How should educators teach students to make better theoretical arguments, that is, an argument that is logical and fruitful? Logical thinking is about making valid deductions from a set of premises and avoiding fallacies. Fruitful thinking involves making an argument that fits reality. Theoretical thinking, then, emphasizes building a sound argument with relevant and interesting empirical implications. In this way, theoretical thinking complements the more common educational mantra of teaching students to think critically, which tends to focus on the detection of fallacies or other flaws in an argument. Emphasizing detection instead of construction, however, limits the development of analytical and independent thinking. To better teach the range of thinking skills most educators want their students to acquire calls for a focus on the understanding and construction of theoretical arguments, and this calls for greater emphasis on learning at least a basic system of logic.I thank Eric Hoffmann, Bob Jackson, Will Moore, Jeff Staton, and the reviewers for many helpful comments on earlier drafts. All remaining errors are my responsibility.

A major public university is located in or very near over half of American state capitals, and political science departments at these universities advertise the special advantages that such a location brings to their students. For example, the political science department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln advertises its internship programs: “As Lincoln is the seat of state government, students have an opportunity to observe government in action. Political Science has a vibrant internship program where students may intern with the state legislature, the governor's office, and other agencies of state government. Internships are also available with local interest groups, non-profit agencies, corporations, and political parties” (University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2005). Such opportunities for students are meaningful, however, only if they have some significant effect on student learning or engagement. It is reasonable that colleges and universities would emphasize the advantages that their location in a state capital might offer; colleges use both their campus and their local community to appeal to students (Choy and Ottinger 1998). Yet there is scant research to confirm any of the effects that colleges advertise.An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2005 meeting of the American Political Science Association. The authors thank Lindsey Lupo, Charles Turner, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

This article draws upon my experience using film and literature to teach political science majors and non-majors about war. It assesses the value of using films and literature to teach about war, offers organizing themes and approaches to the material, and discusses ways to help students develop their capacities to analyze the politics of war and of cultural products concerning war.The author thanks Joseph Yenerall for suggesting this article, and Judith Sanders, Lawrence Lieberfeld, and the reviewers of PS for help in its preparation.

The fourth annual APSA Conference on Teaching and Learning in Political Science was held in Charlotte, North Carolina from February 9–11, 2007.

Through this special annual meeting APSA continues to promote greater understanding of cutting-edge approaches, techniques, and methodologies that can be applied in the political science classroom. This conference provides a forum where scholars and educators share effective and innovative teaching and learning models and discuss broad themes and values affecting political science education.

The Conference addressed crucial questions in higher education, such as enhancing student engagement via civic education, service learning, and assessing learning outcomes; integrating international models and into teaching and learning methods; and strengthening efforts by learned societies such as APSA to support good teaching. In addition, the Conference reflected APSA's objective of reaching out beyond traditional approaches to higher education, and includes college/university faculty, high school teachers, librarians, publishers, as well as international participants. For a full list of participants and more information on the 2007 Conference, visit www.apsanet.org/section_236.cfm. For information on the 2008 Conference, contact [email protected].

People in Political Science.

It is with indescribable sorrow that we write with news of the death of our dear friend and colleague, Timothy Cook. Tim passed away from complications associated with brain cancer on August 5, 2006, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was only 51. Tim held the Kevin P. Reilly, Sr. Chair in Political Communication at Louisiana State University.

Professor Rita Nealon Cooley died on October 1, 2006, in her home in New York City. She was born in New York in 1919 and attended a Catholic School in the Bronx where she won the Classics prize and was the Class Valedictorian. After graduating from Hunter College in 1940, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and as winner of the Constitutional Law prize, she was awarded the Penfield Fellowship by the department of politics at NYU in 1943 and began taking courses in the graduate school.

Michael Baruch Grossman, 70, a political science professor whose specialty was the relationship between the president and the news media, died May 14, 2007, in Oakland, California, from complications arising from pancreatic cancer.

John W. Lederle, age 94, born in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1912, president of the University of Massachusetts, 1960–1970, died February 13, 2007. His wife of almost 69 years, Angie, died March 4th, both in Naples, Florida, where they lived in retirement. They leave a daughter, Pamela Marro, and a son, Thomas.John Lederle's papers, some 32.5 linear feet of shelf space, are in the Special Collections and University Archives of the Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. They cover chiefly his time as University president (1960–1970), but the collection spans the years 1947–1983. The include professional correspondence, administrative records, subject files, committee notes, reports, and clippings. Administrative records document the operation of the Amherst campus as well as the development of two new campuses (Boston and the Medical School in Worcester). Extra-university records document other Lederle activities, including work with various boards and agencies. Personal correspondence and a transcript of an oral history are included.

