"Tools for Advocacy: Understanding How the Media Works and How to Use it to Promote a Cause or Institution" provides students of international affairs and public policy with a set of practical communications skills for use in their everyday work. Students will learn how to function effectively in our fast-changing contemporary media environment. Students will learn how to craft powerful messages, create compelling material for the media and refine their presentations techniques for interviews. They learn how to use the media to deliver messages to key audiences and how to conceive and execute an advocacy campaign as part of an organizational mission. Communications professionals from a variety of fields visit the class during the course of the semester. Students produce advocacy materials including an a press release, an op-ed and some form Internet content
This course explores the implications of behavioral economics for economic developmentâhow it leads us to rethink what development is about, and how it provides us with new ways to advance development. This course investigates a psychologically and sociologically more realistic view of how people make decisions that affect economic development, drawing upon the rich theoretical and empirical literature of recent years. Behavioral economics gives new insights into why it is sometimes so hard to change society. But it also provides new insights into what brings about change, when it does occur. The range of possible equilibria and policy tools is much broader than with rational actors with fixed preferences. While the economy and society may at times exhibit large rigidities, large-scale social change may be caused by simultaneous frame switches for many individuals. Behavioral development economics is a new and exciting field, presenting students many research opportunities in theory, in laboratory settings, and in field experiments. One of the objectives of the course will be to expose students to these opportunities.
Basic principles and actual practices of managing financial resources and accounting in government organizations at the federal, state, and local levels. Topics include Public budgeting and accounting systems, principles of financial reporting, taxation, intergovernmental aid, financial statement analysis, public securities, and debt management. Hands-on computer laboratory exercises provide training in financial analysis.
The course provides an introduction to budgeting and financial control as a means of influencing the behavior of public 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 as well as 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 regarding the budgeting and financial management of a hypothetical state environmental agency.
While it is generally thought of to be related to construction, the truth is that Project Management can be applied to any field. It is defined as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of the particular project. A project is an endeavor undertaken to achieve a particular aim. Project management knowledge and practices are best described in terms of their component processes. These processes are: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Closing. Knowledge Areas include Scope Management, Time Management, Cost Management, Quality Management, Risk Management, and Change Management. We will discuss all of these elements in the course.
This graduate seminar aims to introduce students to Freud and Freudian Psychoanalysis and the integration of both in critical theory. The main question the seminar aims to study is the formation of identity in psychoanalysis and how it relates to civilization and culture more generally, whether in its gender, sexual, or national configurations. The influence of Social Darwinism and Developmentalism more generally on Freudian psychoanalysis will be discussed as well as the importance of related temporal concepts deployed in psychoanalysis' insistence on the divide between primitivism and culture. We will discuss a number of major scholarly works engaging Freud's theories on all these questions and their relevance to social and cultural analysis.
Prerequisite:
registration as a nutrition degree candidate or instructor’s 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.
Prerequisites:
MATH G8209
.
Prerequisites: Math GR8209.
Topics of linear and non-linear partial differential equations of second order, with particular emphasis to Elliptic and Parabolic equations and modern approaches.
The purpose of this seminar is to examine and ultimately to challenge the fundamental premises underlying the way Herodotus has been read through much of the Twentieth Century. This course will analyse the ways in which Herodotus' ostensibly archaic history constitutes also a commentary on later times, as an account which performs a critique not only of the political situation of Herodotus' day, but also the philosophical and intellectual trends that are part and parcel of any historical phenomenon, and here in particular are included such trends as Protagorean relativism, Hippocratic medicine, and indeed historiography itself. Through close examination of key sections of the Histories, we will reevaluate the text of the Histories in its own time, considering questions of genre and focusing on the context in which it was performed, written and circulated, and its contribution to theoretical and practical political debates and discussions dominant in its time. At the same time we will engage critically with the scholarly approaches which have been dominant in reading and misreading this sophisticated author, and what they themselves reveal about Herodotus' modern readers.
Introduction and development of microeconomic concepts that are of particular importance in policy analysis and program evaluation. Background training in economics is recommended, although not required.
This is a core economics course for the MPA in Environmental Science and Policy. The course explores the use of the tools of economic analysis in the discussion and evaluation of environmental policies. It builds on the microeconomic framework developed in Microeconomics and Policy Analysis I and extends it in a few directions. First, we deepen the discussion of theoretical issues particularly relevant for the analysis of environmental policies, such as externalities and public goods. Second, we explore how the theoretical concepts covered can be measured and used in actual environmental policy, and discuss real world examples of such applications. And finally, we discuss some aggregate implications related to – and the available evidence on – the two-way relationship between natural resources and economic growth. The objective of the course is to provide students with the necessary background for an understanding of the logic underlying the economic perspective on environmental policies. This is important to develop the skills necessary to conceptualize the trade-offs implicit in such policy decisions and to give a glimpse of the tools available to evaluate such trade-offs. As a result, it also helps build knowledge useful in a critical reading of policy proposals and evaluations in the environmental field.
