Instructor permission required. Join the waitlist in Vergil to request registration.
This project-based course equips students with the tools of human-centered design to address real-world challenges in the social sector. Working in interdisciplinary teams, students act as “intrapreneurs,” designing solutions on behalf of nonprofit, government, and social enterprise clients. Through a structured 12-week innovation cycle, students move through four design phases:
Explore
(stakeholder research and mapping),
Reframe
(synthesis and insight development),
Generate
(ideation and concept creation), and
Prototype
(building and testing solutions).
Students develop key competencies in design thinking, project and client management, stakeholder interviewing, problem framing, prototyping, and storytelling. The course culminates in a final presentation and deliverables that include an implementation blueprint and pitch materials for client use.
Client organizations span sectors such as education, food systems, sustainability, and civic engagement. Class meetings include workshops, presentations, feedback sessions, and one-on-one team advising. Deliverables are team-based, and participation is evaluated through both class engagement and weekly reflections.
This course is designed for students seeking hands-on experience in social innovation and a creative, collaborative approach to systems-level change.
This course examines how national security and defense policy are developed and implemented in the U.S., focusing on political processes and institutional dynamics. Topics include military strategy, budgeting, force structure, acquisition, personnel policy, and the use of force. Students explore five key dimensions: partisan politics, Congress–Executive relations, civil-military relations, inter-service dynamics, and coordination across federal agencies. While grounded in U.S. policy, the course addresses global contexts and current debates, including defense reform, great-power competition, and the sustainability of the all-volunteer force. Readings span historical and contemporary sources.
This course equips students with practical skills for designing and implementing human rights advocacy strategies. Through a mix of case studies, simulations, and applied writing assignments, students will learn how to identify advocacy goals, analyze targets and power structures, and select effective tactics. The course explores advocacy with governments, legislatures, and UN bodies, as well as the use of media, digital tools, and coalition-building to advance human rights.
Students will develop and refine an advocacy strategy on a current human rights issue of their choosing, supported by assignments such as op-eds, advocacy letters, and submissions to UN mechanisms. Emphasis is placed on ethical research methods, effective messaging, and impact evaluation. Class sessions are interactive and include mock advocacy meetings, guest speakers, and structured feedback on peer work.
Taught by two experienced human rights advocates, the course draws on real-world campaigns and encourages critical reflection on challenges to human rights work in restrictive and high-risk environments.
This half-course examines the intersection of international trade and financial markets, exploring how global commerce both shapes and is shaped by macroeconomic policy, financial conditions, and firm-level strategic behavior. The course aims to bridge two traditionally distinct analytical lenses — international macroeconomics and micro-level trade and corporate dynamics — to provide students with an integrated understanding of how trade policies, capital flows, and multinational production networks interact in a financially interconnected world.
The first half of the course (Macro) focuses on the policy dimensions of international trade. It investigates how trade policies influence growth, inflation, and monetary policy in advanced economies, and how these same dynamics play out in emerging markets with more volatile macro-financial linkages. Students will analyze theoretical frameworks for tariffs and trade balances alongside empirical evidence from historical and contemporary policy shifts. Case studies will explore the commodity–currency nexus, crisis transmission through trade channels, and how financial markets price trade risk.
The second half (Micro) transitions to the firm and industry level, examining global supply chains and multinational corporations. The discussions will explore how geopolitical tensions, industrial policies, and technological change are reshaping global production networks. Students will assess the evolving role of multinational enterprises as both transmitters and mitigators of global shocks. Case studies will focus on critical materials and the technology sector, highlighting the strategic and policy implications of concentrated global value chains.
The course will focus on the knowledge and skills required to research, ideate, thoughtfully plan, and pitch a new business aimed at mitigating climate-related challenges. The course will serve as a laboratory for students to sharpen their entrepreneurial abilities and deepen their understanding of climate change and related challenges, and how to meaningfully address them. Teams will work on challenges addressing vital systems (food, water, energy), built systems (buildings, mobility, cities), care systems (health, mental health/climate grief, etc) and aimed at sharpening their entrepreneurial abilities and deepening their understanding of climate change and related challenges, and how to meaningfully address them to support a just transition to a regenerative future. Class process will include: 1) identifying and defining a climate challenge they want to solve; 2) engaging in research, need finding, customer discovery and development; 3) ideation for mitigation and adaptation solutions; 4) Prototyping for customer/expert feedback; 5) Creations viable implementation plans & budgets; and 6) practiing pitching to potential partners and investors.
