Course Syllabus

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SYLLABUS SSCI E-100B PROSEMINAR

 

Graduate Research Methods and Scholarly Writing in the Social Sciences:

Government and History (14488)

4 credits

 

Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30 pm

Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS), South Building 040

 

Dr. Nadiya Kravets

Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies/Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

1730 Cambridge Street (CGIS South), 3^rd Floor, Room 318

Cambridge, MA 02138

Email: nkravets@fas.harvard.edu

 

Office hours: Wednesday’s after class (7:30pm-9pm) or by appointment

 

Course website: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4213

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This proseminar addresses problems and methods related to the study of government, history, international relations, and allied disciplines. It stresses the critical analysis of sources, constructing explanatory models, standards of logical demonstration, and organizing and presenting research results. Emphasis is on developing both writing and research skills. Students study essential categories of analysis used in history, political science, and anthropology.

 

Organization of Teaching

The course is organized as a series of ten 2-hour seminars over the course of the fall semester, where no classes will be held during the weeks when the midterm and the final assignments are due. Students are expected to read the assigned materials before coming to class and I will post the readings in the Files folder of the course website (https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4213/files).

I will attempt to provide constant feedback to students on their writing, addressing any concerns while focusing on continual improvement. The midterm assignment and the final paper are designed in such a way as to give you a taste of what writing a thesis would demand. Consequently, students will be exposed to such processes as: defining an area of research and research question(s); breaking down a research question into its constituent parts; defining key concepts with the help of existing literature; evaluating existing empirical and theoretical literature; evaluating the best methodology to use in answering research question(s); collecting and analyzing primary and secondary data; organizing and citing materials; and finally, writing a research proposal in a logical and clear manner.

 

Course Objectives

After successful completion of the course, students should be better able to:

• Identify puzzling areas for research and, with the help of existing studies, narrow down questions for further study
• Understand and learn how to break down large research projects into a series of steps
• Read critically, evaluate alternative theoretical explanations and formulate research hypotheses
• Distinguish between different data gathering methods and analysis, and the relationship between methodology and what is/can knowable  
• Communicate ideas in an analytical writing style
• Appropriately cite sources and present research findings in a logical manner

 

Course Assessment

 Overall the evaluation of your performance in the proseminar will consist of:

1. 10% attendance
2. 20% 3 essays: about 2,000 words each
3. 30% midterm (literature review paper): Due October 14, 11:59pm EST; 2,000-3,000 words
4. 40% final (research design paper): Due December 2, 11:59pm EST; 5,000-6,000 words

 

NOTE: In this course only a B or higher counts as a passing grade.

Students are required to turn in 3 essays during the course of the semester: 2 before the midterm and 1 after. The first essay, written for the first day of class, will count towards the 4-essay requirement. The MOST important feature of the essay-writing exercise is that students are able to re-write one or all of the essays so as to achieve a satisfactory mark. Thus, essays should be viewed as an opportunity to develop and strengthen analytical and writing skills. In an effort to learn from this exercise, we will analyze some of the best and most problematic essays during our class. Students can find question-topics for the essays on the Assignments page of the course website

(https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4213/assignments).

By Week 4 of the course (September 23^rd) the students, in consultation with myself, should have selected a topic and articulated one or several questions they would like to research for the course and around which they will write-up a literature review (midterm) and a research design (final assignment). Students are welcome to consult me throughout the semester and show working drafts of their literature review and research design papers.

The research design paper is a ‘mock’ design for an ALM thesis. The purpose of the exercise is to expose the students to the process of preparing a major research project and planning for it. Students are NOT asked to execute the research, rather to think through, conduct all necessary preliminary research, identify a research question, review the literature (thus midterm paper becomes part of the overall research design), generate hypotheses, select an appropriate method for testing them, and identify how they intend to gather and analyze the data.

 

 

Readings

Required book for purchase at the COOP: 

Strunk, W. & White, E.B. (2009) The elements of style. New York, NY: Pearson Education.

 

Weekly readings for lectures will be posted on the course website in the Files section and students can use these to get started on writing essays. However, to better answer the essay questions, I advise that students consult other peer-reviewed sources such as academic articles, edited books, and monographs in order to construct a better argument. This process of gathering sources in order to establish an opinion is an important component of any research project. In fact, one of the aims of the essay-writing exercises is to expose students to just how much literature is out there, how to find it, and how to deal with this overwhelming amount of information. Thus, my hope is that by conducting these “mini-researches” for the essays, based on secondary sources, one will get better accustomed to the procedure. Students will have to rely on their own judgment to tell them when to stop reading and begin writing an essay. In humanities and social sciences there are always more books and sources one can consult, more data to find, but at some point research must stop and the author ought to proceed in writing an argument.

 

Week 1: September 2, 2015

Writing test

(NO CLASS MEETING, ESSAYS DUE SEPTEMBER 4, 11:59PM EST)

 

Jones, L. (2008) The philosophy of the Oxford system.

“Essay Terms Explained,” (2009) University of Leicester.

Explore Study Help tips and resources at the Harvard Extension School website: https://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k11950&pageid=icb.page53033

 

Week 2: September 9, 2015

Overview of the Course, Review of Essays, Plagiarism and Where To Get Help

 

Avoiding Plagiarism and its subsections at Harvard Guide to Using Sources (2015).

http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106849

Explore Study Help tips and resources at the Harvard Extension School website: https://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k11950&pageid=icb.page53033

Explore Research Help tips and resources at the Harvard Extension School website:

https://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k11950&pageid=icb.page50273

  

Week 3: September 16, 2015

What, Why, & How: Questions of Epistemology & Ontology in Social Sciences

 

Grix, J. (2002) Introducing students to the generic terminology of social research. Politics, 22, 175-186.

