Conduct of Diplomacy

In Conduct of Diplomacy, we will use an interdisciplinary lens to study the strategic and tactical considerations that shape a credible foreign policy and effective international diplomatic engagement.

Drawing examples from U.S. practice, we will explore various forms and attributes of diplomacy, including the international legal framework and the nature of diplomatic missions. We will consider various tools for conflict resolution, including mediation and reconciliation.

We will look at a number of important policy areas where diplomatic strategy can advance national interests, including with respect to the use of force, economic statecraft, human rights, international development, technology, and climate change. In doing so, we will assess the notion that the United States is “the indispensable nation,” as former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and others have suggested.

Towards the end of the semester, we will have an opportunity to test the theoretical and practical knowledge that we have gained by engaging in two simulations—one involving Russia and Ukraine, and the other involving China and Taiwan—before concluding with a discussion of multilateral diplomatic engagement.

• Department: International Security & Diplomacy
• T 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• 3 points

ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL BEH

ASSESSM & TREATMT SUICIDA

• Department: Social Work
• T 11:10 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Instructor: Siddhi Patel
  Info
• 3 points

ADVANCED DBT SEMINAR

• Department: Social Work
• T 6:20 p.m.-8:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael A Bodtmann
  Info
• 3 points

Global Monetary Policy in the 21st Centu

This seminar examines the evolution of global monetary policy from 2000 to the present, focusing on the actions and strategies of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England. Students study the major economic disruptions of the era, including the Global Financial Crisis, the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the recent surge and subsequent decline in global inflation. The course analyzes how central banks operated under constraints such as the effective lower bound and explores the adoption of unconventional monetary tools. Students will assess the effectiveness, repercussions, and future trajectory of monetary policy in advanced economies.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• R 8 a.m.-9:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Richard H Clarida
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

SUICIDE & ADVANCED DBT TOPICS

This class is a required final semester seminar for students enrolled in the CSSW DBT Intensive Training Program and not open to students outside that program. It is designed to synthesize, confirm and reinforce prior learning in DBT and general CBT, ensuring that program graduates are prepared for clinical work with client populations exhibiting a range of behavioral dysfunctions from mild problems in living that may benefit from DBT skills training to severe and complex disorders, including suicidal behaviors that require comprehensive DBT. 
Particularly at the severe and complex end of the spectrum, it is critically important that students understand and are prepared to conduct competent individual DBT sessions, structured with fidelity and incorporating DBT strategies as needed in a principle-based treatment.  Further, it is expected that students are familiar and facile with the use of DBT protocols when faced with crisis and suicidal behaviors
. It is understood that students enter this semester with varying levels of competence and experience in these protocols based on their internship sites and that ongoing individual assessment between the student and instructor will play a major role in this class. Professional development and personal practice development are an integral part of all these activities: goals and activities will be individually assigned.

• Department: Social Work
• T 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Lyndsi Bodtmann
  Info
• 3 points

Conflict Resolution

This course introduces the study and practice of international conflict resolution, providing students with a broad understanding of the subject and a framework for approaching more specific strands of study offered by CICR. Can a war be stopped before it starts? Is it realistic to talk about ‘managing’ a war and mitigating its consequences? What eventually brings adversaries to the negotiating table? How do mediation efforts unfold and how are the key issues resolved? Why do peace processes and peace agreements so often fail to bring durable peace? Students will address these and other fundamental questions in order to develop an understanding of international conflict resolution.

• Department: International Security & Diplomacy
• R 10 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• 3 points

Mediation in a World in Flux

This course explores the challenges and opportunities in international peacemaking, with a particular focus on mediation as a tool for advancing political solutions to violent conflict. Complementing other CICR courses, it offers students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of how various mediators—including the United Nations, multilateral institutions, states, and non-governmental organizations—are responding to shifting dynamics in global conflict and politics.

The course considers key questions: What factors hinder current conflict resolution efforts? How have mediators adapted to changes in geopolitics, the fragmentation of non-state armed groups, and a crowded mediation landscape? How should they continue to adapt, especially amid declining resources for peace and humanitarian efforts and growing resistance to established norms?

Students will also examine how mediators can engage conflict parties on emerging issues, including the effects of the climate crisis and digital technologies on conflict dynamics and peace processes.

• Department: International Security & Diplomacy
• M 7:10 p.m.-9 p.m.
• Instructor: Teresa Whitfield
  Info
• 1.5 points

International Finance, Liability Flows a

Intl Finance & Stability

This course explores the benefits and risks of international financial flows, with a focus on the economic stability of emerging markets and non-major developed economies. Students will examine the drivers and implications of cross-border liability flows, consider the perspectives of local and global policymakers, and analyze how capital movements shape national debt dynamics and financial resilience. Drawing on theory, current research, and real-world cases, the course covers topics such as exchange rate regimes, uncovered interest parity, financial crises, capital flow management, and the effects of monetary tightening in major economies. Readings include academic work and institutional analyses from the IMF, BIS, and World Bank.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• T 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Sigridur Benediktsdottir
  Info
• 3 points

Macroeconomic Policy and Global Financia

Macroecon & Global Fin Ma

This course examines the pivotal moments in international finance since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a turning point that marked a shift in global priorities from security to prosperity. Students will explore how macroeconomic conditions and policy decisions can trigger decisive changes in markets and economies, often overturning conventional wisdom. The course also develops an understanding of the psychology and dynamics of financial markets, which remain among the most powerful and cyclical forces shaping global outcomes.

For future policymakers, this knowledge provides valuable insight into how financial markets influence, and are influenced by, policy decisions. For those pursuing careers in finance, the course offers a practical framework for assessing markets, macroeconomic trends, and their interactions as events unfold.

