Course on Divided Societies: Wayne State Syllabus

Syllabus

The Department of Political Science of Wayne State University, in conjunction with Croatia's Inter-University Center and the WSU Office of Study Abroad and Global Programs, is pleased to offer graduate and undergraduate Wayne State students the opportunity to participate in a two-week interdisciplinary course on "Divided Societies," between April 18 and May 2 in Dubrovnik, Croatia and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia. The course will include sessions organized by Wayne State Political Science faculty members–professors Kevin Deegan-Krause and Brad Roth–as well as by social science faculty members from other participating universities, including the University of Zagreb and the University of Ljubljana.

The course focuses on ethnic conflict and cooperation within states and on the effects of globalization, with special (but not exclusive) attention to the problems of the former Yugoslavia. Political science-oriented sessions will emphasize the comparative politics of ethnically-based social cleavages, the status and rights of ethnic groups in domestic and international law, and the multifaceted nature of state and human security. Other sessions will be oriented toward complementary disciplines, such as history, sociology, and psychology.

Goals

The course is designed to help you achieve the following four objectives:

To learn the basics details of political development in the former Yugoslavia and other countries affected by severe societal division
To understand the implications of this development for those living in the region and for the rest of the world, and to understand the meaning of such important concepts as
- Globalization and Citizenship
  The diminishing importance of location and distance and the effects on states and individuals.
- Shifting Cleavages
  The nature and depth of dividing lines within states and regions and their change over time.
- Conflict and Security
  The role of societal division in the outbreak of conflict and the (re)establishment of inter-group trust.
- Nationalism
  Changes in the meaning and role of national identity and the consequences of external nation- and democracy-building.
- Integration
  Strategies for cooperation among diverse and opposing socio-economic, ethnic, religious, and political groupings.
- Institution Building
  The development of stable, effective systems of group interaction at local, national and supra-national levels and the potential for transplanting institutional models to other societies.
To be able to apply those concepts to concrete problems within particular countries (your own as well as those of the former Yugoslavia).
To write well. This includes both a clear, engaging writing style and organization that gets to the point yet does not oversimplify
Above all, to become enthralled by the place to which we are going and engaged with the people we will meet. .

Methods

This course has three main components:

A classroom component with readings and a preparatory assignment that runs from January until early April
A study-abroad component that involves travel and academic sessions in Croatia and Bosnia in April
A self-study component designed to produce an academic research paper by August

Each method has its own challenges and rewards, and each will involve a different part of your brain and personality

Assignments

What is to be done. This course will involve three major writing assignments

A 5-page literature survey on a possible research topic, due on April 2

A research paper, 7-10 pages per registered credit hour, due by August 7, 2009

Writing. . Good writing is good thinking. Writing is one of the most important things you can learn while you are at Wayne State. Therefore, papers will be marked and graded as if this were an English class. An abundance of grammatical and usage errors can have a severely negative effect on your grade. Where grammar and style make papers confusing, I will base the grade only what I can understand. If you are having problems with style or content, please take the opportunity to talk with me about possible remedies and I will do whatever I can to help. On-line guides to writing in the English language can be found at the Grammar and Style resources website and at Wayne's Academic Success Center on the second floor of the Undergraduate Library. I have also received the permission from a few former students to post some examples of well-written student essays that I have received in the past at Wayne, in the hope that these may offer some guidance. If your ambition extends beyond writing correctly to writing well (and I hope it does), you cannot ask for better guides than the following two authors:

William Zinsser, On Writing Well, Chapters 2 through 4.
George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language"

Format. Papers and take-home exams must be typed, double spaced, with reasonable font size and margins, and within the specified length guidelines. All these guidelines are there for your benefit as well as for mine. A paper that is too long will bear evidence of inability to be concise and organized. A paper that is too short suggests that something is missing. And--a rhetorical question here--why risk angering your instructor with a paper that is messy, crammed together or otherwise unreadable?

Citing your sources. In our information-based society ideas and words are just as precious as gold and silver of earlier eras. Stealing someone else's ideas is no more acceptable than stealing someone else's possessions, and it will get you in a lot of trouble. But why steal something that is already free? The only cost to you as a student for using somebody else's ideas is that you must give them appropriate credit and that is very easy Read. If you get any idea from any source, you must cite that source, even if you do not use the same wording: "Follow this simple rule of thumb: 'when in doubt, cite your source'"(Cason 1998). The previous sentence is a case in point. I found the quotation on the web-site of Prof. Jeffrey Cason at Middlebury College. If this syllabus had a section for Literature Cited, it would contain the following entry:

Cason, Jeffrey. 1998. Course Requirements. Available WWW:
http://cweb.middlebury.edu/ps103a-s98/requirements.html [Accessed 17 August 1999].

Dr. Noel Parker of the University of Surrey has posted an excellent guide to when and why to cite others' words, which might also be helpful. For the sake of clarity, I will require you to follow a particular format for citations. My choice is the author-date method as defined in the Chicago Manual of Style, which I have used in the example above. The format consists of a parenthetical reference within the text (Author Year of Publication, Page Number) and a full elaboration of the reference in a Literature Cited section at the end of your paper. I have put full guidelines for citation on-line, but I would also be happy to give you a printed copy.

If you have any questions or doubts about what to cite, you must contact me before you hand in a paper with questionable references.

Books and Materials

This course does not use a specific textbook, but there are a variety of materials that may help you in trying to understand the region. A basic list can be found online in the list of Papers and Readings in the navigation bar. For other useful material, please contact Prof. Deegan-Krause.

The Class Schedule

At Wayne State:
TBD

Class 1: Introductions
Class 2: History and geography.
Class 3: Communism and Democratization, First 2 page summary due. See http://www.la.wayne.edu/polisci/dubrovnik/dubrovnik_papers.htm for introductory list of papers or contact the instructor.
Class 4: Communist and Post-Communist Economies
Class 5: Communist and Post-Communist Identities
Class 6: The Break-up of Yugoslavia: Political Aspects
Class 7: The Break-up of Yugoslavia: Legal Aspects, Second 2 page summary due. See
http://www.la.wayne.edu/polisci/dubrovnik/dubrovnik_papers.htm for introductory list of papers or contact the instructor.
Class 8: The Break-up of Yugoslavia: Consequences
Class 9: International Law Seminar
Class 10: Today in the Balkans, Topic bibliography due.
Class 11: Language, Travel Preparation, Final Details

In Dubrovnik:
Content of course sessions in Croatia will depend on participation of particular scholars, to be arranged. Please see past courses for examples.

Course on Divided Societies		KEVIN DEEGAN-KRAUSE
Class Hours:	Winter: TBD	Class Location:	TBD
Office Hours:	TBD	Office Location:	2053 F/AB
Web Address:	http://www.la.wayne.edu/polisci/kdk/dubrovnik	Office Phone:	313-577-2630