This course explores the strategies, tools, and policy environments required to scale ventures beyond the startup phase, particularly in regions outside traditional tech hubs such as Silicon Valley. Students examine the entrepreneurial journey from early traction to sustained growth, considering both bottom-up approaches focused on talent, capital, and customer acquisition, and top-down approaches focused on policy and ecosystem design. Emphasis is placed on high-impact sectors including AI, blockchain, fintech, and edtech, as well as opportunities in underserved markets. Through guest lectures, written assignments, and a team-based final project, students gain practical insight into entrepreneurship, venture capital, and leadership strategies that support scale. The course is designed for students interested in launching ventures, supporting innovation ecosystems, or shaping policies that foster economic growth.
Given the dramatic changes in US Trade Policy, businesses and governments are having to navigate a patchwork of “managed trade” agreements and myriad tariff rates and non-tariff barriers. This short course will equip students with a solid grasp of the fundamentals of the current world trading system – both the “multilateral” system centered on the WTO and still practiced among most countries, as well as the US-centered multiplex system created by the Trump II Administration. The impact on businesses and governments will be examined through a series of interactive classes, business case studies, and executive guest speakers. The course will also explore “Stakeholder Engagement” techniques used by Multinational Corporations seeking to secure competitive advantage in this new environment.
This course examines how public, private, and nonprofit organizations attempt to address complex social problems through programs, partnerships, and philanthropic investment. The first half explores historical and contemporary interventions across sectors, with attention to trade-offs, incentives, and consequences. Through case studies and critical readings, students analyze how trust, governance, and accountability shape outcomes. The second half focuses on the practice of designing and scaling social impact programs, emphasizing theory of change, evaluation, and strategic alignment. Assignments include strategy and fundraising memos, a final impact plan, and a presentation. This seminar equips students with analytical, writing, and communication skills relevant to leadership roles in the social impact field.
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. Grading is based on class participation and online case quizzes (35%), two case write-ups (20%) and a final group paper (45%). The course offers excellent background for all consultants, managers and corporate finance generalists.
Instructor permission required. Join the waitlist in Vergil to request registration.
This seminar explores the strategy and storytelling behind effective social impact campaigns. Through case studies on topics such as reproductive rights, racial justice, teen pregnancy, and climate change, students will examine why certain narratives succeed in shifting public opinion and policy. The course draws on theories of moral psychology, values-based messaging, and campaign strategy to analyze how leaders and organizations mobilize audiences, engage diverse stakeholders, and measure impact.
Students will study high-profile campaigns, meet with leading practitioners, and develop their own group-based social impact campaign project. Emphasis is placed on applying narrative frameworks to real-world advocacy, understanding audience motivations, and crafting media strategies across platforms.
This course examines the intersection of human rights and economic inequality, exploring how political and economic governance influence access to rights and justice. Students will assess how human rights principles are integrated into economic policy frameworks, including trade, labor, development, and environmental regulation, and how these frameworks shape both public accountability and corporate responsibility.
Through case studies and policy analysis, the course introduces practical tools for advancing human rights in multilateral institutions, national governments, and private-sector operations. Topics include the role of grievance mechanisms tied to trade agreements and development finance, global supply chains, labor standards, and the impact of environmental policy on marginalized populations. Students will analyze pathways to embed human rights criteria into decision-making, and consider the limits and opportunities of current governance structures in addressing inequality.
This advanced seminar critically examines the evolving challenges, limitations, and potential of human rights and humanitarianism as frameworks for justice and global governance. Centering human rights discourse, the course invites students to examine foundational concepts such as universality, accountability, sovereignty, and identity, while addressing complex topics and challenging cases. Through case studies, normative debates, and applied advocacy tools, students explore the responsibilities of state and non-state actors, the contested definition of the “human” in rights claims, and strategies for persuasion, enforcement, and reform in both policy and practice. Course themes include: The political limits and promise of human rights in global and national contexts; Accountability gaps across governments, corporations, and armed groups; The status of refugees, displaced persons, and marginalized groups; Humanitarian dilemmas, transitional justice, and foreign policy advocacy; The rise and fall of doctrines such as Responsibility to Protect (R2P); and Pragmatism, realism, and human rights under states of exception.
