Electives
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.
- International Politics
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.
- International Economics
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.
- Social Justice
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.
- Area Studies
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.
- Language and Arts
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.
Page last updated 12/09/2005 by Margaret Kelly