In addition to the four core courses listed, three electives are required. Each of the five tracks identifies a major topic or theme in International Studies that builds on or develops the core.
Students should choose the three electives from the approved lists under one of the tracks identified below. Electives should demonstrate coherence and be approved by an advisor. At least one of the courses must be a 300-level course.
Students should check the Catalogue or Tri-College Course Guide for information about courses that are offered in the current year.
This track allows students to focus on the dynamics and structures of intergovernmental and transnational relationships from the perspective of the discipline of Political Science. Through engagement with the most salient theoretical and policy debates, students may focus upon such themes as globalization and resistance to it, development and sustainability, nationalism and sovereignty, human rights, conflict and peace, public international law and institutions, and non-governmental or civil society organizations and movements at regional, trans-regional and global levels.
The three elective courses are to be selected from (but are not limited to) this approved list.
This track allows students to focus on various theoretical, empirical, and policy issues in international economics. Each of the courses in the track - trade, open-economy macroeconomics, development, and environmental economics - focuses on different economic aspects of the international or global economy. International trade looks at the major theories offered to explain trade and examines the effects of trade barriers and trade liberalization on welfare. International macroeconomics and international finance examines policy-making in open economies, exchange rate systems, exchange rate behavior, and financial integration and financial crises. Development economics is concerned, among other things, with understanding how developing countries can structure their participation in the global economy so as to benefit their development. Environmental economics uses economic analysis to examine the behavioral causes of local, regional, and global environmental and natural resource problems and to evaluate policy responses to them.
The three elective courses are to be selected from this approved list.
This track allows students to explore issues of social and political change in the context of economic and political transition in the global context. Students gain insight into how global issues affect relationships among people and cultures within and across national boundaries and how global issues are in turn affected by these relationships. Major themes include: migration, imperialism, and colonialism, international/ethnic conflict and cooperation, culture and values, justice and global issues, globalization and urban development and social movements and change in the global context.
A coherent set of courses can be achieved by selecting the three electives from within the thematic groupings identified above. Courses include (but are not limited to) this approved list.
This track allows students to situate and apply the economic, political, and social theory provided in the core to the study of a particular geopolitical area. It provides students with a global frame of reference from which to examine issues of history, migration, colonization, modernization, social change, and development through an area study.
A coherent set of courses can be achieved by selecting the three electives from one of the following area studies: Africana, European, East Asian, and Hispanic and Hispanic American Studies. Courses include (but are not limited to) this approved list.
This track allows students to explore human interaction at the global level through language, literature, music, and the arts. Students in this track focus their studies on the forms of language and the arts that are generated through global processes and in turn affect the generation and exchange of ideas in and between different societies and cultures.
A coherent set of courses can be achieved by selecting the three electives from one of the following: English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Dance and Music. Courses include (but are not limited to) this approved list.