• Information for:
• Accepted Students
• Prospective Students
• Current Students
• Faculty & Staff
• Alumni & Friends

Our innovative curriculum is the heart of our program. We maintain a critical focus on the processes and practices of international affairs.

Degrees Options: MA or MS

The program offers a 42-credit Master of Arts and a 30-credit Master of Science degree. Candidates for the MS degree must have at least 5 years of relevant experience in the international affairs field as determined by the admission committee.

Master of Arts: The 42-credit MA curriculum includes from 4 to 6 required courses, depending on a student's prior academic experience. Including the concentration courses, MA students can take up to 10 elective courses.

Master of Science: The 30-credit MS curriculum includes at least 2 required courses (6 credits) and a maximum of 4 courses (12 credits) if economics is needed. Including the concentration courses, MS students can take up to 6 elective courses (18 credits).

Core Courses

There are two core courses that all students must complete: Global Flows and the International Community and Comparative Development Experience. Global Flows is a critical introduction to globalization, tracing the emergence of logics of encounter and international interaction from the colonial era through the present. Comparative Development examines the core concepts of development and introduces students to the comparative framework of analysis. Students who enter the program without a prior background in economics are required to take Economics in International Affairs before they take Comparative Development Experience.

Methods Courses

All students are required to complete a minimum of one course in research methods. We offer a basic engagement with quantitative and qualitative social science methodology in our Research Methods class, or students can fulfill the requirement by taking an approved statistics or qualitative methods courses offered by another New School department.

Concentration

All students choose a concentration in one of five approved areas: Development, Governance and Rights, Conflict and Security, Cities and Urbanization, or Media and Culture. Students usually declare a concentration at the end of their second semester. To complete a concentration students must take the designated "foundation course" followed by three electives within the concentration. The foundation courses are:

The concentrations are much more than a collection of courses; they are the heart of intellectual engagement and innovation within the program. Each concentration has a committee chaired by a faculty member and consisting of interested faculty and students. The concentrations sponsor invited guest lectures, organize workshops and events, create working groups, and serve as the key locus for curricular planning at the concentration level.

Read more about the concentrations.

Electives

Electives are courses offered by the GPIA or other New School graduate programs taken to fulfill a concentration requirement, a specific skill need, or intellectual curiosity. The exact number of electives any student takes depends on the student's program of study and prior education. GPIA offers a variable selection of elective courses, which range from surveys to advanced research seminars.

In addition to classroom-based instruction, internships and independent study can be used to meet elective requirements. We strongly encourage all International Affairs students to complete an internship in New York City or elsewhere and, if at all possible, to work abroad. Students earn 3 credits for the completion of an approved internship and 6 credits for completing a summer International Field Program.The summer programs provide hands-on field experience working with a local or international organization in another country, in an academic context and with academic supervision. This is one of the unique aspects of our program. GPIA has sent students to field programs in India, Kosovo, China, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Argentina, Hong Kong, Columbia, Senegal, Brazil, and Nepal, with other programs in other countries in development.

Final Project

Masters of Arts students must also complete a final project consisting of either an independent research project (thesis option) or a team-based project (practicum option). Students choose their option in consultation with their advisor after completing 18 credits.

Thesis Option

The thesis is a documented independent project based on field work, institutional research, and/or theoretical research involving primary and secondary sources. Media-based theses are possible, as are custom-designed projects approved by GPIA. All theses must conform to the highest academic standards. In the semester before writing or producing the thesis, a student registers for Thesis Workshop, which consists of designing a research project and writing a proposal. Concomitant with the Thesis Workshop, the student puts together a thesis committee consisting of a primary and secondary reader, and completes the Thesis Registration Form. The registration form must be returned to the GPIA secretary by December First if the student plans to complete the thesis in the following spring semester, or by May First for the following fall semester. The primary reader is known as the thesis supervisor and must be a member of the GPIA core faculty (but not necessarily the student's academic advisor). The secondary reader can be an academic, researcher or professional in a field related to the student's work and may be external to GPIA or even to The New School. (External readers however must be approved by the thesis supervisor.)

In the semester following the Thesis Workshop, a student registers for Thesis Supervision under the name of the thesis supervisor. Thesis Supervision counts as a course and carries three credits. By the beginning of the supervision semester, the student has submitted a finished proposal to the thesis committee. The student then proceeds to conduct the agreed-upon independent research and write or produce the thesis with the regular advice and guidance of the thesis supervisor.

Upon completion of the manuscript (or other media), the student provides copies of the completed draft of the thesis to the supervisor and the second reader. Readers have at least two weeks to consider the work-in-progress. Either reader may ask the student to revise and resubmit part or all of the thesis. In order to graduate, a clean copy of the final, approved thesis bearing the signatures of the committee members on the cover page must be deposited with the GPIA assistant director, and the thesis supervisor must assign a passing grade (P) for Thesis Supervision. Theses do not receive a letter grade. Finished, signed, and approved thesis manuscripts on acid-free paper, conforming to all of the usual expectations of library-deposited thesis documents, are due in the assistant director's office by December 15th for January degree conferral and May 7th for May degree conferral (or the Monday following these dates when they fall on a weekend). A student producing a media-based thesis must arrange with the thesis supervisor by the beginning of the supervision semester the materials to be deposited with the assistant director. Depositing the thesis after the deadline will delay graduation by one semester.

Practicum Option

The Practicum in International Affairs (PIA) is a faculty-supervised, client-driven capstone course that provides students the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the course of their studies to specific consulting assignments with a wide range of client organizations. Organized into teams of four to six, students work on discrete assignments of at least one semester  for client organizations from the not-for-profit, public and private sectors, and multilateral agencies such as the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and the International Rescue Committee. PIA seeks to simulate the professional context, including its emphasis on deadlines and professional standards for work products, as well as the imperative to make decisions and recommendations based on imperfect information. It emphasizes working closely with teammates and being responsive to clients in achieving the desired objectives of their assignments. The course Program Development and Project Management (PDPM) is a prerequisite for the Practicum.