Archive for May 2013

Kick start the summer with a virtual session

Happy Friday!

If you are thinking about going back to school for your Master’s, specifically in international affairs or public policy/ public administration but can’t get to the Columbia campus.  Join us for a one-hour online information session about the SIPA MIA & MPA programs on Wednesday, June 5th at 10:00 am EDT (New York).

To register, click here.  You may also find out about future information sessions (both on campus and off campus) on our website under VISIT SIPA.

 

 

MIA & MPA Curriculum

A popular question we hear is about core courses and whether or not someone can take core courses for their concentration (not just core courses for the degree curriculum)  in the first semester.

It is definitely possible. Most people take at least CF (Conceptual Foundation)/POP (Politics of Policymaking) and Econ their first semester (although there are a smattering of students who complete these their second year).  Most people tend to spread their core courses throughout the four semesters, concentrating more in the first year.

To give you an idea, this is what Nancy’s SIPA schedule looked like; the courses that count toward the core are (*),  in parenthesis  are courses that would count toward Nancy’s specialization, concentration and co-curricular requirements.   This is a somewhat typical (except maybe the semester where most of her classes were at other CU schools) schedule. Hope this helps!

 

Fall 1

  • Econ 4200*
  • Quant Analysis (Stats I)*
  • POP*
  • Elections and Political Development
  • Women and Power in the 21st Century (Half Semester, Management, Gender Policy)

Spring 1

  • Econ*
  • Budgeting for Non-Profits*
  • Campaign Management (USP and Management)
  • Statistical Races and Public Policy (USP)
  • Women and Global Leadership (Half Semester, Management, Gender Policy)

Fall 2

  • Effective Management in the Public Sector* (Management- although I don’t think this counts for you guys anymore)
  • Gender Mainstreaming (Gender Policy)
  • Elections (in the Poli Sci PhD Dept, USP)
  • Election Law (at CLS, USP)
  • Money in Politics (1/2 semester at the J-school, USP)

Spring 2

  • Capstone with UN Women
  • Work/Family Policy in Industrialized Countries (USP Core Course, Gender Policy, Management)
  • Writing for Policy
  • Women’s Human Rights (Gender)

 

For a sample of the MIA and MPA curriculum, you may visit our website at:  http://new.sipa.columbia.edu/academic-advising.

 

All good things must come to an end

Last week left a web of tangled, sweet and sour feelings in me. It was incredibly happy and emotional, but certainly sad, as we, class of 2013, leave behind our beloved International Affairs Building to conquer our dreams around the world. Loving family members flew from places as Japan, Chile, New Jersey and California to proudly see their sons and daughters, their sisters, nephews, brothers and spouses walk down the graduation aisle and shake Dean Robert Lieberman’s hand to receive a degree from one of the best educational institutions in the world. But much beyond that, they came to cheer for us, to share with their friends our great accomplishments, and to take a small peak of what SIPA and Columbia leave us with. Their satisfaction, I dare to say, was immense.

mcgrad13Seeing all those smiles around campus, all those proud faces, and even the picture-taking-mania made me realize once again how lucky I am.  I’ve had some of the best years of my life during my time at SIPA. I’ve build truly rewarding friendships; with people dear to my heart that I know will remain part of it in the years to come.  I have worked in Kenya, traveled for research to Peru, and discovered the endless, fascinating corners of New York. I’ve had innumerable amounts of beer, all shared with people I feel somehow I was destined to meet. I’ve learned countless new things from the most talented academics in their field. From how to implement a public health nutrition intervention to the impact of colonialism in African development, I have learned to better understand and address the complex development challenges of our world. And this might sound as the typical cheesy phrase us development nerds might be tempted to include on our LinkedIn profiles, but I truly mean it. Today, even those long nights in the library, reading and writing frenetically before a midnight deadline, have lost their sour taste.

mcgrad13cThey say our minds are wise enough to recolor our memories and keep more of the good ones on the surface. Maybe I am under this colorblind effect right now, but I just feel immensely happy and grateful to this school, this university, and above all, to those that so proudly cheered for us last Thursday. Today, sitting among boxes while I pack up my university-housing apartment, the only thing I can say is thank you SIPA, you will be deeply missed. And for those of you getting ready to start this new adventure soon, (with a little bit of envy), rest, take care of your liver and your brains, and prepare to truly enjoy the years to come.

Mariana Costa Checa

mcgrad13b

Columbia University Interschool fellowships available

Applications for 2013-14 Interschool Fellowships are now available.  To see if you may meet the eligibility criteria required to apply, please review:  http://sfs.columbia.edu/grad-institutional-aid.  To apply please click here.  The deadline to submit your application to the SIPA Financial Aid Office is Monday, June 10th.  Please contact SIPA Financial Aid at [email protected] or 212-854-6216 with questions.