Drawing on first-hand experience, the instructor shares personal insights and case studies from major financial episodes, highlighting the strategies and decision-making approaches of policymakers and market participants. Through these examples, students will gain perspective on effective responses to economic challenges and on the complexities of the macroeconomic policy process in both large and small economies, during periods of stability and crisis alike.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• W 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• 1.5 points

Global Financial Crises: Lessons on Cris

Global Financial Crisis D

The course examines the dynamics at play during financial crises, integrating theoretical underpinnings of financial stability with a review of key historical financial crises and. Drawing from historical financial crisis episodes - including the Great Financial Crisis, Asian Financial Crisis and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis - students will learn about how financial shocks transmit via different markets, institutions and global channels and will analyze the role of systemic vulnerabilities.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• R 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• 1.5 points

Advanced Analytics for Financial Stabili

The course explores how advanced analytical tools are applied in financial stability analysis, with a focus on the frameworks used by central banks and regulatory authorities. Students will engage in both conceptual and practical exercises to design monitoring systems, analyze vulnerabilities, and apply data-driven methods to the OTC derivatives and hedge fund sectors.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• R 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• 1.5 points

Deglobalization

This course explores the causes and consequences of the slowdown in global economic integration since the Global Financial Crisis. Following decades of rapid expansion in trade and investment, “hyper-globalization” has given way to “slowbalization,” marked by stagnating trade flows, renewed protectionism, and rising barriers to commerce. Students will examine both the political and economic dimensions of these shifts, tracing the historical roots of globalization from the nineteenth century to the present. Case studies include the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (“Brexit”) and the resurgence of trade tensions amid slower growth, nationalism, and strategic rivalry among major powers. Through weekly readings, discussion, and a term paper, the course equips students to assess whether the recent retreat from globalization represents a temporary adjustment or a structural reordering of the global economy.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• Instructor: Ben Broadbent
  Info
• 1.5 points

Struggles for Sustainability: Food, Farm

How has the quest to produce enough food shaped societies, economies, and the environment in the United States and beyond? This course examines the powerful historical forces that have driven transformations in food production and policy over the past century, and how those forces continue to shape debates around sustainability, food security, and development today.

Students will explore the evolution of agricultural science and technology, the impact of government programs such as subsidies and rationing, and the ways ideas born in the U.S. have been adopted, adapted, or resisted globally. From the rise of large-scale production to the emergence of movements for organic and regenerative practices, we will trace how food systems reflect shifting values, power dynamics, and visions of progress.

This seminar invites students interested in sustainability and social change to critically engage with the past to better understand the urgent questions of the future.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• M 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Sara Tjossem
  Info
• 3 points

Central Bank Crisis Management

The extraordinary policy responses of global central banks to the 2023 banking turmoil, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2007-2009 financial crisis have fostered debate about both the appropriateness and the effectiveness of central bank actions.   This course will discuss the theory and practice of “unconventional” monetary policy tools – i.e., those used to address financial crises, widespread deflation, and deep recessions or depressions.  Examples in the course will be drawn from a broad array of crises, countries, and central banks in both the developed and emerging world over many decades. 

 The bulk of the course will focus on how central banks adapt their policy rules and tools in response to extraordinary financial or economic turmoil. Different types of monetary policy tools will be discussed and analyzed, with particular focus on the design and the effectiveness of various crisis policy tools.  Central to understanding policy effectiveness will be consideration of how financial and macroeconomic conditions impact central bank policy design,  and in turn, how financial markets and the macroeconomy respond to extraordinary policies. 

Examples of the use of crisis management tools – both more and less successful – across jurisdictions will be discussed in the latter half of the course.   The course finishes with discussions of several important and timely dilemmas: Where is the “line” between crisis monetary policies and traditional fiscal policy actions?  Why was the (inflation) impact of COVID-19 policy responses so different from previous episodes of instability?   How do central bank “undo” their crisis management policies and return to “normal”?  What difficulties do central banks face in handling economic side effects and the political consequences of extraordinary policies?

Prerequisites:
 Macroeconomics (SIPAU6401 or PEPMU6104)
OR
permission of the Instructor.  If you have taken a quantitative macroeconomics course prior to SIPA and wish to take the class, please contact the instructor during registration.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• M 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Patricia C Mosser
  Info
• 3 points

Applied Peacebuilding and Conflict Resol

Peacebuilding Fieldwork

This course prepares students to engage in peacebuilding practice by developing fieldwork-related competencies rooted in critical reflection, professional strategy, and ethical engagement. Students examine foundational values, frameworks, and dilemmas in the peacebuilding field, while cultivating skills in project design, monitoring and evaluation (MEAL), communication, collaboration, and cultural awareness.

Structured as the first part of a spring-summer-fall sequence, the course introduces peacebuilding theory and practice through seminar-style discussions and applied assignments. Students collaborate with vetted field-based partner institutions to design projects aligned with real-world needs. These projects are implemented through optional summer internships, followed by a fall debrief session with the incoming cohort.

Coursework emphasizes partnership with local actors, conflict sensitivity, reflective practice, and an openness to critique and adaptation. Students are expected to grapple with the complexity of field conditions and to develop strategies for self-care, ethical engagement, and navigating uncertainty. Assignments include reflective journals, a midterm conflict analysis and thematic research paper, and a final project design paper.

Please note: All fieldwork and associated travel are voluntary and student-funded, though external funding opportunities may be available.

• Department: International Security & Diplomacy
• F 10 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Zachary B Metz
  Info
• 3 points

Fighting Corruption: Concepts and Strate

Corruption undermines governance, saps resources and undermines development.  It is also exceptionally difficult to identify, address, and resolve due to the intrinsic opacity of its operative mechanisms, endemic nature inside systems, and persistence.

