THE WEALTH OF NATIVES

Indigenous people are often imagined in the distant past, or as living anachronisms in relation to contemporary life. Working against these assumptions, this course examines how Native peoples have survived colonialism, focusing on economic aspects of colonialism in North America, while looking to Australia and Hawai‘i. We will look at the long history of Native land struggles, and links between colonial economies and ecological destruction. Themes guiding our inquiry include: the development of wage labor, property law and economic production on Native lands, histories of political and economic dependency, "development" as defined and practiced over Native communities, and Native people's own economic choices. Our inquiry will be oriented towards deepening our ability to critically analyze the colonial situation we live in, and to see Indigenous survivals despite ongoing assaults against life and territory.

• Department: American Studies @Barnard
• Instructor: Manu Karuka
  Info
• 4 points

PROBABILITY THEORY

Prerequisites: MATH GU4061 or MATH UN3007 A rigorous introduction to the concepts and methods of mathematical probability starting with basic notions and making use of combinatorial and analytic techniques. Generating functions. Convergence in probability and in distribution. Discrete probability spaces, recurrence and transience of random walks. Infinite models, proof of the law of large numbers and the central limit theorem. Markov chains.

• Department: Mathematics
• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Julien Dubedat
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

MATHEMATICS AND THE HUMANITIES

This course is being taught by two senior faculty members who are theorists and practitioners in disciplines as different as mathematics and literary criticism. The instructors believe that in today's world, the different ways in which theoretical mathematics and literary criticism mold the imaginations of students and scholars, should be brought together, so that the robust ethical imagination that is needed to combat the disintegration of our world can be produced. Except for the length of novels, the reading is no more than 100 pages a week.

Our general approach is to keep alive the disciplinary differences between literary/philosophical (humanities) reading and mathematical writing.  Some preliminary questions we have considered are: the survival skills of the logicist school over against the Foundational Crisis of the early 20th century; by way of Wittgenstein and others, we ask, Are mathematical objects real? Or are they linguistic conventions? We will consider the literary/philosophical use of mathematics, often by imaginative analogy; and the role of the digital imagination in the humanities: Can so-called creative work as well as mathematics be written by machines? Guest faculty from other departments will teach with us to help students and instructors understand various topics.  We will close with how a novel animates “science” in prose, stepping out of the silo of disciplinary mathematics to the arena where mathematics is considered a code-name for science: Christine Brooke-Rose’s novel
Subscript
.

• Department: Mathematics
• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Harris
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Religion and the Afro-Native Experience

Religion and Afro-Native

African Americans and Native Americans have a shared history of racial oppression in America. However, the prevailing lenses through which scholars understand settler colonialism, religion, and black and indigenous histories focus overwhelmingly on the dynamics between Europeans and these respective groups. How might our understanding of these subjects change when viewed from a different point of departure, if we center the history of entanglements between black and native lives? How does religion structure the overlapping experiences of Afro-Native peoples in North America?

From political movements in Minneapolis, Oakland, and New York City to enslavement from the Cotton Belt to the Rio Grande, this class will explore how Africans, Native Americans, and their descendants adapted to shifting contexts of race and religion in America. The course will proceed thematically by examining experiences of war, dislocation, survival, and diaspora.

• Department: Religion @Barnard
• Instructor: Tiffany Hale
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 4 points

Love, Labor, and Leisure in Contemporary

Love, Labor in Contemp Ch

This course takes an anthropological perspective on life in China today with special attention to the legacies of the country’s socialist past. We start with a brief look at the ideological and institutional frameworks employed by the Communist Party to organize the daily life of its citizens in the decades leading into the People’s Republic. We will then read about how economic and social reforms instituted since the 1980s, in particular changes to the work unit and household registration system, have resulted in dramatically different opportunities and expectations for Chinese citizens attempting to navigate career opportunities, search for romantic partners, move through communal and private spaces and engage in consumptive activities. Exploring the experiences of rural peasants, urban workers, and laborers who move between countryside and city as well as between nations, we will examine how class, gender, and sexuality come to be refigured as China integrates into the global market economy. Scholarly texts will be supplemented with political speeches, short work of fiction and essays, and films.

• Department: Asian and Middle East @Barnard
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Nicholas A Bartlett
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 3-4 points

The Just City: Global Debates in Urban P

THE JUST CITY

Urbanization is inherently unequal, inscribing social, economic, environmental, and political unevenness into the spatial fabric of the city. But the distribution of such inequality is not inevitable. Urbanization is a product of the collective decisions we make (or choose not to make) in response to the shared challenges we face in our cities. And, thus, the patterns of urbanization can be changed. This is the task of urban planning and the starting point for this advanced seminar, which asks how we can reshape our cities to be more just—to alleviate inequality rather than compound it. In embarking on this effort, we face numerous “wicked” problems without clear-cut solutions. The approaches one takes in addressing urban inequality are therefore fundamentally normative—they are shaped by one’s place in the world and one’s view of it. The central challenge in addressing inequality is thus establishing a basis for collective action amongst diverse actors with differing—and sometimes conflicting—values and views. In other words, planning the just city a matter of both empathy and debate. In this course, we will endeavor to develop informed positions that can help us engage with others as a basis for taking collective action.

