In this course, you will learn to design and build relational databases in MySQL and to write and optimize queries using the SQL programming language. Application of skills learned in this course will be geared toward research and data science settings in the healthcare field; however, these skills are transferable to many industries and application areas. You will begin the course examining the pitfalls of using Excel spreadsheets as a data storage tool and then learn how to build properly-designed relational databases to eliminate the issues related to spreadsheets and maintain data integrity when storing and modifying data. You will then learn two aspects of the SQL programming language: 1) the data manipulation language (DML), which allows you to retrieve data from and populate data into database tables (e.g., SELECT, INSERT INTO, DELETE, UPDATE, etc.), and 2) the data definition language (DDL), which allows you to create and modify tables in a database (e.g., CREATE, ALTER, DROP, etc.). You will additionally learn how to optimize SQL queries for best performance, use advanced SQL functions, and utilize SQL within common statistical software programs: R and SAS.
This seminar examines the relationship between the history and theory of empire and the development of modern political thought. The course is structured around the work of canonical thinkers, politicians, and writers, and considers how they understood and debated the nature and consequences of the imperial experience, from overseas trade and commercial expansion, imperial conquest, competition, and rivalry, to theories of world order and federation. We will focus on how the history of empire shaped central concepts of political theory such as the state, sovereignty, the nation, property, liberty, and progress. What were the moral, political, and economic arguments offered for and against empire? How were domestic politics seen as connected with and constrained by global political interactions and global political structures? How did imperial powers imagine conditions of stability, progress, and peace? What was imperial liberalism as a domestic and international ideal?
The Capstone Consulting Seminar is a required course for the M.S. Theory and Methods track and M.P.H. students in Biostatistics. It provides experience in the art of consulting and in the proper application of statistical techniques to public health and medical research problems. Students will bring together the skills they have acquired in previous coursework and apply them to the consulting experience. Learning will take place by doing. Over the course of the semester students will attend consultation sessions of the department's Biostatistics Consultation Service. Students will participate in the consultation interaction and will present their report in class for discussion or comment on another student's presentation.
This is the last of three Diagnosis and Management courses designed to educate students on the assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of common acute and critical illnesses via a systems-based approach. Pathophysiologic alterations, assessment, diagnostic findings, and multimodal management will be discussed. The course will examine social determinants of health and health disparities that may impact patients and family outcomes. Focus will be on the differential diagnosis and comprehensive healthcare management of commonly encountered acute and chronic physical illnesses using didactic lectures, case studies and simulation.
The course introduces students to budgeting and financial control as a means of influencing the behavior of organizations. Concepts include the budget process and taxation, intergovernmental revenues, municipal finance, bonds, control of expenditures, purchasing, debt management, productivity enhancement, and nonprofit finance. Students learn about the fiscal problems that managers typically face, and how they seek to address them. Students also gain experience in conducting financial analysis and facility with spreadsheet programs. Case materials utilize earth systems issues and other policy issues. A computer lab section is an essential aspect of the course, as it teaches students to use spreadsheet software to perform practical exercises in budgeting and financial management.
The course introduces students to budgeting and financial control as a means of influencing the behavior of organizations. Concepts include the budget process and taxation, intergovernmental revenues, municipal finance, bonds, control of expenditures, purchasing, debt management, productivity enhancement, and nonprofit finance. Students learn about the fiscal problems that managers typically face, and how they seek to address them. Students also gain experience in conducting financial analysis and facility with spreadsheet programs. Case materials utilize earth systems issues and other policy issues. A computer lab section is an essential aspect of the course, as it teaches students to use spreadsheet software to perform practical exercises in budgeting and financial management.
.
Strategic concepts and frameworks are necessary components of analytic thinking for students working in domestic and global health policy, healthcare and health systems. This course will address the intersection of health policy and strategy. Class sessions will consider how policy decisions and potential regulations impact an organization as well as questions related to strategic planning.
Venture capital has played a major role in shaping many of the innovations that form our modern society, ranging from the ideas that spawned the tech giants to life-saving medications. In recent years, there has also been an explosion of venture investment in new areas of healthcare – namely digital health and tech-enabled healthcare services.
This course aims to provide some insight into the world of venture capital through a healthcare lens. We will explore a range of topics, from fund formation, to identifying an investment target, to negotiating and closing an investment, to managing growth, to achieving an exit. One class will focus on what makes venture investment different in healthcare than in other industries. All along the way, we’ll look at some notable successes and failures to learn how venture capital can create enormous value, and where – and why – it has come up short.
The course will conclude with a VC pitch session to give students the experience of presenting their ideas to real venture investors. Students will work in groups to create and present their pitches and will learn what this experience is like for both entrepreneurs and investors. Afterwards, the investors will also discuss their experiences in the field and provide some insights to students from a career perspective.
See CLS Curriculum Guide
APORETICS: Paintings without Painters and Painters without Paintings
This seminar will be organized around aporias. Starting with Plato's
Meno
, aporia is used to describe a state of numbed confusion, exposing a gap in knowledge that can be leveraged to temporarily undermine certainty. Optimally, aporia is not merely confusion or resignation in the face of contradiction, but a state of affairs that makes a demand on us. These double binds, paradoxes, impasses, and blind spots will be our guides through a history of painting and treated as a lens to explore the contemporary desire to unknow what painting was or to ask what types of experience it attends to. Making painting impossible again, at least for our seminar, might be the only way for painting to pose questions of its more recent triumphalist mode, which seems to celebrate all that it knows of itself while potentially overworking its painters.
