About the course
Dear students,
I have an urgent message from Prof. Schmidt for you: Prof. Schmidt has been
vaccinated today, however, suffers from fever and is not able to teach
tomorrow's sessions. He sincerely apolozises for any inconvenience this might
cause to you. As a replacement, the two sessions (5+6) will take place on
Monday, May 3, 10:00-11:30 & 12:00-13:30 instead. The exam dates remain the
same.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Kind regards,
Jana Urbanovská
79161@mail.muni.cz
MVZb2059 Democracy, the state and conflict in Africa
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Siegmar Schmidt (schmidts@uni-landau.de)
Contact person: Dr. Jana Urbanovska (79161@mail.muni.cz)
4 ECTS
Online form (the platform will be specified)
Pass/Fail course
Teaching dates
The course is composed of 6 sessions (each session lasts 90 minutes):
26 April 2021, 10:00-11:30 + 12:00-13:30
27 April 2021, 10:00-11:30 + 12:00-13:30
3 May 2021, 10:00-11:30 + 12:00-13:30
Link to the Zoom-Meeting on 26 April
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting-ID: 878 0348 5619
Kenncode: 664404
Link to the Zoom-Meeting on 27 April 2021
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting-ID: 839 1842 8895
Kenncode: 464337
Link to the Zoom-Meeting on 3 May 2021
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting-ID: 821 1947 3499
Kenncode: 145219
About the course and the lecturer
The main aim of the course is to understand the relation between
democracy, state and conflict in Africa.
At the end of the course, students will be
able to explain the historical legacies stemming from colonialism and
decolonization; describe main problems connected to the process of
democratization and state-building in Africa; discuss the role of the African
Union in the management and the EU conflict management in the Sahel-region and
the Chinese African Policy. At the end of this short-term seminar, we will
discuss the failure or the success of Sub-Sahara-African countries at the Covid19
pandemic.
Prof. Dr. Siegmar Schmidt is Professor for International Relations and
Comparative Government at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. His
research interests and a wide range of publications focus on African
politics, development issues, foreign policy of Western states and
European integration.
Course requirements
- 100% attendance. Since the course is composed of 6 sessions only, students are required to be actively present at ALL sessions. The attendance will be checked randomly during each session.
- Readings. Students are required to read the literature before each session.
- Active participation. Students are required to actively participate in online discussions.
- Group project.
- 20% of the overall assessment.
- Students will be divided into 5 groups, composed of 5 students (given the overall number of 25 students in the course).
- The task of each group is to prepare a PowerPoint presentation (20 minutes) and present it at the beginning of a session.
- The topics of the 5 presentations (i.e. sets of questions that students are expected to answer) can be found in the following chapters of the interactive syllabus (Sessions 1-5).
- Students are highly encouraged to get in touch with Prof. Schmidt to consult the content of their presentations and the literature. Required reading can be used, however, it is not sufficient and more sources are needed to complete the task.
- The sign-up for the presentations takes place through the IS --> course MVZb2059 Democracy, the state and conflict in Africa --> application Topic Lists. It is the responsibility of the students to split into the groups through the given application. The deadline for the sign-up is 31 March 2021 (the sooner a group is completed, the better). In case any technical support/advice is needed, please contact Dr. Jana Urbanovska (79161@mail.muni.cz).
- The presentations have to be sent to Prof. Schmidt one week before the course starts.
- Also, students are required to submit their presentations to the homework vault in the IS at the day of presenting them to make them available to their fellow students as well.
- 20% of the overall assessment.
- Final exam.
- 80% of the overall assessment.
- After the course is completed, students will take an online written exam, composed of open-ended questions
based on the lectures, readings, and students presentations.
-
The exam is composed of 5 questions and students are required to answer 4 of them (NOT 5) according to their choice. Students are kindly asked to clearly indicate what are the four questions they are going to answer.
- For each question, students can get up to 5 points, i.e. 20 points altogether (4 x 5). Students have to reach at least 60 % success rate to pass the exam, i.e. 12 points at least.
- The duration of the test is 60 minutes.
- Only students who successfully passed the presentations can take part in the exam.
- Exam dates (please do not forget to register in the IS):
- 11 May 2021, 18:00
- 19 May 2021, 18:00
- 80% of the overall assessment.