Fall/Winter Timetable

POL2810Y1Y L0101

M.A. Research Seminar I

Exploring Political Transitions

Themes

This course is intended primarily for M.A. students to meet the research requirements of the Departmental M.A. program. The primary purpose of the seminar is to provide an opportunity for students to design and conduct an independent research project on a topic of their choice. Topics chosen may fit within the major themes of the course, but equally students are free to define their own topics outside of those parameters. The course is designed to assist students with their choice of research topic, with framing the research appropriately in terms of conceptualization and research design, and in identifying useful methodologies and appropriate resources and research materials. The substantive focus will be on issues of political transition. The purpose is not so much to introduce the broad field of transitology as to assess the various approaches that have been used in the study of “Third Wave” transitions. A number of sessions will be devoted to the presentation and discussion of research projects as they take shape over the course of the year.

Texts

Barbara Geddes, Paradigms and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative Politics, (University of Michigan Paperback). Available for purchase at the University of Toronto Bookstore.

Format and Requirements

TBA