International relations, political science, foreign policy, and book reviews.
There are many online guides about moving to Qatar and settling in. Employers also often provide instructions and assessments. This is not a replacement for them but a supplement filling in the gaps between the very basics (this is a country with its own laws and customs) and the legal essentials (here is how to get Continue reading "Moving to Qatar: The Hidden Guide"
For related content, please see my post about cover letters for U.S.-style academic job applications. I ve served on hiring committees for academic positions in political science and international relations at U.S.-style institutions over the course of a decade. I ve noticed that many people on the job market are extremely poorly coached about what applying to Continue reading "U.S.-Style Academic…
Are you using the standard JavaScript code written by Thomas Leeper (Git) in your conjoint project? Wondering why your traits1a variable is no longer storing the piped traits? The answer is straightforward. You need to change your embedded variable names and the command you re using in JavaScript to save the traits. (Here s the random forum Continue reading "Update to Qualtrics JavaScript Conjoint…
In this post, I ll lay out the basics of how to create a curated Bluesky feed that is, a feed for a list of approved posters, like the Polisky feed. With a couple of deletions, this is also a guide to how to create an uncurated Bluesky feed, although given the nature of the site this Continue reading "The Moderately Skilled Person s Guide to Making a Bluesky Feed"
Attention conservation notice: If you re a political scientist or IR scholar on Bluesky, What s Bluesky? Bluesky is a new, so far invitation-only social media network that functions a lot like pre-Musk Twitter. There are some key differences, however. For one, there aren t (yet!) hashtags in the same way Twitter had them (although, notably, Twitter didn t Continue reading "How to Use Polisky"
My informal presentation to ISA-Northeast 2022 on pedagogy Apocrypha Against Canon: Breaking Free of 1648 and All That in the IR and Foreign Policy Classroom Abstract: Although International Relations is arguably becoming more diverse and less Eurocentric, the canonical timeline of pivotal events and important years remains: 1648, 1789, 1945, and so on. Even attempts Continue reading "Apocrypha…
Few parts of Ph.D. education in political science and international relations are as stress-inducing as the comprehensive examinations. Generally, doctoral students value doing well in school, and generally that means they value doing well on tests. For students that fall into that category, the idea that there s a test which, if you fail, means you Continue reading "Succeeding in Political…
As part of maintaining the Political Science and International Relations Journal Listing, I ve looked at a lot (almost all!) of the websites for academic journals in political science and international relations. Some are very good. Many or most have the information I ve needed to answer basic questions about them. Some have been confusing or ludicrously Continue reading "Your Academic Journal…
Ph.D. students in political science, international relations, and other social sciences dread writing cover letters for their job applications. As part of a panel in the University of Massachusetts-Amherst political science department, I put together some notes about what to do in assembling these. This is aimed at Ph.D. students (ABDs) and very recent graduates. Continue reading "Writing the…
From time to time, college instructors assign students to lead a discussion about readings in class. What do instructors want from this? I can t speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself. After a decade of assigning and grading these assignments, I have some clear expectations. This guide should be useful for students in Continue reading "Student Reading Presentations"