Major Courses and Plans of Study
With the social policy concentration, you will choose from a range of core courses tailored to you interests as well as taking a set of required degree courses. Explore a few of the concentration courses below, or download a full plan of study as part of the MPA or MID program.
- PIA 2210 - Race, Gender, Law & Policy
This course focuses on the definition, protection and conflicts of identity, gender, sexuality, race, religion, and ethnic, in law and policy in the United States. The course considers the historical and philosophical justifications that have been used to broaden the definition and protection of identity and engages in an analysis of how these efforts continue today. From desegregation of the past to race conscious admissions of today, the way we define and remedy racial discrimination involves complicated considerations of our legal definition of equality and the institutionalization of policy in the public and private sectors with Constitutional limits in mind. Similarly, policy guarantees against gender discrimination and the broadening of LBGTQIA+ rights once relied on biological justifications, but now claims of gender fluidity alter the kinds of legal and policy protections we are able to seek. The landscape of expanding legal and policy accommodation of emerging forms of identity also includes a consideration of conflicts and intersectionalities with other existing protections for identity. Religious exercise and practice, for example, can clash with those seeking accommodation of LBGTQIA+ rights, while law and policy struggles to strike a balance. This course will engage legal analysis, case based examples and structured student debates on emerging policy issues involving identity and its place in American society today.
- PIA 2507 - Human Rights & Social Change
Human rights are powerful and important tools in governmental, intergovernmental, and non-governmental work across a range of fields -- from international development, to politics and public administration, to security and justice. This course provides students with analytical and policy skills in human rights, using an interdisciplinary approach which engages human rights in law/policy, politics and society, philosophy and ethics. It provides students with essential understanding of international human rights laws as tools of individual empowerment, and as evolving social norms shaped by individuals seeking to create fairer societies. We learn to interpret international human rights laws and underlying principles, to grapple with debates and controversies in diverse contexts and cases, and to apply theories of how international human rights create social change in domestic settings worldwide. Questions driving this course include: How can international human rights law (IHRL) help to solve chronic domestic policy problems? What specifically are states' obligations under IHRL? What are the obligations and roles of nonstate actors? What are some common myths and misunderstandings about human rights? Why do some countries comply with human rights while others do not? How can obstacles to implementation be overcome in specific settings? In particular, how do NGOs and other non-state actors participate in human rights change? How do nonstate and transnational actors utilize human rights to promote justice and to combat harmful state and societal actions? What are some processes and strategies of human rights change? We use case studies to illustrate and give depth to a wide range of intersectional human rights issues, such as health, harmful social practices, education, poverty, hunger, policing and justice. We focus in particular on discriminated groups such as children, the poor, women, indigenous, racial, ethnic, and LGBTQIA+ groups.
- PIA 2590 - Local & Global Food Policy & Sustainability
Introduction to the dynamics of world production & trade in foodstuffs & agricultural produce. Emphasis will be placed on using the tools of economic analysis to examine the evolution of agricultural sector with economic development, including the issues of agricultural self-sufficiency, & environmental degradation, the role of technical change in agricultural production, food security, famines, & food aid, the impact of economic policies on agricultural growth and performance, the institutions and mechanisms involved in international trade in agricultural products.
