Major Courses and Plans of Study
With a human security 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 MPIA or MID program.
- PIA 2307 - Human Security
A human security approach puts individual well-being and empowerment at the center of analysis, displacing the traditional focus on state security, in order to produce different priorities, new political synergies, and better domestic and global policies. This course introduces the core principles, critical debates, and emerging approaches to achieving human security in a diverse and conflicted world. Students engage with a challenging interdisciplinary field encompassing international development, security, and human rights. We examine the main approaches to "human security" and investigate substantive policy agendas on a range of global issues, addressing the classic trifecta of threats: want, fear, and indignity. Focusing especially on vulnerable populations, we explore human security approaches to political and interpersonal violence, poverty, environmental and health threats, and identity-based threats such as racism and sexism. We pay special attention to the roles of non-governmental actors alongside states and international actors. Students learn to utilize multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary thinking in order to articulate people-centered policy agendas and solutions.
- PIA 2473 - Strategies of Global Inquiry
Global Studies is an expansive and dynamic interdisciplinary field that explores current and past transnational processes, such as migrations, human rights, ethnonationalism and imperialism, economic and institutional globalization, and transnational social movements. Within the academy, it is a meeting place or community of inquiry for scholars interested in topics that spill beyond temporal, political, disciplinary, ecological, geographical, and cultural boundaries. This seminar will hone graduate students' abilities to analyze issues and events through global and transnational research frameworks that incorporate various disciplinary perspectives, and to investigate linkages between global processes, social justice, and human well-being. The course is designed to complement each student's own disciplinary background and interests, and to foster preparedness for collaborative and inter-disciplinary global work. It will stimulate student abilities to think critically about a broad range of theoretical and methodological issues involved in global research, including ethics, the co-production of the global and local, the nature of "global" research questions, and research designs from different disciplinary perspectives. In addition to providing a framework for global thinking and learning, the seminar also intends to create a "community of junior global studies scholars" and thus places strong emphasis on attending regularly, participating actively, and presenting critical analyses in a scholarly manner. This is the core seminar for students in the Global Studies graduate certificate program (UCIS).
- PIA 2476 - Nonviolent Resistance Movements
In this course, students will learn about civil resistance movements, which are efforts to challenge certain entities using nonviolent collective action. Nonviolent resistance movements have recently gained popularity as a form of political resistance, particularly in the aftermath of the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia. In contrast to the usual focus on political violence in conflict literature, nonviolent resistance has emerged as the primary means of challenging authority. We will examine the various theories and explanations for why and how these movements work, as well as the responses of states to them. Additionally, we will delve into the political, economic, and social factors that contribute to the emergence of these movements and the outcomes they produce. The course will also provide an opportunity for students to engage with marginalized voices in discussions on global politics and to develop their critical thinking and analytical skills by taking intellectual positions, defending them with evidence, and participating in peer review. Through the perspectives of policymakers, activists, and scholars, students will explore the significance of civil resistance for various stakeholders, including policymakers, civil groups, activists, and international cooperation.