This is a core economics course for the MPA in Environmental Science and Policy. The course explores the use of the tools of economic analysis in the discussion and evaluation of environmental policies. It builds on the microeconomic framework developed in Microeconomics and Policy Analysis I and extends it in a few directions. First, we deepen the discussion of theoretical issues particularly relevant for the analysis of environmental policies, such as externalities and public goods. Second, we explore how the theoretical concepts covered can be measured and used in actual environmental policy, and discuss real world examples of such applications. And finally, we discuss some aggregate implications related to – and the available evidence on – the two-way relationship between natural resources and economic growth. The objective of the course is to provide students with the necessary background for an understanding of the logic underlying the economic perspective on environmental policies. This is important to develop the skills necessary to conceptualize the trade-offs implicit in such policy decisions and to give a glimpse of the tools available to evaluate such trade-offs. As a result, it also helps build knowledge useful in a critical reading of policy proposals and evaluations in the environmental field.
Prerequisites: the instructor's permission prior to registration.
This course examines the electoral behavior of the American public and the interpretation of election outcomes.
Prerequisite:
instructor’s permission. An introduction to the problem of food and nutritional diseases from a public health perspective, and the relationship between the determinants and the program designed to solve these problems. Various types of interventions, with emphasis on the health sector role.
For more detailed course information, please go to the
Law School Curriculum Guide
at: http://www.law.columbia.edu/courses/search
Prerequisites: the instructor's permission.
This seminar is designed to introduce graduate students to major themes in the politics of minority communities in the United States. The course will survey the effects of the formation of racial and ethnic identities on political attitudes, the interaction between race and political representation in legislative and advocacy politics, the impact of the party system on the choices and options of minority groups' influence in the polity, and the dynamics that shape the political activism of minority groups. At least half of the course will be devoted to readings on African-American Politics and the rest of the readings will focus on Latino Politics and Asian-American Politics. Most of the major paradigms on minority politics in the United States have evolved out the historic and temporary experience of black Americans. Students will be required--as individuals or as part of a group--to lead discussions at least once during the semester. In addition to active participation during seminar sessions and leading at least one seminar discussion, students will be required to write an original research paper based on one or more themes that emerge from the seminar readings and discussions.
Individual projects in composition.
Individual projects in composition.
This is a Law School course. For more detailed course information, please go to the
Law School Curriculum Guide
at:
http://www.law.columbia.edu/courses/search
This course is designed for students interested in the financial and budget issues confronting state and local government officials. Across the country pension funds are underfunded and require substantial financial contributions from hard-pressed state and local governments. The course will address the financial and political challenges faced by public pension funds today. It will cover the financial concepts that underlie pension fund investment strategies and the politics surrounding pension funds. The primary focus will be the New York State and New York City pension funds but other major funds, such as CalPERS, CalSTRS, Chicago and Detroit will also be discussed.
Michael A. Nutter, who served as mayor of Philadelphia from January 2008 to January 2016, is widely recognized for his transformational leadership across a wide range of urban issues, including policing, municipal finance, economic development and sustainability policy. In this course, former Mayor Nutter will combine case studies, urban policy research and policy documents from a range of cities to present a framework for leading change in a major urban environment. Topics to be covered include vision, policy agenda and coalition building; managing the city as a business enterprise; challenges of crisis and creating opportunities to drive change; and identifying and implementing transformative policies.
This course aims at providing a well-rounded understanding of the financial development process over time and across countries, with emphasis on emerging economies. Relevant topics will be covered from different perspectives, including the supply and demand sides of financial services; the roles of markets, instruments, and institutions; issues on systemic financial stability and access to financial services; links to financial globalization; and the role of the state. The course will entail active student participation. In particular, (a) students will be expected to review the background reading materials in advance and, on that basis, participate actively in the lecture-based classes; and (b) investigate (as part of a group project) a particular topic of their choice, present the results to the class, and write a short paper. In the process, students should improve their critical thinking, research and communication abilities, and learn new material on financial development.
This course will examine the linkages between urban governance structures and an economically successful democratic city. We will consider the particular policy challenges that confront both developed and developing cities in the 21st century. It will be important to understand the institutional political causes of urban economic decline, the unique fiscal and legal constraints on city governments as well as the opportunities that only cities offer for democratic participation and sustainable economic growth. The course will draw on case material from primarily American cities and from other developing and developed cities around the globe. It is important to keep in mind that creative policy solutions to the problems of urban economic sustainability may be found in small towns, in rural areas, in private businesses or in other global cities. The utility of "importing" ideas and programs rests on a practical understanding of politics in that city or community and an effective implementation strategy. Our objective in this course is not simply to understand the challenges to governing the 21st century city but also the policies that promote effective urban governance and economic sustainability.
The vast major of human society has been governed by non-democratic regimes historically; even today, more than half the world's people live in autocracies. Many SIPA students come from countries whose governments are not democratic, and will work in institutions whose regimes are not democratic. Yet almost all of the literature of political science and on policy-making is devoted to democracy-its origins, development, processes, flaws and merits. This course examines instead how we should understand the regimes we collect together as "non-democratic," contesting the notion of "authoritarianism" as a useful analytical concept and exploring how we might understand policy-making processes in regimes that are stable, enduring, sometimes even dynamic and enlightened, but not democratic.
Prerequisites: the instructor's permission.
Gratian's Decretum and the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX: Parts 1 & 2 of the Corpus Iuris Canonici.
This is a Public Health Course. Public Health classes are offered on the Health Services Campus at 168th Street. For more detailed course information, please go to Mailman School of Public Health Courses website at http://www.mailman.hs.columbia.edu/academics/courses