Master 2024/2025

Mentor's Seminar "Eurasian (Post-Soviet) Area Studies"

Type: Compulsory course (Comparative Politics of Eurasia)

Area of studies: Political Science

Delivered by: Department of Political Science and International Affairs

Where: Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences

When: 2 year, 1-3 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Andrey Starodubtsev

Master’s programme: Comparative Politics of Eurasia

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This mentor’s seminar will help students of the educational trajectory “Eurasian (post-Soviet) area studies” to design and follow their individual curricula. It will provide organizational space and individualized support for formulating key learning outcomes in accordance with the trajectory’s focus and individual learning outcomes in order to better reflect career-related needs of each student. The mentor will be guiding students through the selection of courses and helping them in identifying potential research topics and suitable supervisors for term paper and MA thesis.

Learning Objectives

• To help students of the educational trajectory “Eurasian (post-Soviet) area studies” to design and follow their individual curricula.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• is able to achieve individual learning outcomes
• is able to achieve key learning outcomes
• is able to formulate key individual learning outcomes
• is able to identify appropriate topics for individual research work, to formulate research goals and tasks and to produce a suitable planning
• knows how to build a career-related educational trajectory
• understands key learning outcomes

Course Contents

• Introduction. Trajectory Overview. Key Learning Outcomes. Individual Learning Outcomes.
• Research work. Term paper and MA thesis. Advice on research supervision.
• Monitoring of progress. Adjustments and further planning.
• Individual feedback and evaluation.

Assessment Elements

• Progress paper
  Throughout the course, the student keeps a diary (progress paper), in which: 1. formulates the main goals of his or her training and the tasks by which these goals can be achieved; 2. prescribes the main achievements on the way to achieving the goals, the difficulties and challenges and ways to solve them. The progress paper is conducted online and is assessed by the instructor at the end of each module.
• MA thesis draft
• Participation

Interim Assessment

• 2023/2024 2nd module
  0.25 * Participation + 0.25 * Participation + 0.75 * Progress paper + 0.75 * Progress paper
• 2023/2024 4th module
  0.25 * Participation + 0.25 * Participation + 0.75 * Progress paper + 0.75 * Progress paper
• 2024/2025 2nd module
  0.25 * Participation + 0.25 * Participation + 0.75 * Progress paper + 0.75 * Progress paper
• 2024/2025 3rd module
  0.75 * MA thesis draft + 0.75 * MA thesis draft + 0.25 * Participation + 0.25 * Participation

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Broms, R., & de Fine Licht, J. (2019). Preparing political science students for a non-academic career: Experiences from a novel course module. Politics, 39(4), 514–526. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395719828651
• Eco, U., Farina, G., & Mongiat Farina, C. (2015). How to Write a Thesis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=963778
• Ostergard, R. L., & Gordon Fisher, S. B. (2017). Kickstarting Your Academic Career : Skills to Succeed in the Social Sciences. University of Toronto Press, Higher Education Division.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Ahram, A. I., Köllner, P., & Sil, R. (2018). Comparative Area Studies : Methodological Rationales and Cross-Regional Applications. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1666244

Authors

• Starodubtsev Andrei Vladimirovich