Teaching the book
Below are suggested exercises for undergraduate or graduate courses that incorporate the book.
questions for the authors
After reading the book (or at least a chapter), send us your questions by mid-semester and we will answer as many as we can in a special video post for your class.
conduct a case study on the adoption of recognition
Put our theory (chapter 2) to the test by conducting an in-depth case study of a country (see examples in chapters 6-8 of Burundi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia). Guiding questions are: Is this a case of recognition or non-recognition? What is the context and nature of the conflict (and especially any evidence of ethnically-based inequality, mistrust, or violence)? At the (non)recognition constitutional moment, who was the key leader? Was it a minority or plurality leader? Was the leader aware of ethnic demographics and ethnic power configurations? How do we know? How did the leader consider assuring and mobilization effects? Do the answers to these questions predict (non)recognition in a manner consistent with our theory?
review the book
Write a book review that summarizes our main argument and evaluates the book’s strengths and weaknesses. (Please also share it with us). See an example here.
code a constitution
Choose a constitution and code it using our coding rules (see chapter 2, and especially p.44). Choose a case that is included in our analysis (see p.60 for the list) and see if you come to the same conclusion as we do. (Especially tricky cases include South Africa and Sudan.) Or, choose and code a case that is not included in the book.
(mock) interview with a constitutional or peace agreement designer
Craft a qualitative research instrument that you could use to interview someone who was involved in a constitutional or peace process with the goal of understanding if and how the explanation we provide for ethnic recognition is a plausible one. (See the opening paragraph to chap 2, p. 18, for inspiration.)
what about conflicts beyond ethnically charged civil wars?
Could the lens of our theory help in understanding political conflicts over identity-based inequality and changing demographics beyond civil wars? Is recognition important to address accumulated inequalities due to past discrimination, slavery or colonization in North America and Europe? (Some first thoughts to get you started are on p.170 and here.)
implementing ethnic recognition
Our implementation dataset involved mini case studies of each case in our dataset to see if and how ethnic recognition was implemented across 7 domains: executive, legislative, security, justice, civil service, education, and language. Using our methodology (see chapter 5, and esp. pp. 67-8), extend the dataset to a case that’s not currently included. (A link to the cases from the book are on the data page of this website.)
unpacking the paradoxes of recognition
In chapter 6, we introduce the idea of a “paradox of recognition” wherein the salience of ethnic identity may decline when recognition is in effect. Design a qualitative research instrument (a set of questions you could ask) of an ordinary person living in a post-conflict recognition state to consider if and how (or if and why not) such a paradox may be transpiring.
extend our study across time
Our book covers 1990-2012. Extend our data and the analysis backwards or forwards to see if patterns have changed.