The course is organized into four 3-week modules, each of which addresses a dimension of the just city: equity, democracy, diversity, and sustainability. In the first week of each module, we will discuss how the issue has been understood in history and theory (with an emphasis on tradeoffs between different priorities and values); in the second week, we will apply this discussion to a global case study prepared and presented by a team of students; and in the third week, we will hold an in-class debate to determine what should be done. Specific case studies vary each year.

• Department: Architecture @Barnard
• Instructor: Nick R Smith
  h-index: None Info
• 4 points

Corporate Finance and Valuation

Corporate Finance & Valua

This course introduces the fundamental principles of corporate finance and their application to real-world business decisions. Students will examine how companies determine value, measure risk, and make financing choices, while developing the tools to analyze corporate investments and capital structures.

Intellectual Goals and Rationale
The course addresses core questions that drive business decision-making:


How do we determine what a company or investment opportunity is worth?

How do we value financial securities in an uncertain world?

What is risk? How do we measure it, and how does it affect the cost of capital?

What is the appropriate balance between debt and equity?


Course Content and Learning Approach
Through a combination of theoretical frameworks, case discussions, and Excel-based financial modeling, students will build the ability to analyze complex financial scenarios. Lectures provide the foundations of valuation and financing, while case work applies these tools to real business challenges.

Why This Course Matters
Valuation, investment evaluation, and financing decisions are central to careers in finance, consulting, entrepreneurship, and management. The skills gained—financial modeling, risk assessment, and valuation analysis—are directly relevant to roles in investment banking, private equity, corporate development, consulting, and executive leadership.

Who Should Take This Course
This introductory finance course is open to students from all academic backgrounds who seek to strengthen their financial literacy and analytical capabilities. It is particularly valuable for:


Students considering careers in finance, consulting, or general management

Entrepreneurs who need to understand funding and valuation

Students in other fields interested in how businesses create and measure value

Those planning to pursue graduate business education


Prerequisites


Economics:
 ECON UN1105 Principles of Economics

Statistics (one of the following):


STAT UN1001 Intro to Statistical Reasoning

STAT UN1101 Introduction to Statistics

STAT UN1201 Calc-Based Introduction to Statistics

PSYC UN1610 Introductory Statistics for Behavioral Science




Cours

• Department: Mendelson Center
• MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Haran Segram
  Info
• 3 points

DISABILITY AND ARCHITECTURE

This course explores the manifold relationships between architecture and disability. We will discuss how architecture mediates different bodily experiences and relationships and negotiates social norms and forms of assembly that intervene in shaping shifting understandings and performances of impairment, assistance, access, rehabilitation, and oppression that have historically framed disability.  We will explore disability as a culture, an episteme, and a politics, often negotiated by architecture.

 

We will assess the disabling effects of the built environment as well as architectural projects and designs defined to normalize, segregate, or eradicate disability. We will also study environments, artifacts, and infrastructures that have allowed disabled individuals and communities to thrive, often against expectations of integration in normative life frameworks. We will additionally explore how disability contributes to framing architecture differently and opens up space for new aesthetic experiences, different cultures of making, and diverse politics of the built environment. We will discuss how it challenges normalizing understandings of space and form, functionalist paradigms in architecture, and modern and contemporary interpretations of nature, the city, and society.  We will discuss the ideologies enacted by different projects shaping the life of disabled individuals, including their own designs and interventions in the built environment.

 

These explorations are organized thematically, with sessions engaging design and disability scholarship and providing students with a robust introduction to disability studies. In dialogue with this field, students will explore how design and architecture have operated in relation to medical, social, environmental, cultural, and political paradigms of disability. They will discuss the role that built environments play in the agendas of the disability rights and disability justice movements. Sessions engage both historical and theoretical questions.

 

Three assignments will allow students to explore the intersections of the built environment and disability in a diversity of formats. Advanced students will have the opportunity to write a research paper.

• Department: Architecture @Barnard
• Instructor: Ignacio Gonzalez Galan
  Info
• 4 points

CONTEM AMER JEWISH WOMEN'S LIT

The seminar will focus on trends that have emerged over the past three decades in Jewish American women's writing in the fields of memoirs, fiction and Jewish history: the representation and exploration through fictive narratives of women's experiences in American Jewish orthodox communities; reinterpretation of Jewish history through gender analysis; the recording of migration and exile by Jewish women immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Morocco, Iran, and Egypt; and gender transformations. Texts will be analyzed in terms of genre structures, narrative strategies, the role of gender in shaping content and Jewish identity, and the political, cultural and social contexts in which the works were created. The course aims for students to discuss and critically engage with texts in order to develop the skills of analytical and abstract thinking, as well as the ability to express that critical thinking in writing. Prerequisites:
Both
one introductory WGSS course
and
Critical Approaches to Social and Cultural Theory,
or
Permission of the Instructor.

