Courses
The course schedule provided below pertains to all courses that meet the requirements for the graduate certificate in African Studies. Courses are offered by many departments and schools across the University of Pittsburgh throughout the academic year as shown in the course descriptions provided herewith. To verify course information and when a course is being offered, please visit the Office of the Registrar’s website.
ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTH 1603: — Human Origins
ANTH 1611: — Evolutionary Theory
ANTH 2513: — Selected Archeological Problems: Old world Archeology
ANTH 2782: — Special Topics in Cultural Anthropology
EDUCATION
ADMPS 2359: — Gender, Education, and Third World Development
ADMPS 2398: — Economics of Education (cross listed with PIA 2587)
ADMPS 3117: — Administration and Finance of Education in Developing Countries
ADMPS 3136: — Comparative Higher Education
ADMPS 3141: — Policy Studies in Higher Education
ADMPS 3207: — Sector Analysis, Project Design, and Evolution
ADMPS 3208: — Case Studies in Educational Policy
ADMPS 3301: — Educational Change Theory
ADMPS 3302: — Education and Development Debates
ADMPS 3343: — Comparative Education
ADMPS 3347: — International Organizations in Development Education
ADMPS 3350: — Educational Issues in Africa and Arab States
ENGLISH LITERATURE
ENGLIT 2387: — Imperialism Modernity
ENGLIST 2390: — Readings in Contemporary Non-fiction
ENGLIT 2395: — Caribbean Literature
FRENCH
FR 2600: — 20th Century Topics: Francophone African Fiction
Public and International Affairs (GSPIA)
PIA 2008: — Economics for Public Affairs
PIA 2009: — Policy Analysis
PIA 2011: — Managing International Organizations
PIA 2096: — Financing NGOS for Development
PIA 2096: — Research Seminar in Legal, Ethical, and Governance issues in Non-Profit and NGOS (CAPSTONE)
PIA 2096: — Capstone: Freedom from fear: Direct threats to Civilian Populations
PIA 2096: — Capstone Seminar
PIA 2097: — U.S. Policy toward Africa
PIA 2013: — Managing People in the Public and Non-Profit Sector
PIA 2300: — Global Governance
PIA 2301: — Global Political Economy: Theories and Public Policy
PIA 2307: — Human Security
PIA 2312: — Globalization and Welfare in Developing Countries
PIA 2322: — World Economic Patterns
PIA 2324: — Peacemaking and Peacekeeping
PIA 2331: — Poverty and World Economy
PIA 2343: — Humanitarianism in World Politics
PIA 2355: — World War II: The Cold War & its Impact on Developing Nations
PIA 2366: — International Organizations
PIA 2382: — Theory and Concepts of Comparative Politics
PIA 2390: — Social Development in International Organization
PIA 2490: — Poverty and the World Economy (Research in International Development)
PIA 2490: — Policies and Practice: The Resettlement of African Refugees in the U.S.
PIA 2490: — People Centered Development (PCD)
PIA 2490: — Sustainable Development in Africa
PIA 2501: — Development Policy & Administration
PIA 2510: — Economics of Developments Policy
PIA 2515: — Planning & Policymaking for Development
PIA 2520: — Agriculture & Rural Development
PIA 2551: — Women in Development
PIA 2552: — Managing Organization in Development
PIA 2561: — A Grassroots approach to project Planning and Design
PIA 2589: — Political Economic Development
PIA 2591: — Critical Issues in Global Health
PIA 2734: — Skills in Development Management: Contracting out and Privatization
HISTORY
HIST 2721: — Atlantic History to 1800
HIST 2740: — Pre-Modern Slavery
HIST 2770 : — Comparative Slavery and Abolition
HA & A 2401: — History of Art and Architecture:
The Postcolonial Constellation: Contemporary Art and the Global Stage
LAW
5912 : — Crimes Against Humanity Seminar
5243: — Comparative Law: New Democracies in Transition
Comparative Commercial Law
Comparative Constitutional Law Seminar
LINGUISTICS
LING 2267: — Sociolinguistics
LING 2272: — Sociology of Language
MUSIC
MUSIC 1340: — Music in Africa
MUSIC 2340: -- Graduate Seminar in African Music
MUSIC 2450: — Seminar in Creative Musicology
PUBLIC HEALTH (GSPH)
PUBHLT 2009: — Critical Issues in Global Health
BCHS 2553: — Women International Development and Global Health
BCHS 2557: — International Health Practicum
ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTH 1603—HUMAN ORIGINS
The evolution of our own group and our closest relatives--fossil and living apes--is a fascinating as well as perplexing subject of study. In part, we can learn much about evolution by studying our own evolutionary group. But, because the subject is so close to us, various emotional components tend to be introduced into the supposed science of paleontology and evolutionary biology. To better understand our own evolutionary past, and to establish the necessary background for undertaking this task, the first weeks of the course will consist of: 1) an introduction to methods of reconstructing evolutionary relationships; 2) learning necessary anatomical and dental terminologies through study of casts of actual fossils; 3) understanding geological and ecological changes that occurred during the evolution of apes and humans (at least the past 35 million years); 4) and, in order to set the stage for later discussion, an overview of primate evolution. The bulk of the course will consist of a survey of the fossil evidence for the evolution of apes and of ourselves. Where were the fossils found? How much material is known? How these finds were interpreted in the past and how might we view matters today? What biases have and/or do influence these interpretations? How might we--as the ones who also devise evolutionary schemes--look at ourselves from an evolutionary perspective? Lectures will be supplemented with casts of fossils and skeletons and skulls of modern-day primates as well as slides of all specimens discussed in the course materials.
