Two more links on Germans expelled from Central and Eastern Europe

Eric Schmaltz has translated two important documents regarding Germans expelled from Central and Eastern Europe into English. The first one is the Charta der deutschen Heimatvertriebenen (Charter of the Germans Expelled from their Homelands) from 5 August 1950. It can be found here. The second document is the Deklaration zur Charta der deutschen Heimatvertriebenen vom 5 August 1950 (Declaration on the Charter of Germans Expelled from their Homelands from 5 August 1950) issued on 6 August 1960. It can be found here. Both of these documents were originally proclaimed in Stuttgart, Germany.

It is Really Cold in Bishkek

It is so cold now that in the morning on the walk between the bus and work my hands feel like they are on fire. I have taken to wearing two pairs of gloves, but this does not seem to have reduced the severity of the chill. I am going to go and see if I can find a really good pair of gloves soon. I would hate to have to leave some fingers behind in Bishkek due to frostbite.

First Week of the Spring 2008 Semester Done

I have finished teaching my first week of classes for this semester. I was not nearly as anxious this semester as last. By now I had figured out that the frequently touted claim that only people who had been TAs in American universities could teach college students was a deliberate falsehood used to deny me a job in the US. So I did not feel as if I was lecturing under a sword of Damocles like I did the first week of last semester.

Link to Review Article on the Forced Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia

My colleague Dr. Eric Schmaltz at Northwestern Oklahoma State University has written an excellent review of Edvard Benes, The Liquidator: Fiend of the German Purge in Czechoslovakia by Sidonia Dedina. He provides a lot of good historical background to the ethnic cleansing of the Sudeten Germans. You can find his review here on the website of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at North Dakota State University Library. My own review of the book can be found here. I will be spending a week in my Migration and Borders class this semester on the forced expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia.

Orange Flavored M&Ms

I am not sure if they have them in the US or not, but the Mars candy operation out of Moscow produces orange flavored M&Ms. I have found them to be quite tasty. I have also noticed that the Russian M&M bags have cool cartoons on them.

Team Teaching

Today I participated in my first team taught class. It went quite well. I do not anticipate any problems in this class. But, there are a lot of people I do not think I could share a class room with as an instructor.

Back to the Grindstone

Classes for the spring semester officially started today. I only had one class to teach this afternoon. Tomorrow I have two. The first one is at eight in the morning.

Syllabus for Introduction to Comparative Politics

ICP 120
3 Credits
International and Comparative Politics
American University Central Asia
Spring Semester 2008
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.
Emir Kulov, AFP Fellow

Meeting Time: Lecture on Tuesdays at 8:00 am and Seminars on Fridays at 8:00 am, 9:30 am and 11:00 am.

Course Description: This is an introductory course to comparative politics. It will compare and contrast the existing political systems of six different countries. These countries are the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Mexico, the United States and South Africa.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussions, five surprise quizzes, a mid-term examination and a final examination. The five surprise quizzes cannot be made up. Students that are absent that day will forfeit the 5% of the grade from the quiz. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. Please turn off all cell phones while in class. We will eject any students carrying on cell phone conversations during class from the room. This will count as an unexcused absence. Please see the separate handout on mobile phones. Finally, I (Dr. Pohl) have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: All the readings are contained in the Introduction to Comparative Politics reader and Mark Kesselmann, Joel Krieger, William Joseph (eds.), Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas, Second Edition.

Policy on Plagiarism: Plagiarism will result in a zero on the assignment for the first offense. A second offense will result in a grade of F for the course. Please be sure to cite your sources. Please also see the separate handout on plagiarism.

Grading:

Five surprise quizzes – 25% (5% each)

Mid-term Examination – 20%

Final Examination – 30%

Attendance – 10%

Participation - 15%

Grading Scale:

100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule

Week One: Introduction to the course and review of the syllabus

Introduction, pp. 3-25 in Kesselman, Krieger and Joseph.

Weeks Two and Three: The United Kingdom

Richard Rose, pp. 161-212 in reader and Joel Krieger, pp. 28-77 in Kesselman, Krieger and Joseph.

Weeks Four and Five: Germany

Russell J. Dalton, pp. 271-324 in reader and Christopher S. Allen, pp. 134-186 in Kesselman, Krieger and Joseph.

Weeks Six and Seven: Russia

Thomas F. Remington, pp. 373-414 in reader and Joan DeBardeleben, pp. 426-483 in Kesselman, Krieger and Joseph.

Week Eight: Mid-Term Exam

Weeks Nine and Ten: Mexico

Wayne A. Cornelius, pp. 463-513 in reader and Merliee S. Grindle, pp. 378-423 in Kesselman, Krieger and Joseph.

Weeks Eleven and Twelve: The United States

Austin Ranney, pp. 733-777 in reader and Louis DeSipio, pp. 288-319 in Kesselman, Krieger and Joseph.

Week Thirteen and Fourteen: South Africa

Reader, pp. 420-449.

Week Fifteen and Sixteen: Review

Week Seventeen: Final Exam

The New Semester

Yesterday, I finished writing up my last syllabus for my spring 2008 classes. Now I am going through and rereading the assigned texts for my classes. I teach my first class of the new year on Monday at 1:00 pm. It is Political History of the USSR.

