explodingstressball

Ah, good 'ole English as "flavoured" by Her Majesty's Colonial Office.

Eek. New Zealand death toll estimates just got revised upwards to 300. *bites nails*

Presidents' Day.

I wonder if there'll be any acceptances/rejections in today's mail, after the holiday.

My one consolation in life is that my school sent out transcripts for free.

Congrats! How were you informed?

Sorry, I didn't see this comment. I don't mean to be obtuse, but yes, your students are constantly judging you. There is constant nervousness about grades, getting work done, what the TA thinks of them, etc. I strongly remember this from being an undergraduate. And, on the same token, you are constantly judging them. I mean, someone has to award a grade at the end of a semester, right?

I have found when working with students that it is often very helpful to explain your goals in terms of people trying things first. In other words, I have found it to be a worthwhile experience to stay clearly something along the lines of: "I am here to help you, and I am delighted to help. However, part of this experience is for you to learn and occasionally make mistakes along the way. So while I will help you with any and every question you have, I hope that you will give yourselves the opportunity to experiment first!" I think it helps set up the notion that there is no expectation of instant perfection on the student's part. It also helps them to understand why you might not leap up at the first sign of trouble. That being said, I've never taught nor been in a university-level class with a lab component, but I do find the idea of the TA sitting in front of the class doing their work a little boorish. In a lecture class, I would find it inappropriate for a TA to be sitting in the front with a pile of books writing a paper

Does your university have an ombudsman? There should be a neutral third party representative that can mediate this situation at most universities.

Hey everyone, So, amazingly, I got into a program that I'm really excited about in the social sciences. I've been invited to an admit weekend coming up soon. What kinds of questions do you think a prospective student should ask of a program? And for those of you already in a program, what do you wish you had asked or had clarified before beginning your current program?

@danRSA — check your PMs.

And suddenly the rationale behind your user name become clear

I second that!

Good ol' Maritzburg. Cool!

Which SA university? Congrats!

I think I may have expressed my point poorly. I think, compared to the size, population, and the fact that it's rather a proving ground for a lot of theories (responsibility to project, state legitimacy, democratic institutions, etc.) I find it surprising that Africa tends to be one of the lower (not un) represented fields. It also tends to have the least institutional support in schools overall: most schools get by without offering any African language, or maybe one or two. The African Studies departments at many schools have been eliminated or merged. For example, Berkeley and Stanford no longer have independent departments, they share one to save money. Columbia's African studies department had been closed for a long time, and is only recently being rebooted. I cannot imagine many universities agreeing to teach only one European language and cutting all others! I hope that this situation will improve as a new generation of political scientists comes out. Much like it was far easier to find people who studied Japan rather than China until quite recently, I think this will adjust as more people who focus on different aspects of the developing world enter the tenure system.

Respectfully disagree. I think if you compare the number of people working on Contemporary European politics to those who work on Africa as a whole, the scales are a little skewed.

That group looks great! I'm going to have to try and sneak into some of their meetings!

Can anyone think of some Africanists I'm forgetting?

Another field that's ripe for expansion are Brazilists. Most people who study Latin America, in my experience, tend to gloss right over it because it's different from the rest of LA.

Yeah, I can't think of a single Indianist. On the other hand, I can only think (off the top of my head) of two universities that have dedicated Africanists: Brown and Berkeley. Richard Price at Berkeley wrote a lot about South Africa in the early 90s, and Newell Sultz at Brown also looks at South Africa. Am I missing anyone?

Yes, actually. I realized I made a number of significant errors in my original SOP, that I really need to address. I also need to tailor the list of schools I apply to. It's just on the difficult side as it seems the higher ranked schools are the ones that do more work with Africa.

Congratulations!

169 pages? That is courage.

And there's the official Yale rejection letter!