ANTH 1611—EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
This course is offered also as an undergraduate seminar for Anthropology majors. The course will deal in depth with the historical background to, as well as the current issues and debates surrounding, the study of evolution. The general topics that will be covered include the role of various disciplines in the development of evolutionary biology (comparative anatomy, embryology, paleontology, genetics), and the competing, alternative evolutionary models and methodologies available in the literature today. During the second half of the course students will give presentations on topics of current interest and controversy in the field of evolutionary theory.
ANTH 2513—SELECTED ARCHEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS: OLD WORLD ARCHEOLOGY (cross-listed with ANTH 1540)
This course provides a general overview of the main developments in Old World archaeology from the earliest emergence of humans to the rise of social hierarchy, important technological developments such as agriculture and metallurgy, and the emergence of chiefdoms and state level socio-political organizations. These developments will be investigated through a variety of archaeological case studies from Europe, the Near East, Egypt, China and South Asia.
ANTH 2782 - SPECIAL TOPICS IN CULTRAL ANTHROPOLOGY
EDUCATION
ADMPS 2359 - GENDER, EDUCATION, AND THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT
This is a graduate seminar course that examines and critiques the international division of labor, focusing particularly on the roles and status of women in so-called "third world" societies, and the intersection of gender, "development" and education. Education is discussed in its broadest sense-as socialization, the transmission of knowledge-as well as institutionalized training
ADMPS 2398 - ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION (cross listed with PIA 2587)
This course provides an introduction to the economic analysis of education, with particular emphasis given to the economics of education in developing countries. Among the topics to be covered are; human capital theory, educational production functions, rate of return analysis, various issues in educational policy, including educational finance. Course requirements include a short paper and a final exam.
ADMPS 3117 - ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
This course reviews current research in the fields of educational administration and educational finance as these relate to the special circumstances of developing countries. Topics receiving emphasis include educational planning, costing and cost analysis, and administrative decentralization, the role of foreign assistance, and educational policy making and reform. Course requirements: completion of assigned readings, class participation, an in-class examination, and a term paper of 15 to 20 pages.
ADMPS 3136 - COMPARATIVE HIGHER EDUCATION
This seminar courses focuses on contemporary problems in the planning and conduct of post-secondary education throughout the world. The seminar will begin with a brief historical introduction, followed by a review of case studies and other documents on higher education in the United States and other countries. Special attention will be given to an examination of comparative and contrasting polices and issues in higher education as they unfold in various developing regions and in the United States.
ADMPS 3141 - POLICY STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
After broad consideration of key policy issues in higher education, finance, quality, and access this course considers organization theories in relation to theories of governance, decision-making processes in various types of institutions of higher learning, and policy outcomes. While the course focuses on American higher education, international policy perspectives are included.
ADMPS 3207 - SECTOR ANALYSIS, PROJECT DESIGN, AND EVALUATION
A reading-discussion seminar that examines selected analytical and technical approaches used by multilateral and bilateral agencies in the design of appropriate policy interventions relating to education in countries around the world. A number of examples of sector studies, projects, and project evaluations, in many of which the instructors have been involved, will be examined and discussed. Visiting lectures will describe their international work that relates to the course topic.
ADMPS 3208 – CASE STUDIES IN EDUCATIONAL POLICY
Explains the implementation of policy in educational institutions at all levels. A seminar designed for maximum student participation.
ADMPS 3301 – EDUCATIONAL CHANGE THEORY
This Seminar course reviews and types theories/explanations of educational change and examines how they are grounded in the sociology of development and social change theory. To this end, the seminar will work with the process of theory building, with constructive typology methods, and with the empirical testing of educational change "theory" via case study analysis of national educational reform attempts in developed and developing countries. Six short reaction papers and a research paper are required.
ADMPS 3302 – EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT DEBATES
A graduate-level survey seminar designed to introduce the participants to the broad field of international and development education. It is required by all students newly enrolled in the IDEP specialization and is recommended for non-IDEP students considering further study of educational processes and institutions in the international context.
ADMPS 3343 – COMPARATIVE EDUCATION
This seminar is designed to introduce participants to the field of comparative education and the issues that currently are the focus of comparative research in education.
ADMPS 3347 - INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION
This course is a reading-discussion seminar designed to explore the nature of international organizations, how they work, what they do, and their strengths and weaknesses. Concentration will be on UNESCO as the major intergovernmental organization in the field of education, although the education work of the World Bank, UNDP, WHO, ILO, UNICEF, and a variety of non--governmental international organizations will also be discussed.
ADMPS 3350 - EDUCATIONAL ISSUES IN AFRICA AND ARAB STATES
The purpose of this course is to develop an understanding of the role of education in economic and social development and change in Africa and the Arab States, both historically and in terms of contemporary issues and problems. Education is interpreted as including various kinds of non-formal education activities as well as the formal education system.
