As much as I love doing what I am doing at CEFAM, I am also looking forward to a couple of weeks off before the new academic year gets underway in September. It’s been a hectic year teaching, researching and administering the two programs I manage here in Lyon and the chance to take a breather is a welcome one. This will be the last Political Business column before the blog returns in the run up to the Fall in the last week of August.
Looking back on the year, I am generally happy with how the international politics classes at CEFAM have emerged and evolved.
The POL 210 class remains the centrepiece of the school’s small IR program – indeed, it is the only compulsory politics course for the students here – and it is a course that students continue to enjoy. The course will be changed around somewhat for 2013/14 but, based on the feedback I have received, this should only further enhance the learning outcomes for students.
The e-learning version of the course (ePOL 210) continues to evolve and will be re-launched in September, too. A new structure and new assignments will test students and, I hope, will help them further embrace online learning as an option here at CEFAM.
The POL 420 course I taught in China in June went over well and I was happy to have the chance to explore one of my first areas of interest – the Asia-Pacific and China’s role within it – once again. The students appreciated the coursework, though it was certainly challenging teaching in an environment of restricted intellectual freedom such as the People’s Republic.
Finally, over the last couple of weeks I have been asked to restore another graduate level course, POL 410: International Politics in a Globalised World, to the CEFAM program as another e-learning course. I last taught this course in 2010 and the chance to resurrect, refresh and restore it to the program, this time as ePOL 410, has been another great experience.
Looking forward to the new semester and things are certainly going to be busy. A combination of the launch of a new graduate program offering an MBA in Consulting, the popularity of some of my elective courses and the growing appeal of online courses mean I will be teaching a lot this Fall. What’s a lot? Well to start with I will have four face-to-face courses covering subjects and themes from sociology through leadership, strategic analysis and brand development. in addition I will be managing three online courses, too: the ePOL 210 and ePOL 410 courses in international politics, and eIB 210 in international business. This makes for a very busy teaching schedule even before considering the research, service and administration functions of my job.
In terms of research I have a couple of book chapters that are finally coming out and a journal article that (fingers crossed) will pass the resubmission stage. I’m also going to be heading to Romania later in the semester to present some findings from the POL 210 Crisis Simulation activity (see here, here and here for background) at a conference on collective action in Bucharest.
In terms of service, I will be continuing working with the journals I help to review and edit and I am set to deliver a series of four lectures on ‘France and Europe in a Globalised World’ (weekly, September and October) and a one-off special lecture on the history of American cyclists at the Tour de France (cycling being my second passion after IR).
Before all of this, though, lies my four week vacation. Here’s hoping the weather holds up, that I can actually avoid checking my email as I have promised my colleagues and that I return refreshed and ready on the other side. Have a great vacation, see you again in August.
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Read more from Dylan Kissane in his e-IR blog Political Business
Further Reading on E-International Relations
- Welcome (Back) To the Ivory Tower
- Forward-Looking Transitional Climate Justice
- Afghanistan’s ‘Liberal’ History: Back to Year Zero?
- Trump’s ‘Personalised’ North Korea Policy: 2018–2020 and the Way Forward
- The Military Coup in Myanmar: Back to the ‘Normality’ of Autocracy?
- Mercosur-Pacific Alliance Convergence: Moving Forward or Moving Nowhere?