 

Summer Reading

You will find many distinguished authors among the SIPA faculty.  Here are just a few books written by SIPA professors.  Many of these Professors have written several books, but I just wanted to give you a taste of the breadth of scholarship here at the SIP.  (All book descriptions are abridged from Amazon.com)

Richard K. Betts is the Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies in the political science department, Director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and Director of the International Security Policy program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He was Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations for four years and is now an adjunct Senior Fellow there.

Book Description: Combining academic research with personal experience, Betts outlines strategies for better intelligence gathering and assessment. He describes how fixing one malfunction can create another; in what ways expertise can be both a vital tool and a source of error and misjudgment; the pitfalls of always striving for accuracy in intelligence, which in some cases can render it worthless; the danger, though unavoidable, of “politicizing” intelligence; and the issue of secrecy—when it is excessive, when it is insufficient, and how limiting privacy can in fact protect civil liberties.

 

Kenneth Prewitt is the Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs and the Vice-President for Global Centers. He taught Political Science at the University of Chicago from 1965-1982, and for shorter stints was on the faculty of Stanford University, Washington University, the University of Nairobi, Makerere University and the Graduate Faculty at the New School University (where he was also Dean). Prewitt’s professional career also includes, Director of the United States Census Bureau.

He is currently completing Counting the Races of America: Do We Still Need To? Do We Still Want To?  (Nancy’s note: He has not published this one yet. I included this because I contributed some research for it.  We’ll see if it actually makes it in! If you have the chance, definitely take a class with Prof. Prewitt.)

Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia and Co-Chair of the University’s Committee on Global Thought. He is also the co-founder and co-president of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia.In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information, and he was a lead author of the 1995 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2011, Time named Stiglitz one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Book Description: America currently has the most inequality, and the least equality of opportunity, among the advanced countries. While market forces play a role in this stark picture, politics has shaped those market forces. In this best-selling book, Stiglitz exposes the efforts of well-heeled interests to compound their wealth in ways that have stifled true, dynamic capitalism. Along the way he examines the effect of inequality on our economy, our democracy, and our system of justice. Stiglitz explains how inequality affects and is affected by every aspect of national policy, and with characteristic insight he offers a vision for a more just and prosperous future, supported by a concrete program to achieve that vision.

Merit E. Janow Merit E. Janow is an internationally recognized expert in international trade and investment, with extensive experience in academia, government, international organizations and business and incoming SIPA Dean.  For the past 18 years, Merit E. Janow has been a Professor of Practice at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and affiliated faculty at Columbia Law School. Currently she is Director of the International Finance and Economic Policy concentration at SIPA, Co-Director of the APEC Study Center, and Chair of the Faculty Oversight Committee of Columbia’s Global Center East Asia. Previously, she was Director of the Masters Program in International Affairs and Chair of Columbia University’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing. While at Columbia University, Professor Janow was elected in December 2003 for a four year term as one of the seven Members of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Appellate Body, which is the court of final appeal for adjudicating trade disputes between the 153 member nations of the WTO.

From 1997 to 2000, Professor Janow served as the Executive Director of the first international antitrust advisory committee of the U.S. Department of Justice that reported to the Attorney General and the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust.

Book Description: This volume brings together essays by world-renown leaders in the field of international trade examining the operation of the WTO and its dispute settlement system. The experts who have contributed to this book include policy makers, scholars, lawyers and diplomats. Two major areas of inquiry are undertaken. The first half of this volume examines the governance and operation of the WTO and the international trading system. It pays particular attention to issues that affect developing country Members of the WTO. The second half of this volume contains a detailed examination of the performance, operation, and challenges of the WTO’s dispute settlement system.

Dipali Mukhopadhyay joined the SIPA faculty as an assistant professor in July 2012.  She studies modern state formation in conflict and post-conflict settings.  Her research interests lie, in particular, with the challenges weak political centers face as they attempt to grow their authority in the midst of formidable competitors. She is currently finishing a forthcoming book manuscript with Cambridge University Press entitled Warlords, Strongman Governors and State Building in Afghanistan.  She has been conducting research in eastern and northern Afghanistan, as well as Kabul, since 2007 and made her first trip to the country  for a project with the Aga Khan Development Network in 2004. Her book, Warlords As Bureaucrats, is forthcoming

 

Book Description: Afghanistan’s weak central government and limited resources make the informal networks employed by local warlords a viable option for governance. The country’s former warlords, made powerful governors by President Hamid Karzai, use both formal and informal powers to achieve security objectives and deliver development in their provinces. Based on substantial in-country research and interviews, Dipali Mukhopadhyay examines the performance of two such governors, Atta Mohammed Noor and Gul Agha Sherzai, who govern the northern province of Balkh, and the eastern province of Nangarhar, respectively.