ENGLISH LITERATURE
ENGLIT 2387 - IMPERIALISM AND MODERNITY
This seminar will investigate the various discourses
ENGLIT 2390 – READINGS IN CONTEMPORARY NON-FICTION
This course will explore long works of contemporary creative non-fiction from a writers’ perspective, examining content and writing techniques. The class will read and discuss travel narratives, with a particular focus on Black travel writing and theory. We will consider travel in its various manifestations as tourism, adventure, self-discovery, research/reportage, exploitation, escape, exile, and emigration. Classroom discussion, student presentations, and varied activities will address travel texts as forms of imperialist nostalgia, how identity problematizes the project of travel, issues of exotic production and the parallel internal/external journey. Students will have the opportunity to produce creative work in keeping with course themes. This is a Blackboard/Course web course.
ENGLIT 2395-- CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
This seminar studies Caribbean literature in relation to central debates about aesthetics and cultural resistance in post-colonial theory. It explores how the relationship of Caribbean (sub) cultures to imperial, ancestral, and national cultures was worked out in debates over the politics of form. Topics covered may include the relationship of Caribbean and European literary traditions; the hybrid poetics of creolization and mestizaje; and the shifting functions in post-nationalist, migrant, and feminist literature of current literary representations of popular culture.
FRENCH
FR 2600- 20TH CENTURY TOPICS: FRANCOPHONE AFRICAN FICTION
This course will offer a broad survey of francophone African fiction from the 1950's to 2000, examining the shifts from Negritude prose to anti-colonial nationalist realism to the linguistic and textual turn of post-independence narrative, concluding with a consideration of recent developments such as migrant writing and the testimonial novel. Topics we will address include the tension between the "national longing for form" and the complex intersection of linguistic, ethnic, and national borders in postcolonial Africa; discourses of orality and "authenticity" in relation to written African literatures; and the negotiation of an African subjectivity in confrontation with postmodern critiques of the subject. Course taught in French.
GSPIA
PIA 2008-ECONOMICS FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS
This course covers the principles necessary to understand economic changes and economic policy debates. In addition to the microeconomics theory of the firm and the consumer, students are presented with an analysis of a competitive, monopolistic of markets to explain how the pricing and output decisions of firms depend on market structure and the behavior of competitors. The course also covers how national income, employment levels, and prices are determined and how government policy can affect macroeconomics outcomes. Case studies and newspaper articles are used to relate the course to the real world.
PIA 2009-POLICY ANALYSIS
This course provides knowledge and skills to make judgments about public policies and their analysis. It offers a critical analysis of (1) those factors which impede and facilitate the design and implementation of public policies and programs; (2) assumptions and evidence concerning the appropriateness, effectiveness and ethical merits of analytic methods as instruments for improving policies; and (3) problem-solving methods used by governments to access and recommend alternative solutions for public problems.
PIA 2011 MANAGING INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
This course, designed for students in all GSPIA Masters programs, examines the challenges of management in an international context. It provides a broad overview to how international organizations (i.e., those with states as members) approach the basic management functions, including budgeting, managing people, organizational structure (including headquarters-field relations) and information management. The relation of management to governance and policy, problems of corruption, and the challenges of reform will also be explored. Students will select a specific international organization for in-depth analysis.
PIA 2096 FINANCING NGOS FOR DEVELOPMENT
This course examines the financing of NGOs from the complementary perspectives of fundraising and grantmaking. Its aims are to give you proficiency in the skills needed for the financing of NGOs, such as seeking funding opportunities, elaborating grant applications, negotiating funding agreements, and managing the fundraising process. We will look into the actual funding policies of development donors such as USAID and JICA in an effort to devise financing strategies. The assignments will provide you with practical experience of fundraising in a development context.
Increasingly, NGOs act as donors as well as fundraisers. NGOs are often the funders of other organizations so the course also seeks to develop grant-making skills, such as needs assessment, identifying potential partner organizations, appraising grant applications and managing the grantmaking process. By learning to think like both sides of financing - fundraising and grantmaking - you will have a very solid understanding of the process as well greater confidence and capacity in financing development projects.
The course is especially intended for people interested in working in NGOs, but its content is designed to be useful to a broader audience. Alongside NGO managers the course is designed for managers and leaders of foundations, community organizations, and international official donors, in sum, organizations that may be involved in financing activities or which regularly deal with NGOs. Evaluation is divided into 10% for class participation, 50% for 2 short papers, and 40% for a longer paper.
PIA 2096-RESEARCH SEMINAR IN LEGAL, ETHICAL & GOVERNANCE ISSUES IN NON-PROFIT AND NGOS (CAPSTONES)
Using a comparative perspective, this course introduces students to some essential concepts and literature regarding nonprofit organizations and NGO’s on such issues as the corporation as a legal person, tax treatment of nonprofits/NGO’s in various countries, ethical issues and challenges within a national and cultural context, nonprofit legal issues such as lobbying, separation of church and state, governance models in various countries, and current topical issues such as financial disclosure, regulatory and tax codes, and selected others. Further, the course seeks to provide some research skills for framing legal, ethical and governance problems, collecting and analyzing data, and preparing reports on the research findings.
