Fall 2009 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 continues the exploration of global flows and turns to the contemporary challenges of development, inequality and globalization. It too engages the core processes, concepts, assumptions and explores alternative perspectives and paradigms that define progress, and alternative theories that explain why some countries and people are faring better than others. At the heart of current debates are such questions as: How should progress be defined and measured? What has been the impact of trade liberalization on inequality? Is development about economic growth, modernization or expansion of human freedoms and human rights? Drawing on multidisciplinary traditions, the course covers: (i) development in historical perspective from the 18th through the 21st century; (ii) alternative paradigms and theories of development; (iii) select policy topics; (iv) empirical examination of country trajectories using quantitative indicators. The course aims to introduce conceptual tools to analyze the problems and engage with debates around policies by use of data, case studies, and history.
Economics in International Affairs (NINT 5109), or its equivalent, is a pre-requisite for taking this course.
This course engages the core assumptions, systems, and logics that give rise to the global and provides a historically and theoretically informed basis for the further study and practice of international affairs. The terms "global" and "globalization" are relative linguistic newcomers for signifying interrelated processes that span cultures and scales. Though all movement of peoples from the earliest times can be construed as having a global effect in the most literal sense, and empires have spanned distances and brought peoples into contact, the most common referent of the term globalization concerns late 20th and early 21st century socio-economic processes. Our task in this class is to explore the key trajectories of state and market formation from which our present era has emerged, replete with paradoxes and promises. We trace how the global today unfolds from the legacies of colonialism, the nation-state system, and capitalism and manifests itself in our changing relation to space and time. These legacies are our ineluctable inheritance, our daily reality, and the material we must work with and confront, especially for students and practitioners of international affairs.
Note: PDPM is the first of two courses that make up the Practice Option. PDPM is a prerequisite to the course Practicum in International Affairs/PIA (NINT 5166).
PDPM provides students with the opportunity to gain a systematic and comprehensive understanding of the key concepts and skills essential to effective program development and project management in international affairs. It will focus on skills that practitioners need to be effective in a range of professional contexts and will provide a forum for exploring the trends, tensions, ethical dilemmas, and opportunities facing practitioners in the field of international affairs.
By examining key aspects of a project-cycle and case studies from a wide range of fields, students will learn the techniques and tools used in formulating and managing projects and programs for desired impact. At the end of the course, students will have developed skills in the following areas of program development and project management - strategic design, needs assessment, implementation, proposal and report writing, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy and dissemination. At the same time, the course will also give students the opportunity to develop insights into what it takes to be a "reflective practitioner" in an increasingly diverse global context.
The aim of the course is two-fold: first, to familiarize students with the basic methodologies, theories, and practices of the social sciences, and second, to help students develop the ability to frame research questions. In general the course introduces students to fundamental issues, concepts, and techniques of social science research. The course examines various instruments (e.g., models, narratives) used in the social sciences, provides basic instruction on selected research methods, and discusses the design and implementation of research. The course will particularly focus on underlying principles of analysis and critical thinking. It also explores popular debates surrounding concept formation. In this latter area the course introduces students to continuities and discontinuities between the natural and social sciences, providing guidance through deductive nomological and/or contextual or indigenous models of explanation, and fact-value distinctions and neutrality issues in the social sciences. Finally, this course explores rival methods and concepts in the social science (including quantitative, qualitative, comparative, case study methods, and the increasingly abundant use of narratives in research).
This course aims to introduce students to basic economic concepts necessary to analyse the workings of the economy and address some of the pressing development issues of today. It covers: (i) the economy -- its scope, its measurement, its institutional structures, its governance, and its evolution in a national and international context; (ii) markets and market failure - the functioning of markets and where markets either fail or do not exist; (iii) competing theories and paradigms - the determinants of economic activity, international trade and growth, and how these have informed modern policy debates at home and abroad. Throughout the course, we will address the various specific challenges that national governments and international organizations face at every turn, and evaluate the arguments and methods by which they have proposed to resolve them.
Economics in International Affairs is required for all students; students may be exempted on demonstration of prior coursework.
This course is required for students who have chosen to write a masters thesis as a final project. The thesis is more than a paper-it is a major independent project that requires the best application of your analytical, writing, and research skills. The successful completion of a thesis signals that you have mastered the art of scholarly research, can synthesize complex information, can write clearly and creatively, and can convince others of the power of your ideas through argument and not polemic. This course will help you write a thesis proposal and design your thesis. The course is heavily interactive - we will work primarily with materials provided by you, the students. Using secondary texts and your own work we will cover issues such as formulating a research problem, defining your concepts, situating yourself in the literature, finding, using and presenting data, and the writing process. If you follow the course carefully, by the end of the semester you should be in very good shape to write and complete your thesis. This course is the prerequisite for registering for Thesis Supervision.