Readings from philosophy, art history, artists' writings, and critical theory will be worked through over the course of the seminar along with presentations on individual artists.
“…an aesthetic of aporias, the property of this painting being to deliver everything at once, as if by syllepsis, the one and its other, the rule and its exception, the law and that which breaks it, all the way to the dissolution of the institutional apparatus which frames and produces it.” - Jean Clay, Martin Barre’s Dispositif: the Encrusted Eye.
Prerequisite: registration as a nutrition degree candidate or instructors permission. Discussion of pathology, symptomatology, and clinical manifestations with case presentations when possible. Laboratory assessments of each condition. Principles of nutritional intervention for therapy and prevention.
Topics of linear and non-linear partial differential equations of second order, with particular emphasis to Elliptic and Parabolic equations and modern approaches.
This course introduces students to persons of color whose impact on public health have largely been left out of US history. From African American physicians whose work has gone unnoticed to policy makers whose legacy has yet to be written, this course will review unsung heroes, their impact, the discrimination and structural racism they faced, and the work they left behind. Students will also engage in oral history projects highlighting the works of these policymakers.
Courses on public opinion and political behavior (including the GR8210 seminar taught by Professor Shapiro) ordinarily move briskly through a wide array of topics having to do with how American tend to think and act. This class has a narrower scope but tries to delve more deeply into the literature. We focus on four topics that are arguably crucial understanding contemporary American politics (and perhaps the politics of other times and places).
The first topic addresses what might be thought of as the legacies of slavery: prejudice, resentment, racial/ethnic group identification, issue preferences on topics that are directly or indirectly connected to race/ethnicity, and group differences in political behavior.
The second topic considers the literature on partisanship and polarization, as well as related topics on “macropartisan” change and party realignment. What are the causes of micro- and macropartisan change, and what are its consequences?
The third topic is support for democratic norms, civil liberties, and respect for the rights of unpopular groups. How deeply committed are Americans to democratic values and constitutional rights?
The fourth topic is the influence of media on public opinion, a vast topic that includes the effects of advertising, news, social media, narrative entertainment, and so forth.
Although we will be focusing on just four broad topics, time constraints nevertheless prevent us from covering more than a fraction of each scholarly literature. Students are encouraged to read beyond the syllabus, and I am happy to offer suggestions.
Climate change is the world’s most perfect public policy problem: it’s more global, more long-term, more uncertain, and more irreversible than most others. It stands alone in the combination of all four. That also turns it into the world’s most perfect global externality problem: the benefits of fossil-fuel use are internalized, the costs largely externalized. And while misguided market forces are the root cause of climate change, guiding them in the right direction is fundamental to the solution. In this course we explore the fast-changing global climate policy landscape shaping business. We explore the economic principles at work, analyze individual corporate and finance efforts to lead, dive into the regulatory environments around the world, and look to how the clean-energy race creates unique challenges and opportunities.
Digital health is the use of any and all digital resources to improve health by making it safer, more efficient, maximize outcomes and lower costs. It is transforming the delivery of healthcare and behaviors of all health sectors. The size and scope are fast growing and difficult to define at this point in its history. The Covid-19 pandemic has magnified the importance and uses of digital health.
This course provides an overview of digital healthcare in the US, focusing on how and why digital health is revolutionizing healthcare for providers, patients and payors. Students will be equipped with the vocabulary, concepts and tools to understand the dynamic aspects of digital healthcare in today's environment, including its definition, its role in improving patient outcomes, provider satisfaction, reduction in costs and why this is accelerating. Students are encouraged to take the perspective of the executive and policy-maker in class discussions. In addition, the course surveys current digital tools and investment strategies in digital health.
This 8-week course during the second term of the DPT I curriculum is the second of the four Professional Leadership and Practice courses. The course is designed to educate students about the multiple dimensions of professional practice in physical therapy. The course will examine the professional roles of the physical therapist as a health promotion advocate and interprofessional team member. Topics covered in the series include health promotion, interprofessional collaborative practice, leadership, structural determinants of health, reflective practice, cultural humility, and the role of bias in clinical care.
This course combines lecture, independent reading, group discussion, active experiential learning activities, small-group seminars, and written assignments to provide students with the opportunity to promote health behavior change with effective communication strategies and cultural humility. Course topics will include health promotion, behavior change theory, motivational interviewing, structural determinants of health, reflective practice, and the role of explicit and implicit bias in delivery of high-quality care. Students will be asked to engage in reflective writing and reflective listening during class discussions, small group activities and on-line activities to develop skills that optimize shared meaning, motivation, and self-efficacy. Students are also expected to participate in the campus-wide interprofessional day activities and develop e-Portfolio content and reflections as part of the three-year professional development e-portfolio project.
This graduate seminar investigates the art, architecture, and visual culture of the city of Venice from the early ninth through the late fifteenth centuries and beyond. Special emphasis will be placed on Venice’s expansions in the Adriatic and the Eastern Mediterranean during the thirteenth century, the artistic and cultural impact of Venice’s contacts with the Byzantine Empire and the Crusader kingdoms and principalities in the Levant and Greece.