PIA 2096 CAPSTONE: FREEDOM FROM FEAR: DIRECT THREATS TO CIVILIAN POPULATIONS
The growth in the number of failed and fragile states, marked by the failure of the rule of law, has been sustained over the course of the last decade. The product in many countries has been civil conflict, the deprivation of human rights and the displacement of large numbers of the population who are subject to violence in a variety of forms. From Latin America to Africa, internally displaced persons and refugees have sought sanctity. These efforts, however, have often proved unsuccessful, often resulting in high mortality rates. In this capstone we shall examine this problem. Utilizing and building upon data collected by the Ford Institute, we shall examine the issue of the protection of vulnerable populations in the context of civil conflict with a view to developing feasible and coherent policy proposals intended for an audience of policymakers.
PIA 2096 CAPSTONE SEMINAR
Students in this capstone seminar will prepare research materials and case studies on the relationship of human rights to development policy for the Annual General Meetings of Amnesty International-US. The world’s largest human rights advocacy network has committed itself to expanding its agenda from civil and political rights to include economic and social rights with an immediate impact on development policy.
Human rights organizations are taking an increasing interest in social and economic issues, developing conceptual and political strategies to advance internationally recognized economic and social rights such as the right to food, to health, and to education. At the same time, some development agencies, most notably UNDP and several NGOs, are developing? human rights-based? approaches to development programming and advocacy. Students will become familiar with the human rights agreements, strategies and institutions; major trends in human rights/development collaboration; and strategic and operational issues arising for NGOs and other organizations.
PIA 2097-U.S. POLICY TOWARD AFRICA
This eight-week course, taught by a former US Ambassador to the Congo, Somalia and the Central African Republic, will examine comparatively some major themes and dilemmas in US relations with sub-Saharan Africa. It will consider in turn the history and current problems of at least four contrasting African states - Nigeria; the Central African Republic; the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire); and Somalia - and will explore the goals and course of US relations with each state. The course will conclude with an assessment of these cases (and others studied by students) as a basis for an appropriate continent-wide US policy toward Africa.
Each student will be required to write a 15-20 page research paper on an African country other than those examined in class. The paper will consist of an analysis of the history, politics and economics of the country concerned and an evaluation of US relations with that country.
PIA 2013 MANAGING PEOPLE IN THE PUBLIC & NON-PROFIC SECTOR
This course, designed for students in all GSPIA Masters programs, provides a broad overview and hands-on practice in the skills needed for successful supervision and management of people in public and non-profit organizations. Skills covered include effective hiring, training, motivation, and direct supervision of staff; evaluation and reward systems; effective communication in a multicultural or international environment; labor management relations and participative approaches to management. It places the challenges of managing people within the broader context of political or board control, budgeting, planning, and information management.
PIA 2300-GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
This course examines contemporary structures of governance within international politics as they are found at national, regional and international level, and the challenges and stresses to which such structures are vulnerable. It also considers major traditions of theorizing about sources of conflict, order and integration in international politics and reviews current evaluations of major international organizations
PIA 2301- GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY: THEORIES & PUBLIC POLICY
This course on Global political economy is the study of the interaction between economic and political processes in an international order moving toward globalization. This course provides an introduction to the major analytic frameworks within which this interaction may be analyzed. It also examines their value and their implications for understanding particular dilemmas facing policy-makers responsible for making economic policy in the international arena.
PIA 2307—HUMAN SECURITY
Defining security to include not only the security of states but the security of individuals raises important challenges and opportunities for practitioners in international security and in development. This class is a survey of concepts, issues, policies, methods and organizations associated with human security. Students will be encouraged to evaluate the concept critically, assessing the value and limitations of human security for understanding and working in their chosen fields. After introducing the concept of human security and its origins, the course has three parts, focused on sources of human insecurity, key policy issues in human security, and policies and strategies that are advocated for advancing human security. Readings and lectures will introduce key concepts and issues including humanitarian intervention, violence and insecurity, famine, economic risk and insecurity, and we will focus on a set of key global health issues that illustrate aspects of human security, as well as on threats such as land mines, use of child soldiers, human trafficking, and proliferation of small arms. Students will write two papers and make an oral presentation to the class, and each assignment will allow students some choice of region, country and issue focus, to explore the relevance and limitations of human security for their areas of interest.
PIA 2312-GLOBALIZATION AND WELFARE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
This course examines the redistributive effects of globalization and its consequences for the welfare of people in developing countries. Common assumptions about the state's role in promoting and protecting welfare have changed in the last two decades: this course examines the impact of such changes in the context of health, gender and social security policy.
PIA 2322—WORLD ECONOMIC PATTERNS
The purpose of this course is to provide students of international affairs, development, and public and urban affairs with an up-to-date overview of the geographic organization of the world economy. Changing structures of production and consumption are described and analyzed. Strong emphasis is placed on creating a contemporary understanding of global economic patterns based on the study of empirical information. Students completing the course should gain an accurate picture of the current spatial organization of the international economy. Evaluation will be done through two short take-home essays an oral presentation and class participation.
PIA 2324-PEACEMAKING AND PEACEKEEPING
This course offers case studies of multilateral peacekeeping and peacemaking efforts in relation to regional and ethnic conflicts, such as those in Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda and Somalia. It looks at the underlying rationale for prevention in such conflicts and the problems and dilemmas that arise.