Note: PIA is the second of two courses in the Practice Option. To be eligible to register for PIA, students must have completed Program Development and Project Management/PDPM (NINT 5004). In addition, PIA must be taken in the final semester of the program. ** Permission of instructor required; please email Mark Johnson.
The Practicum in International Affairs (PIA) is a capstone course for students who have chosen the practice option that provides students with the opportunity to apply what they have learned from their course work, internships, summer programs, and past experience to consulting assignments with a wide range of organizations, as clients, in international affairs. Organized into teams of 4-6 people, as young professionals, students will work on discrete assignments of several months duration for client organizations from the not-for-profit, public and private sector, and multilateral agencies (e.g. UN).
PIA will be a faculty-supervised and client-driven learning process. To the extent possible, PIA will simulate the professional context, including its emphasis on deadlines and professional standards for work products, as well as the imperative to make decisions and recommendations based on imperfect information. It will recognize the importance of working closely with teammates and being responsive to clients in achieving the desired objectives of their assignments.
Monday 4.00pm - 5.50pm
Monday 6.00pm - 7.50pm and Wednesday 6.00pm - 7.50pm
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
Are we secure yet? Or does our increasing investment in security discourses result from a gnawing and growing sense of insecurity? Lives and livelihoods, elections, economies, industries, institutions and international relations revolve around issues of security. The concept is dramatic enough to warrant the use of military force and declare states of emergency, and malleable enough for political rhetoric and fashion marketing. This course will critically explore the concept of security as a central organizing principle of the modern social order and its contemporary trajectory.
This course concerns critical thinking about security-the active analysis, synthesis, and application of information in ways that interrogate and elucidate established ideas. This is not a course on security policy or threats per se, but about understanding security as a dynamic organizing category with (very) real world effects. Topics include the fundamental interrelation between security and social order, including classic political, sociological and psychological approaches that conceive of security as the underlying logic of modern society and the contemporary international system, critical assessments of conventional security frameworks, and current trajectories of security, such as technologies of control and surveillance, networked organizational forms, privatization and commodification, and the shifting nature of emergencies and intervention.
This course is the foundation class for the Conflict and Security concentration.
This seminar explores the structures, actors and processes of global governance through a focus on international organizations. The first part of the course introduces key debates in global governance and examines the origin and development of international organizations. The second part of the course investigates different theoretical and analytical approaches to studying global governance and international organizations - including rationalist, sociological, domestic and critical approaches - and the ways they give rise to different puzzles and research strategies. The third part of the course applies these theoretical perspectives to the study of the role of international organizations in areas related to global security and global political economy. We examine relevant international organizations (including the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the World Trade Organization, and the IMF/World Bank), their strength vis-à-vis different actors (including states and non-governmental organizations), and different processes and outcomes in different issue areas. The final part of the course examines emerging issues of global governance, including the rise of private authority, the role of global civil society, the European Union as a "model" for global governance, and the role of the United States and international organizations. By the end of the course participants should gain a deeper analytical understanding of recent theoretical and empirical developments in the field of global governance and international organizations.
This course is the foundation class for the Governance and Rights concentration.
This course introduces the multiple dimensions and theoretical perspectives involved in understanding cities and the process of urbanization. It will demonstrate how the intersection and integration of multiple perspectives is needed to understand how urban processes operate. The course will introduce urban demography, economy and institutions, infrastructure, architecture and visual representation, physical space, social relations, and culture. Students will undertake individual and group assignments in a dynamic seminar format in which these perspectives will be illustrated through a sample of cities from different regions of the world.
This course is the foundation class for the Cities and Urbanization concentration.
This course is designed students interested in Sino-Indian interactions. We will cover the historical and contemporary exchanges between India and China given their dramatically different cultural, political, and historical experiences. We aim not only to understand the uniqueness of the connections between India and China, but also how the two civilizations have contributed to global exchanges and flows. The course will highlight similarities and differences between the two societies, their mutual perceptions, cultural exchanges and influences, patterns of development, causes of conflict as well as possibilities for cooperation, and their role in world history and the contemporary global economy. In addition to reading primary and second materials, students will also study films and documentaries.
The India China Interactions course is a key component of the India-China Knowledge and Capacity Building Initiative (ICKCBI), a multi-year program generously supported by the Ford Foundation and administered by India China Institute at The New School. ICKCBI aims to link individuals and institutions in the pursuit of new scholarship, three-way conversations, and nurture a growing community of interest and investigation on international relations, culture, and interactions between India and China. Beginning in Fall 2009, the course will be taught simultaneously at The New School, the University of Calcutta in Kolkata India and Yunnan University in Kunming China. Lead faculty from each university collaborated for more than a year to develop this cross-disciplinary syllabus that will be used for the course at each location. In addition to materials recommended by the faculty, India China Institute is developing a web-based resource library and interactive space that will give students the opportunity to regularly interact with other students taking this course at their own, and the two other universities (more information about this web-based resource will be made available to students at the beginning of the semester).