Integrated individual-level health claim, biometric and risk data have many business uses across insurance, consulting, disease management, engagement and other digital healthcare organizations. The purpose of this course is to provide training to meet the data analytical job demands of these organizations with practical, hands-on experience exploring real corporate longitudinal data.
The Course introduces students to the fundamentals of case competitions and prepares them to compete in select case competitions over the course of the year. Case competitions afford students the opportunity to apply classroom learning to dynamic health care organizational and industry problems. The Course covers topics ranging from the framework for breaking down cases to common analytical techniques and presentation skills. We will build the foundational skills for students to prepare and deliver comprehensive, professional analyses in competitive settings.
This course examines the underlying economics of successful business strategy: the strategic imperatives of competitive markets, the sources and dynamics of competitive advantage, managing competitive interactions, and the organizational implementation of business strategy.
The course combines case discussion and analysis (approximately two thirds) with lectures (one third). The emphasis is on the ability to apply a small number of principles effectively and creatively, not the mastery of detailed aspects of the theory. The course offers excellent background for all consultants, managers and corporate finance generalists.
This two-semester course demonstrates that it is both possible and useful to think about public policy rigorously: to examine underlying assumptions; to understand how formal models operate; to question vagueness and clichés; and to make sophisticated ethical arguments. An important goal of the class is to have students work in groups as they apply microeconomic concepts to current public policy issues having to do with urban environmental and earth systems. The course includes problem sets designed to teach core concepts and their application. In the spring semester, the emphasis is on the application of concepts to analyze contemporary policy problems. Some time is also devoted to international trade and regulation, and industrial organization issues. Students not only learn microeconomic concepts, but also how to explain them to decision-makers. Student groups take on specific earth system policy issues, analyze options through the use of microeconomic concepts, and then make oral presentations to the class.
This two-semester course demonstrates that it is both possible and useful to think about public policy rigorously: to examine underlying assumptions; to understand how formal models operate; to question vagueness and clichés; and to make sophisticated ethical arguments. An important goal of the class is to have students work in groups as they apply microeconomic concepts to current public policy issues having to do with urban environmental and earth systems. The course includes problem sets designed to teach core concepts and their application. In the spring semester, the emphasis is on the application of concepts to analyze contemporary policy problems. Some time is also devoted to international trade and regulation, and industrial organization issues. Students not only learn microeconomic concepts, but also how to explain them to decision-makers. Student groups take on specific earth system policy issues, analyze options through the use of microeconomic concepts, and then make oral presentations to the class.
The events over year and a half have brought a renewed focus and an increased sense of urgency to recognize and address inequality in our society and institutions. These events have challenged organizational leaders to respond with comprehensive strategies to promote equity and embed racial and social justice within their organizational domains of influence. To achieve this and advance equity, an intentional and dedicated focus that recognizes the harmful effects of systemic inequities is required.
Historically in healthcare, structural inequities have resulted in disproportionately poor outcomes for marginalized groups in our society. The intersections of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity gender expression, language, disability, religion and other characteristics further identifies disadvantages and poor outcomes for marginalized groups—notably those with less access to power and resources. Additionally, false notions of racial superiority, white supremacy culture, and explicit or implicit biases contribute to disparities in patient outcomes among people of color and other socially marginalized groups.
This course will explore how leaders are able to effectively advance health equity by dismantling systems of oppression and racism in health care. The focus will be to examine leadership imperatives to establish a collaborative consciousness to instill and promote just policies and practices. To this end, the course will require students to develop an understanding of self-identity and an awareness of how one’s individual actions impact interactions between colleagues, team members and others. The course will provide strategies for effective leaders to establish a foundation to advance diversity management, promote equity and establish inclusion best practices within organizations. In particular, the emphasis will be on leadership accountability to initiate conversations and set forth strategic actions to sustain organizational change.
One of the lessons learned during COVID is the importance of clear communications. Effective public health communications saves lives; bad communications creates fear, uncertainty and worse. Good communications can also make better health policy and expand budgets, saving even more lives.
But too often, senior executives in the public, private or non-profit sector expect that their good works alone are sufficient to gain the support of others, maintain funding, or advance a critical policy agenda. Unfortunately, it isn’t so. In an age of media oversaturation, rapid technology advances that continually atomize people’s attention, and intense competition among interest groups for decisionmakers’ hearts, minds and budgets, successful health professionals must include issue advocacy and communications in their arsenal of weapons to keep their interests relevant and compelling, to move others to action, or to affect public policy.
This course focuses on the practical aspects of issue advocacy and public health communications. It is designed to give the public health professional an introduction to issue advocacy and public health communications, and an understanding of the critical components of developing and implementing such campaigns.