This course will teach:


How to identify corruption, both in general and in its particular manifestations;

Current strategies to respond to corruption, particularly within developing countries; and,

Expected/possible future trends in corruption.


This course will also focus on practical problem-solving and policy-making solutions, including through classroom debate, scenario assessment, simulation, and paper-writing.

• Department: Development and Governance
• T 10 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Richard Nephew
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Applied Geopolitics: Risk Analysis

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of political risk analysis, focusing on how geopolitical dynamics shape markets, investment strategies, and global governance. Students will examine frameworks such as the G-Zero world, J-Curve, and state capitalism, and explore how they apply to real-world risks across countries and sectors. Taught by leading experts in the field, the course emphasizes interdisciplinary tools and methodologies for identifying, assessing, and managing political risk—including scenario planning, risk indices, and game-theory modeling. Through a combination of case studies, interactive practicums, and group presentations, students will apply these tools to current global challenges such as political transitions, social unrest, climate change, technological disruption, and great power conflict. The course prepares students to think strategically and forecast risk in public, private, and multilateral settings.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• M 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• 1.5 points

Sustainable Finance II: System-level Inv

Sust Fin II: System-Level

Today’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, social inequities, and financial instability, are complex, global, and systemic. This course explores how investors can respond through system-level investing, an emerging approach that considers the deep interconnections among financial markets, the real economy, and long-term environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes.

Building on traditional and sustainable finance principles, system-level investing expands beyond portfolio-level risk and return analysis to address the broader systems that support market performance. Students will explore how investors can influence and manage systemic risks to improve investment outcomes and support societal resilience. Topics include foundational finance theory, tools for system-level investing, real-world case studies, and evolving practices across asset classes.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• R 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• 3 points

Sustainable Investing: Past, Present, an

Sust. Investing: Past-Fut

This course will track the history of sustainable investing from the 1970s, in order to better understand the field, what it’s been doing, and where it stands now. We will start with the emergence of sustainable investment in the 1970s as it congealed strands of community organizing, consumer society, institutional activism from community organizing, labor activism, and institutional investor assertion into a new set of specific institutions and practices; continue through the shareholder activism and professionalization of the field in the 1980s and 1990; turn to the substantial growth and mainstreaming of the field from 2000s; and finally bring our history up to the present moment of policymaking, backlash, and self-doubt in the field. We will ask questions like: what did practitioners and advocates hope to achieve by building the field of sustainable investment? What kinds of work, in what kinds of institutions, made up the field? What are the political and ideological contexts in which the field emerged, and how have they changed over time? Why did something seen as so marginal back become so much more central to how we talk about finance and financial policy now? What does this history tells us about the (potential) utility of sustainable investment?

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• W 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: David C Wood
  Info
• 1.5 points

Impact Investing II: Blended Finance

Impact Investing II: Blended Finance'' equips students with a detailed understanding of the tools, strategies and innovative approaches being utilized by investors seeking both financial and impact returns, via blended finance transactions. Students in this course will study cases, dig into transactions and be prepared to be a professional contributor to a transaction at a future employer. Moreover, the course provides students with a further understanding of opportunities that blended transactions can provide impact investors as they aim to unlock capital markets' support to mitigate climate change, reverse biodiversity loss, address social inequality, reduce poverty, and generate other system-level challenges.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• R 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• 1.5 points

State-Owned Investors: A Public Policy a

The wealth of a nation enables its decision makers to pursue welfare objectives on behalf of their citizens. How can a country’s wealth be effectively managed to achieve its desired goals? This fundamental inquiry lies at the core of public policy.

Historical circumstances have led many nations to accumulate substantial financial assets or benefit from abundant natural resources. Such wealth presents both significant opportunities and complex challenges. The central task for policymakers in this context is to safeguard the nation’s existing wealth, ensure its sustainable growth, and deploy it effectively to advance key policy objectives.

This course examines a particularly important set of institutional arrangements established by countries to manage national wealth. It identifies the challenges involved in governing the wealth entrusted to State-Owned Investors (SOIs), who are guided by domestic policy priorities while operating within an increasingly complex geopolitical environment. The course engages students in a comprehensive exploration of these issues, beginning with an overview of the forces that led to the creation of SOIs and a brief history of their development. It then deepens the analysis through a study of SOI interactions with the broader domestic public sector and the global community. Finally, it applies key concepts through case studies that illustrate the current role of these institutions both domestically and internationally, offering a practical framework for policymakers seeking to establish or manage SOIs in their own countries.

By developing a strong understanding of the financial and policy dimensions of SOIs, students will be better equipped to engage directly in leveraging national wealth as policymakers in pursuit of welfare goals, or indirectly as market participants operating in a global financial environment where these institutions play an increasingly prominent role.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• W 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: Alberto Antonini
  Info
• 1.5 points

Climate Finance, Policy, and Just Transi

Clim Fin, Policy, & Just

The field of responsible investment has grown rapidly over the last twenty years, with the climate crisis serving as the paradigmatic ESG issue for investors. In the private sector, investors pledge to decarbonize their portfolios, ask for carbon reporting to manage that task, join together to engage corporations on their transition plans. As activity has grown, questions about the effectiveness and limitations of climate finance approaches to the climate crisis have grown along with them. A narrow focus on decarbonization has begun to give way to broader considerations of the transition and the risks and opportunities it poses for affected workers and communities, on the belief that social cohesion is a precondition for successful transition. Private sector initiatives have been complemented with public policy and public investment efforts to shape environmental, social, and economic outcomes. Climate finance is in a moment of reflection, change, and doubt.