• Department: Women's, Gender, Sexuality Studies @Barnard
• Instructor: Agnieszka Legutko
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

SWANA Diasporas: Culture, Politics and I

In this class we will study South-West Asian and North African (SWANA) diasporic populations, social movements and cultural production that have responded to the multi-faceted ramifications of the 21st century war on terror. We will focus on diverse Arab, Iranian, and Afghan diasporas in the United States, where 19th and 20th century legacies of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and Orientalism combined in new ways to target these groups after the September 11th, 2001 attacks. Drawing on an interdisciplinary array of texts, including ethnography, fiction, feminist and queer theory, social movement theory, and visual and performance art, we will look at how the “war on terror” has shaped the subjectivities and self-representation of SWANA communities. Crucially, we will examine the gender and sexual politics of Islamophobia and racism and study how scholars, activists and artists have sought to intervene in dominant narratives of deviance, threat, and backwardness attributed to Muslim and other SWANA populations. This course takes up the politics of naming, situating the formation of “SWANA” as part of an anti-colonial genealogy that rejects imperial geographies such as “Middle East.” We will ask how new geographies and affiliations come into being in the context of open-ended war, and what new political identities and forms of cultural production then become possible.

• Department: Women's, Gender, Sexuality Studies @Barnard
• Instructor: Manijeh Moradian
  Info
• 4 points

Literati Culture in Pre-Modern China

Literati Cult. Pre-Mod. C

Premodern Chinese literati have long been regarded as active historical agents who shaped “This Culture of Ours”—a metonym for civilization in the premodern Sinitic context—while they also fed from, partook in, and influenced popular and foreign cultures. Besides “literary writings” like poetry and prose, literati also engaged in calligraphy, painting, and antiquarianism under the umbrella term of “literary or cultural arts.” In turn, the creation and appreciation of artwork were intrinsic to the aesthetic life of literati community and further established their self-identity. At the same time, social exclusivity, (self-)doubt and identity crises, along with the looming threat of cultural decline, have continually haunted this literati community throughout the ages.

Covering the long trajectory of imperial China, this course reveals the birth and development of literati culture. In particular, we take an interdisciplinary approach, introducing intellectual and poetic discourses, socio-historical contexts, literary criticism, visual and material culture, to envision a “common ground” for their civil world. Textual, visual sources plus material objects are meant to have conversations with each other in this course. Important issues include historical transformations of the elite class, cultural geography in different eras, materiality and visuality of elite calligraphy and painting, literati self-expression through aesthetic practice, the roles of the court and literati in producing and preserving art, as well as other relevant issues such as gender studies, vernacular literature, and commodity society.

This course is cross-listed in AMEC and CPLT. For undergraduates, no background in Chinese language is required in this course, and all reading materials—either translation of primary sources or secondary scholarship—are accessible in English.

• Department: Asian and Middle East @Barnard
• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Lili Xia
  Info
• 4 points

Investment Strategies

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to modern investment analysis, integrating two distinct yet complementary approaches: fundamental value investing and quantitative investment strategies. The first half focuses on value investing, emphasizing the economic analysis and valuation of a firm's business operations to estimate its fundamental value. Students will learn to assess competitive advantages and barriers to entry, apply valuation frameworks beyond standard DCF models, and manage risk in concentrated portfolios. The methodology is grounded in identifying a 'margin of safety' by investing when a company's market value is significantly below its intrinsic worth.

The second half shifts to quantitative investment strategies, exploring the tools and techniques used in an environment of continuous financial innovation. Topics include hedging and risk management, single- and multi-period portfolio optimization, the use of factor models and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for investment decisions, and the construction of systematic and volatility-based strategies. A hands-on approach is used to highlight the applications and limitations of these quantitative methods. Upon completion, students will have a rich and coherent view of investing that combines a sound understanding of business economics with robust quantitative and risk management techniques.

We recommend that students take Corporate Finance (BUSI 4280 and ECON 4280) beforehand and Capital Markets (BUSI 3705) or Financial Economics (ECON 3025) concurrently.

• Department: Mendelson Center
• T 4:10 p.m.-6:40 p.m.
• 3 points

Crime, Sex, Race and the Politics of Pur

The Politics of Purity

The politics of what and who counts as worthy, good, or pure mediates possibilities for political and legal life. This course takes as its central question: how do certain ideas around purity and innocence come to appear natural? By considering a wide range of topics including carceral studies, immigration, race-making, settler colonialism, gender and sexuality and cultural studies, we will uncover the ways that cultural objects circulate and do political work. How are notions of race, crime, and purity produced, policed, and lived? And finally, how might we live otherwise—against innocence?

• Department: American Studies @Barnard
• Instructor: Daria Reaven
  Info
• 4 points

ITL CULTRL ST II:WWI-PRESENT

ITL CULTRL STUDIES II:WWI-PRE

An interdisciplinary investigation into Italian culture and society in the years between World War I and the present. Drawing on historical analyses, literary texts, letters, film, cartoons, popular music, etc. the course examines some of the key problems and trends in the cultural and political history of the period. Lectures, discussion and required readings will be in English. Students with a knowledge of Italian are encouraged to read the primary literature in Italian.

• Department: Italian @Barnard
• Instructor: Nelson Moe
  CULPA: 10 h-index: 6 Info
• 3 points

Foundations of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is one of the most important economic activities shaping the United States. Entrepreneurial processes play a role in delivering new solutions to social problems, they are a strong determinant of wealth inequality and spatial disparities, and underlie technological progress. The class Foundations of Entrepreneurship provides any undergraduate student a comprehensive introduction to what entrepreneurship is and how it functions, including understanding how an idea evolves into a company, the role of key actors in an entrepreneurial ecosystem, and experiencing the entrepreneurial process. The class is valuable to any student in science, engineering, and liberal arts who would like to understand what determines whether promising inventions and solutions fulfill their potential impact. It is offered as part of the Mendelson Center’s special program in business management.

