the Sam Jackson College Experience

Three years ago this time, I was just starting my Yale experience as a freshman. Now, my little sister is starting school - at Carleton - and I'm getting ready to finish. That's a scary thought indeed. Before we cross that frightful threshold out of the ivory tower come May, however, I have a few more credits and quite a lot more courses that I will take along the way. Let's explore!

I've been catalog-browsing and will begin going to courses proper tomorrow. Shopping period at Yale is a magical, mystical thing. I have been writing about it on and off since before I set foot on campus. When I first got here, I was bursting with excitement about the many classes to choose from, and it's still a delight to me, for all the stresses that it might produce.

I traded my four-day weekends of freshman fall for 5-days-a-week Chinese sophomore fall, but that hasn't stopped me from a huge amount of intellectual adventuring. While I've taken some lumps and developed some degree of cynicism since, I still very much love Yale and love being here. Classes are a big part of that, especially once I figured out that you didn't have to take lectures as a Political Science major unless you really wanted to. (I don't, so I don't).

This post is meant principally to talk about the classes that I'm looking at this semester - though, apologies, I can't help it if I start to wax nostalgic and teary-eyed looking back on three years of the collegiate experience.

Onwards!

These pictures should convey a sense of what my shopping looks like: a well-organized mess. I have a large roster of classes that I would like, but can only reasonably take about five of them. This fact, and my past abuses / excesses, mean that I am theoretically only 5 credits (or one semester) away from graduating. But, because I have a lot of classes not strictly speaking in my major, graduating a semester early would be a terrible strain.

Plus, I like Yale so much that it's worth stomaching thousands and thousands (...and thousands) of dollars to be there another semester. I hope.

The smaller photo gives a sense of the layout of my week; that shows the 18 classes that are "most likely" to be shopped, adjusted for schedule conflicts. If seminars let out early, there are other classes that I would like to attend to investigate for future study, mor curiosity, or whatever. A separate page has a lot of classes that I might like to stop in sometime to hear -- a particularly good lecture can be fun to listen to, even if I wouldn't want to be stuck in the class for 13 weeks.

I pre-registered for State-Building, with Keith Darden, and Language & Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans with Robert Greenberg. This is because I know from first hand experience that both are awesome professors, and both courses deal with fascinating subjects, from different angles. More on these later. I am shopping approximately 15 other Political Science / International Studies / Ethics, Politics, Economics style courses as well; all tend to be similarly interesting to me.

I have to be careful to try not to take too many in Political Philosophy since I need to diversify my classes, as it were, for my major. This is a kind of confusing process because the course divisions for PLSC are only listed on certain secret websites. You can guess by course numbers, but not always. This is because there are more total courses taught over the record keeping period than there are course numbers. This means there are numerous repeats in the class range from 100 to 499... lot of Poli Sci courses indeed!

What will I shop, if not seriously try to get into? Some samples:

PLSC or its Social Scientific cousins:

• Democracy & Constitutionalism
• U.S. Party Formation
• Public Opinion in China
• Means and Ends in Politics
• American Founding Debates
• Moral Capital and International Politics
• Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves

Outside PLSC:

• Direction of Time (Exploration into the nature of time, some philosophy of physics here)
• Language and Computation

All in all, it should be a fun week. As a senior, my schedule is not due until 5 pm the 15th. That means I have 2 full weeks of classes to shop, though in most cases, I would never take a class unless I went to a meeting of it, which means going to the first class for seminars. This limits total shoppability, but extensive syllabus stalking and preparatory work ensures that the best decisions are made. The best laid plans still go awry, as has happened to me in past semesters.

I think that things will go well, and will report to you, my dutiful Internet Public, the results of shopping period...

Any questions always welcome, happy to help enlighten those poor unlucky souls who are still long-time readers or found their way here by search engine.

Since my younger sister is going off to college, my mom and dad have wisely chosen to substitute a puppy for her! Arlo is our new puppy who has just come home last Friday. SADLY I have not been able to meet this wonderful golden retriever puppy, because I am still in San Francisco. But one week from now, I will be able to give him a big hug!

