Congratulations to the Political Science Graduating Class of 2016! We couldn't be more thankful for all that you've contributed to this program, and wish you all the best in your future endeavours! #Grad2016

McGill Political Science Students Association - PSSA's cover photo

Happy summer break and congratulations to those graduating!

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Congratulations to the McGill Political Science Graduating Class of 2015-2016!

SSMU Mental Health

Accommodations aren't cop-outs! If you are unable to complete your evaluations and examinations, feel like you need more time to write, or need more information on mental health services during exam time, check out SSMU Mental Health's flow chart! McGill Nightline is also available from 6PM - 3AM for confidential, anonymous and non-judgmental listening services. Reach out to these groups if you need them. Good luck on the rest of your examinations!

If you're in POLI 227, your last chance to come pick up NTCs is tomorrow (Wednesday) from 12:30pm-1:30pm! Come find us in the PSSA Office, Leacock 420.

U.S. Consulate General Montréal

Some members of the incoming and outgoing PSSA Exec with United States Ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman

Photos from McGill Political Science Students Association - PSSA's post

Introducing the incredible incoming 2016-2017 PSSA Executive! President - Tofunmi Odugbemi VP Finance - Mitch Clarke VP Academic - Troy Bjorkman VP Communications - Garima Karia VP Internal - Stephen Bateman VP External - Amanda Hills VP Events - Ryan Shah Best of luck to these amazing and talented execs.

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An unexpected run-in with United States Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman ! Thank you for the lapel pins Ambassador!

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Our last, but never least Professor of the Month is the wonderful Professor Juliet Johnson! Her courses are famous for her amazing simulations (especially in Russian/Soviet Politics), so watch out for them in the next few years! 1) What was your first ever job? That depends on what you count as a job! Well...the first one that most people would count was that I had a newspaper route in the fifth grade. I delivered newspapers starting at 5:30 in the morning. I had two streets I was responsible for that weren't all that close to where I lived. My brother did it too. So, we would get up when it was still dark outside, go out and collect our newspapers, deliver everything, have breakfast at a little diner, come home, and get ready for school. It was a lot of early mornings at a young age...and not for much money either. 2) Recent research you're engaging in? I'll talk about two big things: My latest book just came out about a week ago. I started this project a long time ago. It was one of those books I stopped and started at various points. While I was working on it, I was moving countries, universities, and had a child. It's been a long process but it's a much better book for it. I give credit in the acknowledgements to my daughter Eleanor, who was born in December 2008. She postponed the book long enough for me to write a chapter on the financial crisis. So that's the project I just finished. A big part of what I'm doing now is promoting it. I have several other research projects going on but the most significant project builds off that previous one. It looks at the social construction of money since the global financial crisis through a study of central bank museums. You probably didn't know that these museums even exist! For example, the Bank of Canada had one, and now it's in the process of reimagination. It's going to be a large, interactive, multimedia experience. The idea is to use these museums as a vehicle to explore how central banks talk about their jobs and their relationship with money. Inherently, their job is to convince us that they can do something that is essentially impossible, which is to provide a currency that is stable over the very long term. They can't guarantee that stability, as our periodic financial crises show. But if we don't believe they can do it, then that creates problems in and of itself because money is all about trust – without that trust, it is just pieces of paper. So, I look at how these museums talk about inflation, the security of money (things like counterfeiting), and central banks' relationships to the country or the nation. They need to convince people they're working in the interest of the country as a whole rather than a transnational elite, and they need to convince people that they're getting better at their jobs over time despite these periodic crises. They have to talk about what happened in those crises, but also talk about how they learned from them. I just started this project this year and it's been fascinating. I just got back from a conference in Atlanta and one of the things I did was go to the US federal reserve bank there...they have quite an impressive museum. One of the things you can do is watch them processing cash. They've also got an exhibit called "Myth and Reality," which is an interactive game in which they show you statements about central banking and you have to choose whether they are true and false. I'm comparing these museums around the world to see to what extent each central bank puts its own twist on the discussion of money and how to manage it. 3) What's the best thing about being a Professor at McGill? I'm sure other professors have said this, but absolutely the students. The one thing that I love is that the students are actually interested in the subject matter and if you want to be innovative in a class, the students will go with you. As you know, I do the simulation in Russian Politics (329) and that's a lot of extra work. It's not something I would do at every university, but here, the students very much get engaged in it. It's a core part of the course. I can tell it's a great learning experience and I get such wonderful feedback from the students that I'm able to improve it every year. (Side note: This is an INCREDIBLE class and I've taken it. Fascinating material. Fair grading. Take the opportunity when this course becomes available...you will not regret it). In another example, I taught an undergraduate honours seminar on “Census, Map, Museum: Identity and the State” the past couple of years and I thought, "let me design this in a very nontraditional way." After the first few foundational weeks, I set it up in three units. For each unit, the first week we did theoretical readings and discussion on the census, map, or museum topics, but drawn at least in part from other social sciences. The second week we put those ideas into practice, so we designed our own census surveys, we went to the GIS lab and did mapping, and we went to the Canadian History Museum in Ottawa. Then in the third week of every unit, students gave mini-lectures about related topics. It's a different way to run a class, but the students were 100% able to handle it, get into it, and I just love that McGill students are interested in ideas. And not just ideas for their own sake, but how you put them into practice in the real world. 4) What's your favourite book and movie? These are always incredibly hard questions because I don't have a single favourite...okay, I'll give you one that I also like to recommend to students that's in my area of interest. It's a book called Under The Frog by Tibor Fischer. It's a dark comedy set in Hungary after the end of World War 2. It's very dark, but it's incredibly funny and well-written. It's one of those books that I think anybody who enjoys good writing and who wants to understand the region should read. And then movies...I haven't had the chance to see much of anything but kids movies for seven years now, but in terms of favourite movies? Hmmm...Blues Brothers (laughs). I moved here from Chicago; I lived there for a long time and my dad was a big fan of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Not only that, but I'm from the Midwest, from Ohio. There's something about the iconoclasm, the complete defiance of authority, the ridiculousness, the fabulous music, the giant pile of cop cars at the end...that's a movie I can watch again and again. I have very good memories of that one. 5) Tell me about your love for _____ . My two easy answers are my family and travelling. Those have been two themes that have run through my life. I come from a large family. My dad's from a family of 4 kids and my mom from 8 kids. They defied the Pope, got divorced, and both got remarried. My mom's second husband was from a family of 12 and my dad's second wife was from a family of 10. Everybody had kids. I'm the oldest of 7 if you count all of us. I don't even know how many cousins I have. There's a big contingent in Ohio and another in Arizona, but we have very much spread out all over the world. This is the reason I joined Facebook, so I can keep up with all these people! But it's great. For example, I just got a text from my cousin in New York City saying "Hey Juliet! I'm coming to Montréal this weekend. Let's go for coffee" and that sort of thing happens all the time. My family is fabulous and diverse in nearly every possible way. If I just tell you about my brothers and sisters, my first brother is one year younger than me, and he teaches high school English and yearbook and announces all the school’s football games. He's an incredible teacher. If we go down by age, my next brother is a professional landscaper with four kids and my next sister (in Seattle) does Internet marketing design for Sales Force. She works from home and spends her free time hiking and camping. My next sister is a yoga instructor and children's art teacher in Chicago. My next brother lives in Dubai, teaches test prep courses for the Princeton Review, and is a semi-famous professional wrestling podcaster. My youngest sister is a mutual fund advisor in Arizona. We do a little bit of everything, but I'm the only one in my extended family who is a university prof. With my parents, my mom worked for the Department of Administrative Services of the state of Ohio...she was one of their first computer programmers and was in charge of the state’s Y2K preparations. My dad ran bars among many, many other things. When you asked me what my first job was my first inclination was to say that I spent a lot of time in bars. 6) If you were to have one piece of advice for our political science undergraduates, what would it be? One piece of advice that's not going to get me in trouble...hm...I'll say it anyway. The one thing I wish I had known when I was an undergraduate is that you should choose your classes by the professor and not the topic. A good professor can make any subject interesting, but a poor teacher can make even a fascinating subject deadly dull.