The India China Interactions course is the foundation of a two-part learning format designed to give students a unique opportunity to develop their research interests through scholarship and practical experience. Students who have taken the course will be eligible to apply for an eight-week practicum in the summer of 2010 in Kunming, China and Kolkata, India. Six students from each university will be selected to participate. The summer practicum will consist of collaborative internships and research assignments in coordination with universities, NGOs, arts and cultural organizations and international bodies working on a broad range of issues including local governance and infrastructure, human rights, economic development and cultural entrepreneurship, conflict resolution, environment, and so on. Each student participating in the summer practicum will be connected with one student from each of the other universities to work on a team project based on mutual interests. Students will be provided with additional information on the practicum and the application process toward the end of the semester.
Permission of Instructor RequiredThis course will examine the research literature on the inter-relationships between organized, and mostly transnational, violent conflict - inter-state war, civil war, terrorism, organized crime - and socioeconomic development, primarily in developing countries. Among the issues discussed will be the role of economic agendas in civil wars, the social, political, economic and other sources of conflict, whether cross country economic linkages reduce the incentives for, and prevalence of, armed conflict, whether having representative political institutions reduces a country's propensity for conflict, economic causes and effects of international terrorism, and links between transnational crime and other forms of conflict. Aspects of conflict resolution and post-conflict transformations will be discussed. Literature from the World Bank, the International Peace Academy, and academic and think tank researchers will be assigned. Country and regional case studies will be examined. Students will be expected to participate regularly in class discussions, make oral presentations on individual readings, and submit a research paper.
African Cities: Infrastructure, Politics, Belonging
In a context of globalization in which cities have gained increasing importance as nodes in a variety of transnational flows, African cities are often presented as dysfunctional and defined primarily in the register of "lack": a lack of global and transnational connection, a lack of order and efficiency, and, more generally, a lack of modernity. Drawing on an interdisciplinary set of readings, this course seeks to provide students with a historically, theoretically and empirically grounded understanding of African cities that challenges and complicates these assumptions. At a time of increasing urbanization on the African continent, what might the study of urban African contexts tell us about forms of belonging and culture; connections and disconnections between people and institutions; about distinctions between "the formal" and "the informal" and between "tradition and "modernity"; about the logics and effects of structural adjustment; and about the shifting terrain of governance and political mobilization?
The first part of the course will ground the study of African cities historically, focusing in particular on how the colonial legacy and the immediate postcolonial period has shaped African cities. The second part takes urban planning and urban infrastructures as a lens through which to understand social, political and cultural relations within the postcolonial city and beyond. We will approach infrastructures as networked systems that both shape and are shaped by urban forms of social life, and, as such, can open up a set of larger questions about sociality, culture and politics in African cities. Through a set of case studies, the course will focus in particular on how urban infrastructures - including material, media, fiscal and cultural infrastructures - are involved in the increasing integration of African cities and simultaneously produce new disjunctures and forms of marginalization. Lastly, the course will explore how the city and its infrastructures become the terrain of contestation, in the process reconfiguring the status of legitimate claims to citizenship and belonging.
This course is designed to help international affairs students to intelligently handle the fundamental issues of today's complicated world. Placing a strong emphasis on the media and its culture, the course will introduce patterns of global and local cultural changes in the post-Cold-War world and the assertion of national, ethnic and cultural identities. The study of journalistic methods, interests and ethics from various countries will teach students to approach international affairs issues from a sociological and anthropological perspective. Assigned to follow current events in newspapers and on the Internet, students will discover how the media defines and controls the content of its reporting, which in turn affects what people learn about their own lives as well as other places.
This course is the foundation class for the Media and Culture concentration.
This course addresses the legal, political and ethical questions that arise from humanitarian intervention. Contemporary events and the growing internationalization of human rights legislation can pose a serious challenge to existing legal and political notions of state sovereignty and war, as the debate on the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against the Former Republic Yugoslavia (today Serbia and Montenegro) amply demonstrates. In that case, NATO
Mass media have become integral to how we gain knowledge and information about world events. This course covers a range of media outlets: news media, Hollywood films, documentaries, "fictional documentaries,"graphic novels and television dramas. Topics discussed include the "War on Terror," the media legacy of the Vietnam War, the Rwanda Genocide, and charity politics. Some of the questions raised in this course include: What is the "CNN Effect"? Does the mainstream media still set policy and news agendas or has the advent of new media technologies (especially social media, blogs and) ended that monopoly? Can news media be held accountable for the outcomes of political events? Are documentary films reflective of "real life" or what famed documentarian John Grierson called "the raw material of actuality"? Can graphic novels pass as historical documents? The readings will be complemented by a number of film screenings, especially documentaries, both inside and outside the classroom. We will also host two guest speakers.