PIA 2331—POVERTY AND THE WORLD ECONOMY
This seminar will focus on a set of issues central to the global economy, development and its distributional dimensions. Topics will include a survey of relevant growth theories, the relationship among growth, markets, distribution, and poverty alleviation, North-South issues, the role of international organizations and globalization and the political economy of policy-making.
PIA 2343—HUMANITARIANISM IN WORLD POLITICS
This course examines the politics of humanitarianism in international society. We will consider the moral principles underlying humanitarianism and evaluate how the humanitarian community actually functions and why. The course will address both state-centric humanitarian responses (such as military intervention) and transnational humanitarian efforts (such as the work of IOs and NGOs in emergencies). It will focus on assistance rather than development, and on man-made rather than natural disasters. We will conclude with a consideration of whether or not current policy trends (humanitarian intervention, the war on terrorism) support or undermine humanitarian norms in international society.
PIA 2355-WORLD WAR II: THE COLD WAR & ITS IMPACT ON DEVELOPING NATIONS
World War II ended some fifty years ago. This special topics course will look at the war in depth, using films, documentaries, etc. and focus on the impact of this war on the international and national arenas from the rise of Hitler to Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. It will look at the war’s impact on the women’s movement, the civil rights movement, financial institutions, the Cold War, the European community, NATO, SEATO, CENTO, the Arms Race, the media, electronic communications and the environment. The war’s social, political and economic impact on the current way of life will be examined. It will focus on problems in Europe, China, Japan, Africa, Asia, Latin America as well as the war’s impact on society today. There will be no exams but several short policy papers and one medium length research paper.
PIA 2366-INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Examines origins, practices and problems of international agencies in order to understand the roles these agencies play in such problem areas as international development, peacekeeping, maintenance of human environments and other problems. Attention is given to the United Nations Organization, regional treaty organizations, and multinational regional trade associations, such as the European Community and the North America Free Trade Agreement. Evaluation will be by two brief take-home essays, an oral presentation, and class participation.
PIA 2382-THEORY AND CONCEPTS OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS
This course examines the politics of a wide variety of international economic relationships. It is based on the premise that economic issues have emerged alongside of traditional power and security issues as central to an understanding of contemporary world politics. The course will examine the politics of trade, monetary affairs, multinational corporations, technology and aid.
PIA 2390—SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION
The seminar aims to provide prospective development practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of the social development practices and tools utilized by leading international development agencies, such as the World Bank, the United Nations and DFID. It builds on the growing recognition that economic development alone cannot ensure sustainable development nor eradicate poverty. To those ends it focuses on the multidisciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary problems affecting sustainable development. The analytical concern is placed on decision-making processes, conflicting social forces, and the question of who wins and loses as economies grow and contract, and societies change. While pursuing the answers to how development policies and programs can be more effective, the course also aims to provide students with essential reading and writing skills required by these development agencies.
PIA 2490--POVERTY AND THE WORLD ECONOMY (Research in International Development)
This seminar will focus on a set of issues central to the global economy, development and its distributional dimensions. Topics will include a survey of relevant growth theories, the relationship among growth, markets, distribution, and poverty alleviation, North-South issues, the role of international organizations and globalization and the political economy of policy-making.
PIA 2490-POLICIES AND PRACTICE: THE RESETTLEMENT OF AFRICAN REFUGEES IN THE U.S.
This two-semester long course explores the policy issues and practical implications for the program challenges confronting community-based organizations engaged in the resettlement of African refugees in the United States (cities and small towns). Students are expected to prepare and present short will begin the course with a research papers on African refugees issues in selected countries, and then to work directly on organizational capacity building issues with several community-based organizations in the US that provide resettlement services and programs to African refugees. The course will be of interest to all ID and PUA students studying nonprofit/ngo and NGO management. Students may elect to take Part I only. Part II will be open only to students who have successfully completed Part I. Students may elect to take Part II as a Capstone. In Part I of the course (the fall term), students will examine the policy issues that result in African refugees having to flee their home countries, and the motivations and concerns in the US about receiving and resettling refugees. Students will then work directly with several of the CBOs on the design and implementation of a systematic organizationalconducting various needs assessment.s on management, program, and policy issues, and prepare an action plan. This part of the course will include a visit to Pittsburgh by the CBO leadership to participate in a workshop with students. In Part II of the course (the spring term), students will continue working with their CBO counterparts in preparing through GSPIA’s nonprofit clinic to prepare various projects that were identified in the action plans.