Hay, C. (2009) Political ontology. In R. E. Goodin (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of political science (pp. 460-477). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Marsh, D., & Furlong, P. (2002) A skin, not a sweater: questions of epistemology and ontology in political science. In D. Marsh & G. Stoker (Eds.), Theory and methods in political science (2nd ed., pp. 17-41). Basingstoke: Macmillan.

 

Week 4: September 23, 2015 (CLASSROOM CHANGE FOR THIS WEEK TO CGIS S250, 2^nd ESSAY DUE TODAY 11:59PM EST)

Explanation & Causation

 

Brady, H. (2010) Causation and explanation in social science. In J. Box-Steffensmeier, H.E. Brady and D. Collier (Eds.) The Oxford handbook of political methodology (pp. 217-270). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

March, J.G., & Olsen, J.P (2011) The logic of appropriateness. In R. E. Goodin (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of political science (pp. 478-497). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Theron, G. (2011) Why and how place matters. In R. E. Goodin (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of political science (pp. 498-520). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Tilly, C. (2011) Why and how history matters. In R. E. Goodin (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of political science (pp. 521-540). Oxford: Oxford University Press.  

 

Week 5: September 30, 2015

Research Topic, Questions & Literature Review

 

Clough, P., & Nutbrown, C. (2002) Reading: purpose and positionality. In A student's guide to methodology: justifying enquiry. (pp. 84-98) London/Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE.

De Vaus, D. A. (2001) What is research design? In Research design in social research. (pp. 1-16) London: SAGE.

Leander, A. (2009) Thinking tools. In Klotz, A. & Prakash. D (Eds.) Qualitative methods in international relations: a pluralist guide (pp. 11-29) New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Harvard University Extension School (2012) A guide to the ALM thesis (7^th ed.,) (pp. 12-19, 36-43)

  

Week 6: October 7, 2015

Evaluating Theories & Generating Hypotheses

 

Parsons, C. (2007) Introduction and Boundaries and divisions in explanation of action. How to map arguments in political science (pp. 3-48). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Goodin, R. E. (2011) The state of the discipline, the discipline of the state. In R. E. Goodin (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of political science (pp. 3-57). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

 

Week 7: October 14, 2015 (NO CLASS THIS WEEK, MIDTERM PAPERS DUE 11:59PM EST)

Midterm: Literature Review Paper

 

 

Week 8: October 21, 2015

Evidence: Secondary and Primary Sources; Methods for Gathering Primary Data and Analysis

 

Why Use Sources?, Locating Sources, and Evaluating Sources at Harvard Guide to Using Sources (2015).

http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106846

http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106848

http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup107786 

Harvard University Extension School (2012) A guide to the ALM thesis (7^th ed.,) (pp. 21-28)

Brady, H.E.,Collier, D. & Box-Steffensmeier, J. (2011) Political science methodology. In R. E. Goodin (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of political science (pp. 1005-1053). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Week 9: October 28, 2015

Primary Data Gathering & Analysis: Qualitative Methods

 

Checkel, J. (2009) Process tracing. In Klotz, A. & Prakash. D (Eds.) Qualitative methods in international relations: a pluralist guide (pp. 114-130) New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Dunn, K. (2009) Historical representations. In Klotz, A. & Prakash. D (Eds.) Qualitative methods in international relations: a pluralist guide (pp. 78-92) New York: Palgrave Macmillan.   

Gerring, J. (2011) The Case Study. In R. E. Goodin (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of political science (pp. 1133-1165). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hermann. M. G. (2009) Content Analysis. In Klotz, A. & Prakash. D (Eds.) Qualitative methods in international relations: a pluralist guide (pp. 151-167) New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Levy, J.S. (2010) Counterfactuals and case studies. In J. Box-Steffensmeier, H.E. Brady and D. Collier (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology (pp. 3-31). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Neumann, I. (2009) Discourse analysis. In Klotz, A. & Prakash. D (Eds.) Qualitative methods in international relations: a pluralist guide (pp. 61-77) New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

 

Week 10: November 4, 2015 (3^rd ESSAY DUE TODAY, 11:59PM EST)

Primary Data Gathering & Analysis: Quantitative Methods

 

Dekking, F.M et al. (2005) Why probability and statistics? In A modern introduction to probability and statistics (pp. 1-11). London: Springer.

Johnston, R. (2010) Survey methodology. In J. Box-Steffensmeier, H.E. Brady and D. Collier (Eds.) The Oxford handbook of political methodology (pp. 385-403). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fearon, J.D. & Laitin, D.D. (2011) Integrating qualitative and quantitative methods. In R. E. Goodin (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of political science (pp. 1166-1186). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Morton, R.B. & Williams, K.C. (2010) Experimentation in political science. In J. Box-Steffensmeier, H.E. Brady and D. Collier (Eds.) The Oxford handbook of political methodology (pp. 339-356). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Week 11: November 11, 2015

Citing Sources & Writing in Style

 

Harvard University Extension School (2012) A guide to the ALM thesis (7^th ed.,) (pp. 52-70)

Integrating Sources and Citing Sources at Harvard Guide to Using Sources (2013).

http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup108986

http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup112025

Strunk, W. & White, E.B. (2009) The elements of style. New York, NY: Pearson Education.

 

Week 12: November 18, 2015: (LAST DAY OF CLASS!!!)

Course Wrap-Up & Review

 

Week 13: December 2, 2015 (FINAL RESEARCH DESIGN PAPERS DUE TODAY, 11:59PM EST)