Instructor permission required.
This graduate seminar explores the politics of international economic relations, with a focus on contemporary issues in trade, finance, monetary policy, foreign investment, climate change, and globalization. Rather than surveying the entire field of international political economy (IPE), the course investigates selected topics in depth, emphasizing how interests, institutions, and interactions shape economic policy across borders.
How does, and how should, the United States manage the relationship between elected leadership, the military, and society? This course will examine the history and current state of American civil-military relations, helping students place current challenges and debates within historical and theoretical context while also providing a better understanding of the relationship between elected political leadership, the military, and the people they both serve. This course places a special focus on the unique challenges the US faces in maintaining healthy civil-military relations in an era of heightened partisan polarization and political change.
Technology is central to modern defense debates in the United States and globally. Its assessment underpins core functions across the defense policy and planning community, including budgeting, modernization, intelligence, campaign planning, force design, and program management. In the U.S., this work spans think tanks, Defense Department offices, Congressional and Service staffs, the intelligence community, and the defense industry. These assessments influence hundreds of billions in spending and carry life-and-death stakes in wartime.
The demand for analysts with the ability to assess military technology is high. Thousands perform or rely on this work, making it a critical and widely applicable skill for early- and mid-career professionals in the defense field.
This course prepares students for that work by introducing the fundamentals of military technology and its analysis in policymaking contexts. It does not assume prior technical background, nor is it an engineering course. Instead, it focuses on how technologies function and interact under design constraints, and how to assess their operational utility.
The course complements other SIPA security courses, especially
The Conduct of War
and
Methods for Defense Policy Analysis
. It does not cover broader strategic or policy debates, which are addressed elsewhere in the curriculum. While the course can stand alone, it is most useful when paired with related coursework.
This applied course provides students with foundational skills to analyze and interpret publicly available datasets for public policy decision-making. Emphasizing hands-on learning, the course covers data sourcing, cleaning, research design, statistical analysis, and data visualization using Stata. Students will explore real-world challenges across topics such as poverty, education, housing, and public health, culminating in a data-based policy memo developed through collaborative group work.
This is a lecture course that is intended to help you understand the role that financial markets play in the business environment that you will face in the future. It also provides an understanding of the underlying institutions that either help financial markets work well or that interfere with the efficient performance of these markets. This course develops a series of applications of principles from finance and economics that explore the connection between financial markets and the economy. In addition, it will focus on many public policy issues and examine 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 in many countries and possible reforms of the international financial system. We will also focus on current events reported in the financial press by devoting one class hour per day to an extensive class discussion of current economic events and will use the analytic frameworks developed in class help us to understand these developments.
This course explores the financing structures that underpin the development and transformation of global energy and power markets. Students will examine how asset-based, project, and tax-driven financing mechanisms have evolved to meet the growing demands for conventional and clean energy, and how these tools can be leveraged to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Through case studies and lectures, the course introduces the financial, regulatory, and policy frameworks that shape energy markets, with an emphasis on U.S. practices and instruments. Topics include reserve-based lending in oil and gas, project financing for power generation, Master Limited Partnerships in midstream infrastructure, and renewable energy finance strategies. Special focus is placed on aligning commercial viability with sustainable development objectives, addressing greenhouse gas emissions, and ensuring affordable access to energy. Students will develop applied skills in evaluating financing approaches, assessing project risks, and reconciling financial structures with physical energy system requirements.
This course examines modern policing in the United States through historical, legal, racial, and political lenses. Students will explore the evolution of policing practices and their implications for civil rights, public trust, and public safety. Key topics include police recruitment and training, disciplinary procedures, technology in law enforcement, use-of-force guidelines, and the impact of police unions. The course will evaluate the role of social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, in advancing reform and will analyze policy recommendations implemented in cities across the U.S. and abroad. Students will engage with current scholarship, government reports, and case studies to assess efforts to reimagine public safety, address systemic racism, and improve police-community relations. The course culminates in a policy-oriented final paper proposing actionable reform strategies.
