Course Description: This course is intended to help you learn how political scientists define research questions and conduct research. This semester, your primary goal will be to write a detailed research proposal on a topic concerning women in American politics, basically along the lines of what you will write as a first step if you do a senior thesis in the government department. One of my primary goals will be for you to understand what it means to enter into the conversation of a community of scholars responsibly, both in writing and in conversation. Although many of you may not be planning to become political scientists, we will also explore the ways by which academic work within the discipline is similar to responsible citizen engagement, requiring similar skills in relation to understanding a pre-existing conversation, identifying holes in the research and arguments of various participants in the conversation, and using one's skills to fill in those holes in order to reach either new understandings or more complex understandings. To this end, you will also participate in a multi-college/university project called Democracy Lab. This portion of your work will largely be completed on-line, though we will spend some class time reflecting on this portion of the course and you will have two short writing assignments that grow out of it. The syllabus below outlines the work that you will be doing for our class meetings on the left and the work that you will be doing for Democracy Lab on the right.

Required Texts:
Marsh, David and Gerry Stoker, eds., Theory and Methods in Political Science, 2nd Edition. Palgrave Macmillan.

Carroll, Susan, ed., Women and American Politics. Oxford University Press.

Course Requirements:
1) Short Response writing: This will count as 15% of your grade.
2) Democracy Lab work: I will check to be sure that you are participating. You will also need to reflect on this experience as part of your final. Failure to participate will result in your grade being lowered by .5.
3) Preliminary Bibliography -- 5%
4) Abstracts-- 10%
5 ) Literature Review -- 10%
6 ) Research Proposal -- 20%
7 ) Reader discussion participant -- 15%
8 ) Group discussion leader-- 10%
9) Final -- 15%
10) Attendance -- It is very important that you come to class and attend any scheduled meetings with me. You may not miss more than one class or appointment, nor may you miss class on a day when you are a reader for another student. If you do either, your grade will be reduced by 1.0. Missing a third class and/or appointment or failing to be in class when you are a reader more than once will result in failure in the course unless there are truly extenuating circumstances. Although I do appreciate it if you send an email message to let me know why you are not in class, this does not erase the fact that you are absent.

Course Schedule:

Group Discussion Table:

Adam = 1
Steve = 2
Celia = 3
Carla = 4
Juanita = 5
Matt = 6
Stephen = 7
Rachel = 8
Susie = 9

Meeting Times for 10/20:

Susie -- 1:15
Celia -- 1: 35
Adam -- 1:55
Matt -- 2:15
Rachel -- 2:35
Juanita -- 2:55
Carla -- 3:15
Stephen --3:35
Steve--3:55