History, I presume?

nvm, I got ninja posted.

I want to do a unit on Canadian politics, but frankly I can't find good summary articles on the Canadian political system that the class could read.

I think you should compare the political structures of the Zerg, Terran, and Protoss empires. Such a class would be of great interest to 20 year olds.

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/university-of-florida-introduces-starcraft-class-28-08-2010/

TROLOLOLO

: ) +1

What I've learned from SC:

Supply Depots are better defensive structures than Bunkers
Just because a building can fly, doesn't mean it can escape from an attack
More carriers makes it harder to defend against Scourge, not easier
Sometimes, it's OK to nuke your own base

Putin: As an International Relations MA I'm interested in what you might put in your course. Before I answer, however, can you define what "comparative politics" means in the context of your course?

I ask this question because people in the USA often seem to use the term "comparative politics" to mean "studying the politics of foreign states" in general, whether or not the comparative method is being used.

"Supply Depots are better defensive structures than Bunkers"

Oh, yes. So much better.

Last night abge, I finished getting the last campaign achievement. I have them all. And I got them all on Brutal. With the exception of the "Finish the SCII campaign in less than 8 hours."

Modern Canadian politics are fairly boring. The Conservative party is Center-Right, the Liberal Party is Center-Left and the NDP and Greens and Block Quebecois are farther to the Left. So the Conservatives get a minority government with 36% of the vote.

Previously when the Reform was Right, Conservative Center-Right, Liberal Center, NDP and Block Left, the Liberals would get a Majority government with 40% of the vote.

Even the conservative party will not touch Health care, CPP or EI. We had the conservative government block the foreign acquisition of Potash Corp. So even the conservative side of Canadian politics is not 'Conservative' by US standards.

Our Conservatives would be considered Liberals were they in the U.S.

South Africa, Turkey & Poland would probably be of some interest. Just think how 18-20 year olds can see fairly dramatic changes over the course of their lifetimes.

Also, Israel's poltics would probably appeal to both the left & right wing crowd.

When are you going to be teaching this class? A semi-live following of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya could be very interesting.

Oh we've been talking about the Arab uprisings in class throughout. But I haven't done multiple in depth lectures about their political systems, although we did discuss several articles about it. The class begins March 28. My previous class just ended Wednesday. I still have a final to give and papers to grade though.

@ Jamiet

"I ask this question because people in the USA often seem to use the term "comparative politics" to mean "studying the politics of foreign states" in general, whether or not the comparative method is being used."

Comparative politics in this context means studying and comparing the domestic politics of various countries - including the US (which is one of the cases I go over). We do discuss the comparative method, but it's not necessarily essential for comparative politics in this context. Other methods are also used.

That's an odd system? How do your semesters work?

I could do a unit on the EU, which is technically an international organization, but acts like a sovereign state in many ways. Plus, there is no IR class that talks about the inner workings of the EU. That might be dry though.

We're on quarters. 10 week classes. We're moving to semesters soon though.

Oh, I thought there were bigger breaks between quarters. If you haven't given out exams, that's like 1 week in between quarters...

Yep. We have longer breaks between summer quarter & fall, and between fall & winter.

I agree with JetJaguar that you should consider studying South Africa as one of the case studies. It's a fascinating country politically, both historically and today.

Putin teaches poli-sci. That explains a lot. :-)

But seriously, where do you teach? OSU? How long have you been there? My niece was a poli-sci major and went on to DC. She is at Georgetown I think working on her masters now after spending some time in the diplomatic corps travelling the world with some senator or other and setting up conferences and stuff.

Yes OSU. I thought we just had a long argument about student IDs and Columbus? I've been here a little over 5 years, although I took a two quarter break in the middle of it.

Putin, I'm taking a class on Turkey right now, and I have to say Turkish politics in the last decade are very very interesting.

I was just confirming on the OSU. But I guess my niece graduated just about when you came on board. She did the early graduation before the big one that year (2006).

Putin33....you might have been my teacher... LOL

Awkward... Hope you got an A in the class. :-P

The first two years we don't teach but take classes, and then I took some time off, so I only began teaching in Fall 2008 I believe.

Yes I got an A...now I just have to guess who exactly Putin33 is in OSU terms... :)

I'd prefer if my identity was not revealed, even if you manage to figure it out.

lol. keep it real mr. crispy...you need to leave mr. Putin alone.