The content is delivered incorporating lecture-based content, case discussions of existing companies, and group work to develop an early-stage idea and pitch it to a panel of investors.

Foundations of Entrepreneurship is a prerequisite to future lab-based entrepreneurship classes for undergraduates, Launch Your Startup and Entrepreneurial Greenhouse.

 

Prerequisite or Corequisite:

ECON 1105W
(Principles of Economics)
AND
one of the following Statistics courses:



STAT 1001W
(Intro to Statistical Reasoning)



STAT 1101W
(Introduction to Statistics)



STAT 1201W
(Calc-Based Intro to Statistics)



PSYC 1610W
(Statistics for Behavioral Scientists)

• Department: Mendelson Center
• T 1:10 p.m.-3:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Mauskapf
  h-index: 5 Info
• 3 points

JUDAISM & CHRISTIANITY S.ASIA

An introduction to the indigenous traditions of Judaism and Christianity in the subcontinent, with attention to historical development, community diversity, cultural patterns, interactions with Hindus and Muslims, and contemporary controversies over caste and conversion.  Concluding classes focus on South Asian Jews and Christians in the diaspora, particularly Israel and New York.  An academic background in Judaism, or Christianity, or Hinduism / Indian history is highly recommended.

• Department: Asian and Middle East @Barnard
• Instructor: Rachel McDermott
  CULPA: 37 Info
• 3 points

DIVINE HUMAN ANIMAL

This course focuses on thinking with animals (Levi-Strauss) through the lens of the religious imagination. The concentration will be primarily on Western religious cultures, especially Judaism and the question of Jewishness.

• Department: Religion @Barnard
• Instructor: Beth A Berkowitz
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 6 Info
• 4 points

MASTERS RESEARCH OR PROJECT

Prerequisite(s): Approval by a faculty member who agrees to supervise the work. Independent work involving experiments, computer programming, analytical investigation, or engineering design.

• Department: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
• Instructor: Anish Agarwal
  Info
• Instructor: Shipra Agrawal
  h-index: 24 Info
• Instructor: Eric Balkanski
  h-index: 13 Info
• Instructor: Daniel Bienstock
  h-index: 38 Info
• Instructor: Agostino Capponi
  h-index: 19 Info
• Instructor: Rachel Cummings
  h-index: 16 Info
• Instructor: Antonius B Dieker
  CULPA: 10 h-index: 19 Info
• Instructor: Adam N Elmachtoub
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 13 Info
• Instructor: Yuri Faenza
  h-index: 11 Info
• Instructor: Vineet Goyal
  h-index: 21 Info
• Instructor: Ali Hirsa
  h-index: 8 Info
• Instructor: Anran Hu
  Info
• Instructor: Garud Iyengar
  CULPA: 6 h-index: 30 Info
• 1-3 points

MASTERS RESEARCH OR PROJECT

Prerequisite(s): Approval by a faculty member who agrees to supervise the work. Independent work involving experiments, computer programming, analytical investigation, or engineering design.

• Department: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
• Instructor: Garud Iyengar
  CULPA: 6 h-index: 30 Info
• Instructor: Hardeep Johar
  Info
• Instructor: Cedric Josz
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 13 Info
• Instructor: Soulaymane Kachani
  CULPA: 12 Info
• Instructor: Yaren Kaya
  Info
• Instructor: Christian Kroer
  h-index: 16 Info
• Instructor: Daniel Lacker
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 13 Info
• Instructor: Henry Lam
  h-index: 17 Info
• Instructor: Fabrizio Lecci
  Info
• Instructor: Tianyi Lin
  Info
• Instructor: Uday Menon
  Info
• Instructor: Bento Natura
  Info
• Instructor: Jay Sethuraman
  CULPA: 10 Info
• Instructor: Eric Stratman
  Info
• Instructor: Clifford Stein
  CULPA: 31 Wikipedia h-index: 53 Info
• Instructor: Wenpin Tang
  h-index: 6 Info
• Instructor: Harry West
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 1 Info
• Instructor: Kaizheng Wang
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 8 Info
• Instructor: Lily Xu
  Info
• Instructor: David D Yao
  CULPA: 5 Info
• Instructor: Yi Zhang
  CULPA: 2 Info
• Instructor: Xunyu Zhou
  h-index: 54 Info
• 1-3 points

MASTERS RESEARCH OR PROJECT

Prerequisite(s): Approval by a faculty member who agrees to supervise the work. Independent work involving experiments, computer programming, analytical investigation, or engineering design.

• Department: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
• 1-3 points

Labor and Life: Critiques of Capitalism

LABOR AND LIFE

This advanced seminar examines materialist conceptions of labor and life as approached through feminist, black, anti-racist, indigenous, queer, postcolonial, and Marxist perspectives. We will trace the ways that labor and life as well as their constitutive relations have been understood in historical and contemporary radical critiques of capitalism, with a focus on gender, race and sexuality as analytical categories for understanding their shifting roles in structures and practices of social reproduction, the production and expropriation of value, the logic and exercise of violence, the organization of sociality and culture, and the practice and imagination of freedom, justice, and new forms and potentials of collective existence. Finally, we will consider the limits and possibilities of different conceptions of “material life” for understanding politics today.

