All graduate students in international affairs must declare a concentration (a specialization in the field) after completion of 18 credits by filing the Declaration of Concentration form with the student's advisor during the next registration period. To fulfill a concentration, a student takes the designated "Foundation" course and at least three electives approved for the chosen concentration. An updated list of concentrations and approved courses is updated prior to every semester from the GPIA office.
Concentrations are offered in:
Cities and Social Justice (CSJ)
The Cities and Social Justice concentration is a unique interdisciplinary curriculum that provides students with the necessary analytic and practical skills to understand and productively engage with urban processes in a globalizing world. The coursework and practical training enables students to focus on a diversity of topics and issues affecting urban centers, including urban development and infrastructure, urban governance, citizenship and human rights, media and culture, environment, and sustainability.
Conflict and Security (CS)
This concentration is designed for students who wish to develop a professional or academic interest in the areas of conflict, conflict prevention, and security. The course offerings, the selection of speakers, the research of associated faculty, and the practical work by students reflect a number of core beliefs. We share a sense that the fields of conflict and security are changing quickly; that it is crucial to explore the relationship of conflict and security to other areas such as socioeconomic development, social welfare, and humanitarianism; and that emerging professionals in this area must combine both conceptual understanding and practical tools.
Development (DEV)
This concentration is designed for students who wish to develop a professional or academic interest in the global challenges of development, inequality, and poverty. The concentration focuses on concepts, measurement tools, and policy alternatives. The course offerings, the research of associated faculty, and the work of students reflect a number of core motivations. We share a commitment to development as a process that is fundamentally about improving human well-being and securing greater social justice. We believe that the challenges of economic growth, social development, political freedoms, cultural diversity, and security are interrelated and that the analysis of development requires an interdisciplinary approach. Courses address issues such as economic globalization, human rights and development ethics, gender, sustainability, human security, and social policy.
Governance and Rights (GR)
Government and Rights focuses on the relation between order, freedom, and responsibility in the global political and legal context. Governance is the ensemble of practices and institutions concerned with the formal ordering of society. This includes local and national government, international organizations, and civil society. Rights refers to claims by individuals and groups for specific entitlements that invoke obligations. The concentration explores how governance structures secure, maintain, or constrain rights, and how rights claims serve to construct, create, and challenge practices of government. Within the concentration there is currently special emphasis on human rights, international law and refugee issues, and migration.
Media and Culture (MC)
The GPIA Media and Culture (MC) concentration explores theory and practice in the intersection of politics, economics, press and entertainment, public and state policy, and international and domestic cultural conditions. In particular, MC focuses on the fascinating and complex relationship between media and democracy around the world. MC gives equal consideration to the roles of state and private institutions, with attention to their positive and negative influences on the media in both democratic and non-democratic societies.