This course provides a rigorous introduction to renewable energy project finance modeling, focusing on the concepts, structures, and financial mechanisms that underpin investment in renewable energy projects such as wind and solar. Through lectures, demonstrations, and guided analysis of actual project documents and contracts, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the key drivers of renewable energy economics and financing.
Students will examine debt structuring, cash flow analysis, revenue modeling, risk assessment, tax incentives, and the impact of policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The course emphasizes the development of best practices in financial modeling and the critical evaluation of project structures, with particular attention to the challenges and considerations unique to renewable energy assets.
Participants will learn to analyze project agreements, assess project risks, build robust financial models, and evaluate project viability from the perspective of developers, lenders, and investors. The curriculum integrates lectures on technical and contractual fundamentals, discussion of policy implications, and instruction on modeling techniques, culminating in the creation of a detailed project finance model.
This course examines the challenges and opportunities in 21st-century public education policy, spanning from Pre-K to higher education, with a particular focus on issues of race, poverty, equity, and access in the post-COVID landscape and within the context of the 2024 U.S. election. Through a case-based, solutions-oriented approach, students examine the role of government, philanthropy, and other stakeholders in shaping public education outcomes. Guest speakers and readings support discussion of core questions about structural reform, historical legacies, college access, and global perspectives on education systems.
“Somewhere in a school right now there are solutions to the challenges we are facing in public education. We need to find them and scale them” --- John King Jr., Former U.S. Secretary of Education.
Scaling in education – going from the small to the large and from reception to adoption – if done right, solves problems like low graduation rates, chronic absenteeism, and poor reading proficiency. It reduces poverty, closes the equity gap, aids in improvements to quality learning, and safeguards successful education initiatives against policy churn due to political transitions. And yet, while many effective education innovations work at a small scale, most do not translate to the large-scale, systemic change needed to improve learning in urban school districts. Scaling is perhaps our greatest education challenge. It is imperative for large, urban school districts and local governments like New York City to build scaling “know-how” to move schools from good to great and avoid replicating biases that exclude or marginalize specific groups.
Spring 2026 Course Dates: March 25 - April 22
This simulation course is a short two-day course designed to enable participating students to weigh and apply human rights principles, best practices, and standards to simulated human rights emergencies. The simulation exercise challenges student participants with issues facing human rights practitioners when responding to human rights crises and provides practice operating within the human rights system and devising innovative solutions to complex challenges. Participants will evaluate data reports, assess relevant human rights tools and mechanisms, and propose interventions. The simulation will include a day of simultaneous exercises, followed by another day of debriefing, evaluation, and identification of key challenges and lessons.
Spring 2026 Course Dates: Feb 20 & 21
The course has two broad objectives: 1) to explore how economics can be used to understand various facets of development and 2) to provide tools and skills useful in policy work. In the course, we will describe the basic facts surrounding the development process and use economic theory to make sense of these facts and to identify gaps in our understanding. We will also learn about the tools that development economists use to fill in those gaps. These will include analyzing real-world data and thinking in terms of causality and its relevance for policy. Specific modules/topics in the class include: 1) What is Development, 2) Distribution of Income and Human Resources, 3) Randomized Controlled Trials, 4) Growth Models, 5) Trade and Development, 6) Sustainability Topics
The course has two broad objectives: 1) to explore how economics can be used to understand various facets of development and 2) to provide tools and skills useful in policy work. In the course, we will describe the basic facts surrounding the development process and use economic theory to make sense of these facts and to identify gaps in our understanding. We will also learn about the tools that development economists use to fill in those gaps. These will include analyzing real-world data and thinking in terms of causality and its relevance for policy. Specific modules/topics in the class include: 1) What is Development, 2) Distribution of Income and Human Resources, 3) Randomized Controlled Trials, 4) Growth Models, 5) Trade and Development, 6) Sustainability Topics
This course examines three decades of international peacemaking efforts to assess what has been learned, and what has been unlearned, through major conflicts. Drawing on the instructor’s experience leading UN peacekeeping operations and conflict resolution initiatives, the course explores case studies from various regions, including Rwanda, Bosnia, Libya, Syria, Colombia, Ukraine, and Israel-Palestine. Students will analyze how geopolitical shifts, institutional capacities, and strategic choices have influenced outcomes. The course pays particular attention to the United Nations' involvement, the evolution of doctrines such as the Responsibility to Protect, and the role of external actors.