• Department: Women's, Gender, Sexuality Studies @Barnard
• Instructor: Neferti Tadiar
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Education in Conflict Zones

Across the world, conflict and violence are on the rise, in many forms and due to myriad factors. This course explores the relationship between war, conflict, and education. Drawing on a human rights framework and its applications to education, this course will explore the possibilities and limitations inherent in this framework. Questions we will explore include: How does education contribute to, or mitigate conflict? What is the role of education in emergencies? What is the role of education in addressing the needs of refugees? What is the role of education in post conflict contexts and peacebuilding? What is human rights education?

• Department: Education @Barnard
• Instructor: Thea R Abu El-Haj
  Info
• 4 points

FOUNDATIONS OF CLINICAL MEDICINE II

FOUNDATIONS OF CLINICAL MED II

• Department: Medicine
• 0 points

THE BODY IN HEALTH & DISEASE I

• Department: Medicine
• 0 points

Foundations of Clinical Medicine: Tutori

FNDATION CLINICAL MED: TU

• Department: Medicine
• 0 points

From Ruins to Remains: Palestine & Archa

This new course aims to provide advanced undergraduate and graduate students with a critical history of Palestine-related archaeology from the mid-19th century to the present, and (b) an examination of how archaeological narratives relating to Palestine have been impacted by state nationalism, colonialism and conflicting local, regional and global religious interests from the "Classical World" to the 21st century.

• Department: Anthropology
• W 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Brian Boyd
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 4 points

Vegetalities

This seminar examines the "vegetal turn" in the humanities through the lens of Black studies, Indigenous studies, and  feminist/queer studies approaches to science and technology. Beginning with Suzanne Césaire's 1942 definition of Caribbean being as fundamentally vegetal, the course reads across plant science, multispecies ethnography, critical race theory, queer ecologies, and plantation studies to ask what plants know, who knows them, and what vegetality offers as an analytic for thinking about racialized and gendered life in the Anthropocene. Students produce an annotated bibliography, a vegetal fieldwork exercise, and a seminar paper suitable for development toward publication. They also maintain a living plant throughout the semester.

• Department: Anthropology
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Vanessa L Agard-Jones
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 4 points

Ready 4 MCY

• Department: Medicine
• 0 points

THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS

A seminar required of all incoming graduate students, designed to instill effective teaching techniques.

• Department: Mathematics
• W 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: George Dragomir
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 0 points

Leadership in Action

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management I Core. 
Leadership in Action
integrates strategic leadership frameworks, real-world case studies, and an immersive multi-week simulation to build students’ capacity to lead in complex, high-stakes environments. Through a sequence of applied exercises, ranging from team formation and innovation design to crisis response, students will develop critical skills in decision-making, influence, and organizational change. The course emphasizes adaptive leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and ethical judgment, equipping students to lead effectively under conditions of uncertainty and pressure.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Gary Bagley
  Info
• 1.5 points

Leadership in Action

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management I Core. 
Leadership in Action
integrates strategic leadership frameworks, real-world case studies, and an immersive multi-week simulation to build students’ capacity to lead in complex, high-stakes environments. Through a sequence of applied exercises, ranging from team formation and innovation design to crisis response, students will develop critical skills in decision-making, influence, and organizational change. The course emphasizes adaptive leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and ethical judgment, equipping students to lead effectively under conditions of uncertainty and pressure.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Gary Bagley
  Info
• Instructor: William B Eimicke
  Info
• 1.5 points

Leadership in Action

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management I Core. 
Leadership in Action
integrates strategic leadership frameworks, real-world case studies, and an immersive multi-week simulation to build students’ capacity to lead in complex, high-stakes environments. Through a sequence of applied exercises, ranging from team formation and innovation design to crisis response, students will develop critical skills in decision-making, influence, and organizational change. The course emphasizes adaptive leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and ethical judgment, equipping students to lead effectively under conditions of uncertainty and pressure.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: William B Eimicke
  Info
• Instructor: Teemu Alexander Puutio
  Info
• 1.5 points

Leadership in Action

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management I Core. 
Leadership in Action
integrates strategic leadership frameworks, real-world case studies, and an immersive multi-week simulation to build students’ capacity to lead in complex, high-stakes environments. Through a sequence of applied exercises, ranging from team formation and innovation design to crisis response, students will develop critical skills in decision-making, influence, and organizational change. The course emphasizes adaptive leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and ethical judgment, equipping students to lead effectively under conditions of uncertainty and pressure.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Teemu Alexander Puutio
  Info
• Instructor: Kirsti Samuels
  Info
• 1.5 points

THEORETICAL PARADIGMS

ABC:AN/ARCH Bodies Cities

Theoretical Paradigms in Feminist Scholarship:
 
Course focuses on the current theoretical debates of a particular topic or issue in feminist, queer, and/or WGSS scholarship. Open to graduate students, with preference given to students completing the ISSG graduate certificate. Topics differ by semester offered, and are reflected in the course subtitle. For a description of the current offering, please visit the link in the Class Notes.

