Seminars

Seminars are discussion-based. Each week we discuss the mandatory readings, which are chosen to be in conversation with one another and sometimes in open disagreement. Every student is expected to come having read and thought about the readings and to be ready to take part.

How the seminars work

  • Come prepared. Read all of the week’s mandatory readings and make notes on paper, which you bring to the seminar, as the use of electronic devices is not allowed in the classroom. The guidance below explains what to look out for and how to prepare.

  • Introducing the readings. At the start of each seminar a randomly selected student is asked to summarize the readings briefly and to introduce the key debates between them. This takes a few minutes and requires no slides, only the notes everyone should have prepared anyway. The discussion builds from there, with students asked in turn to set out an argument, respond to it and weigh the evidence behind it. Everyone should come ready to speak.

  • No laptops or phones. Electronic devices are prohibited in both lectures and seminars. This is a deliberate choice to protect concentration and the quality of discussion. It does not apply if your Summary of Reasonable Adjustments (SORA) requires the use of a computer or a similar device in the classroom. Bring the seminar readings on paper.

  • Attendance is mandatory and monitored by the Department of Political Science. You need to tap your student card when entering the room to register your attendance.

Reading for the seminar

The length of the mandatory reading list is kept modest so that students have more time to dive deeper into specific topics of interest, which is essential for the final paper in particular, as it needs to be grounded in existing academic literature. The theories and methodologies used in the mandatory and optional readings should also be approached as a source of inspiration for the final paper.

The reading list contains different types of articles, not all of which offer a good template for the final paper:

  • Review articles give an overview of a field: what has been argued, what the evidence says so far and where the open questions lie. They are a shortcut into a literature and the place to start when a topic is new to you.

  • Empirical articles are the core of the module. They ask a specific question, propose a theoretical explanation and test it against evidence. These are the readings where we can really get into the detail of research design and results, and they are the model for the final paper.

  • Conceptual and theoretical pieces appear in a few weeks. They define a concept, set out a normative argument or build a framework rather than test a hypothesis. Read them for the clarity and usefulness of the argument and ask what evidence would count for or against it.

What to look out for

For each mandatory reading, each student should be prepared to discuss in the seminar the following questions:

  • what is the main theoretical problem the paper aspires to contribute to?

  • what observed phenomena are the authors trying to explain?

  • what is the theoretical explanation of the observed phenomena the authors advance?

  • what are the key concepts and how are they measured?

  • what is the empirical approach and what are the strengths and weaknesses of the research design?

  • what are the findings and in what ways do they support or contradict previous studies?

  • how would you improve or extend the paper’s research design?

A good way to prepare is to write half a page on each reading answering these questions, and a few lines on how the readings relate to one another. Write these notes on paper and bring them with you, since you will not be able to use a device in the seminar. That is all the introducing student needs and it is what everyone else should have in front of them to be ready to interact.

Many of the empirical readings use advanced quantitative or qualitative methods. We do not expect every student to understand every technical detail of every paper, and the seminar is not the place to work through estimation techniques. What matters is the logic of the study: the theory and concepts, the empirical approach and research design, the findings and their implications for the literature and for policy. If you can explain what the authors compare with what, why that comparison is informative and what they found, you understand enough to take part fully.

Optional readings

In addition to the mandatory readings, each week’s page lists optional readings which constitute a good starting point to the literature on the topic. These are not exhaustive: there are other papers and books on every topic, and further readings are featured in the lecture slides. They are a natural place to start when looking for a topic for the final paper.