The spring speaker series I put together at Dickinson is winding down, w/ two final speakers who will focus on the Andes.

A number of interesting (personal/professional) developments in the last few days. But they’ll have to wait until Monday, when I give a definitive answer. But my days at Dickinson are winding down, w/ only five more weeks left to go. It is, in many ways, a wonderful relief.

Ah, Spring Break! One would think this was a time to recharge batteries & rest before the rest of the semester. Alas, not for faculty. A stack of midterms & other assignments begs to be graded. Students never know how much we suffer on their behalf.

If you’re in the Dickinson area, you may want to check out the next installment of our Latin American Studies spring speaker series. Anthropologist Steve Striffler (University of Arkansas) will speak on “Colombia, Coal, and Transnational Labor Solidarity.” The focus is on the effects of coal mining on indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities.

An interesting political observation from one of my savvy students: some US voters can vote more than once under special circumstances. In fact, he was already planning on it.

If you’re in the Dickinson area next week, you may be interested in the next installments of our Latin American Studies speaker series.

If you’re in the Dickinson area next Thursday, come see the first speaker in our spring Latin American Studies speaker series.

It’s hard to believe how quickly time passes. Javi is almost a month old now (and fussier by the day). The lack of sleep is starting to slowly wear me down. I still have two major projects (book manuscript, article rewrite) to finish—because in two weeks grading papers will take over my life.

We mocked the local panic & frequent emails about winter “weather emergencies”—and now we’re on our first full 24 hours w/o electricity in the house. Lovely.

I’ve had trouble getting some of my students (in a 200-level political science course on “Democracy & Democratization”) to engage in the semester readings. So finally I decided put together a handout to walk them through a single article.

I’ve just finished the syllabus for my spring 2008 research methods course. Here’s the syllabus.

I’m teaching a multidisciplinary introduction to Latin American studies course next semester. It took me a while to conceptualize the course, but here’s the syllabus. Below are some of the texts I’m assigning (also in my Amazon bookstore). Comments are always welcome.

I was officially notified that I’ve been awarded a Dickinson Dana Research Assistantship grant, which allows me to hire a student research assistant for the academic year. This will make my Bolivian political parties database project—which I need for my April MPSA paper—much more manageable. Whew!

YouTube recently launched a University Channel, and Dickinson is participating in the project. Our first video is a 40-minute panel discussion preceding a screening of The Situation, a film about contemporary Iraq. I attended the event, which took place a few months ago. I found both the discussion & the film thought-provoking (even if the film, as a film, wasn’t all that good).

I’m using more YouTube snippets in the classroom. I have these “smart” classrooms, so why not take advantage of them? Or I simply point my students to them, as extra “reading” assignments. Today’s discussion (in my comparative politics course), for example, will make use of FP’s Failed States Index & a series of short (4-10 minute) interviews w/ diplomats from “failed” states (as rated by FP).

Some exciting (non-baby) changes: I am (as of yesterday morning) Latin American Studies program coordinator at Dickinson College.

Below is the list of articles I’m assigning in my undergraduate “Democracy & Democratization” course this Fall.

Although I taught a number of courses at Western before coming to Dickinson, it’s fair to consider this my “rookie” year. After all, I taught a larger number of courses, was a full member of the faculty, and had more responsibilities integrating my work into the broader department & college-wide curriculum. So it’s fair to say that I’ve learned a number of things from my first year at a private liberal arts college. Here are my top seven lessons learned:

I’ve just posted my course syllabi for next Fall; you can download them from my department website. I’ve revamped the comparative politics course (POSC 150). The democracy & democratization course (POSC 257) is completely new—and I’ve built the reader from scratch.

It’s nice when you can say that your little brother is (frequently) an inspiration. He recently posted a link to this letter from the president of U of Delaware. There was an incident during a Cinco de Mayo party at U of Delaware, basically involving a fraternity & Hispanic/Latino stereotypes (ironically, it was a co-ed honors fraternity). Andy worked w/ the Campus Alliance de La Raza, which organized a town hall meeting to deal w/ the issue directly. Nice.

One of my favorite things about life at Dickinson has been the collegial atmosphere. It’s really quite remarkable. And last night I had yet another opportunity to engage in “cross-disciplinary” activities.

K8 just sent me this from the Chicago Tribune. Apparently, a Dickinson Law School graduate was selling human remains over the internet. His client base: “anthropologists, medical professionals, and interested people.” The story also includes a drag queen named Jojo Baby, eBay, an anthropologist, China, and a store in Berkeley called the Bone Room. And, of course, all this happened in Chicago’s Shakespeare District.

FYI: The Dickinson School of Law is connected to Penn State; it has nothing to do w/ Dickinson College. I’d like to think my students aren’t that creepy.

This is more confessional than informational. But making these things public makes it more likely to happen. So w/ the semester quickly crashing to an end—and the mountain of grading that comes w/ it—I need to make a list of all the items that must get done before June:

Sometimes I like running little experiments—simulations, games, activities—in my classes. I think they’re useful to illustrate a point, or to dissect an argument, or even just to make complex ideas more accessible (and fun). This week I roped another six faculty into my latest project: presidential voting simulations.

The MPSA conference was great. I enjoyed most of the panels that I attended, including the two I presented on. Even if I was the only presenter w/o regression tables (which is usually a must at MPSA conference). But my paper on Bolivian presidentialism was especially well received—which actually sparked the perfect idea for how to frame my “book” (as I move from dissertation to book manuscript in the next few months).