Recent years have seen closer integration of countries around the world, with increased flows of goods and services, capital and knowledge. There are two alternative views concerning globalization: one, reflected in the protest marches from Seattle to Genoa, argues that globalization has hurt the poor, has been bad for the environment and is governed by undemocratic institutions operating behind closed doors, advancing corporate and financial interests of the more developed countries. The other argues that globalization is the only means by which developing countries will be able to grow and eradicate poverty. This course tries to enhance understanding of these alternative perspectives. It analyzes the underlying forces that have led to globalization and identifies its effects, particularly in developing countries and when and why it has had the adverse effects that its critics claim and when and why it has had the positive effects that its proponents argue for. It also examines the need for international collective action, discusses the structure and conduct of international economic organizations and assesses the extent to which they are to be blamed for the failures of globalization or should take credit for its successes. The course ends with a discussion of alternative reforms of the global economic architecture."
The health of Americans is shaped not only by medicine and policy, but also by politics, ideology, and culture. This course examines what it means to lead, communicate, and build trust in an era of polarization and misinformation. Students will explore how values and worldviews shape debates over science, health policy, and the role of government — from national initiatives and crisis leadership to global and Indigenous frameworks for wellbeing. Through case studies, simulations, and critical reflection, the course equips students with practical tools for leadership in divided contexts. Students will learn to frame messages for different audiences, communicate under pressure, and engage constructively across ideological lines. They will analyze how political polarization, social identity, and distrust influence health outcomes, and develop strategies for rebuilding confidence in public institutions and evidence-based decision-making. By the end of the course, students will be able to connect the moral and strategic dimensions of health leadership—balancing clarity and compassion while navigating uncertainty, disagreement, and competing definitions of what “health” should mean in America today
One of the great frustrations of health care innovation lies in the gap between how many promising innovations are developed each year and how few reach patients at any degree of scale. Too often, great products and services fail to gain traction, with negative human, clinical and financial consequences. A significant driver of these failures is the asymmetry between the needs of the sellers of emerging technologies (particularly startups) and those of the buyers who are trying to innovate. Many innovation disappointments can be traced to a failure to reconcile these differences. This course examines what it takes to bridge those differences to make innovation work within large health care organizations, such as hospital systems, multi-specialty physician networks, and health plans. Students will put themselves in the shoes of a seed-stage startup that has created a tech-enabled service and is striving to win an anchor buyer. Through case studies, simulations, guest speakers, and practical assignments, students will explore the real-world challenges of gaining internal champions, navigating governance processes, securing funding, aligning incentives, and scaling adoption from pilot to enterprise. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the buying process, stakeholder mapping, business case development, and the organizational politics startups must navigate.
This is the first of four didactic courses that discuss techniques for anesthetic administration and related technologies in the context of various surgical and diagnostic interventions in diverse anesthetizing locations. Focus is assessment and management of monitoring modalities and other techniques in the perioperative environment. Cultural humility will be incorporated into care plans to develop anesthetic management individualized to patient identities and cultures while including an emphasis on social and cultural health disparities.
This lab is the first of three lab/simulation courses. Focus is placed upon essential technology and procedures utilized in the management of the patient during the preoperative, intraoperative, and the postoperative period. The course activities promote a synthesis of lecture content obtained in Principles & Practice of Nurse Anesthesia I course. Lab/simulation experiences will develop the psychomotor skills and critical thinking inherent to the practice of nurse anesthesia. Specific procedural skills must be safely demonstrated. Cultural humility will be incorporated into care plans and simulations to develop anesthetic management individualized to patient identities and cultures while including an emphasis on social and cultural health disparities.
COVID-19 challenged traditional ideas of “public health preparedness” and exposed tragic gaps in the way institutions and societies prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. The next century will be inundated by further pandemics, climate-driven crises, and other threats. This requires reimagining our approach to prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery from such threats.
This course will combine federal doctrine, sociology, public health analysis and ethics/philosophical approaches to describe a reimagined approach to the field of Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (PHEPR). Students will leave ready to participate productively in public health emergency activations in governmental or healthcare contexts. Students will also understand the likely limitations and failures of these emergency activations. Finally, students will be able to practice new and imaginative problem solving techniques suitable for these unstable conditions.
The course will accomplish this in three broad sections. In
Unit One
(covering the first three sessions), the course will wrestle with what these events that we call “public health emergencies” actually are, where they come from, and how they change us. In doing this, the course will propose a new conception of a “public health disaster” to align emergency management and public health scholarship.
Armed with this knowledge, in
Unit Two
(the second three sessions) the course will cover specific management practices for general disaster response, public health response, and preparedness activities. Through critique of these frameworks and the proposal of alternate evidence-based techniques (e.g., surging solidarity, mindful muddling, parasitic resilience), the course will build reimagined methods for handling these acute events.
Finally, in
Unit Three
(the last session), the course will apply a “wicked problems” framework to critical issues within the public health emergency space, asking students to use the frameworks they’ve learned in pragmatic problem solving activities.
Throughout, the course will offer the perspectives of public health practitioners, community leaders and scholars in envisioning the transformation we need and describing the paths to make these changes we need a reality. In conversation
Individual projects in composition.
Climate risk is real. It is costly to the economy, society, and the world, as evidenced by high and ever-increasing Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) estimates. Most businesses and corporations, meanwhile, experience climate risk mostly indirectly, via policy, technology, and market risks. This class focuses on climate risks head on, exploring to which extent they also pose direct financial risks to business now and in the near future. Along the way, we will answer a number of questions, such as: If climate change is so costly, why does it not show up (more) in asset prices? If climate pollution is so bad, why is polluting so profitable? We will also dive into questions around insurability of physical assets like real estate, stress testing of financial assets, and corporate scenario planning. Lastly, we will discuss risk as opportunity for those relatively better able to take advantage of risks and uncertainties.