This course will survey and analyze the ways that public and private investment are being or could be directed in support of a Just Transition (i.e., a low-carbon transition that does not worsen social inequalities), and various ways to think about how effective climate finance can be. We will look at investors’ approaches to the decarbonization of the economy in political and social context, asking: how do or should investors integrate concerns for workers, communities, and environment into climate finance? what kinds of public policies are needed to ensure that investment points towards a Just Transition? The result, we hope, will lead both to a better understanding of the roles public and private investment in a Just Transition, climate policy, and an expanded critical capacity to analyze how well it’s working.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• W 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: David C Wood
  Info
• 3 points

ESG and Corporate Political Strategy

ESG and Corporate Political Strategy examines how organizations align environmental, social, and governance (ESG) priorities with corporate political strategies to shape policy, manage risk, and advance system-level change. As public expectations of corporate responsibility grow, firms must navigate both market and non-market arenas to sustain value, engage with stakeholders, and influence the rules by which they operate.

This course equips students with practical tools and analytical frameworks to understand and implement integrated strategies that align ESG goals with legislative, regulatory, and political engagement. Case studies and applied exercises explore how companies influence policy, respond to regulatory shifts, and act as stewards of systemic transformation. Topics include corporate lobbying, public positioning on social issues, regulatory influence, and the strategic use of litigation and partnerships.

Ideal for students pursuing careers in business, policy, nonprofit, or advocacy sectors, this course complements 
Social Impact: Business, Society, and the Natural Environment 
and is open to graduate students across SIPA, Columbia Business School, the Climate School, and other Columbia schools.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• T 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Dylan Minor
  Info
• 1.5 points

Quantitative Valuation of the Environmen

Quant Valuation of Enviro

The Quantitative Valuation of the Environment course will explore theory and methods of economically valuing environmental benefits and disbenefits, and how they can be applied in decision-making processes to improve stated outcomes. Specifically, it examines model specification for stated preference valuation, generating awareness of the theoretical and empirical questions being investigated in the area, generating awareness of environmental and resource issues currently being debated, and practical issues such as how these welfare economics measures can be used in efficiency measures such as benefit cost analysis.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• M 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Lorie Srivastava
  Info
• 3 points

Campaigning for Change - Media, Mobiliza

Strategic Campaigning & R

This course introduces the history, strategy, and practice of human rights campaigning, with a focus on media-driven advocacy. Students will examine the foundations of campaigning journalism, explore modern digital mobilization tactics, and learn to develop and execute impactful advocacy campaigns. The course emphasizes the intersection of strategic communications, digital tools, and policy advocacy, and provides hands-on experience in campaign design, messaging, and evaluation.

Students will develop an original advocacy campaign on a contemporary human rights issue using the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a global platform. Course assignments include writing advocacy letters and op-eds, designing media strategies, and producing a final campaign pitch deck. Case studies will include successful campaigns addressing labor rights, gender equity, and corporate responsibility in sport.

The course is suitable for students interested in human rights, journalism, digital strategy, and public advocacy. Sessions include skill-building workshops, guest speakers, and applied project work in collaboration with Human Rights Watch and other advocacy professionals.

• Department: Human Rights, Gender, and Equity
• R 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• 3 points

Social Impact: Business, Society, and th

Social Impact:Bus,Soc,Nat

The Social Impact: Business, Society, and the Natural Environment course explores the relationship between corporations, society, and the natural environment. Specifically, it examines the ways in which governments, (for-profit and non-profit) organizations, and investors (fail to) have positive impact and manage issues where the pursuit of private goals is deemed inconsistent with the public interest.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• T 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: Caroline Flammer
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainability Reporting

The Sustainability Reporting course explores the ever-evolving global Sustainability and ESG reporting environment and the standards and frameworks that are being used by companies to report on their sustainability related performance. Environmental, Social, and Governance Reporting (“ESG”) also referred to in parts as Corporate Responsibility /Accountability Reporting. The course explores the market drivers that generate the demand for sustainability reporting by companies, key areas of focus for investors and other capital providers, regulatory activities and the intersection of sustainability reporting with traditional corporate financial reporting.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• W 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Avner Bukspan
  Info
• 3 points

Geoeconomic Fragmentation

A seminar on the growing fragmentation of the global economy. The course explores how the rise of geoeconomics—marked by the proliferation of sanctions, tariffs, export controls, and industrial policies—is reshaping the global financial system, energy markets, supply chains, and technology industry. Topics include dedollarization and digital currencies, the bifurcation of the global oil market, China’s dominance of critical minerals and clean-energy supply chains, and the race for leadership in artificial intelligence. The course also examines alternative futures for the world economic order as the era of globalization gives way to something new.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• M 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Edward B Fishman
  Info
• 1.5 points

SIRI Practicum

The Sustainable Investing Research Consulting Project provides an action-based learning experience to students interested in sustainable investing, covering both sustainable investing in the financial sector (impact investing and sustainable finance) and the real economy (for-profit and non-profit organizations). For example, students will learn about the opportunities, challenges, and limitations faced by sustainable and impact investors to finance a more sustainable world. Moreover, they will learn how (for-profit and non-profit) organizations develop innovative products and services that help mitigate grand challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, social inequality, poverty, etc., and enable them to grow their business and sustain their competitive advantage over time.

Throughout the semester, students will work on an actual sustainable investing research consulting project for a client from across the world. They will (e-)meet with the client on a regular basis, discuss their progress, obtain feedback, and present their recommendation to the client. Furthermore, students will conduct research and interviews to learn about the broader business environment and institutional context (including cultural, political, economic, and social factors) to better understand the opportunities and challenges the clients face.

