SOE with University of Salzburg and partners in Tirana

Joint MA Political Science – Integration & Governance (PoSIG)

SOE with University of Salzburg and partners in Tirana

Seminars of Excellence in Political Science held in Tirana this week. These seminars were organised in the framework of the EuroPS – Curriculum Development in Political Science Project, funded by the Erasmus + Program of the European Union and the joint Master in Political Sciences – Integration and Governance (#PoSIG). Lecturers from the European University of Tirana and the Faculty of Social Sciences / University of Tirana co-organized seminars with lecturers from the University of Salzburg, all partners of the EuroPS project and the PoSIG master. The involved lecturers are academics with a notable experience in teaching and research: Prof. Gabriele Spilker – University of Salzburg, expert in international politics; Prof. Assoc. Dr. Enri Hide and Elvin Gjevori, PhD in UET as well as Prof. Assoc. Dr Orinda Malltezi from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tirana.

The particularity of these Seminars of Excellence lies in their preparation as a joint academic effort of lecturers from Albania with their colleagues in Austria and Slovenia during the trainings for capacity building of Western Balkan academic staff in EU countries in 2016. Secondly, these Seminars offer to students of political science and international relations in Tirana the opportunity to learn about contemporary debates in some of the major areas of their studies such as international politics, environmental politics and research methods. Thirdly, these Seminars are a typical example of how the PoSIG Master's studies will be organized, where the founding principle is integrated and student-centered teaching and competencies. So teaching is the result not only of the expertise and work of a single lecturer, but of a close co-operation between lecturers in partner universities in the Western Balkans and the EU, sharing the best experiences and enriching learning in student interest.

Prof. Gabriele Spilker – University of Salzburg

Environmental Politics

Due to issues such as climate change, the ozone hole or the extinction of endangered animals, environmental politics has found its place on the agenda of international politics. In general, international environmental politics deals with transboundary environmental politics whose causes and consequences stretch well over national borders and thus need international cooperating efforts to be solved. This SoE therefore deals with the question how and why international cooperating efforts to solve environmental problem exist and under which circumstances these efforts are successful.

Use of experiments as methods in IR

Experimental methods have become an increasingly important tool for political scientists. This SoE is designed to provide an introduction to experimental methods in political science with a special focus on experiments in international politics. What are the potential strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of experiments relative to other research methods? After a general introduction to the method of experiments in general, the course will provide an overview of several different experimental types, such as laboratory experiments field experiments and survey experiments.