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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Great Innovation at McGill--By Political Theorists No Less!

Jacob Levy and his pesky band of political theorists have come up with a great idea--a contest to enter work into a manuscript workshop.  I almost, just almost, wished I was a political theorist for a just a second.  I have participated in a couple of manuscript workshops, where the outsiders (I was an outsider in both cases) are brought in to read someone's book manuscript, along with the person's colleagues at their department, to give advice on how to revise the book so that it can be published and be better. 

Both experiences (at Dartmouth and Buffalo) were heaps of fun, as it was interesting to see how different folks converge and diverge when reading the same work, and to see young scholars face such challenges. 

The political theory group at McGill really has its act together, with Jacob taking the lead.  I am most jealous as the group has demonstrated in a very short period of time what can be achieved with some hard work and reasonable accommodation (Montreal-specific pun intended).

Anyhow, folks should take a look at this workshop idea and the other efforts of GRIPP (one of many unfortunate, illness-sounding acronyms--the new one for the security group sounds like sepsis)--as this theory group is a role model for other collaborations amongst scholars

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