This course is designed to equip healthcare management, public health and policy graduate students with
the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare settings. The
course covers the fundamentals of AI, its applications in healthcare, ethical considerations, and strategic
implementation. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify opportunities for AI deployment,
manage AI projects, and evaluate their impact on healthcare operations and/or patient outcomes.
The United States is facing an array of public health crises including opioid use, youth mental health challenges, maternal health disparities, and rising rates of obesity. Health care policies—the laws and regulations that govern the health care system—play a critical role in addressing these crises. The goal of this course is to strengthen students’ skills in identifying and evaluating innovative health care policy options to address major public health and health system issues. In Spring 2026, we will focus on the U.S. maternal health crisis—marked by rising maternal mortality and persistent racial inequities—as a grounding case study. While maternal health will be the primary focus, students will gain a deeper understanding of key measures of health system performance and the main health policy “control knobs” (i.e. financing, payment, organization, regulation and behavior) that can be leveraged to reform the US health care system more broadly. This seminar-style course will incorporate didactic learning, engaged classroom discussion, and both individual and team-based work. As a culminating project, students will work in small teams to analyze the features of the maternal health crisis in specific jurisdictions, propose innovative and tailored policy solutions, and engage in constructive peer critique. Ultimately, students will leave the course equipped with a practical set of tools for proposing and evaluating policy options in response to contemporary public health and health systems challenges.
In this course, we will examine the American health insurance system in the context of the development of the welfare state. As health insurance is part and parcel of the social safety net, its provision was profoundly shaped by the supposed role the state should play in addressing poverty and managing risks, and by the political definition of who was worthy or unworthy of support by the state. We will learn that the struggles for national health insurance were interconnected with other welfare reform agendas, and that welfare state thinking structured the political imagination of a health insurance ideal. This course will cover major episodes of social welfare reforms, including the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the War on Poverty, the rise of neoliberalism, and the Affordable Care Act. By the end of the course, you should have a clear sense of how the development of the American welfare state shaped health insurance legislation—and, by extension, be able to apply the welfare state framework to analyze social welfare policies. To achieve these learning objectives, we will read classics of welfare state theory side by side with case studies of health insurance legislation. In your reading responses, you will practice applying theory to case analysis. Finally, you will write an essay analyzing a social welfare policy of your choice using the theoretical framework of the welfare state.
The course seeks to bridge two intimately related studies that currently exist within the Film Program: 1. intensive academic analysis of filmmaking practices/principles and, 2. the practitioner’s creative/pragmatic application of those practices/principles in their own work. Students will study, through screenings, lectures and personal research, an overview of various directing forms/methodologies (conventional coverage, expressive directing, comedy directing, subjective directing, objective directing, multiple-protagonist narrative, etc.) with a primary focus on the Western classic narrative tradition. The visual grammar, axiomatic principles, structural necessities of a variety of directing forms/genres will be analyzed and compared with works of art from other disciplines (poetry, painting, sculpture, etc.) and cultures. The ultimate goal is student implementation of these principles in their own work, exposure to and examination of some works of the established canon, as well as a greater understanding of the context in which creation occurs.
This course provides a structured overview of the pharmaceutical industry, with a consistent lens on public health. While grounded in the U.S. system, the course will integrate global comparisons to highlight differences in regulation, pricing, and equity. Students will examine how medicines are developed, regulated, priced, marketed, and accessed, and will analyze the role of key stakeholders—including government, payers, advocacy groups, and industry. Through case studies, debates, and simulations, students will explore the ethical tensions that arise between innovation, affordability, and equity, and assess the impact of pharmaceutical decision-making on population health. In addition to building conceptual understanding, students will develop skills in policy analysis, stakeholder synthesis, and evidence-based communication through written memos, reflective essays, and structured in-class activities.
Podcasts are an opportunity for writers and creative producers to showcase their talents in new ways and in an easily producible format. This course is a hands-on workshop in which students will learn the basics of every aspect of narrative podcasting (fiction and non-fiction) including topic research, market research, pitch writing, script writing, audio interviewing techniques, workflow and organization. By analyzing a case study podcast, the students will study story structure and pitch decks for scripted and non-scripted podcasts. After learning how to construct episodes, each student will record, edit and mix their episode. Students will leave this class understanding the mechanics of audio storytelling and with one proof-of-concept episode in their desired form.
Narrative storytelling is no longer confined to traditional media. For writers, directors, and producers, some of the most exciting opportunities now exist in emerging and newly established media formats—from audio storytelling and video games to interactive film, virtual reality, and live participatory experiences. As the entertainment landscape continues to expand, so too must our understanding of how to adapt, reimagine, and translate stories across media.
In this workshop-driven course, students will explore the art and craft of adaptation, learning to distill a story’s core essence, independent of its format. We will analyze how original creators communicate this essence through their chosen media and engage in hands-on exercises to reimagine well-known stories in new media formats—examining how each format’s unique strengths and limitations shape adaptation choices.