This course introduces the core literature of development economics. It centers around theories that explain the sources, process and consequences of economic growth that are particularly relevant to policy choices. The course covers: (i) theories of growth; (ii) inequality and poverty including gender dimensions; (iv) education, health and demographic transition; (v) macroeconomic policy management; (v) international economics including trade and investment; (vi) sustainability; (vii) ethical foundations. For each topic the course explores theoretical approaches, both mainstream and heterodox, along with their associated policy implications. The overall aim is to use the theories and empirical evidence for analysis of contemporary policy issues.
Development Economics and Comparative Development Experience (CDE) complement one another; CDE focusses on contemporary issues and is multidisciplinary while this course focusses on the economics.
Prerequisite: Economics in International Affairs or the equivalent. This course may be taken simultaneously with or following CDE.
This course is the foundation class for the Development concentration.
This class will examine a range of issues relating to refugees, asylum and displacement. The class will use the current, and rapidly growing, Iraq refugee crisis as a window into refugee, asylum and displacement issues, while also examining these issues in other geographic contexts as well, including in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America . The course will address the principle of "non-refoulement," the institution of asylum, the definition of a "refugee," internal displacement, Palestinian refugees, exclusion from protection, the impact of counter-terrorism policies, the rights of refugees, including the right to work and access to education, detention, the impact of migration control measures, interdiction, the role of UN agencies, NGOs and other actors, and xenophobia and discrimination.
This course will explore the multiple constructions of gender in development and political discourse; the intersection of gender with other social categories and with economic and political trends; and the reflection of gender norms and goals in development policies and interventions. Through the course readings and discussions, we will consider how different gender norms inform local, national, regional and global politics of development, and how they shape the strategies and activities of civil society organizations, state institutions and international actors. We will interrogate stated and implied models of feminism and masculinity in state and development discourses, and their sociocultural as well as policy implications. We will also critically examine current practices for integrating gender concerns in development policies, programs and projects.
Changes brought about by globalization have affected both patterns of organized violence and the reaction to them, providing ample opportunities for discussing the moral complexity of conflict. The laws of war that regulate conduct during conflict belong to customary international law, and the wide agreement that they enjoy is based on shared belief in their underlying norms. Yet, this does not automatically translate into compliance by states and individuals, even in the case of the very actors who have contributed to the development and codification of such normative rules. The focus of this course is to provide an understanding of the gap between laws, norms and practices of war, beyond the classic argument of realism - - i.e. interest and power always trump ethics - and beyond a static understanding of the rules of conduct in wars. The course addresses the dynamic role of norms as interests, and norm entrepreneurs such as non-state actors, through a mix of theoretical discussions and case-studies.
The following themes will be addressed: Conflicting norms on "just war" (holy war, Jihad, resistance and humanitarian intervention); Normative arguments used to justify behavior that is contrary to customary international law (collateral damage, precision killing, aerial bombardments, and lesser evil, proportionality, protection of civilians and ban on torture); Expanding the range of norms in the laws of war (rape as a war crime); The internationalization of justice on war crimes and the boomerang effect of the justice cascade; and the enlarging the theatre of justice on war crimes (politics of reparation and reconciliation).
New media - blogs, wikis and other interactive technologies - are increasingly important to the work of organizations engaged in global affairs. This course surveys current developments in new media - collaborative filtering, open source software, users as producers, virtual communities - and their implications for non-profit organizations, the private sector, government and international organizations. How are these technologies reshaping the mass media, and thereby changing global affairs by altering the way we see ourselves or the way we perceive other cultures? What are the best practices in terms of applying these technologies for social, political and economic change?
What are the sources and consequences of urban environmental degradation? What is the role of cities in broader patterns of environmental degradation? How do different social groups interpret this process and tackle (or ignore) its challenges? This course takes a political economy approach to environmental dynamics as they relate to the city, paying special attention to the role of globalization. Topics include the culture of consumption, movements for environmental justice, and the growing role of cities as political actors within transnational environmental politics. We will draw on (and build upon) case studies taken from New York - including an oil spill in Brooklyn and a sewage treatment plant in Harlem - as well as from urban Brazil, India and China. Assignments will include the use of mapping techniques to explore the spatial dimensions of urban environmental politics and to better understand the challenges of "designing the livable city."
This course will review the recent history of development thinking on urban development and on employment creation and explore the policy options available to cities, local governments and international development assistance organizations to support urban job creation. The course will draw heavily on case studies from the International Labour Office, the World Bank, the Cities Alliance and other international development agencies to help prepare students to work at both the policy and operational level in this field in public service, non-governmental organizations or the private sector.
The course will explore different forms of employment in the formal and informal sectors, self-employment and livelihoods. In order to ground the subsequent analysis, different national and international mandates on job creation will be discussed, including the "right to work" in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), "full, productive and freely chosen employment" stated in the ILO's Employment Policy Convention, youth employment in the Millennium Declaration and Decent Work in the 2005 World Summit. These employment centered mandates will be discussed in the light of the different international mandates on cities and urban development, including the Habitat Agenda (outcome of the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, Istanbul, 1996), the Millennium Development Goal of Cities without Slums (2000) and the work of the Cities Alliance, UN-Habitat and other development assistance organizations.
