Summer in France means a brief respite from the hustle and bustle of teaching, but it is also a time of hard work and preparation for the start of the new academic semester in the fall.
Looking back on a course at the end of a semester is something that every professor does. It’s an opportunity to see what has worked out as planned and to assess how useful the course was for the students.
It’s 24 years and 10 days since Chinese soldiers executed citizens for daring to demand the right to a say in their own future. Since then, China has changed in many ways, but much has sadly stayed the same.
For a western politics professor, it is natural to try to keep your eyes open for differences in everyday life under communist rule in Shanghai. Yet aside from the internet censorship, there is little that leaves one worried.
The words we use in international politics, whether teaching, writing, researching, speaking or as political actors, matter a great deal. Things like an atlas are a gentle but constant reminder of exactly that.
Teaching politics in China is going to be a different experience. The prospect makes one pause and recall the sorts of freedoms we enjoy in the West and the way professors do sometimes take them for granted.
It is going to be rather enjoyable to watch the students discuss and recognise exactly where the amoral world of self-interest inevitably leads – and then to see if they will learn from it in the lessons that follow.
CEFAM is a business school that demands attendance in classes. But, in spite of this, there is still the need to encourage and even incentivise students to attend instead of heading for the sun and sand of the south of France.
POL 210 has a new class. In order to spark early discussion with students, a report was used which described how Chinese soldiers inside Indian territory had proclaimed the area to be Chinese land.
The POL 210 course for spring has drawn to a close. For students, it will be a couple of days of relaxation before an intensive summer session. For professors, it represents a chance to reflect on a semester’s teaching
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