Another New Publication Arrives in Print

I went into work today for the first time since Saturday. At the office I noticed a package in my in-box. It was a large envelope containing my two author copies of Deniz Kandiyoti (ed.), The Cotton Sector in Central Asia: Economic Policy and Development Challenges (London: The School of Oriental and African Studies, 2007). I wrote the first chapter in the collection, "A Caste of Helot Labourers: Special Settlers and the Cultivation of Cotton in Soviet Central Asia:1944-1956." The book is the result of an international conference I attended at SOAS on 3-4 November 2005.

Changes for the New Year

Last year involved a lot of changes in my life. I left Arivaca in the summer and moved to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan where I started a job as an Associate Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the American University of Central Asia. The end of the year and start of the new one has brought even more changes in my life. My flatmate moved out and returned to the US. In January he will start a Ph.D. program in the UK. Since he has left I have acquired three new things. First, I got a mobile telephone. I had militantly resisted joining the 21st century as long as was humanly possible. Second, I seem to have acquired a new girlfriend. Third, I have found a new apartment much closer to work. Currently, I am in the process of moving my few possessions from the old domicile to the new one. I will be finished in time for the start of the new semester on the fourteenth of January.

Merry Christmas

In case I do not have time to blog between now and December 25th, I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. I get both Western (Catholic and Protestant) Christmas and Eastern (Orthodox) Christmas off this year. Well I got them both off last year too, but I was unemployed.

The Accordion Player

For most of the fall I walked past an old Russian accordion player on the way to work. I took to giving him four to five som each time I saw him. He always expressed great appreciation. When the weather got cold I did not see him for many weeks. Finally, yesterday it was quite warm and I saw him again. I gave him 10 som this time. Since I have finished all my work for the semester I figured it was a good way to start my Christmas break.

Election Day

Today they are holding parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan. I predict that President Bakiev's party, Ak Zhol, will win a majority of the seats. But, despite the elections, today looks like any other calm Sunday in Bishkek.

Possibly the coolest present ever (R-E-S-P-E-K-T)

Today was the last day of classes of my first semester of teaching. My final class was my Russian Politics course. I brought some snacks and most of the students showed up despite the class being optional. This was a bit of a surprise since the last class for my Democratization course had only four students show up. My last Political Culture class managed to have an even lower attendance with three students responding to my advertisement of free food. But, the biggest surprise was what the students gave me. They presented me with a shirt bearing the university emblem. Beneath it they had written out CCCP (USSR in Russian) and then vertically spelled out the acronym in Russian as Samyi, Samyi, Super, Respekt. The t in Respekt then intersected with Otto written horizontally at the bottom of the shirt. On the back of the shirt many of the students had written personal messages and thank you notes with their signatures. I spent a long time in the desert looking for "just a little bit."

"R-E-S-P-E-C-T"

Quoted material from A. Franklin

Almost Done

The semester is almost over. I am just waiting for 40 more research papers due tomorrow at 5pm Bishkek time so I can finish calculating final grades. Early this week my students filled out their evaluations of me . Today and tomorrow my classes are optional. My students can show up and hang out with me for a while over some snacks if they want. Or they can use the time to work on their research papers. So far most of my students have taken the second option.

Sunday at the office

Today I came into work to meet a student. While waiting for her I read and marked a draft of a research paper by another student. Now that our meeting is over I am going to delay going over any more research papers until tomorrow.

My bank's new building

This morning I went to my bank's new location around the corner from their old place to deposit a big chunk of my last pay packet. The new building is much larger and built like a fortress. They have metal detectors, armed guards and who knows what else. The actual deposit of money is even done underground behind bullet proof glass. So I think my money should be safe.

New Publication Coming Soon I Hope

I finally got my copy edited proofs for my chapter, "Loss, Retention, and Reacquisition of Social Capital by Special Settlers in the USSR, 1941-1960." It is scheduled to appear in Cynthia Buckley and Blair Ruble (eds.), Going Home? Population Movements and Belonging in Eurasia (Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2008). I have a deadline of 28 December 2007 to make the corrections and return the proofs. So I hope the book finally sees print sometime early next year. The book is the result of two workshops I attended at the Kennan Institute in 2004 and 2005.

From One Semester to the Next

Now that I have nearly finished teaching a whole semester here, I think I have a better grasp on how to manage my time next semester. For one thing I know the subjects I am teaching next semester better than the ones I taught this semester. I also know more what to expect out of teaching here. Because I had been falsely led to believe that university teaching was something on the order of brain surgery or rocket science I started this semester with a lot of unjustified anxiety. I am still not sure why hundreds of people on search committees at universities including several here claimed I was "incapable of ever teaching." I found teaching much easier than working as a barrista.

At any rate I think this next semester I can make some time to do some research. Now that I have an institutional position I might even be able to get some funding to carry out this research. But, even if I fail to get any funding, I have a steady income now and should be able to gain access to Soviet era archives here in Bishkek. Previously I had no money and except for the US and Estonia no country would give me permission to look at any of their archival collections. Having removed the boulder of unemployment from my life everything else looks like a cake walk.