• Department: Women's and Gender Studies
• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Jack Halberstam
  Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

People Management and Building Organizat

People Management & Org C

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. 
This course explores key themes in people management and organizational culture, equipping students with skills to lead diverse teams and build resilient, high-performing workplaces. Through case studies, simulations, and applied exercises, students will examine talent strategy, performance management, inclusive leadership, and organizational design. The course emphasizes practical tools for navigating complex challenges such as incentive structures, conflict resolution, and talent retention in dynamic global environments.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Teemu Alexander Puutio
  Info
• 1.5 points

Effective Management in the Public Servi

Management in Public Serv

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. 
This course introduces students to the field of public management, focusing on the tools and strategies managers use to influence organizational behavior and deliver public services. Through lectures, case studies, discussions, and group projects, students will explore management practices in government and in nonprofit and private organizations that partner with the public sector. The course draws on examples from New York City and U.S. agencies, as well as comparative cases from Asia, Latin America, and Europe. A lab section deepens engagement with course materials and features guest speakers from across sectors.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: William B Eimicke
  Info
• 1.5 points

Crisis Leadership and Adaptive Managemen

Crisis Leadership & Mgmt

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. 
This course equips students with the skills, strategies, and resilience necessary to lead effectively during extreme events and complex crises. Drawing on case studies, personal narratives, and interactive exercises, the course examines how crises —ranging from natural disasters and terrorist attacks to cyber incidents and pandemics —require adaptive management and decisive leadership under intense pressure. Students will examine the multiple forces that shape crisis response, including social, cognitive, operational, and political dynamics. The course provides a framework for assessing risk, coordinating cross-sector efforts, developing crisis communication strategies, and fostering innovation in fast-evolving situations.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• 1.5 points

Persuasion and Applied Negotiation Skill

Persuasion & Negotiation

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. 
This course is an interactive, practice-focused experience designed to equip students with skills and confidence in negotiation and persuasion across public and private sector contexts. Drawing on negotiation psychology, best practices, and evidence-based approaches, the course will develop students’ ability to navigate complex interpersonal and multilateral dynamics.

Through simulations, roleplays, and real-world case studies, students will learn to apply integrative and distributive negotiation methods, build strong positions and alternatives, and manage collective bargaining, mediation, arbitration, and asymmetric power dynamics.

Course topics include negotiation theory, stakeholder analysis, multilateral and cross-cultural negotiation, and solution-driven communication. Students will develop the ability to assess power dynamics, leverage personal strengths, and contribute effectively in multi-stakeholder settings.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Teemu Alexander Puutio
  Info
• 1.5 points

Managing Communications

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. 
This course trains students to become effective spokespersons and communications directors in any sector—government, nonprofit, or private enterprise. The class focuses on developing practical skills and insight into the extensive role of communications in achieving organizational goals.

Students will assume the role of a communications executive for a real organization of their choice for the duration of the course. Assignments will be framed from this perspective, including developing a public relations strategy, drafting executive communications, preparing weekly media reports, and planning crisis responses.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Hagar Hajjar Chemali
  Wikipedia Info
• 1.5 points

Strategic Management of Nonprofit Organi

Strategic Mgmt-Nonprofit

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. 
This course explores how core functional areas, such as governance, finance, talent strategy, communications, and accountability, interconnect to support a nonprofit organization’s mission and strategic goals. Students will examine key management practices in nonprofit settings, emphasizing mission alignment, ethical fundraising, board effectiveness, and impact measurement. Through applied learning, the course equips students with the skills to assess organizational performance, design inclusive cultures, and develop strategic approaches to growth and sustainability.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Gary Bagley
  Info
• 1.5 points

Decisions and Behavior

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. 
This course introduces students to the field of behavioral economics and the study of individual decision-making. Students will examine how behavior often departs from standard rational models and consider the implications for public policy and management. The course begins with the economic concept of rationality, then proceeds to evidence on systematic deviations, including impatience, framing, reference dependence, and social preferences. Class meetings will incorporate in-class experiments, discussions, and analyses of empirical research. The course concludes with applications to policy design and organizational practices. Students will prepare presentations, participate in recitations, and either develop a policy proposal or complete a final exam to demonstrate their understanding of behavioral approaches to decision-making.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Michael Ting
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 1.5 points

Sustainability Management

MIA & MPA Leadership and Management II Core. 
Sustainability management matters because we only have one planet, and we must learn how to manage our organizations in a way that ensures that our planet is maintained. The course is designed to introduce you to the field of sustainability management. This is not an academic course that reviews the literature of the field and discusses how scholars think about the management of organizations that are environmentally sound. It is a practical, professional course organized around the core concepts of management and the core concepts of sustainability. The course will have a specific emphasis on urban sustainability as the planet’s urban population continues to expand.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Steven Cohen
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 21 Info
• 1.5 points

EUROPEAN STUDIES COLL II

• Department: Modern European Studies
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Tsveta A Petrova
  Info
• 4 points

Global Leadership Seminar II

Global Leadership Sem II

The Global Leadership Seminar II is one of the core classes of the MPA in Global Leadership. It provides students with concrete lessons on the practice of leadership, enables students the opportunity to interface with established leaders across the spheres of government and civil society. The course culminates with each student submitting and presenting a plan to address a global policy challenge.

