“You Have to Arouse Enthusiasm and Intelligence”
Iain Ferguson on Teaching and His New Course “The Introduction to International Relations”
— After a break in teaching at our educational programme you have returned with a new course “The Introduction to International Relations. Could you please highlight the changes within your course?
— The first thing that has changed is the team that I work with. It’s me and 3 others: Pavel Devyatkin, Sergey Kondrat’ev, and Alexey Koryagin. I really respect my colleagues, they are very enthusiastic and enjoy teaching. And we can share our experience. Alexey Koryagin has been teaching at the University of London for 5 years. He and Sergey Kondrat’ev have a lot of experience in teaching a similar course that I taught “Power Politics”. As for Pavel Devyatkin, he is finishing his PhD in political science. He worked at universities in Washington DC, in Stanford, in California and in Berlin. He is regularly invited to give talks in China, in US, in Europe. So, he is very experienced in policy making. We are a very good team and that’s the biggest change within this course.
— Have you added something new to the course?
— The course I taught before no longer runs, we have adjusted the course to reflect the new syllabus. Before there was never a topic on US/China relations, we’ve done that with Pavel. And there is going to be more critical theory than we used to have before. On my side, I can say that I update my lectures every year according to the situation in the world.
— And could you describe your approach to teaching the course on international relations?
— Firstly, I should say that I am impressed with the students. Lectures are a lot about back and forward. And I let students interrupt me, when an idea comes to them. That interactive conversation style I find a lot more engaging than just a model of the “sage on the stage”, this type of monologue when someone is standing and telling you the way the world is. To be honest, I don’t think it is very effective, students get bored and fall asleep. You have to arouse enthusiasm and intelligence in the student group, then you’ll see the result.
— Also, I noticed that during the class you turn on a microphone and record your lectures. Why are you doing this?
—The main reason is to create a resource for students. I have been doing it for a few years since Covid-19 when all the teaching process moved online. I just record all my lectures, even if I am giving them face to face, and then put them on the Yandex Drive. That’s because of two reasons: one is that I know that students got bad schedule and skip classes sometimes; secondly, students get the opportunity to listen to the material twice if something is not clear.
— Can you share an example of a memorable classroom discussion or activity? Do you have any special techniques to engage students into discussion?
—I don’t have any special techniques, I am quite spontaneous. If students come up with questions during a lecture, it means they are interested in the topic, I only steer the conversation. Sometimes this provides insight into which aspect of the topic is the most interesting for students. I don’t preplan these things just let them happen.
The only thing I really plan in advance is the lecture and I always have recordings of lectures. If, for example, we got distracted by a discussion and I didn’t read the entire lecture, I make sure to post a recording of this lecture.
— And for the last question, as someone with an extensive experience in academia, what would you advise to students aspiring to pursue a career in international relations or diplomacy?
—I do think that there are lots of opportunities. There are jobs in diplomacy, in government, in international non-governmental organizations, UN, opportunities to work in a big business. Before I went to academia, I worked as a corporate researcher in a big oil company. And I know that there is interest for example in Shell or BP for political risk advisors, people who evaluate markets and geopolitical changes, geopolitical risks.
This profession can provide a strong foundation for careers in business, media and in academia, as it has for me. If you are interested in going into diplomacy you probably need to have the master’s degree, preferably from a country you’d like to work in. This is a rapidly developing area, and specialists in this field are in demand almost all over the world.
— Thank you so much for the interview.
The interviewer: A. Zavarzina, 2nd year student of the International Relations and Global Studies Programme, for the IRGS Press Centre project.