John M. Maki, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, died December 7, 2006, at age 97. His wife, Mary, “an ideal wife,” partner in an “ideally happy marriage,” died in 1990. (Quotations are drawn from his autobiography, Voyage through the Twentieth Century [2004].) Two sons, John A. and James P., survive him. So, too, his good reputation.

Nelson Polsby, Heller Professor of Political Science and former director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at Berkeley, passed away on February 6, 2007, at the age of 72. He was a prominent member of a renowned graduate cohort group that studied under Robert Dahl at Yale in the fifties and included his long-time Berkeley colleagues Raymond Wolfinger and Aaron Wildavsky. After briefly teaching at the University of Wisconsin and Wesleyan University, Nelson joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty in 1967, where he remained until his death. Nelson received many honors during his illustrious career, including honorary degrees from the University of Liverpool (1992) and the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (2001), election to the American Academy of Arts and Science (1982), and the Frank Goodnow Award (2003) for Distinguished Service to the Political Science Profession. He was managing editor of the American Political Science Review from 1971–1977 and served on the editorial board of 21 other journals. His death was widely reported by the press in the U.S. and Europe, including a lengthy obituary in the Times of London.

Professor Donald Rothchild, one the foremost of the students of African international relations, passed away on January 30, 2007, at the age of 78 from complications related to lymphoma.

Over February 16–17, 2007, after careful deliberation and consideration of the Association's Bylaws and the Council's charge as articulated by President Robert Axelrod, and after canvassing the membership for suggestions as articulated in the APSA Constitution, the 2006–2007 Nominating Committee submitted the following slate of elective Officers. In its deliberations, the Committee was mindful of giving due regard to diversity, geographical distribution, fields of professional interest, type of institution, academic/nonacademic employment status, as well as to the Council's guidance to take into account non-Ph.D.-granting institutions in the nomination of candidates, and to avoid selecting a nominee for president of the same gender for more than two consecutive years.

Politics are ubiquitous in social life, shaping all manner of interactions in so many spheres of human activity. From the playground to the retirement community, from the marketplace to the halls of government, from families to the global economy, we are constantly engaged in political struggles large and small. Political science, in turn, has long been fundamentally interdisciplinary, exchanging ideas, theories, data, and methods with fields from anthropology to zoology;mo;usb;mc; – and everything in between. As political science has become a more self-conscious discipline, it has simultaneously grown more aware of its intellectual debts and on-going contributions to cognate fields of study. The 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association will celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of political science and highlight new opportunities for intellectual exchange across disciplinary boundaries.

APSA is excited to once again return to Chicago for the 103rd Annual Meeting, which will be held from August 30–September 2, 2007. There is no place more fitting than the Windy City, home of the ground-breaking social science innovation of the various Chicago Schools of the mid-twentieth century, to celebrate the diversity of the political science profession and this year's program theme, “Political Science and Beyond.” The program committee, chaired by Elisabeth R. Gerber (University of Michigan) and David A. Lake (University of California, San Diego) has put together an impressive program, consisting of over 800 panels in 46 Thematic Divisions. Panels and plenary sessions will focus on the idea of interdisciplinarity and will feature discussions and presentations from some of the most respected social scientists of our time. In addition, the program chairs have put together several theme panels which will address topics directly related to the meeting's theme, as well as current issues and hot topics in today's society.

Washington Insider.

Here's a preview of some of the articles that will be published in the October issue of PS: Political Science and Politics.

The American Political Science Association is pleased to announce the class for the 2007 Ralph Bunche Summer Institute. The Institute is in its 21st year of operation and will be hosted by Duke University. Twenty outstanding students, representing diverse institutions all over the country, will be participating in this summer's program.

Announcing the Nelson W. Polsby Memorial Fund.

NEH Summer Stipend Awards.

APSA is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2007 Small Research Grant Program. This year, awards averaging $1,636 went to 11 proposals. The Small Research Grant Program supports research in all fields of political science, designed to support the research of political scientists who are not employed at Ph.D.-granting institutions. For more information on the program and application procedures, please visit the APSA web site at www.apsanet.org/section_509.cfm. The 2008 Small Research Grant competition cycle reopens December 1, 2007.