30 January, 2007

You've got to choose

I need to decide which course I am taking this semester. My choices are:

1. Some boring law course
2. A course on Political Islam, with one of Spy School's star lecturers. Handy if I actually do a thesis on the internal politics of the Palestinian Authority
3. A course on the politics and social stuff of Africa (in particular the southern end of Africa). There is a part of me that thinks that the problems of Africa are big and interesting and worth knowing about, but the course is on at an inconvenient time.
4. A course on US foreign policy. I almost certainly won't do this. My current thinking is that maybe if we all ignore US foreign policy it will go away.

Actually, I think I was meant to have chosen about all of this some time ago. Mmm.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think number two sounds the most interesting. The intersection of state and religion is always gripping, and especially so in Islam.

But what years does course 4 focus on? I'm currently taking a U.S. Cold War History/Policy class and it's fuckin' fascinating.

Kealo said...

I've opted for Political Islam. It won't really help me with my thesis, but it sounds interesting and is on at a very convenient time!

ian said...

I have a poor record of arriving on time to 2.00pm lectures, but yes, that time is convenient in other respects.

Jennifer - I don't know what the US foreign policy course covers, because the lecturer was too slack to show up at the "pitch your class" session. I reckon it would have to be a bit more contemporary than just Cold War history, unless it was about showing continuities between that conflict and the current struggle (not too surprising when you consider how many of the neocons are former Cold Warriors). But perhaps hubristically, I feel like I know all about US foreign policy, so I would like to do a course about something new and exciting.

Andrew Sherman said...

4 sounds boring, we hear so much about US FP already. I think you should go for the best lecturer, so that means 2 I suppose.