PIA 2490—PEOPLE CENTERED DEVELOPMENT (PCD)
This course embraces the strategic shift from traditional development strategies to the premise that development only begins when people take charge of their own development efforts, which therefore guarantees the national ownership of the development process. An extension of this premise is that the development process cannot be subcontracted. The responsibility does not lie with any outside agency. Developing a country is therefore the primary responsibility of the citizens of that country and should therefore be led and managed by the country itself. PCD argues that development is only sustainable when it builds on what exists. No matter how limited this capacity is the development process must start by using the country?s own internal capacity. Thus, it is pointless therefore to design programs which cannot draw on the countries' or communities' own endogenous capacity for its management. This course examines the tenets of PCD. It also highlights successful and unsuccessful examples of efforts to apply PCD around the world. Case studies will be drawn from Latin America, Asia and Africa. Attention will also be given to the involvement of international aid agencies, foundations, and other development organizations involvement in implementing PCD
PIA 2490—SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
This course involves a multidisciplinary examination of development issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Pedagogical approaches employed will be multifaceted to accommodate diverse learning styles. While a broad range of topics will be discussed, the general focus of the course, however, is on human relations: relations with each other; relations with the environment, and relations with emerging cultural norms and values. In addition to a historical perspective, attention will be given to contemporary approaches and theories that are influencing development activities in Africa. This will include a review of emerging management and development paradigms that have been proposed to help achieve sustainable development in Africa. An effort also will be made to help participants in the class generate original ideas for assisting in this endeavor.
PIA 2501-Development Policy & Administration
Explores the political and values-bases of development policies and practices by confronting critical perspectives on major trends and assumptions in development practice. We will emphasize current trends in government, development agency and non-governmental organization and corporate policy and practice. These include mechanisms for relating to civil society; relationships between national, sub-national governments and markets; organizational learning, monitoring and evaluation; consultation and popular participation; natural resource and environmental issues; policies relating to foreign and domestic investment and labor; and "good governance." Evaluation will be based on two short papers, two presentations to the class, and active participation.
PIA 2510-ECONOMICS OF DEVELOPMENT POLICY
The course considers the characteristics of economic growth and conditions in the developing countries today, and the determinants of levels of output, consumption, capital formation and income distribution. Attention is focused on simple growth models as well as on dynamic dual economy models of development. The sources of economic growth are surveyed along with the role of investment, population, labor productivity and education. Particular attention is given to the role of agriculture in development and to the potential contribution of foreign investment. The role of the expansion of domestic markets in industrialization is also considered. Policies designed to accelerate development are reviewed and assessed.
PIA 2515-PLANNING & POLICYMAKING FOR DEVELOPMENT
This is a foundations course for students interested in planning and policymaking for development, at the multinational, national and regional levels. Development planning theory, procedures and applications will be discussed. A primary focus will be upon economic growth and infrastructure/land use planning for sustainable development in emerging-market and transitional-country areas. Emphasis also will be placed on the World Bank approach to global and local changes in the development landscape in the 21st century. Students will be evaluated upon the basis of a mid-term and final-exams, and group reports on institutional and policy applications provided by the instructor.
PIA 2520-AGRICULTURE & RURAL DEVELOPMENT
This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the important issues and trends in international agricultural development. The purpose of the course is to familiarize future development professionals who are not agricultural specialists with fundamental concepts useful in planning and administering agricultural and rural development policy and programs. The course will emphasize technical issues and provide a practical, field-based perspective on program implementation. A major concern of the course will be strategies to support participatory, “grassroots” initiatives.
The course will begin with an overview of world agricultural systems and the history and theories of rural development. We will then address the “green debate” and discuss what constitutes sustainable agricultural development, drawing lessons from the green revolution. Next, we will examine agricultural research systems at the international, national and local levels as tools to support rural development, as well as the effectiveness of various extension strategies. This will be followed by a look at the essential resources of land, water and seeds, using case studies to examine constraints to development and strategies to overcome them. Practical considerations in program management will then be considered, including data collection for monitoring and evaluation. Finally, special topics such as community-based wildlife conservation, agroforestry and sustainable forest use, development in pastoralist cultures, microenterprise and microfinance for rural development, etc., will be addressed through student presentations in class.
PIA 2551-WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT
This course will examine the experiences of women and the dynamics of gender in so-called “developing” societies, analyzing the implications of such experiences for scholars and practitioners of international development. The focus will be on societies in the South -- i.e., those of contemporary Asia, Africa and Latin America--while some attention will be given to comparable issues in the U.S. and other industrialized countries. Drawing on recent work in anthropology, third world studies, international development, and women’s studies, the course will focus on the following major topics: approaches and debates in the field of women in development; the impact of global integration and structural adjustment on women’s roles as economic producers and managers of household consumption; changing social relations and emerging issues in reproduction, sexuality, and health; gender dynamics in ethnic, religious and cultural revivals; and women’s movements and forms of political organization and activism. We will critically assess a range of theoretical and policy perspectives on these matters, especially those developed by “third world” women themselves. The course will be organized in a seminar format with students playing a leading role in class presentations and discussions. This course is particularly relevant to graduate students in GSPIA and anthropology as well as those interested in international aspects of public health and women’s studies.
PIA 2552-MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS IN DEVELOPMENT
This course examines the management, broadly understood, of organizations working in international development efforts. It therefore looks into the management of organizations working deliberately for development and in a development context. That is, organizations working for development in either a developing country or as part of the global effort to promote development. Relief and humanitarian assistance are also discussed in various parts of the course as they often present unique challenges.
By employing a variety of teaching approaches, including case study analysis, the course aims to provide a stimulating learning environment and to help students develop critical skills, which will enable them to have a meaningful impact in an organization working to promote development. Students who complete the course successfully will be given the option of undertaking their internship working for an NGO in Mexico, where they can apply the skills learnt during the course.
