Course Requirements

 

As all courses are via remote learning this term, please bear with me while I figure this all out. Weekly lectures will be delivered via this website (on the Syllabus page) through PowerPoint presentations with audio.


Percentage of Final Grade

  • A mid-term examination administered via CANVAS on Monday May 4th: 30%
  • Research paper and recorded PowerPoint with audio presentation):  40%
  • Final essay: it is now posted here for your review.  It is to be based on what you have learned from each others’ papers and oral presentations. Given that remote learning makes discussions somewhat problematic, I am delaying this somewhat: the essay will be administered via Canvas (as the Midterm was), and the portal will open Thursday June 4 at 2 pm and will close for submissions one week later, June 11, at 2 pm.: 20%
  • Participation: There will be a ‘graded discussion post’ (Canvas’ term) available every week of the term from Wednesday after class (3:20pm) through Saturday evening (12am). This is by no means ‘busy work,’ but as I am not doing live, interactive lectures, I do not have a means to ensure you’re learning something in this course, keeping up with the lectures and readings week by week, and I want to respond to any questions and concerns you may have. Therefore, I am using these ‘discussion posts’ as an opportunity for you to demonstrate you have read the weekly readings, listened to the lectures and share your thoughts and questions about what you are learning. Each discussion post will be worth 1 point and will make up the majority of your participation grade. I ask that in the ‘discussion post’ you either reflect (in a few sentences) on the most important things you took away from the week, or ask 2-3 questions. This is my way of checking in and fielding any questions you have about the course content or readings while also gauging where everyone is at with the material during a given week: 10%

Readings: All required readings should be completed before the week in which they will be addressed commences. We will have synchronous class meetings on  to discuss the readings and PowerPoint lectures on April 15, 22 and 29, and a final synchronous class meeting the last day of the course, on June 3rd. While there is no additional requirement, per se, for graduate students, it is expected that they will be eminently prepared for all remote discussions.

Required Books:
Three of the following books are available electronically through the UO Library. They are all available through the U of O bookstore and can be ordered through it or through Amazon or other online dealers.

1. James Crabtree The Billionaire Raj: a Journey through India’s new Gilded Age Tim Duggan Books, 2018 (not available electronically)
2. Arjun Guneratne and Anita M. Weiss (eds.) Pathways to Power: the Domestic Politics of South Asia Rowman & Littlefield, 2014
3. Rajiv Kumar and Omita Goyal (eds.) Thirty Years of SAARC: Society, Culture and Development Sage, 2016
4. Ian Talbot A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas Yale University Press, 2016;