2014 Winter Session

With meals beginning again tomorrow, Massey is being rapidly repopulated.

Technically, classes in the 2014 winter session begin tomorrow, so I at least need to check whether any of the courses that I need in order to complete the PhD requirements begin before my comp. Thankfully, I don’t have tutorials to teach until the Thursday after.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

2 thoughts on “2014 Winter Session”

  1. To complete my PhD coursework, I need:

    • 2.0 credits of my primary field, Canadian politics
    • 1.5 credits of my secondary field, public policy
    • 0.5 credits of qualitative methods (usually POL2505H)
    • 0.5 credits of quantitative methods

    One credit is one full-year course.

    Because Andrea Olive’s Environmental Politics in Canada course can be counted as either 0.5 credits of Canadian politics or 0.5 credits of public policy, I have either:

    • 1.5 credits of Canadian politics (the core course and Peter Russell’s ‘Incomplete Conquests’ course) and 1.5 credits in public policy (the core course, the Olive course, and Steven Bernstein’s environmental politics course)

    OR

    • 2.0 credits of Canadian politics and 1.0 credits of public policy

    All told, I would rather take more Canadian politics courses than more public policy courses, so I should probably take another Canadian politics course this term, along with one of the required methods courses.

    That will be a lot to deal with while preparing for the public policy exam, which is going to be an absolute killer.

  2. Four Canadian politics courses are running this session:

    • POL2102H1S – Topics in Canadian Politics I: Immigration and Multiculturalism in Canada (Tuesday 10-12)
    • POL2102H1S – Topics in Canadian Politics I: Ideas and Ideologies (Tuesday 6-8pm)
    • POL2103H1S – Topics in Canadian Politics II: Canadian Federalism, from a Comparative Perspective (Wednesday 10-12)
    • POL2317H1S – Politics and Policy Analysis (Tuesday 12-2pm)

    For the sake of comparison, there are also four public policy courses:

    • POL2234H1S – Globalization, Internationalization, and Public Policy (Monday 4-6)
    • POL2317H1S – Politics and Policy Analysis (Tuesday 12-2)
    • POL2394H1S – Innovation and Knowledge Transfer in City Regions (Wednesday 2-4)
    • HAD5765H1S – Case Studies in Health Policy

    One consideration is that I will need to write a comp in public policy, so taking more classes and reading more texts on the subject could be quite valuable. None of the Canadian courses hugely jump out at me. It’s also worth noting that POL2317H1S could be counted for either stream.

    The methods courses on offer are:

    • POL2505H1S – Qualitative Methods in Political Research (Wed 10-12)
    • POL2800H1S – Special Topics: Statistical Analysis and Inference for Political Scientists (Monday 9-12)

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