The course will link the conventional wisdom on urban development - based largely on analyzing urbanization in terms of either physical and spatial development or of demographic trends - with recent literature and practical examples of how job creation strategies support sustainable urban growth. Drawing on case studies of City Development Strategies, Slum Upgrading Strategies and Programmes, Local Economic Development Programmes, Municipal Investment Programmes and financing options, the course will prepare students to critically assess the work of international development organizations in the fields of job creation, urban development and municipal capacity building.
Specific case studies will also investigate grassroots initiatives in the areas of community contracting, community-based waste recycling and collection, labour-intensive infrastructure development, municipal training and capacity building initiatives and projects to support workers and employers in the informal economy.
Human rights are more often than not associated with violations of civil and political freedoms such as torture or arbitrary detention. Yet according to Louise Arbour, the High Commissioner on Human Rights, it is poverty that is the greatest human rights challenge facing the global community. This is also a complex challenge: is poverty a violation of human rights? Which rights are involved and who is failing in their obligations? What would be the appropriate public policy choices? What are the responsibilities of corporations, communities, individuals? Human rights perspectives on poverty are emerging as an important new area of study and practice in both human rights and development fields. There are many controversies over basic concepts.
The course is an effort to introduce case study methods in the teaching of human rights and development, a method that is well established in other fields such as business and law, but not widely used in human rights or international affairs. Each student will
develop a case study on human rights and poverty (such as the right to housing, access to patented drugs, rights of migrant workers, or human trafficking) and use the case to illustrate key concepts and principles of human rights. In this way, the course aims at
developing an in-depth understanding of: (i) key principles of human rights as applied to development challenges; (ii) international legal standards and norms; (iii) current debates about human rights and poverty; and (iii) critical policy choices in selected areas. The
course will be organized as a structured process through which each student will develop a case study on a theme of his/her choice.
This is a seminar with limited enrollment; permission of the instructor is required.
This course will provide a rigorous introduction to the contemporary law of international human rights, and the international human rights system. While most of the course will introduce students to the sources, methods and modes of reasoning of contemporary international human rights law through a study of two major treaties, a substantial portion of the course will reflect on the question of how best to understand the politics of human rights (law) today. Readings will be drawn from philosophy, anthropology, history and political science, as well as law. Assessment will be in the form of 2 legal reasoning exercises and an analytical paper.
International humanitarian crises include acute situations affecting large civilian populations, usually involving a natural disaster, war or civil strife, food shortages, collapse of health and other basic services, as well as massive population displacement, and tend to result in excess mortality. This course will work on the skills a practitioner needs to work in an international crisis, learning the techniques and tools to formulate and manage programs from humanitarian emergencies to transitional 'post-emergency' situations.
The 2004 Tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Iraq illustrate clearly the suffering of civilians. According to UNHCR there are approximately 33 million uprooted people. The first part of the course will explore initial response to a crisis how it happens, how it is organized and how it affects humanitarian workers. Staff safety, logistical challenges and communication issues will be investigated. Next, the course will address which organizations tend to respond to crisis, and sectors into which this response is usually organized. The course will furthermore introduce analytical frameworks in identifying and responding to different sub-sections of the displaced populations, including female-headed households, children, the disabled and others. The second half of the course will focus on minimum standards set for emergency response. The actual tools used for response will be key reading for this section of the course. After a general introduction, the course will explore the following sectors: health, including epidemiology; communicable disease; environmental health (water and sanitation); shelter and site planning; nutrition and protection. The prevention and management of HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence are two important aspects of emergency response. The course will explain how these are addressed comprehensively in the emergency phase. After this broad overview of humanitarian response, the course will look at overall coordination of humanitarian response.
This course meets from 3:00 - 5:50 pm.
In this graduate seminar, students will study the international youth media movement and its relationship to human rights, visual inclusion, and transformative pedagogy. Beginning with a base in critical pedagogy and the theories of Paulo Freire, we will study how transformative education has influenced non-formal and popular education movements. The second block of the course will examine the history of community-based media from an activist perspective and through the politics of representation. Closely related is the emergence of indigenous media, digital and visual inclusion projects, and the trickle down of these rights into youth media programs. The central section of the course will cover the contemporary landscape of youth media from a holistic perspective involving video production, kids with camera projects, and youth journalism. The forth section of the class will study how ones sets up and designs a youth media project with a broad focus on new media documentary practice involving film, photography and sound design. The final part of the class will consider how one packages youth media through online media environments, progressive outreach, and through human rights education.
This course will systematically examine the current global economic crisis. Our thematic questions will be: why did it happen? and what are its likely economic consequences? We will concentrate on the United States economy but also study how other economies (especially in Asia and Europe) interacted with the United States en route to the crisis. How globalization influenced the crisis and how the crisis is reshaping globalization will be course foci.
