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BIS
324 SYLLABUS |
BISGST
324: International Political Economy
Winter Quarter,
2011
Section A Tuesday and
Thursday 11:00AM-1:00 PM, UW2 031
Section B Tuesday and Thursday 5:45-7:45 PM, UW2 031
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
Thursday 3:30-5:30 PM, and by appointment |
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Description and learning objectives
Why has 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 of problems.
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. 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 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.
“Research” includes
upper-level skills of analysis, synthesis, assessment, and critical use of
sources. In everyday life, and
elementary education, we often use “research” to mean simple retrieval of
information, without any further work or thought. You will certainly need to retrieve
information in this course, but that is only the start: you will be expected to
use it thoughtfully to address
questions, you will be asked to pull together data from different sources to
reach conclusions, to break down complex questions into simpler ones, and to
think carefully and critically about how your sources know things and what they
are choosing to include or omit.
IAS Portfolio: http://www.uwb.edu/ias/
This is a core course for
the Global Studies degree in
IAS. Among the IAS
learning objectives, this course emphasizes interdisciplinary research,
critical thinking, and writing.
Requirements
Completing
question sets satisfactorily and worksheets on time: 10%
Participation
and in-class worksheets: 10%
Three
exams: 45%
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 have to be right to get full credit, but I expect
careful attention. If you have trouble
answering a question, write about why you have trouble; you are also always
encouraged to show me draft answers by e-mail. Participation will be
assessed mainly on the basis of your work in several in-class group sessions:
those are currently scheduled for January 18, February 1, 8, and 22, and March
3, but I may shift them around as we go, and I may add others. Exam
questions and practice problems will be made available a week before the
exams.
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 graded after March 10. It's
your responsibility to organize your life so work gets done on time,
reliably. Please do not tell me about malfunctioning computers, flat
tires, 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 individual deadlines accordingly. 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. Exams cannot be
postponed.
Question sets,
worksheets, and research memos are to be turned in via Collect It. This
course does not use Blackboard.
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. Most importantly, I
expect that you will not do anything to distract other students from class work.
This means
·
Avoiding private
conversations, keeping food and drink under control, and turning off and
putting away cell phones and all other portable electronic devices.
·
In the interest
of avoiding distraction, this will be a laptop-free classroom for most of our work together. I may relax this restriction for purposes of
small group work.
·
If you have to
arrive late, please tiptoe in the back door as quietly as possible, and sit at
the back.
·
Please return
from break on time (my breaks are five minutes, which is enough time for the
bathroom or a quick smoke, not enough time to get coffee in UW2).
It is my responsibility,
and prerogative, to determine what is appropriate classroom behavior.
Accommodation for
disabled students is a campus priority.
If you believe that you have a disability and would like academic
accommodations, please contact Disability Support Services at 425.352.5307,
425.352.5303 TDD, 425.352.5455 FAX, or at dss@uwb.edu.
http://www.uwb.edu/studentservices/dss. I am delighted to work with DSS and encourage
you to use their services.
You are reading a web
document. It can be located by putting "danby"
into the faculty directory accessible via the main uwb
page, or 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. The “Collect It” dropbox also has chat functionality, but I don’t monitor it
daily, so please use e-mail for electronic communication with me. I don't
use the voice mail system.
Please check your UW
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.
Academic
integrity: See http://www.uwb.edu/studentservices/academicconduct
for crucial information
regarding academic integrity. The library has an extremely useful website
with resources at http://libguides.uwb.edu/ai;
see also http://www.uwb.edu/writingcenter/writing/plagiarism. You are responsible for knowing what
constitutes a violation of the University of Washington Student Code, and you
will be held responsible for any such violations whether they were intentional
or not. Plagiarism has been a problem in
this course in the past. Proper crediting boils down to two things:
· In
everything that you hand in, your own writing must be clearly distinguished
from other people’s writing. The normal way to do this is with
quotation marks around the sentences or phrases that are not yours.
· Quoted
material, or anything that you got from another source (a fact, an idea,
something paraphrased) must have a reference clearly attached to it that
tells your reader precisely where it came from.
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. All cases of
significant plagiarism in this course will be referred to the Vice Chancellor’s
office.
Snow etc.: Please check on whether the campus
is closed due to weather, earthquakes, or zombie uprisings. Information on suspension of operations will
be made public and available through the media. Students can learn of campus
operations status from the website or by calling the Campus Information Hotline
425.352.3333. You may also sign up with
an alert system that will contact you via email or text message if classes are
canceled. For more information on the alert process, please see http://www.uwb.edu/alert. Class activities
will be rescheduled as needed.
Texts
There are no books to
buy.
Discussion Board
Via “gopost,”
I have set up a Discussion
Board for BIS 324 as a forum for announcements, questions, and other
conversation relevant to the course. I will, for example, post the
country assignments there when they are ready. The board is for both
sections of the course. I will use it for material that may be
interesting to some of you for one reason or another, but which does not merit
taking up class time, and for other purposes. You are encouraged to use
it to post your own questions, announcements, and anything that you think may
be of interest to others in either section of the class. Do keep in mind
the difference between this discussion board and Collect-it: anything you post
to the discussion board can be seen by anyone with a UWNet
ID. Anything you post to Collect-It can be seen only by you and me.
UWB's excellent Quantitative Skills Center is
ready to help you with this course. I will meet with the center's tutors
to discuss course material with them.
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