Lesson Report:
### **Class Report: Crafting Research Topics and Significance in Political Science**
#### **Title:**
**Crafting the Research Topic and Understanding Its Significance**
*Synopsis:*
In this session, the class focused on two primary objectives: finalizing logistics around the first supervisor meetings and delving into the importance of articulating the significance of research topics. The students were asked to clarify their research question with their supervisors, submit their supervisor meeting forms, and start explaining the theoretical, empirical, and practical relevance of their chosen topics. By the end of the session, the students were expected to better understand how to express why their research topics matter within the broader field of political science, while also ensuring they laid a solid foundation for their senior theses.
#### **Attendance:**
– No specific absences confirmed but one student mentioned not having met their supervisor yet.
#### **Topics Covered:**
1. **Final Check on Supervisor Meeting Forms:**
– The class started with a reminder to finalize and submit supervisor meeting forms to the relevant department.
– Deadline reiterated: 5 p.m. that day.
– The form includes defining contractual terms of supervision, assessing student skills, and sharing a supervisory drive (likely via Google Drive) for tracking progress.
2. **Review of Supervisor Meetings:**
– Students were asked to reflect on their meetings:
– What was the main focus of their meetings with their supervisors?
– How did their supervisors help them narrow down their research topics?
– Several students shared progress:
– One student settled on weekly meetings with their supervisor.
– Another student completely changed their research topic.
– Numerous students shared that they had begun refining their topics and received initial tasks from their supervisors.
– Several students created shared Google Drives to exchange documents with their supervisors.
3. **Understanding the Relevance of Research Topics:**
– Lecturing transitioned to the importance and relevance of research topics in political science.
– Three forms of relevance in political research were outlined:
1. **Theoretical Relevance**: Contribution to existing theories or how the research challenges them.
2. **Empirical Relevance**: What new data, evidence, or case studies the research adds to the field.
3. **Practical Relevance**: How the findings might inform policymakers or address real-world political issues.
4. **Brainstorming and Discussion – Theoretical Relevance:**
– The focus shifted toward helping students articulate the theoretical relevance of their research topics.
– Important guiding questions included:
– What existing theories or frameworks are you engaging with?
– How do you plan to engage with those theories?
– Will your research test, build on, or challenge these theories?
– Several students shared their thoughts:
– **Human Security & Realism (Tuba’s project)**: The student is engaging with theories focusing on human security and realism, relating it to human rights in Afghanistan.
– **Securitization Theory (Akhtar)**: The student discussed supplementing the current theory with understudied areas like securitization through bureaucratic means in authoritarian states.
– **Balancing Small States (Asel’s project)**: Focus on how Kyrgyzstan balances between China and Russia.
– **Cultural Imperialism and Soft Power (Bopur’s project)**: Investigating Turkish TV diplomacy and cultural influence on Uzbekistan.
– **Prospect Theory (Danaya’s project)**: Applied to civil society groups in Belarus and Turkmenistan.
– **Education of Presidents (Emrebek’s project)**: Engaging with classical theories by Plato and Machiavelli to propose a more modern framework regarding education of political leaders.
– **Turkey’s Potential Membership in BRICS (Alina’s project)**: Investigating how Turkey’s accession to BRICS might affect both Turkish economy and geopolitical power structures.
5. **Instructor Guidance:**
– Emphasized the need for structured theoretical frameworks, ensuring coherence throughout the whole paper.
– Students were advised to avoid scattering theories across the paper randomly without deeper integration.
6. **Practical Examples and Applications:**
– The instructor presented the concept of **bandwagoning theory** as an example of theory application in student projects, highlighting how small states like Kyrgyzstan might not follow typical theoretical patterns when balancing relations between major powers (China and Russia).
– Also, the instructor clarified **prospect theory** for students researching fear and repression in authoritarian regimes.
#### **Actionable Items:**
**Before the Deadline:**
– **Turn in Supervisor Meeting Forms**:
– Due by email to the ICP Department by 5 p.m.
– Make sure both the student and supervisor have signed the form.
**Supervision/Research-Related:**
– **Follow-up with Supervisors**:
– For students who haven’t yet fully nailed down their research question (like Amira), ensure you’ve arranged a meeting and made some progress on narrowing it down.
– **Receive Tasks from Supervisors**:
– Remind supervisors to assign preparatory tasks by the next meeting if they haven’t already.
**Assignments/Reflection:**
– **Develop Theoretical Relevance**:
– Continue to research frameworks or theories relevant to your topic (e.g., bandwagoning theory, securitization theory, human security theory).
– Ensure engagement with these theories is consistent throughout the thesis.
**Next Session Prep:**
– **Prepare for Discussion on Empirical and Practical Relevance**:
– Students should be ready to brainstorm and discuss how their research will contribute new data (empirical) and inform policymakers (practical relevance) in the next class.
Homework Instructions:
NO HOMEWORK
The transcript indicates that there was no explicit homework assigned during the lesson. The main focus was on facilitating discussions about students’ ongoing projects and guiding them in their research topics, but no concrete homework tasks were mentioned. The professor’s main instructions were related to in-class activities, such as reflecting on their supervisor meetings and brainstorming theoretical relevance without anything directly stated to be completed outside of class—this is evidenced by context like “Let’s take about five minutes for these questions, then we’ll come back” and no assigned task subsequently given for completion at home.