The syllabus will begin with a short theoretical and historical section. Students will review the major alternative theories applied to international economics and to business cycles (neoclassical, Keynesian, etc.) and also some economic history of the last thirty years. Core readings will stress extremely current academic and financial industry literature on these topics: (1) traditional banking and credit practices and the newly developed derivatives markets, (2) the globalization of capital flows, (3) the debt explosion: changing relationships between the financial and the non-financial parts of the world economy, and (4) shifting patterns of state regulations and de-regulation with emphasis on examining current government "rescue" programs.
The arrival of the new Obama administration in Washington, DC put new emphasis on a growing list of pressing international issues on America's foreign policy agenda. Those foreign policy challenges range from achieving energy independence, tackling global warming, to the strengthening of old alliances, redefining relations with countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and Russia and creating a new impetus for peace in the Middle East. Will the loss of international credibility during the Bush administration years translate into a sustained dimming of American power? Will the historic victory of the first African American president and a return to a foreign policy that seems to be based more on pragmatism and idealism - instead of ideology - allow American exceptionalism to persevere after all? Students will explore both policy issues and case studies in diplomacy and examine in depth the first months of the Obama administration and its agencies, while assessing the challenges and prospects for the US to restore its leadership in matters of international security and peace when working together with international organizations.
Since the advent of the scientific and industrial revolutions, society has tended to see itself in a progressive light, with knowledge, science and technology growing at an unprecedented rate. Communications technology and more recent information technologies have shrunk the globe, altered time lines for decision-making, changed behavior and, in many instances, shifted the loci of power. Advances in the physical and biological sciences have brought about better understanding of the universe and life, with greater and healthier lives for many. During this period in history, security concerns also underwent significant shifts, both broadening what constitutes security and increasing the frequency and lethality of conflict. This course will examine two dominant themes: the nature of these transformations and the role and impact of science and technology on security. We will discuss the differing perspectives about what these ransformations entail with an eye towards what the future of science and technology may bring to the realm of security and what shifts in security might portend for science and technology.
Given the propensity for settled violent conflicts to return to war - largely due to the failure of traditional peacemaking approaches and to inadequate efforts to address the factors that led to war - the need to ensure programming and policy-making is done very differently in a post-conflict setting is of paramount importance. In recent years, greater international attention is turning towards the notion of "conflict sensitivity" - a set of practices that aim to ensure that policies and programs are conducted in a manner that takes the causes of conflict in a given society, into consideration, so that they do not reignite or exacerbate existing or past social tensions that have fueled violent conflict. While the notion of "conflict sensitivity" is being increasingly applied at the programmatic level, efforts are needed to understand how it is being, and can be more effectively applied at the policy level, particularly around development and economic policy, but also in areas of governance and security.
This seminar utilizes case study methods in the examination of conflict-sensitive post-conflict policies. While the case study method is well established in other fields such as business and law, and is now being introduced through different courses in the GPIA curriculum. In this course, each student will develop his or her own case study on conflict sensitive policymaking efforts in one sector, i.e. Education, Agriculture, Security, Economic Recovery, and illustrate such approaches through different country case examples. Through this course and the in-depth case study research involved, students will develop an in-depth understanding critical policy choices that international actors and governments in challenging transitional contexts face. Students will also learn about conflict analysis, conceptual and practical debates surrounding post-conflict economic recovery, peacebuilding and conflict sensitivity, the political trade offs and coordination, fiscal and other practical challenges in post-conflict policymaking. Through the course, students will learn an important skill: how to conduct applied, policy relevant research.
Today, the African continent evokes images of civil war, factional fighting, and large-scale regional conflicts. This violence, which touches upon almost all aspects of African polities (the nation-state, the economy, the religious sphere, the family, youth), seems to have taken the continent by storm. How did this ostensible "rise" in violent situations come to be? Many scholars and observers argue that African states have lost the ability to control populations, territory, national economies, and national borders. This argument posits the African state as a "weak" state, which is characterized by dysfunctional infrastructures and a faulty or poorly institutionalized bureaucracy. This has consequences for the state's capacity to manage social processes and to prevent the autonomization of local populations, and militarized groups. Is this depiction of the African state warranted? And is this a useful manner of apprehending the production of violence on the continent today? Is contemporary violence caused by so-called weak states or does violence itself induce a situation in which states can no longer assure their regal functions?
This course will inquire into these questions by reviewing various historical trajectories of violence. We will consider not simply the
immediate causes of violence in Africa today, but also the ways in which violent situations are structured by Africa's historical position
in the rapidly changing global economy. By going a step beyond the "weak states" thesis, we are forced to ask: what is violence producing in Africa today? That question will be clarified through case studies of war economies, emergent transnational and regional networks, emergent economies, and novel forms of state practice. Through examples of these phenomena, we hope to see how Africa's "weak" states are in fact undergoing a profound process of transformation, leading to the recomposition of nation-states on the continent. This gives insight into the specificity of the African situation as well as its interconnections with the global economy.