Ester R. Fuchs is Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science and Director of the Urban and Social Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.  She served as Special Advisor to the Mayor for Governance and Strategic Planning under New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from 2001 to 2005. Prof. Fuchs was chair of the Urban Studies Program at Barnard and Columbia Colleges and founding director of the Columbia University Center for Urban Research and Policy.  Prof. Fuchs recently received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Queens College; Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs Award for Outstanding Teaching; and NYC’s Excellence in Technology Award for Best IT Collaboration among Agencies for Access New York.

 

Book Description: Chicago and New York share similar backgrounds but have had strikingly different fates. Tracing their fortunes from the 1930s to the present day, Ester R. Fuchs examines key policy decisions which have influenced the political structures of these cities and guided them into, or clear of, periods of economic crisis.

Lincoln Mitchell is an Associate at the Harriman Institute and an Affiliate at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.  Prior to joining the Harriman Institute, Mitchell was Arnold A. Saltzman Assistant Professor in the Practice of International Politics at Columbia University.  In addition to serving as Chief of Party for the National Democratic Institute in Georgia from 2002-2004, he has worked on political development issues in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.  Mitchell also worked for years as a political consultant in New York City advising and managing domestic political campaigns.

 

Book Description: In November of 2003, a stolen election in the former Soviet republic of Georgia led to protests and the eventual resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze. Shevardnadze was replaced by a democratically elected government led by President Mikheil Saakashvili, who pledged to rebuild Georgia, orient it toward the West, and develop a European-style democracy. Known as the Rose Revolution, this early twenty-first-century democratic movement was only one of the so-called color revolutions (Orange in Ukraine, Tulip in Kyrgyzstan, and Cedar in Lebanon). What made democratic revolution in Georgia thrive when so many similar movements in the early part of the decade dissolved?

 

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals, having held the same position under former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and is director of the Millennium Villages Project. Sachs is also one of the Secretary-General’s MDG Advocates, and a Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development.

 Book Description: The last great campaign of John F. Kennedy’s life was not the battle for reelection he did not live to wage, but the struggle for a sustainable peace with the Soviet Union. To Move the World recalls the extraordinary days from October 1962 to September 1963, when JFK marshaled the power of oratory and his remarkable political skills to establish more peaceful relations with the Soviet Union and a dramatic slowdown in the proliferation of nuclear arms.Jeffrey D. Sachs shows how Kennedy emerged from the Missile crisis with the determination and prodigious skills to forge a new and less threatening direction for the world. Together, he and Khrushchev would pull the world away from the nuclear precipice, charting a path for future peacemakers to follow.

Liza Featherstone is the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart (Basic Books, 2004), which was praised by publications ranging from the New York Review of Books to Bitch magazine. Since that book’s publication, she has continued to write about Wal-Mart’s employment practices.  Featherstone is also a co-author of Students Against Sweatshops (Verso, 2002).She has been a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economic Journalism at Columbia University, as well as a Hoover Institution Media Fellow.Featherstone, has written for Slate, Salon, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, Babble, Newsday, The San Francisco Chronicle, The American Prospect, CNN.com, New Labor Forum and many other publications.  She is best known for her work in The Nation magazine, where she is a contributing writer.

 

Book Description: In 2000, Betty Dukes, a fifty-two-year-old black woman in Pittsburg, California, became the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, a class action, representing 1.6 million women. In her explosive investigation of this historic lawsuit, journalist Liza Featherstone reveals how Wal-Mart, a self-styled “family-oriented,” Christian company: Deprives women (but not men) of the training they need to advance. Relegates women to lower-paying jobs like selling baby clothes, reserving the more lucrative positions for men. Inflicts punitive demotions on employees who object to discrimination. Exploits Asian women in its sweatshops in Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth. Featherstone goes on to reveal the creative solutions that Wal-Mart workers around the country have found, like fighting for unions, living-wage ordinances, and childcare options.

Steven Cohen is the Executive Director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and a Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He is also Director of the Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science. Dr. Cohen served as a policy analyst in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1977 through 1978 and 1980-81, and as consultant to the agency from 1981 through 1991, from 1994 to 1996 and from 2005 to 2010. From 2001 to 2004, he served on the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology. He serves on the Board of Directors of Homes for the Homeless.

Book Description: Can we grow our world economy and create opportunities for the poor while keeping the planet intact? Can we maintain our vibrant, dynamic lifestyles while ensuring the Earth stays productive and viable? Aimed at managers, students, scholars, and policymakers, Sustainability Management answers these questions in the affirmative, arguing it is possible for environmentally sustainable business practices and policies to foster economic and long-term growth.

 

 

 

 

"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."

—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs

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