• Department: MPA in Global Leadership
• 3 points

Contending Theories of International Rel

Theories of Int'l Relatio

MIA Politics I Core. 
This course introduces MIA students to foundational theories and analytical frameworks used to understand international affairs and the global political economy. Drawing on literature from international relations, comparative politics, political sociology, and economics, the course examines the evolution of international relations scholarship and key debates shaping the field. Through weekly discussions, case-based readings, and structured debates, students will critically engage with competing perspectives on power, institutions, regimes, markets, and global order. Special attention is given to American scholarly traditions and real-world applications, including contemporary issues such as war, climate change, and global inequality.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Hisham Aidi
  Wikipedia Info
• 1.5 points

Contending Theories of International Rel

Theories of Int'l Relatio

MIA Politics I Core. 
This course introduces MIA students to foundational theories and analytical frameworks used to understand international affairs and the global political economy. Drawing on literature from international relations, comparative politics, political sociology, and economics, the course examines the evolution of international relations scholarship and key debates shaping the field. Through weekly discussions, case-based readings, and structured debates, students will critically engage with competing perspectives on power, institutions, regimes, markets, and global order. Special attention is given to American scholarly traditions and real-world applications, including contemporary issues such as war, climate change, and global inequality.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Hisham Aidi
  Wikipedia Info
• 1.5 points

Theory and Practice of American Politics

MPA Politics I Core. 
This course provides an introduction to American political institutions and their role in shaping public policy. Students will examine how policy decisions, and inaction, affect critical aspects of daily life, including health care, education, public safety, and environmental protection. The course explores the structure and function of U.S. political institutions such as Congress, the presidency, courts, and federalism, and how these compare to other democracies. It also analyzes the influence of actors including interest groups, social movements, the media, and bureaucrats. Through case studies, group work, and applied analysis, students will gain a foundational understanding of the policymaking process, key trends in American politics, and the skills needed to engage with public policy in practice.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Lincoln A Mitchell
  Info
• 1.5 points

Theory and Practice of American Politics

MPA Politics I Core. 
This course provides an introduction to American political institutions and their role in shaping public policy. Students will examine how policy decisions, and inaction, affect critical aspects of daily life, including health care, education, public safety, and environmental protection. The course explores the structure and function of U.S. political institutions such as Congress, the presidency, courts, and federalism, and how these compare to other democracies. It also analyzes the influence of actors including interest groups, social movements, the media, and bureaucrats. Through case studies, group work, and applied analysis, students will gain a foundational understanding of the policymaking process, key trends in American politics, and the skills needed to engage with public policy in practice.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Lincoln A Mitchell
  Info
• 1.5 points

Energy, Corporate Responsibility, and Hu

Energy, Corp Resp, & Righ

This interdisciplinary seminar examines the role of multinational energy companies in the context of international human rights, corporate responsibility, and global governance. Drawing on case studies and legal frameworks, the course explores how extractive industries intersect with political, environmental, and social systems, particularly in transitional and emerging economies.

Key themes include the development of international human rights law, the evolving definition of corporate responsibility, environmental and minority rights, corruption and transparency, and the geopolitics of natural resource extraction. Students will investigate how transnational corporations operate in weak governance zones, how investment treaties shape state-corporate relations, and how disputes over pipelines and land use affect communities and nations alike.

The course emphasizes real-world case analysis, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Canadian mining projects in Latin America, and recent developments in sovereign debt, investor-state arbitration, and standards for corporate conduct. Students will also evaluate the effectiveness of voluntary standards, multilateral codes, and legal instruments in shaping corporate behavior.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Jenik Radon
  Info
• 3 points

Debates in World Politics

MIA and MPA Politics II Core.  
This seven-week course introduces students to some of the central concepts, theories, and analytical tools used in contemporary social science to understand and explain world politics. The theoretical literature is drawn from different fields in the social sciences, including comparative politics, international relations, political sociology and economics. The course introduces students to debates around race and international relations, state-making and state-failing, authoritarianism and democratization, inequality and models of globalization, America primacy and the “rise of the Asia.”

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Hisham Aidi
  Wikipedia Info
• 1.5 points

Debates in World Politics

MIA and MPA Politics II Core.  
This seven-week course introduces students to some of the central concepts, theories, and analytical tools used in contemporary social science to understand and explain world politics. The theoretical literature is drawn from different fields in the social sciences, including comparative politics, international relations, political sociology and economics. The course introduces students to debates around race and international relations, state-making and state-failing, authoritarianism and democratization, inequality and models of globalization, America primacy and the “rise of the Asia.”

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Hisham Aidi
  Wikipedia Info
• 1.5 points

ANALYSIS II

Continuation of MATH GR6151x (see Fall listing).

• Department: Mathematics
• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Ovidiu Savin
  CULPA: 22 Wikipedia Info
• 4.5 points

PROBABILITY II

Prerequisites: MATH GR6151 MATH G4151 Analysis & Probability I. Continuation of MATH GR6152x (see fall listing).

• Department: Mathematics
• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Ioannis Karatzas
  CULPA: 7 h-index: 58 Info
• 4.5 points

Global Politics and International Organi

Global Politics & Int'l O

MIA and MPA Politics II Core. 
Global Politics & International Organizations
introduces the actors, coalitions, institutions, and processes of global politics. It creates the conceptual foundations for understanding the role of international organizations in today’s multipolar and complex (or, ‘multiplex’) world. It sheds light on how states, non-state actors, and international bureaucracies act within international organizations and how they negotiate international agreements. The discussions will focus on formal and informal decision-making processes, working methods, and power in international relations. It will highlight processes within Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the IMF), as well as at the United Nations, including bargaining processes at the UN Security Council. As a spillover from global politics, the course will also explore the role of international organizations in domestic policymaking processes. 