This course is ideal for students interested in pursuing careers in sustainable finance, impact investing, ESG, corporate sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and sustainable development. 

The Sustainable Investing Research Consulting course offers consulting projects from around the world, covering a broad range of topics in sustainable investing. Clients include start-ups and established firms, non-profit and for-profit organizations, and clients from the finance and investing world. For more information on client projects and the student experiences, please see the SIRI website:
https://siri.sipa.columbia.edu/news

Registration in this course is instructor-managed. Students must join the course waitlist in Vergil during their registration appointment and submit the following application to be considered for enrollment:
https://forms.gle/XQNhfryMhGUszkZB6
.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• R 10 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Courtney Sara L Minard
  Info
• 3 points

Negotiation & Conflict Resolution

This highly participatory course equips students with the tools and frameworks to negotiate effectively, resolve conflict, and build consensus in public and international affairs contexts. Through simulations, students learn to navigate a range of scenarios, including environmental disputes, diplomatic negotiations, and organizational conflicts, using both distributive and interest-based strategies. Core topics include preparation and strategy, cross-cultural communication, power dynamics, consensus building, and coalition management. Students will also explore measures of negotiation success and practice applying concepts to real-world challenges. The course emphasizes experiential learning, reflective writing, and practical skill-building to prepare students for high-stakes negotiations in diverse professional settings.

• Department: Development and Governance
• Instructor: Seth Freeman
  Info
• 3 points

Benchmarking Skills for Process & Organi

Benchmarking Skills-Proc

Effective management in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors depends on an organization’s ability to continually improve performance. This course introduces the principles and practices of benchmarking—comparing performance against top organizations to identify, study, and adapt best practices that drive excellence. Through public sector–based case studies, hands-on group exercises, and applied examples, students will learn the full benchmarking process, including tools and techniques for implementation. The course also explores the history, purpose, and organizational advantages of benchmarking as a strategy for continuous improvement. Conducted in person, the class emphasizes collaborative learning through breakout group activities that apply each phase of the benchmarking methodology.

Spring 2026 Course Dates: TBA

• Department: Tech Policy and Innovation
• FS 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Christopher J Loso
  Info
• 1 points

HOMELESSNESS POLICY

• Department: Social Work
• T 6:20 p.m.-8:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Frederick Shack
  Info
• 3 points

Leadership in Times of Disruption

Leadership during Disrupt

This intensive, seven-week course prepares students to lead and manage effectively through periods of significant change. Combining research-backed frameworks with reflective practice, students explore the intersection of vision, strategy, culture, and people management. The course draws on examples from the social impact sector and high-growth startups to examine how leaders drive transformation, build resilient organizations, and inspire performance. Students will apply concepts through the design of a hypothetical organization, culminating in the development of a strategic plan, organizational structure, and leadership toolkit. Ideal for students preparing to lead teams or initiatives across sectors.

• Department: Tech Policy and Innovation
• R 10 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Alison Go
  Info
• 1.5 points

MACROECON & POLICY ANALYSIS II

• Department: Social Work
• T 11:10 a.m.-1 p.m.
• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Ruben Rahman
  Info
• Instructor: Ryan M Zamarripa
  Info
• 3 points

Leading Global Innovation

This course prepares students to lead innovation in the global social impact sector. It introduces methods such as human-centered design, futures thinking, and systems innovation, with applied focus on the energy and health sectors. Students will explore how to design, launch, and manage innovation strategies within NGOs, INGOs, and private sector organizations, while critically examining equity, ethics, and power dynamics in innovation ecosystems. Through case studies, guest speakers, and hands-on assignments, students develop practical skills and a personal innovation toolkit to support their careers as practitioners, strategists, and changemakers in complex, cross-sector environments.

• Department: Tech Policy and Innovation
• W 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: Chandani Punia
  Info
• 3 points

MACROECON & POLICY ANALYSIS II-LAB

• Department: Social Work
• T 4:10 p.m.-5:10 p.m.
• W 6:10 p.m.-7:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Ruben Rahman
  Info
• Instructor: Ryan M Zamarripa
  Info
• 0 points

User Experience (UX) in Digital Developm

UX in Digital Development

Drawing on the co-instructors' experience at MERL Tech Initiative and Dalberg Design, this course challenges the notion that technology alone can solve complex development problems and that a human-centered ecosystem approach is critical. While innovations like mobile money and AI are often hailed as silver bullets, history shows that their impact depends on context, users, and systems. Drawing on lessons from decades of “tech for good” — from community radio to drones — we encourage students to question technological determinism and instead focus on the lived realities and needs of users.

To do so, the course adopts a human-centered design (HCD) and systems-thinking approach. We start the course with UX principles and how they are applied in digital development, and follow this with weekly case studies in class, e.g., designing a digital ID for refugee camps, AI chatbots for low-income women entrepreneurs, participatory digital campaigns, capacity building in communities, community health worker tablets/iPads and so on. 

Students will learn how to design relevant solutions by understanding users — such as  refugees, entrepreneurs, or health workers — within their social, cultural, and institutional contexts. Emphasizing empathy, participation, and sustainability, the course moves from abstract theory to practical, user-driven design methods, supported by tools and case studies from Savita’s experience in digital development with clients including Mastercard Foundation, Gates Foundation and many others, and Claudia’s experience at Dalberg Design. Assessment is through a combination of participation in class, case study design and a group project.

• Department: Development and Governance
• R 5:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• 3 points

Economic Measurement of Discrimination

Econ Measures-Discriminat

Discrimination is the differential treatment of people based on identity or perceived identity (race, gender, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ status, age, religion, disability, immigration status, etc.). Such behavior violates some legal, social, and moral norms and has a negative impact on those discriminated against.