Through real world case studies, we will dissect successful (and failed) adaptations of popular intellectual properties (IP) across different formats, gaining insight into the narrative techniques, audience engagement strategies, and creative challenges that arise when translating stories beyond conventional mediums. Additionally, we will explore the fundamentals of pitch presentation, including structure, performance, and visual design—essential skills for articulating and selling adaptation concepts. By the end of the course, each student will develop and present a final pitch for a new media adaptation of a classic work, selected from a curated list or approved by the instructor. This project will synthesize the analytical and creative skills built throughout the course, preparing students to navigate and contribute to the evolving world of multi-platform storytelling.
This is the fourth didactic course that discusses the various methods and techniques of anesthesia administration with an emphasis on the physiological basis for practice. Alterations in homeostatic mechanisms and advanced anesthetic management throughout the perioperative continuum of patients undergoing advanced, complex surgeries and procedures are emphasized. Cultural humility will be incorporated into care plans to develop anesthetic management individualized to patient identities and cultures while including an emphasis on social and cultural health disparities.
Open to all SIPA with pre-req or concurrent-req: Macroeconomics.
This course aims to provide a well-rounded understanding of financial development over time and across countries, with an emphasis on public policy. Topics include a review of the foundations and processes of financial development; the roles of markets, instruments, and institutions; issues related to systemic financial stability; links to financial repression and globalization; and the developmental and oversight roles of the state. Financial activities arise in response to the interplay of a few easily identifiable frictions and related market failures, operating within an evolving institutional environment and uncertain macroeconomic context. Finance has both a bright side (welfare-enhancing financial development) and a dark side (financial instability and potential excess finance).
This conceptualization of financial development is supported by a review of the fundamental foundations of finance through simple modeling exercises, statistical illustrations of financial trends, and references to specific country experiences, many drawn from the work of IMF or World Bank financial sector-related missions.
Recitation slots will be used for guest lectures on frontier issues or for instructor-led discussions. These sessions may cover some of the analytical underpinnings for subsequent lectures, explore the policy implications of recent topics, or actively debate themes of special interest to students.
The course is intended to help students understand the role that financial markets and monetary policy play in the global economic environment that they will have to face in the future. It also provides an understanding of the underlying institutions, both political and economic, that either make financial markets work well or that interfere with the efficient performance of these markets. The course develops a series of applications of principles from finance and economics that explore the connection between financial markets and the macro economy. In addition, given the instructor’s prior position as a governor of the Federal Reserve, the class also provides an inside view on how the most important players in financial markets, central banks, operate and how monetary policy is conducted. The course will have a strong international orientation by examining monetary policy and financial crises in many countries and possible reforms of the international financial system. We will also focus on current events reported in the financial press with an extensive and open-ended discussion of 20-30 30 minutes in every class in which we will use the analytic frameworks developed in class to help us to understand these developments.
Technological innovation has been transforming the financial services industry, and further disruption is almost a certainty. Financial Technology (“FinTech”) start-ups are tackling many realms of consumer financial services, including mobile payments, foreign exchange, marketplace (peer-to-peer) lending, saving and investing, financial advice (robo-advisers), and property-casualty, health and life insurance.
The goal of this course is to understand the economic and technological forces driving this change and to learn how to harness them in a responsible way. The curriculum is organized by product areas within consumer financial services, and for each area we’ll cover the underlying economics, the technology, the public policy issues, the competition, and the potential for collaboration between start-ups and the incumbents. Note that we will not cover in depth the topics of cryptocurrencies and blockchain - if these are your primary interests, there are other courses offered focusing specifically on these topics.
A key component of the course is a collaborative team student project: each team will propose and develop a prototype for a new fintech venture. At the end of the semester each team will present its project to the class, and a guest from an NYC venture capital firm will join us and provide feedback.
Are Google search practices anticompetitive? Should Facebook be broken up? Does Amazon have too much market power? The course will present the economic rationale for competition policy and provide students with an understanding of the practice of competition law. Through the examination of prominent antitrust actions, we will review the economic theories underlying competition law and we will discuss how competition policy places limits on firm behavior and affects firm strategies and managerial choices. The course will start with an overview of the institutional framework of competition policy in the U.S. and in the E.U. and an economic analysis of welfare implications of market power. Then, it will address different types of actions that are the focus of competition policy enforcement: mergers, collusions, and unilateral conducts. These actions will be analyzed through the study of well-known antitrust actions in the U.S. and in the E.U. In particular, the course will focus on recent cases in the digital economy.
The purpose of the course is to help students understand, predict, adapt to and shape the evolving world of political economy from the various vantages they will hold during their careers. Part One examines the foundations of modern political economy laid by the grand masters Smith, Marx, Keynes and Schumpeter. Part Two examines development in American political economy during the 20th century. Part Three examines whether events so far in the 21st century signal sea changes in American and international political economy.
It used to be common to speak of the "high-tech sector" of the economy, but increasingly information technology is transforming how almost every market works: finance has been transformed by algorithmic trading and bitcoin, ridesharing is changing the nature of public transportation, Amazon is revolutionizing logistics and Airbnb is now the most valuable accommodation provider in the world. This transformation, which has been led by a series of start-ups and newly-dominant technology companies, inherently combines technical and economic aspects, as entrepreneurs take advantage of the potential of technology to facilitate exchanges that were previously infeasible.