In addition to critical scholarship on international organizations and global governance, the course relies on students’ analysis of relevant proceedings and debates at the UN, original policy documents, as well as expert testimony from a range of guest speakers, who share their extensive first-hand observations as actors of global governance processes. By these means,
Global Politics & International Organizations
offers insights into the processes, challenges, and impacts of activities by international organizations to make global governance regimes stronger, more effective, and hold actors more accountable.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• 1.5 points

American Foreign Policy in Global Perspe

American Foreign Policy-G

MIA and MPA Politics II Core. 
This course examines the evolution of American foreign policy within the context of U.S. political institutions, domestic dynamics, and historical experiences. It emphasizes the interplay between foreign and domestic policy, considering how American identity, political culture, and internal debates have shaped international engagement. While grounded in key moments in U.S. history, the course also addresses recent shifts in America's global role and examines the strategic, ideological, and institutional forces that continue to influence foreign policy decisions.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Lincoln A Mitchell
  Info
• 1.5 points

Political Parties and Elections in the U

Political Parties & Elect

MIA and MPA Politics II Core. 
This course examines the development and dynamics of political parties in the United States, with a focus on the evolution of the two-party system and its influence on American politics and policymaking. Students will explore the historical foundations of party formation, ideological shifts over time, and the distinct roles parties play at national and subnational levels. The course also analyzes the structure and impact of party primaries, as well as recent technological and communication changes that have transformed modern electoral strategy and campaign practices.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Lincoln A Mitchell
  Info
• 1.5 points

Public Policy in the Age of Uncertainty

Public Policy in Uncertai

MIA and MPA Politics Core II. Instructor: Peter Jaffe. 
This course explores how sudden disruptions—such as elections, economic shocks, natural disasters, and conflict—can challenge or derail long-term policy efforts. Using analytical tools from game theory, economics, management, and law, students will assess how policy responses are developed under pressure and how to design adaptive programs capable of withstanding unexpected change. The course combines discussion, interactive exercises, and real-world case studies to build the strategic, ethical, and communication skills needed to lead through uncertainty. Guest speakers with firsthand experience in policymaking during crises will offer practical insights into decision-making when the stakes are high. Students will learn to anticipate and manage change, balance competing demands, and identify opportunities to advance policy goals even amid disruption.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Peter Jaffe
  Info
• 1.5 points

Contemporary Archaeological Theory

CONTEMP ARCH THEORY

Archaeology is a sprawling, messy discipline and the role that theory does, should, and might play in the process of archaeological data collection, analysis, and interpretation has been highly contested. Archaeologists argue over whether there is such a thing as a stand-alone ‘archaeological theory’ and what kinds of theory from other disciplines should (or should not!) be imported. This course explores a range of recent theoretical conversations, orientations, and interventions within archaeology, with an eye to understanding what is currently at stake – and what is contested – in how archaeologists think about making archaeological knowledge in the contemporary moment. In doing so, this course encourages students to think about theory in archaeology as an important form of “practical knowledge” or “know how” for archaeologists (cf. Lucas 2018).

• Department: Anthropology
• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Hannah Chazin
  Info
• 3 points

COMPLEX ANALYSIS/RIEMANN SURF

Continuation of MATH GR6175x (see Fall listing).

• Department: Mathematics
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Duong H Phong
  Wikipedia Info
• 4.5 points

International Human Rights Law

HRGE Concentration Registration Priority.
This course introduces the legal frameworks, institutions, and advocacy strategies that underpin the international human rights system. With a practitioner’s lens, students will explore civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights through treaties, customary law, and jurisprudence. Emphasis is placed on understanding where and how the law offers avenues for redress, and the evolving role of human rights advocacy in confronting modern challenges, including corporate accountability, gender discrimination, and climate justice.

Students will examine the structure and operation of key international and regional human rights mechanisms, the limits and opportunities of legal enforcement, and the relationship between international human rights law and international humanitarian law. The course integrates doctrinal learning with applied analysis through case studies, reflections, and simulations. 
Attendance in the first class session is mandatory.

• Department: Human Rights, Gender, and Equity
• Instructor: Betsy Apple
  Info
• 3 points

Financial Accounting & Analysis

MPA Financial Management Core I and II. 
This course introduces the principles and practices of financial reporting, with the goal of enabling students to become informed users of financial information in both public and private sector contexts. Emphasis is placed on understanding the three primary financial statements: the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows; and the accounting concepts and rules that shape them. Students will examine how financial information is prepared, disclosed, and interpreted, and will develop analytical tools to assess an organization’s financial health and operational effectiveness. Real-world financial statements will be used throughout the course to build fluency in the language and application of accounting.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: Norman Bartczak
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

Politics & Policy of Urban Sustainabilit

Politics & Policy-Urban S

• Department: MPA-ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE POL
• Instructor: Rohit T Aggarwala
  Wikipedia h-index: 5 Info
• 3 points

Foundations of Budgeting

MPA Financial Management I Core. 
This course provides a practical introduction to budgeting as a critical tool for planning, decision-making, and leadership across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Students will develop hands-on skills in budget creation, financial analysis, and cash flow management while exploring how budgets shape organizational strategy and operations.

• Department: International and Public Affairs
• Instructor: John Liu
  Info
• Instructor: Mimi Corcoran
  Info
• 1.5 points