SOC 309: Colonialism & Development
Presentations on Readings
COLGATE  UNIVERSITY
FALL 1999
Professor Thomas Hall
Last Updated 10-1-99

Students will be responsible for reporting & discussing some of the readings. These will be assigned a few classes in advance. Most of these will be for various case studies and examples. It is important that you read the ENTIRE assignment.. If read only part of the assignment, you may well miss the major point of the reading. Rather, read the entire assignment. Then read your portion VERY CAREFULLY and come prepared to:

summarize it briefly--10 minutes. Work on what you will say, so it will be brief, but include the following where relevant:

• (a)summarize the key points of the reading
• (b) summarize the author's main argument
• (c) summarize the major evidence for her/his argument
• (d) criticize any weak points you see
• What does this reading say about colonialism & development?
• Is this background to colonialism and/or development?
• Is this an instance of colonialism?
• Is this an instance of development?
• What, if anything, was most surprising to you about this case? [Sometimes, this may be a lot if you have never encountered it before. On the other hand, if you have studied it in another course, there may be little new. Either way report that.]
• What seem to be the major social processes at work?
• What, if anything does, does this reading illustrate about colonialism and/or development that we have already discussed?
• What, if anything does, does this reading tells us about colonialism and/or development that we have not all ready see?
• What, if any, additional evidence would you like [assuming anything you want could be produced] in order to understand this case better?
• (e) suggest ways it might help us think about colonialism and/or development.
  It is ok to report that you canNOT figure out how it relates.
• (f) think of two or three questions, or issues, for the class to discuss.  Use these to initiate class discussion.

Not all questions will apply to all readings.  Answer or respond to those that are relevant.

What's the point of all this? I have found that students complain about too much lecture and not enough discussion if I present all the cases. By sharing the presentations, it takes some of the burden off me, and clearly puts the burden on one or two persons to get discussion going. An added advantage, is that you, as students, often detect problems in the cases that I slide over or miss because I am too familiar with the case.

Remember, just because you are presenting on one chapter does not mean you can skip the rest of the book. Discussions will not work if everyone has not done the readings. But when everyone has prepared they can be quite interesting, and everyone learns much more than either reading alone, or just listening to presentation.

Unfortunately, discussions are hard to time and plan, so our schedule will remain approximate. Some case studies will go much more quickly than others, and some more slowly. I will work to keep us approximately on schedule, but be prepared for adjustments.

Send comments or questions to thall@mail.colgate.edu