Here's a photo of Arlo and Cozmo having a nice time outside together. Cozmo certainly sounds like he is jealous of the puppy's attention, but I think they will get along fine! What a cute puppy : )

So, the semester has not yet started, but today we received the list of classes that we could pre-register for in Political Science. Most majors allow those majors to pre-register for at least some of the classes, though you still have a good shot of getting into seminars afterwards.

I've done quite well over the years getting into classes that I want, and ever since second semester freshman year, I've tried hard to take as few lectures as possible, focusing instead just on seminars.

Here's my favorite course so far, in terms of originality. I'm not sure if I will pre-register for it, but I'll definitely try to shop the class (note: shopping, as in shopping period, the chaotic first two weeks of school where no schedules are solid and you can go to any class. Best part.)

The extended description below.

PLSC 154, Gypsies, Tramps, & Thieves

Instructor: Alec Sweet
Field Distribution: International Relations
Day and Time: T, 1:30-3:20

Expanded Description:

The course examines how people who have chosen to live outside, or on the margins of, “normal” society govern themselves, through constructing and maintaining a defining culture, “law,” and modes of dispute resolution. Cases will include the Roma in Europe, hobos and other transient workers in North America, pirates in the 18th and 19th centuries, and perhaps others (e.g., the Sicilian mafia). One purpose of the course is to consider a range of theories about how discrete human communities make rules and resolve their disputes, with what social effects. We will do so with reference to groups who, through choice or necessity, live beyond the reach of state law and courts.

The course will be divided into four sections. We begin (I) by comparing how Mayan Indians and Cowboys in Shasta County have governed themselves, within their respective state systems (Mexico and California). In addition to introducing general concepts, we will also compare anthropological and economic traditions of analysis. We will then focus, in turn, on (II) pirates, reading closely the new book by Peter Leesen, The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates; (III) tramps, and the classic compilation of Hobo lore by Joyce Kornbluh, Rebel Voices; and (IV) gypsies, with a focus on various aspects of Roma (including Manouche and Gitan) life and law.

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Yes, this is Yale, where we take classes on Vikings and Pirates.

Loving it!

William Deresiewicz gave a very interesting address at West Point this past spring, I discovered. I do not always agree with his opinions, but his essays -- and, it seems, his speeches -- generally provoke interesting discussions and a great deal of thought. In that regard, they are very valuable indeed, for it is too rare a thing which can provoke a good debate on topics of serious import.

This speech is about leadership, and in it Deresiewicz tackles the problems posed for thosed christened the "future leaders of the world" when faced with mediocre leadership in the here and now. Those who have fought their way into Yale and West Point and Stanford and other places, he observes, are not fully informed on how to navigate the jungle of bureaucracy that threatens to ensnares their ambitions and dreams.

In "Solitude and Leadership," he therefore contends, "If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts." Ultimately, he writes:

"I started by noting that solitude and leadership would seem to be contradictory things. But it seems to me that solitude is the very essence of leadership. The position of the leader is ultimately an intensely solitary, even intensely lonely one. However many people you may consult, you are the one who has to make the hard decisions. And at such moments, all you really have is yourself."

I recommend giving it a read, as it is an interesting piece. Here it is again, in The American Scholar: http://www.theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/

Just a quick summer update. I'm in San Francisco this summer, working in Mountain View at Google. Aside from fog and free food, I am looking forward to making new connections, so if you're reading this and want to grab a cup of tea, do write / call me and we'll try to sort things out.

I can't say really much (anything) about my job, as per usual, but things are going pretty well. This is the second week of what is now my third summer (!!!) at Google. Different things each summer, so trying always to find new things to learn and develop myself.

For general updates about the summer, I encourage you to go to my twitter or, I have a current 'streaming' Tumblr that I am trying to use to post photos to from the go, etc. Check that out at stream.samjackson.org.