For these and other reasons, it is important to be able to formally identify discrimination from data. But how do we know that A’s treatment of B is because of B’s identity as opposed to some other characteristic of B or A that we may not even have a variable for?

In this class, we will explore economists’ methodologies for answering this question. We will survey the economic literature on discrimination against a variety of types of people in a variety of markets and across countries. Students are encouraged to explore discrimination in contexts not covered in the reading in their final projects.

• Department: International Finance & Economic Policy
• W 10 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Ebonya L Washington
  Info
• 3 points

Islam, Judaism, and the Israeli-Palestin

This course seeks to help students learn
how
to think, not
what
to think – we pursue fuller thinking by drawing on the broadest range of evidence from right and left, Arab, Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Muslim, and others. No questions are banned: all perspectives are open to challenge. What tools are required to engage, understand and be involved with improving the Israeli-Palestinian issue by acquiring greater intelligence, nuance, and awareness of the claims and sensitivities of both sides? Too often, American and European policymakers bring our own biases and blind-spots to the negotiating table, and do not understand the beliefs of local nations. Which leads to the question: How do policy practitioners help participants in the conflict move forward, while taking seriously the claims and cultures of the people involved? This course respects and meets the people involved in the conflict in their words, narratives, and deeds. The longest war in the Middle East is not only about that region: American university campuses, political parties, and different communities are being torn apart by slogans of “Zionism is racism”, “white colonial settlements”, “apartheid”, “globalize the Intifada”, and “Islam is terrorism”. Why does this conflict matter so much? How do we approach it with intellectual honesty, empathy, openness, facts and mutual respect?

• Department: International Security & Diplomacy
• 3 points

Middle East Conflicts and Global Securit

ME Conflicts & Global Sec

This course analyzes the impact of domestic and regional conflicts in the Middle East on global security. Key concepts include: regime change, revolution, civil war, conflict management, security sector reform, arms transfers, nuclear proliferation, counterterrorism, and international criminal justice. These conceptual tools are used for comparative analysis of three sub-regional conflict zones: Saudi Arabia / Iran / Iraq, Egypt / Syria / Lebanon, and Palestine / Jordan / Israel. Each of these regions has galvanized substantial global engagement.

• Department: International Security & Diplomacy
• T 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Naomi Weinberger
  CULPA: 11 Info
• 3 points

Gender, Politics, and Development

Gender, Politics, & Devel

Gender equality, and women’s and girls’ empowerment, are now widely accepted as development goals in their own right, and essential to inclusive and sustainable development.    But despite progress in many areas, gender gaps and discrimination persist.  How did gender equality move from the periphery to the center of development discourse, and what difference has this made? Is gender equality a human right, an essential aspect of human development, or “smart economics”?    What are the implications of a gender equality agenda for men and boys, and for broader understandings of gender identities and sexualities? What policies, strategies and practices have been effective – or ineffective – in narrowing gender gaps and improving outcomes for both women and men in particular development settings?  And what are possible responses to the "gender backlash" that has emerged in some countries and institutions?

In this course, we approach gender, politics and development in terms of theory, policy and practice.  We explore multiple constructions of gender in development discourse; the intersection of gender with race, ethnicity, caste, class, sexual orientation, disability and other social categories, and with dominant economic and political trends; and the ways in which gender norms inform the different approaches of governments, development agencies, civil society organizations, and the private sector.  We apply a critical gender lens to a wide range of development sectors and issue areas, including economic development, political participation, education and health, environment and climate change, and conflict and displacement.  We also consider current debates and approaches related to gender mainstreaming and gender metrics in development practice.  Students engage with the course material through class discussion, exercises and case studies, and the development of a gender-related project proposal.  Guest speakers share practical strategies for advancing gender equality in the current environment.

• Department: Development and Governance
• T 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• 3 points

Global Constitutionalism

The class compares a variety of proposals that have been advanced to promote constitutional world order.  We begin with traditional conceptions of the balance of power among independent “Westphalian” states and then explore arrangements designed to produce alternative forms of constituted international and world order.  These include liberal and authoritarian internationalism, collective security through the League Covenant and the United Nations Charter, John Rawls’s
Law of Peoples
and various other contemporary models of international law, global governance networks and global democratization.

In addition to assessing the particular merits and limitations of these visions of world order, we will examine the underlying principles of international politics, ethics and constitutional design that characterize these efforts to establish rules for the globe.

• Department: Development and Governance
• W 1:20 p.m.-3:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Doyle
  Info
• 3 points

China's Foreign Relations

This course examines the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to the present, analyzing the political, strategic, and economic drivers of Beijing’s engagement with the world. Topics include China’s relations with the United States, Russia, Asia, and the Global South; key historical turning points such as the Cold War, reform era, and post-Tiananmen period; and contemporary challenges including cross-Strait relations, great power competition, and global governance. Emphasis is placed on the causes and consequences of China’s external behavior and how domestic politics, nationalism, and leadership shape policy. Graduate students participate in additional precepts and complete analytic memos designed to build policy-relevant skills.

• Department: International Security & Diplomacy
• F 9 a.m.-10 a.m.
• F 11 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Thomas J Christensen
  CULPA: 2 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

The U.S. Role in World Affairs, II

This course is the second half of the year-long International Fellows Program (IFP) seminar examining the United States’ evolving role in global affairs. Building on themes from the fall, the spring semester focuses on the challenges confronting a new U.S. presidential administration and the strategic decisions that will shape American leadership in a contested international environment. Through a combination of seminar discussions, case studies, guest speakers, and two regional crisis simulations, students will examine U.S. policy responses to geopolitical competition, regional instability, and transnational threats. Enrollment is limited to students in the International Fellows Program (IFP).

