Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Siegmar Schmidt (schmidts@uni-landau.de)

Contact person: Dr. Jana Urbanovska (79161@mail.muni.cz)

4 ECTS

Pass/Fail course

Teaching dates

The course is composed of 6 sessions (each session lasts 90 minutes):

1) 4 April 2022, 14:00–15:40, P21a

2) 4 April 2022, 16:00–17:40, U23

3) 5 April 2022, 18:00–19:40, P22

4) 6 April 2022, 10:00–11:40, U23

5) 6 April 2022, 12:00–13:40, U23

6) 8 April 2022, 8:00–9:40, U32

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.

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 6 groups, composed of 4 students (given the overall number of 24 students in the course).
    
  • The task of each group is to prepare a PowerPoint presentation (20 minutes) and present it during the session.
    
  • The topics of the 6 presentations can be found in the following chapters of the interactive syllabus (Sessions 1-6).
    
  • 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 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.
    
• 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.
  • The final exam will take place on May 9, 2022. It will be accessible in the IS through ROPOT between 15:00 and 20:00. This means that you can start no earlier than at 15:00 and have to end no later than 20:00; inbetween, you can arrange your 60 minutes slot and take the exam as you wish.