Prerequisite: SIPA IA6200 Accounting.
(Note: SIPA IA6260 Accounting Fundamentals does not meet the prerequisite requirement for this course.)
This course provides an introduction to corporate finance, focusing on how firms assess funding needs, evaluate investment opportunities, and select financing strategies. The course equips future policymakers and practitioners with core analytical tools in financial decision-making. Topics include working capital management, cost of capital, security valuation, capital structure, and free cash flow analysis. Emphasis is placed on applying financial concepts to real-world situations through case studies, quantitative problem sets, and hands-on modeling. Students will gain exposure to Excel-based analysis and decision-making under uncertainty. Prior coursework in accounting is required, and fluency in Excel is essential.
Prerequisite: SIPA IA6200 Accounting.
(Note: SIPA IA6260 Accounting Fundamentals does not meet the prerequisite requirement for this course.)
This course provides an introduction to corporate finance, focusing on how firms assess funding needs, evaluate investment opportunities, and select financing strategies. The course equips future policymakers and practitioners with core analytical tools in financial decision-making. Topics include working capital management, cost of capital, security valuation, capital structure, and free cash flow analysis. Emphasis is placed on applying financial concepts to real-world situations through case studies, quantitative problem sets, and hands-on modeling. Students will gain exposure to Excel-based analysis and decision-making under uncertainty. Prior coursework in accounting is required, and fluency in Excel is essential.
This course examines the real-world application of corporate finance across both developed and emerging markets. Drawing on the instructor’s 30 years of experience in global equity research, the course examines how investors value companies, how firms build and allocate capital, and how financial markets respond to corporate behavior and economic conditions.
Topics include capital structure, valuation techniques, investor activism, corporate governance, ESG considerations, asset bubbles, fraud detection, and private equity. Special sessions feature guest speakers from Wall Street and case-based discussions grounded in current market trends.
Students will gain practical exposure to forecasting, strategic financial analysis, and investor behavior through interactive lectures and assignments. Readings include both foundational finance texts and real-world case studies.
Pre-reqs
: At least one prior finance course (IFEP IA7301 Corporate Finance is strongly recommended; IFEP IA7022 or IFEP IA7045 acceptable). A background in accounting (e.g., SIPA IA6200) and working knowledge of Excel are preferred.
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
This seminar course will assist the FNP students to integrate knowledge learned to develop clinical reasoning skills and medical decision making in the delivery of primary care to patients across the lifespan. The focus will be on the provision of evidence-based care in the assessment and treatment of individuals who present to primary care for acute and well encounters incorporating social determinants of health and health disparities.
The clinical practicum is designed to prepare the students to provide primary care across the lifespan focusing on health maintenance. The clinical experience will familiarize the student with age-appropriate physical, cognitive and emotional development, routine well and episodic care as well as identifying social determinants of health and health disparities in primary care.
This interdisciplinary course examines the complex intersections of climate science, human rights, and sustainable development. Students will first explore the fundamentals of Earth’s climate systems and core human rights frameworks. The course then analyzes how global climate disruption intersects with social vulnerability, equity, and justice. Topics include the science of climate variability, international climate governance, climate change litigation, migration and displacement, adaptation strategies, and sector-specific impacts on food, health, and livelihoods. Special attention is given to the experiences of frontline communities and small island states, as well as to policy responses grounded in climate justice.
Students examine the issue of violence against women and families. The demographics of the population, theories of domestic violence, crisis intervention, and short- and long-term clinical issues will be examined, as will service modalities for women victims and survivors, batterers, and their children.
This experiential course prepares students for careers in the growing field of impact investing by building essential practical skills. Students will analyze real investments, assess both financial viability and impact potential, and simulate the due diligence and negotiation process from sourcing to term sheet. Through case studies, hands-on assignments, and team-based presentations, students will learn how to evaluate and structure impact investments. The course emphasizes applied tools used in the field and offers insight into pathways for careers in impact finance.