Bring back the old Map!

As we reported yesterday, the School of Foreign Service institution, Map of the Modern World, is undergoing major changes this year.  Turns out SFSers aren’t taking too kindly to the alterations.

They’ve started a Facebook group in protest, “Take Back Map of the Modern World.”  The group currently has 392 members, including SFS Academic Council Representative Josh Mogil (SFS ’11) and former Map TA Helen Burdett (SFS ’11).

The group’s description explains their grievances:

Just because Dean Reardon-Anderson wants to take over the course, it doesn’t the course material should change … Map of the Modern World is a pillar of the SFS, and we urge the new Dean to reconsider his changes, not to the class called Map, but to that SFS institution called Map.

Keep Map and its cherished contents intact. Some additions to the course are always warranted, as there have been new developments occuring all the time. That isn’t the same as gutting the course. It’s just one of those binding forces that brings all of us in the SFS together

The group encourages members to invite all their friends in the SFS so that the deans will understand that students don’t support the “watering down” of Map.

All you will need to know to pass the new Map of the Modern World course

Map of the Modern World, the School of Foreign Service rite of passage, is undergoing significant curricular changes and getting a new instructor this year, as The Hoya first reported yesterday.  Instead of the surly and demanding Professor Keith Hrebenak, the course will now be taught by former SFS-Qatar Dean James Reardon-Anderson.

So how will the class be changing?  According to an email from Reardon-Anderson:

The course content has been modified to provide a greater emphasis on physical geography (what is sometimes called “environment”) and to demonstrate how physical geography has influenced large scale human behavior (what is sometimes called “international affairs”) …

The content of the exam will be modified to reflect the new course content.  Therefore, there will be more emphasis on physical geography and its influences and less on topics that were the focus of the previous version of this course [such as political boundaries, colonial legacies and border disputes].

Reardon-Anderson wrote that the change is “partly” related to the effort to add science to the SFS core curriculum.

According to the syllabus Reardon-Anderson used when he taught the course in Doha (posted in full after the jump), four of the 14 lectures will be devoted to science topics like “The Atmosphere,” “Plate Tectonics” and “Global Climate Change.”  The other 10 lectures will be devoted to specific regions.  The course will include lectures on North America and Europe, regions that were previously not covered.  The class will maintain the 100 multiple choice question final exam.

When asked if Hrebenak wanted to stop teaching the course, Reardon-Anderson replied, “I will let him speak for himself concerning his interests in teaching.”  Hrebenak has not yet replied to requests for comment.  Reardon-Anderson did say he would continue to teach other courses at Georgetown, though.

Check out the full syllabus for the revamped course after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »