Fall 2010 Courses
A course listing by concentration can be found here.
You can also access previous course offerings in the course archive. You can view a summarized schedule here and a course calendar here.
Required Courses
This course satisfies the GPIA Research Methods requirement.
This course covers basic statistical methods and how to apply them to policy analysis and management decision-making. Students develop an appreciation for statistics, become statistically literate, learn to use statistical techniques properly, gain confidence using SPSS software, and acquire the skills necessary to look at statistical analyses critically.
Elective Courses
We will immerse ourselves in "development" issues being debated in contemporary Latin America itself. How are we to understand the last three decades spanning right-wing coups and dictatorships, U.S. interventions, democratic resurgence, neo-liberalism, globalism, the new populism, the new resource nationalism, and etc.? As capitalist relations have alternately stagnated and expanded through booms and crises, in sync with specific political trends, what of this development trajectory is attributable to Latin-America's objective, material-economic "nature" and what to its historical ideological-political "nurture"? What has indigenous origins/responsibility and what has foreign origins/responsibility?
How will glaring class, national/racial and gender inequalities be reduced, and the scientific-technical and productive capacity of societies raised to developed-world levels? Is this possible under purely capitalist free markets, under capitalism tempered by social-democratic controls, or is "21st century socialism" or another socialist direction necessary?
Most financial activity in developing countries is undertaken through domestic financial institutions (e.g., commercial banks, insurance companies, development finance institutions) and to varying degrees markets (e.g., bonds, stocks, derivatives) and informal arrangements (e.g., families, money lenders, rotating savings and credit associations). National policy makers have to be concerned about how well the financial sector mobilizes savings, extends credit, provides insurance and undertakes payment transactions. They must also ask development questions like how well does the sector support economic growth (favor the "best" investments)? Is it "inclusive" (does it provide services to the poor as well as the rich)? Is it subject to crises (how well are risks handled)? Can it be whipsawed from abroad (how susceptible is it to contagion from foreign crises, a very current worry)? Countries have followed different paths to financial sector development, with more and less government involvement directly and via regulation, and with better and worse advice from foreign aid donors and financial sector investors. Not a surprise, countries have had more and less successful outcomes. The course tries to understand why and what the implications might be for improved policies for development.
*** Approval of advisor required before registering
Students who are writing a thesis must register for Thesis Supervision under the name of their thesis supervisor. In the same semester, they must also register for Maintaining Status if all other course work has been completed.
The Lab examines community capital markets through real-world projects and produces working tools, such as organizations can use every day. The course consists of three components: (1) the Pro-Bono consulting clinic that allows students to work in partnership with community based organizations to conduct feasibility studies and business plans for their community economic development projects, (2) seminars with community development finance experts where students learn about particular issues and techniques as well as are provided with networking opportunities, (3) workshops to build technical skills. This component of the course consists of workshops in which students learn about a particular community development finance tool, such as the New Markets Tax Credit and Low Income Housing Tax Credit, and work with spreadsheets from actual deals in order to gain a fine-grained understanding about how these tools are used and how deals are structured. This is a two-semester, three credit hour course.
Wednesday 6.00pm - 7.50pm
Large and small organizations alike rarely act on new initiatives without first knowing the so-called business case. This is no less true for corporate responsibility. Before going too far in giving back to employees, the community, or the environment, senior officials invariably want convincing evidence of the business case for CSR. Students learn how to effectively manage and measure the results of corporate responsibility and sustainable development, and apply management models that can track and quantify the financial and reputation effects of cultural, operational, social, and environmental practices across functions within their organizations. Using a variety of financial and managerial frameworks, students learn what to measure and what to avoidwhere organizational and market conditions can distort the credibility and reliability of findingsand best approaches to communicating the results to management as well as external stakeholders.
