Strategies to Help With Learning

Drake Baer, 7 Memory Skills That Will Make You Smarter, Business Insider, 6-18-14

http://www.businessinsider.com/learning-hacks-that-will-maximize-your-memory-2014-6

Drake Baer, 4 Strategies For Remembering Everything You Learn, Business Insider, 8-18-14

http://www.businessinsider.com/strategies-for-remembering-everything-you-learn-2014-8

News - Environment, War

Joel Achenbach, Scientists: Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine 'planetary boundaries, The Washington Post, 1-15-15

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/scientists-human-activity-has-pushed-earth-beyond-four-of-nine-planetary-boundaries/2015/01/15/f52b61b6-9b5e-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html?msource=MAG10&auid=15121174

Chris Hedges, Killing Ragheads For Jesus, Truthdig.com, 1-25-15

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/killing_ragheads_for_jesus_20150125

Exemplar Blog Post: Session 2 - A History of IR?

"Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future." -George Orwell.

Brian Schmidt's The Political Discourse of Anarchy attempts to complicate the traditional narrative that exists about the field of international relations. He challenges two traditional perspectives on the history of the field by presenting an alternative history through the use of discourse analysis. Through careful archival research, Schmidt is able to reconstruct the long-forgotten historical discourse in the field. He challenges a reified understanding of ideas like anarchy and their conceptual place in our current understanding of international relations. By challenging these reified ideas, students of international relations are able to a gain a more nuanced history of the field. This nuanced history challenges core assumptions and provides alternative explanations for how and why the field is conceptualized the way it is.

Schmidt begins by highlighting the two traditional historical narratives that are told about international relations. One approach looks to the deep past to provide historical connection and legitimacy for modern debates. For example, scholars draw a line from Thucydides to Hobbes, from Locke to Morgenthau, all in an attempt to provide a progressive understanding of the field's historical evolution. The second approach is to argue that external events - such as war, colonialism, etc. - have defined the evolution of the field.

Schmidt then posits an alternative explanation for the history of the field. He describes it as a "critical internal discursive history" that aims to examine the academic debate that existed among scholars of the field over time. He discovers that changes in the understanding of concepts - such as the state, sovereignty, power, and anarchy - occurred primarily because of an internal discursive dialogue. This internal discursive dialogue led to the centralization of the concept of anarchy in the field of international relations and explains why we still discuss the topic so much to this day.

Schmidt provides a much needed contribution to our understanding of the historical evolution of the field of international relations. Rather than accepting traditional narratives about how the field evolved, reconstructing the internal academic discourse provides modern students of international relations a vantage point from which to understand the history of the field.

How To Blog

Welcome to our class blog! The expectations for the blog are as follows:

1. Provide a post on a topic that sparked your interest from the class readings every session by 9pm the day before class.

2. Each post must be a MINIMUM of 250 words. There is no maximum word limit.

3. In addition to a post, you must also respond to a post from at least 1 of your classmates. You should respond to a different classmate each session. These responses must also be submitted before the beginning of class.

4. Write in standard academic language. Come up with a unique title for each post, but ensure that you start by labeling its with what session you are responding to (e.g. "Session 2 - A History of IR?).

5. Responses should not be a summary of the readings. Instead, they should demonstrate critical engagement with the reading. Be as creative as you'd like.

In order to make this process more manageable for you all, I've decided to make it mandatory that you submit 20 total blog posts and respond to 20 people's blog posts over the course of the semester. You will not be able to submit more than one blog post per session and only one comment per session will be counted towards your required comment total (but please comment as much as you like, as it can spark good discussions). The TAs will be keeping track of the number or posts you make, but it would also be helpful if you kept track as well.

By having you submit 20 total blog posts, this will give you some leeway in case you are unable to blog one session. Basically I'm giving you a break for a few posts over the course of the semester in order to alleviate any pressure from blogging. However, once a deadline has passed (for example we've passed the session 2/3 deadline), you can no longer submit on that topic. Finally, the last date to submit blog posts will be May 1, 2015. 

As a general organizational note, I will be posting news items of interest that you all can read if you'd like. The next post that I will make will be an exemplar of how to blog. Although I recognize that my piece will be at a more advanced level, I expect you all to still try your best to hone and develop a writing voice. I'm looking for critical engagement because being an effective communicator in multiple mediums will provide dividends for your entire life.

And a quick note on academic integrity: don't plagiarize. Just don't.

If there are any additional questions or concerns, please note them with a comment.