This course builds on UCSSCPOL23 in three ways. Firstly, it offers a range of current debates in the field about the multiple and often wide-ranging ways in which international politics are studied. These debates include questions such as levels of analysis, agency and structure, the western bias of the field, and new trends in IR research. Secondly, it adds a methodological dimension to the combination of theory and empirics which is offered in UCSSCPOL23. Students are challenged to set up and execute an extensive piece of IR research, in which theory and methodology are systematically applied to empirical data- ranging from institutional and state processes to discourses, practices, and identities. In the process, students learn to navigate the plural methodological and theoretical landscape of IR, as well as increase their research skills in the field. Finally, the course offers the students in-depth content about a state of the art research agenda and its application.


 

Format
There are no lectures in this course - only class discussions on the basis of the readings, presentations and other sources. We will be working with reading questions, blogging, film, and other materials as alternative sources for re-thinking the field of IR. Instead of an  exam, several assignments and a final paper will be written. Peer review and feedback will be integral in the process of the writing of the final paper.