International and Public Affairs
The concentration in International and Public Affairs equips students with the knowledge and skills necessary to be engaged global citizens. This concentration offers three tracks: Development, Policy & Governance, and Security. All students take a common core of five classes, beginning with a choice of thematic gateway lecture courses (ideally taken during freshman or sophomore year), and then building through a required junior seminar and a required senior seminar (eligible students may choose to write an honor's thesis to satisfy the senior seminar requirement). All students choose one of three tracks of substantive specialization: Development, in which students explore issues of human development in local and global contexts, and across both the developing world and advanced industrial settings; Security, which allows students to explore issues of security in both local and global contexts; and Policy and Governance, in which students explore the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies to resolve societal challenges, as well as the governing structures that yield those policies. The concentration is committed to engaging students in the classroom, enabling research opportunities with faculty and in the field, and supporting experiential learning opportunities. Advisors' office hours and an online appointment scheduler are available here.
Concentration Requirements
The concentration entails 11 courses, 5 of which apply across track specializations and 6 of which are track-specific.
The 5 common core courses include an IAPA gateway lecture course that examines broad global themes and provides an introduction to multidisciplinary analysis; one qualitative and one quantitative research methods course (language instruction at the 0400 level or above can substitute for one of the methods courses); one of the designated IAPA junior seminars (taken during the junior year); and a senior capstone course. Students may fulfill the capstone requirement by taking one of the designated IAPA senior seminars. Eligible students may choose to write an honors thesis to satisfy the senior capstone requirement. The concentration offers choices for each of these 5 common core courses, and these courses are not track-specific.
All International and Public Affairs concentrators choose a track of specialization: Development, Policy & Governance, or Security. Students in each track are required to take a track foundational course (which lays out broad themes and questions for the track), and five track electives.
| Gateway Course | 1 | |
| Global Health, Humanitarianism, and Inequality | ||
| Politics of the Illicit Global Economy | ||
| Track Foundational | 1 | |
| Foundations of Development (Development Track) | ||
| Foundations of Security (Security Track) | ||
| Introduction to Public Policy (Policy and Governance Track) | ||
| Track Electives (See tables below) | 5 | |
| Qualitative Research Methods 1 | 1 | |
| Methods in Development Research | ||
| Quantitative Research Methods 2 | 1 | |
| Introduction to Econometrics | ||
or SOC 1100 | Introductory Statistics for Social Research | |
| Junior Seminar | 1 | |
| Infrastructure! | ||
| Economic Development in Latin America | ||
| Revolutions that Changed the World | ||
| Engaged Research Engaged Publics | ||
| Senior Capstone: 3 | 1 | |
| Bilateral and Multilateral Policy and Diplomacy | ||
| Diplomacy, Economics & Influence | ||
| Thesis Writing in Development Studies | ||
| Roots of Crisis in Central America | ||
| Senior Honors Seminar | ||
| Total Credits | 11 | |
| 1 | A comparable course from an outside department (including ANTH 1940, BIOL 1575, EDUC 1240, SOC 1260, SOC 1117) may also be used. |
| 2 | A comparable course from an outside department including (APMA 1650, CLPS 0900, ECON 1630, PHP 1501, POLS 1600) may also be used. |
| 3 | If writing a thesis |
Track Specialization and Electives
IAPA students must take the track foundational course associated with their track specialization (Development, Security, or Policy & Governance). Track foundational courses are not interchangeable or substitutable with courses offered in other concentrations. Students select 5 elective courses from the list of pre-approved electives consistent with their track specialization. Approval of track elective courses not on the pre-approved list is permitted only in extenuating circumstances. Note - the list of electives is subject to change.