Explores the different types of television and the ways in which producing is defined differently from theatrical narratives. Covers series television (both scripted and unscripted), made-for-TV movies, mini-series and other forms of television; the roles of the writer/producer, the show runner, and the director in different forms of television; how television is developed; and the implications of changing business models. Open to all SoA students.
This course provides a primer on analyzing investment grade corporate bonds. It takes an investor perspective (to evaluate / quantify risk-reward across various IG corporate industries and companies) and a management perspective (to identify optimal capital structure/credit ratings). The course incorporates guest speakers from various functionalities on the buy side (portfolio managers, analysts, and traders), the sell side (underwriters, sales/trading/research), and the management side (treasurers). It will include an overview of “crossover” corporate bonds (falling angels/rising stars), LBO targets, ESG instruments such as green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds, and “corporate-adjacent” bonds (ABS, CMBS, munis). Students will gain exposure to both top-down and bottom-up approaches to IG corporate
bond research and analysis.
As human populations continue to expand, concurrent increases in energy and food will be required. Consequently, fossil fuel burning and deforestation will continue to be human-derived sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The current annual rate of CO2 increase (~0.5%) is expected to continue with global atmospheric concentrations exceeding 600 parts per million (ppm) by the end of the current century. The increase in carbon dioxide, in turn, has ramifications for both climate change but also for plant biology. In this course, our focus will be on how CO2 and climate change alter plant biology and the subsequent consequences for human health.
Overall, the course will have three main components. We begin with an overview of interactions between the plant kingdom and human health, from food supply and nutrition to toxicology, contact dermatitis, aero-biology, inter alia. In the second section, we segue to an overview of rising CO2 and climate change, and how those impacts in turn, will influence all of the interactions related to plant biology and health with a merited focus on food security. Finally, for the remainder of the course, our emphasis will be on evaluating preventative strategies related to mitigation and adaptation to climate change impacts specific to potential transformations of plant biology’s traditional role in human society.
The course is appropriate for students who are interested in global climate change and who wish to expand their general knowledge as to likely outcomes related to plant biology, from food security to nutrition, from pollen allergens to ethnopharmacology.
This 15-week course during the second term of the DPT curriculum is a clinical science course with an emphasis on building foundational patient care skills as they pertain primarily to the acute care and inpatient rehabilitation settings.
This course focuses on developing basic knowledge and skills required to deliver physical therapy services in the earliest stages of recovery, from critical care to inpatient rehabilitation. Students will learn to combine data from multiple sources (including patient history, laboratory results, and patient examination) to produce a diagnosis and prognosis and develop an individualized plan of care. Students learn basic patient handling skills they will utilize throughout the remainder of the DPT curriculum, and they practice and demonstrate proper selection and use of common assistive devices. There is a concurrent focus on physical therapy documentation and the use of functional goal-writing to support clinical decisions and justify skilled care. Clinical decision-making is developed through role-playing, case study, and review of scientific literature. Emphasis will be placed on the physical therapist acting as part of an interdisciplinary team of providers, and the important role of patient-centered care.
Public health dimensions of climate change are of growing concern in both developing and developed countries. Climate-related health impacts may arise via heat waves, air pollution, airborne allergens, compromised ecological services, water- or vector-borne diseases, and shifts in agricultural productivity. Our ability to identify, understand, predict and ameliorate public health impacts of climate change will depend on how effectively we assimilate and synthesize information and tools from a range of disciplines, including atmospheric sciences, climate modeling, epidemiology, ecology, risk assessment, economics, and public policy. The overall objective of P8304, Public Health Impacts of Climate Change, is to lay a foundation for this cross-disciplinary perspective by engaging graduate students drawn from across the University in topical lectures, group exercises and discussions built around the emerging knowledge base on the public health dimensions of climate change.
Fossil fuel burning and deforestation will continue to be human-derived sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This increase in CO2 and other infra-red trapping gases is of consequence to human health—but for two reasons. The first is one you are all familiar with—climatic change—and the consequences from heat to air pollution, from water quality to migration. The second reason is that CO2 is the source of carbon for plants—and hence for all living things. And that increase, of and by itself, will also impact human health—directly (allergic dermatitis) and indirectly (human nutrition, medicine). All living things will be affected. How they will be affected, the nature of the changes, and finally, the ways and means that we can begin to address the consequences with respect to human health are the core of this course. Ways and means will not only refer to academic or scientific approaches, but a focus on communication. How we can begin to explain the science and the consequences, the uncertainties and the likely outcomes in a way that will illicit change. During this course, students will become knowledgeable about the science of anthropogenic climate change and the consequences as they relate to public health. They will develop practical skills and tools to address impacts in their future careers, including an overview of mitigation and adaptation. The course is designed to not only provide an overview of climate and health, but to foster and develop a means of how to begin to address solutions at different societal levels. Further, this course is designed to nurture a mindset of inquiry and group learning--to communicate those evaluations simply and understandably to a lay audience. The course is appropriate for students who are interested in global climate change and who wish to expand their general knowledge as to causes, outcomes, response and concerns as they relate to public health.