Current political, economic, and organizational realities have created a changing context for the operation of arts organizations in a new cultural policy context. In this course students investigate the two worlds of cultural policy and arts administration, their disjunction, and the need for integration. The course focuses on the creative community
Internship
*** Approval of advisor required before registering.
Students in good standing who have completed their first semester may register for up to three (3) credits through an approved internship. To qualify for credit, a student must work a minimum of 150 hours (10 hours/week during the regular semester or 20 hours per week during the summer session). Students may undertake non-for-credit internships at any time.
Students who wish to register for credit-bearing internships should take the following steps. First, identify the organization, secure the internship, and obtain written confirmation of the internship. Second, choose a faculty advisor and write a proposal that includes: a) the name and contact information for the organization; b) the name and contact information for an on-site supervisor; c) the period of the internship, including number of hours; d) the proposed tasks the intern will undertake; and e) the nature of a written report the student will submit to the faculty supervisor at the completion of the internship.
Third, submit the proposal to the advisor and the Program Director. Applications must be submitted with enough time for full evaluation prior to registration, no later than two weeks prior to the start of the registration period.
Upon approval by the Program, the students registers following the standard procedure using the internship course number. An additional signed Internship Approval Form is required by the Registration office and is available at the GPIA office. During the internship, students meet at least once with their faculty advisor to discuss progress. Upon successful completion of the internship, faculty advisors assign grades of P (pass) or F (fail), based jointly on the the written reports of the student and written evaluations of the student's performance made by the the internship supervisor.
Independent Study
After their first semester all students in good academic standing may register during pre-registration for one independent study. The student must start with a problem or specific area of interest to investigate in detail, and then design a project with the approval of an interested faculty member who serves as the course advisor. Permission of both the project course advisor and the Director is required before a student can register for independent study.
NOTE: Independent study can only be registered for during pre-registration. All students planning to register for independent study must submit an application in the form of a proposal that contains:
1. the specific subject or problem to be investigated
2. the proposed method for investigating the topic
3. a preliminary bibliography.
These materials must be submitted to and approved by the course advisor and the Program Director prior to registration. Applications must be submitted with enough time for full evaluation no later than two weeks prior to the start of the term registration period. Upon approval, the student registers following the standard procedure using the independent study course number provided by the program. Upon successful completion of the independent study project, the project supervisor assigns a letter grade.
Advanced Registration Option
*** Approval of advisor required before registering.
Matriculated graduate students registered for fewer less than the minimum number of credits necessary for full- or part-time status but who are engaged in approved "equivalent activities" may register for equivalency credit in order to maintain full or part-time status. This is intended for students who are completing their Master's Projects or for rare equivalency activities that are an integral part of the student's program and must be verified by an appropriate advisor or faculty member. Approval is not automatic. There is no tuition charge associated with Equivalency credit, and no grade is given.
Registration for equivalency credit takes place during the normal registration period. The Sstudents must obtain their advisor's and the Director's approval. Full-time status for New School graduate students is defined as enrollment in 9 degree credits per semester. Half-time status requires a minimum of 6 degree credits per semester. Some financial aid agencies and programs require that students register for 12 credits per academic semester; please check with Financial Aid. Also, international students with certain types of visas are required to register for full-time status (9 graduate credits per academic semester for graduate students). Please check with an International Student Services Advisor at the International Student Services office.
All matriculated students must register to maintain status for all fall and spring semesters in which they do not take courses (does not apply to summer semester), unless they are on a leave of absence. Students registering to maintain status pay the Maintenance of Status fee, as well as the University Services and Divisional Fees, each semester. Students who maintain status are considered active students, even though they are not enrolled in courses. They retain access to academic advising, library resources, and University email. Students who register to maintain status after the deadline (for Fall 2009 - August 11, 2009) will be charged a late registration fee. Students who do not register to maintain status by the Add deadline (September 14, 2009) will need permission to do so. Students who fail to register for the Fall 2009 semester, and who have not been granted a leave of absence, must petition to re-enroll to continue their studies.