94476 - WORKSHOP ON ACADEMIC READING

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

This Teaching helps Student critically read assignments, to prepare for in-class discussions, and to properly relate to social science articles. Through suggestions, in-class exercise and home work, this Teaching provides the tools to be an active reader, to grasp main research questions and find out author's specific contribution

Contenuti

The course is organized according to the model of the Structured Seminar. The course is composed by 30 hours taught online weekly in 2-hour slots. Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the class and active participation through presentations of existing scholarship and case studies will also be expected. Regardless of the health-related conditions and the specific organization of the course, students will be able to follow the lessons of the entire course remotely on MS TEAMS. The seminar organization is detailed in the program that follows.

Reading a Social Science text implies identifying the main research question, relevant arguments in support thereof, the author specific contribution to the argument, questioning coherence and distinctive significance. The Reader is not passively absorbing the text: instead, a critical method is endorsed to analyse and comment it. In Social Sciences, where different approaches and research tools abound, such skill is of particular relevance.

The course offers reading suggestions and strategies, discusses students’ most frequent problems in understanding assignments and handling a substantial amount of work in due time and allows in-class sharing and enrichment. Critical analysis of peer-reviewed articles, journal articles, research reports, working papers, chapters in edited collections, books, handbooks and similar is approached.

After some Professor-led Classes beginning of the Course, Students will be main players.

Testi/Bibliografia

Topics are intended to provide students with an understanding of the aims and the requirements of critical reading, starting with newspaper articles and ending with a book. For each topic exercises are undertaken in Class and submitted for homework to equip Students to face different levels of complexities in Social Sciences’ assignments. Most of the Course is dedicated to the critical reading of books: students are required to go through, analyse and develop a critical opinion of what read. For this purpose, key books in and around the discipline are presented and discussed by the Students and widely debated in Class afterwards.

 

Topic 1. Academic reading as critical reading

Topic 2. Reading newspaper articles

Topic 3. Critical reading in Social Sciences

Topic 4. Reading a Research Report

Topic 5. Reading an academic article

Topic 6. Reading a book

More on Topic 6. Each Student chooses a book to critically read and present in Class, while challenged by another Student playing as discussant. Here below are some of the book proposed (titles will be added according to attending students)

 

• Kenneth Waltz (2001, reprinted), Men, the Sate and War, Columbia University Press
• Peter Mair (2013), Ruling the void, Verso Books
• Fared Zakaria (2001), The future of freedom, Norton
• Barry Buzan et al. (1998), Security: A new Framework for analysis, Kumarian Press
• James Traub (2019), What was Liberalism?, Basic Books
• Branko Milanovic (2016), Global Inequality, Harvard University Press
• Dani Rodrik (2014), The Globalization Paradox. Democracy and the Future of the World Economy, W.W Norton & Company
• Edward Luce (2017), The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Little, Brown
• Robert Gilpin (1981), War and Change in World Politics, Cambridge University Press
• Edward H. Carr (2001, reprinted), The Twenty Years’ Crisis – 1919-1939, Perennial
• Alexander Betts and Paul Collier (2017), Refuge. Transforming a Broken Refugee System, Penguin Books
• David Miller (2016), Strangers in Our Midst. The Political Philosophy of Immigration, Harward University Press
• Stephen D. Krasner (1999), Sovereignty. Organized Hypocrisy, Princeton University Press
• Bill Emmott (2017), The fate of the West. The battle to save the world’s most successful political idea, Economist books

Metodi didattici

Powerpoints, In-class exercises, In-class debate

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Evaluation:

1. Participation
2. Presenting a book
3. Acting as discussant

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Michela Ceccorulli