This course provides students with a rigorous foundation in capital markets and investments, emphasizing asset valuation from an applied perspective. It covers valuation techniques for financial securities, essential to portfolio management and risk management applications. Key topics include arbitrage, the term structure of interest rates, portfolio theory, diversification, equilibrium asset pricing models such as the CAPM, market efficiency and inefficiencies, performance evaluation, analysis of common pooled investment vehicles, behavioral finance, and tax-aware investment strategies. Through interactive activities, case studies, and simulations utilizing real-world market data, students will acquire analytical skills and foundational knowledge required for advanced finance courses and practical roles within the investment industry
Formerly known as Advanced Corporate Finance develops the art and science of optimal strategic decision-making by applying corporate financial theory to cases of financial policy, financial instruments and valuation. In particular, the following topics are studied: cost of capital and capital budgeting, discounted cash flow valuation and financial multiples, payout policy, equity and debt financing, option pricing theory and applications, corporate control and recapitalizations. The classes are structured to maximize the synergy between theory and practice, providing students portable, durable and marketable tools for their internships and careers.
Debt capital markets have become one of the world’s main providers of credit, coordinating the complex and sometimes conflicting needs of issuers and investors. None of the participants come with the same information, giving rise to diverse intermediaries that help the markets clear.
This course will examine how debt markets have evolved to meet the funding needs of governments, businesses and households as well as the investment needs of central banks, commercial banks, insurers, mutual funds, hedge funds and other institutions. It will cover the securities, financing and derivatives markets that have developed as a result. Beyond benchmark government debt, the course will cover corporate debt markets where companies ranging from the strongest to the weakest issue a wide range of instruments to attract a distinct set of investors. The course will also cover the markets in mortgage-backed securities and other securitizations, which have introduced a wide range of financial innovations and provided funding for residential and commercial mortgages, credit card and auto loans, student loans and business loans as well. The course will cover episodes where these markets succeed and where they fail.
This course is well suited to students considering careers with debt issuers, debt investors or the intermediaries that facilitate debt capital markets including sales and trading operations, information providers, regulators and others. Students will learn the institutional structure of these markets, the instruments that trade and basic principles of valuation and risk management.
This 8-week course, during the second term of the DPT curriculum, applies the concepts learned in Gross Anatomy, Kinesiology & Biomechanics I, Examination & Evaluation, and Applied Physiology into therapeutic exercise interventions for patient/client care. This course is constructed to introduce basic movement patterns, the common impairments/dysfunctions associated with these patterns, and an introduction to the concepts of patient/client therapeutic exercise design, implementation, and re- evaluation.
The Concepts in Therapeutic Exercise course introduces the student to the underlying frameworks and constructs for normal and dysfunctional movement assessments, and the development of individualized exercise programs as part of the patient management model. Exercise applications that are utilized throughout lifespan that address identified impairments; activity and participation limitations are emphasized. Students will apply clinical decision-making strategies to practice, design, modify and progress exercise programs with proper biomechanical alignment, and proper muscle balance for optimal performance that may include range of motion, postural stabilization, progressive resistive exercise, flexibility, pain, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, closed and open chain exercise applications, and proprioception/balance strategies. These underlying concepts are applied to disorders of the upper quarter, lower quarter, and spine. Video/Case studies presenting with a variety of musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, integumentary and cardiopulmonary impairments will be used to develop clinical decision-making and therapeutic exercise design for a variety of clinical disorders. Patient-practitioner interaction as well as patient instruction will be integrated throughout the series.
Successful investing in Equities Markets requires more than just picking stocks given the wide
array of products at a portfolio manager's disposal. Through a combination of lectures, a case
study and guest speakers, this course is intended to provide firsthand experience on how
products like Options, Swaps, Futures, ETFs, and Structured Notes, and are structured, valued,
and used. Although most of the course relates to Equities, there will be some content on
Derivatives on other Asset Classes
Prerequisites: ECON G6411 and G6412. Students will make presentations of original research.
This 7-week course during the fifth term of the DPT curriculum, focuses on the physical therapy management of individuals with: (a) lymphedema and (b) impairments to their skin and its associated structures including the hair, nails, and glands.
This course presents the physical therapy diagnosis and management of clients with lymphedema and integumentary impairments with an emphasis on open wounds. Principles of skin anatomy, wound healing physiology, and factors affecting wound repair provide the foundational knowledge necessary for understanding the principles of integumentary impairments. Physical therapy examination (patient, skin, and wound) and interventions (setting up a sterile field, sharp debridement, management of infection, dressing selection, compressive wrapping, and modalities available for adjunctive care) are covered. Wound etiologies including acute surgical wounds, burns, pressure, vascular and neuropathic ulcers encountered in the clinical arena and current treatment that facilitate wound healing and closure are delineated. The principles of lymphedema pathophysiology, including classification by level of tissue involvement, and treatment are covered. Course content is framed in a biopsychosocial model that explores interprofessional collaboration and psychosocial factors influencing care delivery through cased-based learning strategies.
Lecture and in-class practice to help develop the skill to analyze experimental data and evaluate literature reports regarding toxicokinetic aspects of chemical exposure. Emphasis on the ability to solve real problems. Topics cover the concept of compartment, analysis of blood and urine data, absorption kinetics, multi- or noncompartment analysis, PBPK modeling and risk assessment, and factors affecting toxicokinetic parameters of environmental toxicants. Midterm exam and final presentation.