2016 PSSA Professor Awards: Celebrating Achievement, Fostering Community

Thank you to the The Bull & Bear for writing this great article on our event on Thursday! Writer, Katherine Hutter, breaks down some of the highlights of the evening. http://bullandbearmcgill.com/2016-pssa-professor-awards-celebrating-achievement-fostering-community/ "As Richad [PSSA President] warmly concluded: Events like these really embody the institution of McGill…the talented young individuals who are standing here…that’s why we launched the McGill Journal of Political Studies on the same day as we recognize professors for their outstanding achievement and dedication to this department. As much as this is just a piece of paper, I’d like to think it is more than that. Our students take the initiative and recognize their professors and their commitment to the department of Political Science, and I think I speak on behalf of the whole department when I say that we appreciate everything that you do"

Thank you to everyone who joined us, and congratulations to the following Professors, who took home PSSA's Excellence in Teaching Awards last night: Professor of the Year: Dr. Mark Brawley Course of the Year: Dr. Erik Kuhonta, Poli 369 Canadian Politics Course of the Year: Dr. Richard Schultz, Poli 221 Comparative Course of the Year: Dr. Cassandra Steer, Poli 330 IR Course of the Year: Dr. Vincent Pouliot, Poli 449 Political Theory Course of the Year: Dr. Jacob Levy, Poli 334 Honors Seminar of the Year: Dr. Fernando Nuñez-Mietz, Poli 575 Teaching Assistant of the Year: Juliette Bronchtein Best Lecturer: Dr. Leonardo Baccini Most Accessible Professor: Dr. Manuel Balan In case you missed the event, here is the live recording from TVM: Student Television at McGill. http://tvmtelevision.com/pssacademy-awards-professor-awards-and-mjps-launch-live-stream/ We've also launched the McGill Journal of Political Studies. You can find it here! http://mjps.mcgill.ca/

McGill Political Science Students Association - PSSA's cover photo

- Course Evaluations are now open until April 17 (or until May 1 for certain courses) – please take a few minutes to evaluate your courses and instructors. Your anonymous feedback helps improve courses and teaching at the University. www.mcgill.ca/mercury - Les évaluations de cours sont maintenant disponibles jusqu’au 17 avril (ou jusqu’au 1 mai pour certains départements). S’il vous plaît prenez le temps d’évaluer vos cours et instructeurs! Le retour d’information de vos évaluations permette l’amélioration des cours ainsi que l’apprentissage de futurs étudiants. www.mcgill.ca/mercury