• Department: International Security & Diplomacy
• R 1:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Victoria Nuland
  Info
• 3 points

LEGAL FOUNDATIONS II

• Department: Social Work
• W 6:20 p.m.-8:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Rebecca M Hanus
  Info
• 3 points

READY 4 RESIDENCY

• Department: Medicine
• 0 points

READY 4 RESIDENCY

• Department: Medicine
• 0 points

EXTERNSHP:FEDERAL GOV'T IN DC

• Department: Law
• 2 points

EXTERNSHP:FEDERAL GOV'T IN DC

• Department: Law
• 3 points

EXTERNSHP:FEDERAL GOV'T IN DC

• Department: Law
• 8 points

R4R ONLINE

• Department: Medicine
• Instructor: Lyndsey Adams
  Info
• 0 points

R4R ONLINE

• Department: Medicine
• Instructor: Lyndsey Adams
  Info
• 0 points

Graduate Independent Research

Independent Study with Faculty Advisor must be registered for every semester after first academic year

• Department: Statistics
• Instructor: Marco A Avella Medina
  Info
• Instructor: David Blei
  Wikipedia h-index: 98 Info
• Instructor: John P Cunningham
  CULPA: 7 Info
• Instructor: Richard Davis
  CULPA: 3 h-index: 60 Info
• Instructor: Victor H de la Pena
  h-index: 20 Info
• Instructor: Bianca Dumitrascu
  Info
• Instructor: Andrew Gelman
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia h-index: 112 Info
• Instructor: Yuqi Gu
  h-index: 6 Info
• Instructor: Ioannis Karatzas
  CULPA: 7 h-index: 58 Info
• Instructor: Samory Kpotufe
  CULPA: 2 Info
• Instructor: Jingchen Liu
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 19 Info
• Instructor: Arian Maleki
  h-index: 31 Info
• Instructor: Sumit Mukherjee
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 13 Info
• Instructor: Marcel F Nutz
  CULPA: 9 Info
• Instructor: Liam M Paninski
  CULPA: 4 Info
• Instructor: Philip Protter
  h-index: 50 Info
• Instructor: Daniel Rabinowitz
  CULPA: 19 h-index: 34 Info
• Instructor: Cynthia Rush
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 12 Info
• Instructor: Bodhisattva Sen
  h-index: 24 Info
• Instructor: Michael Sobel
  CULPA: 5 Wikipedia h-index: 35 Info
• Instructor: Simon Tavare
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Anne Van Delft
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 5 Info
• Instructor: Zhiliang Ying
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 62 Info
• Instructor: Ming Yuan
  h-index: 45 Info
• Instructor: Tian Zheng
  CULPA: 13 Wikipedia h-index: 25 Info
• 3 points

Graduate Independent Research

Independent Study with Faculty Advisor must be registered for every semester after first academic year

• Department: Statistics
• 3 points

Graduate Independent Research

Independent Study with Faculty Advisor must be registered for every semester after first academic year

• Department: Statistics
• Instructor: Christopher Harshaw
  Info
• 3 points

Graduate Independent Research

Independent Study with Faculty Advisor must be registered for every semester after first academic year

• Department: Statistics
• 3 points

GRAD STUDENT & FACULTY COLLOQ

FEMINIST PEDAGOGY

This is a course is oriented to graduate students who are thinking about issues in teaching in the near and distant future and want to explore forms of pedagogy. The course will ask what it means to teach “as a feminist” and will explore how to create a classroom receptive to feminist and queer methodologies and theories regardless of course theme/content. Topics include: participatory pedagogy, the role of political engagement, the gender dynamics of the classroom, modes of critical thought and disagreement. Discussions will be oriented around student interest. The course will meet 4-5 times per SEMESTER (dates TBD) and the final assignment is to develop and workshop a syllabus for a new gender/sexuality course in your field. Because this course is required for graduate students choosing to fulfill Option 2 for the Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies at IRWGS, priority will be given to graduate students completing the certificate.

• Department: Women's and Gender Studies
• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Julia Bryan-Wilson
  Wikipedia Info
• 1 points

TICKETING

An in-depth, seminar-style course on the management of ticketing with a focus on practical strategies to maximize grosses efficiently while providing a seamless audience experience. The course includes a semester-long group project intended to demonstrate the various decisions that theater managers must make to ensure the financial stability of their productions and institutions.

• Department: Theatre Arts
• T 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
• 3 points

EXTERNSHIP FEDERAL PROSECUTION

• Department: Law
• 2 points

EXTERNSHIP FEDERAL PROSECUTION

• Department: Law
• 2 points

Financial Planning & Analysis

This course explores the use of financial information for internal planning, analysis, and decision-making. The main objective of the course is to equip you with the knowledge to understand, evaluate, and act upon the many financial and non-financial reports used in managing modern firms.
Managing any modern firm requires information about the firm’s products, processes, assets, and customers. This information is a key input into a wide range of decisions: analyzing profitability of various products, managing product-line portfolios, setting prices, measuring and managing profitability of customers, making operational and strategic decisions, evaluating investments, guiding improvement efforts, and so on.
The focus of this course is on modern internal-reporting systems. We will discover that many firms do not provide their managers with useful information; we will see numerous examples of value destruction and bankruptcies caused by this. We will also investigate some modern ideas in how an organization’s internal information system should be designed to enhance value creation; and we will see how world-class firms take advantage of their competitors’ internal-reporting mistakes.
To attain the right level of understanding, we will briefly explore the mechanics of the many techniques used to prepare internal reports. But the emphasis in this course is very much on interpretation, evaluation, and decision-making.
We will examine the following key topics:
Designing managerial information systems to support an organization’s strategy.
Determining which financial and non-financial metrics are necessary for success in various competitive environments.
Evaluating profitability of products, services, assets, and customers.
The capabilities and the limitations of various reporting systems in guiding value-maximization, cost-control, and improvement efforts.
The limitations of traditional cost-estimation systems.
Activity-based costing and activity-based management.
Estimating and managing the costs of capacity resources.
Relevant costs and relevant revenues in business decisions.
The information necessary to evaluate long-term business decisions.
The incentives created by various performance-evaluation techniques.