The course is especially intended for people working in NGOs, but its content is designed to be useful to a broader audience. Alongside NGO managers the course is designed for managers and leaders of foundations, community organizations, and international official donors, in sum, organizations that may have a deliberate interest in promoting development and regularly work with NGOs. While each of these organizations requires a different type of management there are many basic management principles that apply to most organizations working in development. This course explores these similarities as well as potential differences. Evaluation is divided into 25% for class participation, 25% for a short paper, and 50% for a longer paper.
PIA 2561-A GRASSROOTS APPROACH TO PROJECT PLANNING & DESIGN Through project-based activities, donor-supported interventions in developing societies around the world take on meaning, purpose and structure. Sometimes, projects realize their purposes and intentions as part of a larger government program initiative, or to develop a particular sector of a country. In other instances, projects are more limited in their purposes and intentions, and are the result of local initiatives to attract resources to addressing a particular problem. At all times, and in all situations, however, projects have been viewed as the primary method and means through which donors and governments, and donors and communities interact. This course joins the ongoing debate about project-based development activity through a focus on the planning and design of donor-funded development interventions (projects). Applying theory and practice, the course will explore current methods and tools of project design. By the end of the course, students will have participated in a collaborative planning and design process to identify and develop an NGO-based project in response to a USAID Request for Proposals (RFP).
PIA 2574–REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR: AFRICAN DEVELOPMENTThis course examines development patterns in Africa on a comparative basis. Focus will be on issues of governance, decentralization, and economic and social development. The course will examine the colonial heritage of Africa and Post-colonial development policies. Participants in the course will work in groups based upon their geographical areas of interest.
PIA 2589-POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT
This course seeks to help you understand the causes of international inequality in the distribution of wealth. In simple terms, the course seeks to answer the questions, “Why are there rich nations and poor nations and rich people and poor people”? To answer this question we will need to understand something about the factors related to economic development and how those factors are tied to income distribution. The course will expose you to some of the major theoretical and empirical literature on the political economy of development.
PIA 2591-CRITICAL ISSUES IN GLOBAL HEALTH
This course is cross-listed with the Graduate School of Public Health and is now structured for 2 credits. An extra credit can be earned for GSPIA students taking this course by doing a policy paper on one of the issues that is being addressed in the curriculum. This course will introduce students to critical issues in global health emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach to understanding global health problems. The concepts and issues of global health will be considered as well as emerging issues and future concerns. Selected critical global topics in areas of environmental health, chronic disease, infectious disease, nutrition, and mental health will be discussed.
PIA 2734-SKILLS IN DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT: CONTRACTING OUT AND PRIVATIZATION
This course is designed to introduce students to the basic concepts, organizations patterns and legal and policy assumptions of privatization and contracting out. Among the topics to be covered are privatization, public-private partnerships, and the contracting out process. Focus will be on both the knowledge needed to engage in contracting and a discussion of some of the limitations and prospects of the contracting out process, particularly in the areas of public management and international development.
HISTORY
HIST 2721-ATLANTIC HISTORY TO 1800:
This seminar offered on an experimental basis, will extend the teaching of Atlantic History (which typically ends in 1800), into the 19th and 20th centuries. Although there is a rich literature on many forms of transatlantic connections between 1850 and 1924 (migration, intellectual exchange, political activism, racial ideologies), the place of the Atlantic in the world was definitely beginning to change by the turn of the twentieth century. Not for nothing are the years after 1900 called “the American Century”. The rise of the U.S.A. as a global power left some transatlantic connections in place down to the present: one need only think of NATO, the Marshall Plan, and “coca colonization” to be reminded of the continued importance of the Atlantic in the world. Across the 20th century, however, the Pacific Rim has challenged the economic centrality of the Atlantic, as have the intermittent and fraught, yet powerful economic and political ties among nations in the American Hemisphere. Throughout then, this seminar will address the place of the Atlantic in the world and explore the waxing and waning of various circuits of exchange across the Atlantic during the two past centuries.
HIST 2740-PRE-MODERN SLAVERY
In 1492, when the Europeans reached the Americas, slavery was in decline in most of Europe. During the following three hundred years, the Europeans developed the Atlantic Slave System, a complex web of relationships that linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas and resulted in the forced migration of millions of African slaves to the New World. Was New World slavery qualitatively new, or rather another instance of a long history of slavery and coerced labor in the West? Was the Atlantic slave system the
Logical offspring of previous European experiences with slavery and other forms of unfree labor? These central questions inform a survey of recent scholarship on slavery from classical times to the seventeenth century -- in the ancient Mediterranean, medieval Europe, and the early modern Atlantic world, especially Latin America. Readings include classics of slave historiography as well as the latest scholarship, with approaches ranging from traditional intellectual history to statistical analysis. Our objectives, then, are to learn something about early Western slavery and to pay attention to the variety of approaches and debates among its historians. We will compare observations weekly in discussions the quality of which will depend in large part on the care with which we have all read and pondered each week’s assignment. Three short papers and one of medium length will give you the opportunity to elaborate and refine your thoughts about the readings.