As action to address climate change grows urgent, some observers worry that economies will suffer as a result. However, economic prosperity depends in fundamental ways on a stable climate and healthy ecosystems. Without timely action, many jobs could be lost due to resource depletion, biodiversity loss, the impacts of increasing natural disasters, and other disruptions. Meanwhile, employment in companies and workplaces that limit carbon emissions and other negative environmental impacts or actually contribute to environmental restitution (such as reforestation) and adaptation to climate change is on the rise. The pursuit of so-called green jobs will likely become a key economic driver through "climate-proofing" investments in alternative forms of energy and more efficient technologies, equipment, and consumer products. In the context of the current financial and economic crisis, proposals are emerging for an ambitious "Green New Deal" that provides a major stimulus for new green employment and an opportunity for retaining and transforming existing jobs.
The course will be structured as a research seminar during which students are expected to design and research specific case studies. Case studies may choose from among a broad range of sectors, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, transportation, buildings, industry, and agriculture and forestry. Ideally, case studies will either pick a particular country or offer a comparative study. Research may focus on evidence of existing or possible green employment, or analyze policies to facilitate the expansion of a greener economy (including obstacles to such developments).
The Washington Consensus around market-led development that prevailed throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s has been shattered. Renewed policy and analytical emphasis has been placed on the role of the state and public sector in promoting economic and social development after decades in which it was out of fashion among dominant global policy elites.
This course will explore in comparative and global perspective the complex interplay among national development strategy, reform of public-sector institutions in the economic and social realms, and struggles over democratization in a "post-neoliberal" age. We will look concretely and using tools of comparative analysis at experiences in diverse world regions such as Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Particular case studies will likely include both larger countries like Brazil, China, India, and South Africa as well as smaller states such as Costa Rica and Mauritius. Readings will be drawn from political science, sociology, public policy studies, and economics. We will explore alternative development strategies and patterns of state-society relations to those of a minimal state intervention and elitist technocracy associated with neoliberalism. Under what conditions, the course will ask, do "social democratic," "neopopulist," "neo-developmental" or other forms of "post-neoliberal," or anti-neoliberal, models or arrangements come into being, and with what tangible consequences for citizen participation and social equity? How have countries sought to cope with the dislocations of globalization and opportunities of export-led growth and deal with pressing challenges of political and social inclusion? What role do democracy and struggles to create or expand democracy and citizenship play in the formulation of strategies and policies to deal with poverty and deprivation?
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.
This graduate seminar will focus on the politics of memory and human rights, especially on the ways in which memory has been mobilized on the societal level to create cultural change and develop democratic societies. Drawing on the literatures of democratic theory, human rights, and transitional justice, it will examine "memory work"-activities developed specifically to provoke a discussion about the past atrocity - with a special emphasis on memorials, monuments, and museums.
Varieties of Media Experience in Conflict and post-Conflict Societies
"Conflict is generally a time of widespread failure of media to respect the rules of professional journalism, which may prove to have grave consequences for the population." Marie-Soleil Frère
This course will examine the impact of violent conflict on media and communication systems in developing countries. Using examples from countries like Liberia and Afghanistan and regions such as the Balkans and Palestine, we will address the role of media as instigators, supporters and victims of political violence.
Starting from the immediate post-colonial period in Africa we will look at how post-colonial social consciousness is shaped in the triangle of government controlled media, independent local media and international media. We will also look at the economics of media in the developing world and understand how lack of financial resources distorts media quality and integrity.
We will closely examine the role of both the local and international media in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 as well as other major conflicts in the Central and West Africa. We will also examine the role that international NGOs have played in rebuilding indigenous media systems after African conflicts as well as in Afghanistan. We will also look at the role that new media is playing in shaping
The aim of the course is to look at the critical role of international social policy and revisit nation state social policies with the comparative perspective necessary to emphasize local relevance and global interdependence. The student will question and analyze the need to redefine social policy in the international context.
Value base and political belief structures of social policies are fundamental to policy formulations and their practices in the form of social services and other related features of policy making. ISP will systematically examine the political, sociological, and human rights perspectives in framing social policies for the well being of all citizens, particularly the marginalized sections of the society. The role of civic institutions in engaging the state for social policy will be examined through case studies of best social policy practices.
The course aims at facilitating the knowledge base of students using literature where pluralistic dimensions of international social policy are highlighted.
Further, recognizing the importance of young people in the demography of nation states, the rationale for the social policies related to issues of development of children, adolescents and youth are discussed.
Questions and different perspectives on how to reduce gender discrimination, class, and ethnicity and race barriers in bridging the gap in opportunities through social policies shall be addressed. Evidence based researches will encourage discussion on national and international implications of policy positions.