• Department: Accounting (ACCT)
• MW 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
• MW 10:50 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Tim Baldenius
  Info
• 1.5 points

Earnings Quality & Fundamental

Financial reporting provides a window into the operational and financial workings of a company. However, translating this information into actionable insights is anything but straightforward. It requires an understanding of: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), the quality of financial information, and the adjustments and analyses used to assess profitability, risk, growth, and value.

The course starts with a short review of financial reporting and then focuses on various modules of fundamental analysis, including earnings quality analysis, performance evaluation, risk assessment, forecasting, and valuation. The remaining class meetings (approximately 14 out of 24) are devoted to a deeper dive into the reporting and analysis of key transactions (e.g., business combinations, leasing) and financial statement line items (e.g., revenue, income taxes).

To allow for dynamic progress, the class schedule is flexible:
Topic Approximate # of class meetings
1. Review of financial reporting 2
2. Financial statement analysis 4
3. Forecasting and valuation 4
4. Revenue and related items 2
5. Operating capacity 3
6. Estimated items 3.5
7. Financial instruments 2
8. Investments in businesses 2.5
9. Equity and related items 1
Total 24

While the course covers the theoretical underpinning of the various analyses, it focuses on implementation and practical uses. We will study many actual financial disclosures and cases of accounting abuses, and we will conduct fundamental-based valuation and other financial analyses, including using Excel tools that will be provided to the students. Studying financial disclosures will help you better understand the underlying assumptions and accounting choices the firm made in arriving at its accounting numbers. This information can be used to make earnings quality adjustments to the accounting numbers to make them more consistent across time or more comparable across companies. Studying cases of accounting abuses will help you improve your ability to “read between the lines” and develop a set of red flags to look for in analyzing financial statements. The class also incorporates insights from practitioner and academic research.

The primary objective of the course is to acquire a deep understanding of accounting information and how to intelligently use it in making investment, credit, and similar resource allocation decisions. Such knowledge is required of investors, consultants, analysts, banke

• Department: Accounting (ACCT)
• MW 2:20 p.m.-3:50 p.m.
• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:40 p.m.
• MW 10:50 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Doron Nissim
  h-index: 24 Info
• 3 points

DISSERTATION COLLOQUIUM

The dissertation colloquium is a non-credit course open to MESAAS doctoral students who have completed the M.Phil. degree. It provides a forum in which the entire community of dissertation writers meets, bridging the departments different fields and regions of research. It complements workshops outside the department focused on one area or theme. Through an encounter with the diversity of research underway in MESAAS, participants learn to engage with work anchored in different regions and disciplines and discover or develop what is common in the departments post-disciplinary methods of inquiry. Since the community is relatively small, it is expected that all post-M.Phil. students in residence will join the colloquium. Post M.Phil. students from other departments may request permission to join the colloquium, but places for non-MESAAS students will be limited. The colloquium convenes every semester, meeting once every two weeks. Each meeting is devoted to the discussion of one or two pre-circulated pieces of work (a draft prospectus or dissertation chapter). Every participant contributes at least one piece of work each year.

• Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Gil Hochberg
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 14 Info
• 0 points

Financial Statement Analysis a

This course will provide students with hands-on experience analyzing financial statements. Students will learn about the general tools, theoretical concepts, and practical valuation issues of financial analysis. By the end of the course, students should be comfortable using firms' financial statements (along with other information) to assess firm performance and make reasonable valuation estimates.

Course content and organization In the first half of the course, we will develop a valuation framework that integrates a firm’s strategy, its financial performance, and the credibility of its accounting. The framework consists of the following steps:
1. Understand the firm’s strategy. We will assess the firm’s value proposition and identify its key value drivers and risks.
2. Accounting Analysis. We will assess earnings quality and evaluate whether the firm's accounting policies capture the underlying business reality. If not, we will adjust the accounting to eliminate GAAP issues and management biases.
3. Financial Analysis. We will evaluate current performance with accounting data and financial ratios.
4. Prospective Analysis: Forecasting. We will assess whether current firm performance is sustainable, and we will forecast future performance. In our forecasts, we will consider growth, profitability, and future competitive advantage.
5. Prospective Analysis: Valuation. We will convert our forecasts of future earnings and book values into an estimate of the firm’s current value.

In the second half of the course, we will apply the above framework to a variety of business valuation contexts, including IPOs, mergers, and equity-investment analyses.

• Department: Accounting (ACCT)
• W 9 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
• R 9 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
• R 2:20 p.m.-5:35 p.m.
• Instructor: Kalash Jain
  Info
• 3 points

M.PHIL TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Prerequisite: instructors permission. Participation in medical informatics educational activities under the direction of a faculty adviser.

• Department: Biomedical Informatics
• Instructor: Shalmali Joshi
  Info
• Instructor: Richard A Friedman
  Info
• Instructor: Olena Mamykina
  Info
• Instructor: Sivan Kinberg
  Info
• 2 points