by the
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Texts
There are no books to
buy, but there are quite a few things that you are required to print out and
bring with you to class.
Discussion Board
As an experiment, I have
set up this Discussion
Board for BIS 324 as a forum for announcements, questions, and other
conversation relevant to the course.
UWB's excellent Quantitative Skills Center is
ready to help you with this course. I will meet with the center's tutors
to discuss our course material with them.
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