This course explores the challenge of Health for All, by analyzing the relationships among health, nutrition, and development within the context of socio-economic inequities. A historical review of the human rights approach to health will ground the course and introduce students to the social determinants of health. From there, students will investigate the role of aid agencies, government, non-governmental projects, and grass roots efforts to tackle the inter-related problems of disease and poverty that are compounded by rapid urbanization and globalization. A range of topics will be used to provide a framework for discussion and include: access to essential medicines and technology; institutionalized discrimination; and nutrition and food security.
Most analysts of foreign policy and international development politics now recognize the role of mass media and media images in shaping the way Western governments craft foreign policy as well as the ways that aid organizations and multinational NGOs both conduct and
The possession of valuable natural resources like oil, diamonds and timber has proven more of a curse than a blessing for many countries - increasing opportunities for corruption, reducing government accountability, sparking violent conflict, generating the economic malaise known as
*** 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.
Media Studies: Ideas overviews the major schools of academic thought that have had an influence on the field of Media Studies, as they pertain to three central themes: Media and Power, Media and Technology, and Media and Aesthetics. The historical and philosophical roots of the discipline are emphasized through a wide variety of readings, discussions, and academic writing assignments.
Three seats are open to GPIA students.
Documentary, as it has taken form in film, television, videos, literature, photography, theater, and new media, has a long and rich
tradition of both theory and practice. The "documentary method" and debates surrounding it engage with complex philosophical dilemmas about the relation between reality, representation, and ways of knowing. Documentary forms of representation constantly trouble easy distinctions between fiction and nonfiction, rationality and emotion, objectivity and subjectivity, cognition and aesthetic pleasure. They blur socially constructed lines between neutrality and point-of-view, knowledge and creative drama.
As a way of making sense of the world and acting within it, documentary raises key questions about the aesthetics, politics, and ethics of representation, knowledge construction, and social action. Documentary media are credited with having immense impact on social and cultural meanings; how groups resist colonization and marginalization; and how issues and events make it into public debate and onto policy agendas.
This class will focus on 1) issues that documentary raises concerning ontology and epistemology, 2) issues that documentary raises about the aesthetics, politics, and ethics of representation, and 3) opportunities that documentary media present for innovating new forms of social practice.
Two seats are open to GPIA students.
This course studies the relationship between two forms of mediation. The first is work, an activity which is said to mediate between human beings and nature. The second is communication an activity that is preeminently understood as a form of social mediation. According to a commonly held view, these two types of activity refer to two different domains of production. To work is assigned the function of fabrication of objects, to communication the production of social relations. Associated with these notions of production are usually such concepts as "subject and object," "interiority and exteriority," "individual and social," etc. The course will argue that these distinctions, and primarily that between work and communication, have been blurred by the development of new forms of production in which the distinction between work and communication is difficult to maintain. This transformation has been called in turn postindustrialism," "information society," "economies of sign and space," "postfordism," "network society," "cognitive capital," etc. On the one hand work is increasingly characterized by its immateriality, by its knowledge content, and by the communicative network it generates, on the other hand social relations of communication are increasingly inseparable from the material condition of their mediation. For these reasons media are not simply means of communication but have to be seen as productive forces, and their analysis is central to the understanding of late capitalism and of its transformation.
Two seats are open to GPIA students.
This course meets from 3:00 - 5:50.
This course, open to all graduate students from across the university with an interest in documentary, will focus on the core concepts and skills of producing and editing video and audio for documentary. Students learn professional and do-it-yourself methodologies,
techniques and production processes in both media, delving further into the technical and formal aspects of non-fiction production and post-production. Particular attention is paid to how form shapes content, and vice versa, when framing a particular documentary
subject. Exploring audio, microphone techniques, studio and field recording, editing and mixing skills are taught. Exploring video, instruction includes lighting, framing, camera movement, recording and digital editing techniques. The combination of the two media provides a production context for final documentary project and prepares students with the means and knowledge to make time-based work in more advanced courses.
*Students registering for "Media Practices: Time-Based for Documentary" must also register for the Saturday technical lab. The lab does not carry course credit and no tuition is charged. The purpose of the lab is to provide additional technical assistance and outside of class hands-on practice for all students enrolled in the sections of Media Practices: Time-Based. The labs will be conducted by the course Teaching Associates. Students are required to attend at least 7 sessions and are encouraged to attend all.
This course, open to all graduate students from across the University who have video footage for a documentary project, will allow students to utilize computer-driven digital editing stations and current non-linear editing software (Final Cut Pro) to edit a short video documentary. Editors will work on short assignments (5 to 15 minutes), with the option to complete a short documentary project begun in another course. Students learn how to organize large amounts of documentary footage, cut interviews, add B-roll, incorporate narration, tell a story visually, among other topics, while learning the principles of random access digital editing (theory of nonlinear editing, capturing video and audio, organizing and accessing rough footage, editing sync and non-sync material, assembling and trimming sequences, editing and mixing audio, adding effects, creating titles, color correction, and outputting work).
Five seats are available for GPIA students.
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.