Examples of track electives include the following:
| DEVELOPMENT TRACK | ||
| ANTH 1150 | Middle East in Anthropological Perspective | 1 |
| ANTH 1301 | Anthropology of Homelessness | 1 |
| ECON 1370 | Race and Inequality in the United States | 1 |
| ECON 1540 | International Trade | 1 |
| ENVS 1350 | Environmental Economics and Policy | 1 |
| HIST 1977I | Gender, Race, and Medicine in the Americas | 1 |
| IAPA 1402 | Beyond Sun, Sea and Sand: Exploring the Contemporary Caribbean | 1 |
| JUDS 1711 | History of the State of Israel: 1948 to the Present | 1 |
| POLS 1290 | The Rise of China | 1 |
| POLS 1440 | Security, Governance and Development in Africa | 1 |
| SOC 1270 | Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the Modern World | 1 |
| UNIV 1207 | Eco-Entrepreneurship | 1 |
| SECURITY TRACK | ||
| CSCI 1360 | Human Factors in Cybersecurity | 1 |
| ECON 1070 | Race, Crime, and Punishment in America | 1 |
| HIST 1333 | The Mexican Revolution | 1 |
| HIST 1967C | Making Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-Present | 1 |
| POLS 1225 | Nuclear Weapons | 1 |
| RUSS 1220 | Nationalism and Nationalities | 1 |
| POLICY & GOVERNANCE TRACK | ||
| ANTH 1601 | Reimagining Climate Change | 1 |
| CSCI 1951I | CS for Social Change | 1 |
| ECON 1385 | Intergenerational Poverty in America | 1 |
| ECON 1430 | The Economics of Social Policy | 1 |
| ECON 1300 | Education, the Economy and School Reform (EDUC1600) | 0 |
| ENVS 1925 | Energy Policy and Politics | 1 |
| PHP 1610 | Tobacco, Disease and the Industry: cigs, e-cigs and more | 1 |
| POLS 1140 | Public Opinion and American Democracy | 1 |
| POLS 1825E | Health Care Politics and Policy | 1 |
| URBN 1250 | The Political Foundations of the City | 1 |
Seminars and Capstone
Junior Seminar
All International and Public Affairs concentrators, having completed at least one Gateway course, take a junior seminar during the fall or spring semester of the junior year. The seminars focus on issues in international and public affairs that can be studied in comparative global perspective, that can be subjected to multidisciplinary analysis, and that often cut across concerns about development, governance, and security. The seminars are designed to help students hone skills of critical analysis, argumentation, and the design and operation of social science research and scholarship. They simultaneously help students focus on the topics that can later be pursued as capstone or thesis projects. The junior seminars are not track-specific: students from any of the track specializations can take one of the approved junior seminars. Junior seminars are not interchangeable or substitutable with courses offered in other concentrations. Junior seminars are typically at the 1700-level. Junior seminars are WRIT designated.
Capstone
All International and Public Affairs concentrators complete a capstone course during their senior year. Designated IAPA Senior Seminars, taken during the student’s senior year, satisfy the capstone requirement. IAPA Senior Seminars require students, in their senior year, to write a research paper or extended policy brief that draws on analytic expertise, thematic expertise, regional expertise, and foreign language skills, if applicable. The capstone research project is typically about 20–25 pages in length. Senior capstone seminars are not interchangeable or substitutable with courses offered in other concentrations. Senior seminars are typically at the 1800-level. Eligible students may choose to write an honor's thesis to satisfy the senior capstone requirement. Senior seminars are WRIT designated.
Students who demonstrate exceptional academic performance and scholarly achievement in the International and Public Affairs concentration have the opportunity to be recommended for graduation with honors. Students submit applications to the Honors Program in the spring semester junior year. The application form includes: primary thesis advisor signature, a well-developed social science research question, and the identification of a plan, schedule, and empirical strategy for conducting the research that will lead into writing the thesis in the fall and spring of senior year. Only those students with an approved thesis application will be permitted to enter the senior thesis seminar in the fall and/or receive thesis research grants for the summer.
All International and Public Affairs concentrators enjoy a multi-tiered advising system composed of the concentration’s faculty director, each student’s individual faculty mentor, the concentration’s program manager, and peer advising.
The IAPA concentration seeks to match students to the faculty advisors that they (the students) request. In many cases, the concentration is able to honor the students’ first preferences. In some cases, however, students will not be matched with the faculty advisors that they request. This generally happens if and when a given faculty member already has a very high number of advisees. Spreading advising responsibilities across the faculty ensures that students will receive the attention they deserve. At the same time, regardless of particular advisor assignments, students are encouraged to reach out to members of the IAPA Faculty Concentration Committee or other faculty members to discuss scholarly issues or other topics of interest. This is best done by requesting an office hours appointment with the faculty member.
All of these advisors should be seen as mentors, people who are willing to meet, share their knowledge, direct students to additional advising resources if their own knowledge doesn’t cover the issue at hand, and generally lend a sympathetic ear.