Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Government, History, and International Relations

This proseminar addresses problems and methods related to the study of government, history, and international relations. It stresses the critical analysis of sources, constructing explanatory models, standards of logical demonstration, as well as organizing and presenting research results. Emphasis is on developing both writing and research skills. Students study essential categories of analysis used in history and political science. Because skills learned in this course are useful in subsequent courses, it is the first course that prospective Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) candidates should take toward the degree (or the second, if they are completing the expository writing prerequisite). While not designed to be a thesis or capstone proposal course, this course does serve as a foundation for eventual work on the thesis or capstone.