HIST 2770 COMPARATIVE SLAVERY AND ABOLITION
This seminar will examine slavery and anti-slavery from 1640-2000. It begins with economic and cultural developments in the plantation complex of the Atlantic world, Latin America, the West Indies and the United States South. It follows the development of Anti-slavery movements and the termination of slavery from the end of the eighteenth- century. The course continues with a study of the re-emergence of slavery in twentieth century Europe and concludes with a consideration of its current status in various regions of the globe. Participants will discuss assigned “core” readings for each meeting of the seminar. Each participant will read an additional work for each session and prepare a brief review, to be shared with other members of the seminar
HA & A 2401-HISTORY OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE
THE POSTCOLONIAL CONSTELLATION: CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE GLOBAL STAGE
In the last few decades debates centered around the analysis of contemporary art and its relationship to art historical canons have tended to depend on a singularized reading of modernity as bounded by Western/European experience. However, on another level, a different discourse has critiqued the dependency on the Western/European model of modernity as limited and outmoded, especially when seen through the lens of the radical historical changes wrought by processes of decolonization, the end of imperialism and the collapse of communism and apartheid. The critical challenge posed by this tension in the interpretation of modernity is what is referred to in this seminar as the postcolonial constellation: the nexus of interaction between artistic practices and aleatory cultural procedures. In this seminar we will address questions posed for contemporary art by the historical changes enumerated above. There are two focal points of critical appraisal: the first is on art, artists, and events shaped outside the Western/European context in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. The second concerns how the rise of diasporic communities has exacerbated the discourse of national cultures creating a radical inversion of questions of identity while redefining the discourse of contemporary art within the global stage.
LAW
5912 CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY SEMINAR
Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone: nearly 60 years after the Nuremberg Tribunal, the international community is still struggling to find ways to prevent, judge, and punish genocide and other crimes against humanity. This seminar will study the evolution of the legal concept of crimes against humanity and evaluate the effectiveness of the legal responses to these crimes, such as the International Criminal Court, ad hoc international tribunals, truth commissions, and domestic trials. Final paper
5243 COMPARATIVE LAW: NEW DEMOCRACIES IN TRANSITION
Ethnic conflict, terrorism, HIV epidemics, kleptocracies: the newly democratic states of Eastern Europe and the developing states of Africa and Asia face enormous political and social challenges. This survey course will explore these states’ legal systems and their efforts to use the law to meet those challenges. We will review the legal traditions that form the building blocks of these systems: the formal structures of the civil and common law traditions, the lingering effects of socialism, and the influences of religious and traditional laws. We will then evaluate the effectiveness of legal reforms in transitioning states. How much has been accomplished with the wave of new constitutions in these states? What can be done to foster an active and independent judiciary? How can transitioning states promote democracy and development while still protecting indigenous cultures and traditions? Take home examination.
COMPARATIVE COMMERCIAL LAW
This course is designed to give students a broad overview of commercial law aspects of the world’s various legal cultures and regimes. The exploration will often begin with the examination of harmonized law with the goal of ultimately discovering the compromises, and the underlying basis for the need for compromise, that went into harmonizing the law. We will then focus discussion on a comparison of rules and principles of different, often unfamiliar, legal cultures. As the course progresses, students are encouraged to examine the socio-economic grounding for a particular rule, principle or custom. Our goals are threefold: to gain an understanding of the varying bodies of law and appreciation of the risks and advantages inherent in conducting commercial activity within such legal cultures; a deeper understanding of our own legal framework; and a great appreciation for the efforts that go into the harmonization of the law at an international level. The course focuses on seven major topics. The topics may be divided into two broad categories: Those legal topics for which a fairly high degree of harmonization has already been achieved, and that for which harmonization is still in the early stages. The topics of the first category are sales goods, carriage of goods and bank credits/payments. Where harmonization has occurred, our primary goal will be to analyze the compatibility of the harmonized law with the varying existing legal regimes. The topics of the second category are secured transactions, assignment of contractual rights/duties, e-commerce, and transnational civil procedure. One of our goals is to compare and contrast the varying legal cultures and to search for three types of rules: those for which there exists meaningful commonality among legal cultures: those for which reconciliation appears to be possible; and those for which reconciliation seems unlikely. For each topic of analysis we will rely primarily upon the following materials: international conventions, foreign law, and scholarly writing. We will also rely upon some international case law, particularly compatibility issues.
COMPARATIVE CONSTITUIONAL LAW SEMINAR
This course offers a study of various types of constitutional systems utilized by different countries. We will focus on two broad questions: (1) what do we learn about the basis of U.S. law and the role of law in general by studying the law of other countries; and (2) to what extent do other nations’ legal systems adequately deal with the economic, social and political problems they face. We will cover such topics as judicial review in different societies, the rights of the accused in the criminal law process, the notion of equality and freedom of speech in different societies and alternative models of adjudicating disputes. We will deal not only with the civil law countries of continental Europe, but with various Third World countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
LINGUISTICS
Students in this graduate-level course investigate the social basis of language, and the linguistics basis for social life: What happens when languages come in contact, how and why language changes and how and why different social groups (age, gender, ethnicity, and class) speak differently.
LING 2272: SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE
Sociology of Language is constituted of topics which can be the subject of study by researchers without linguistics training, where the focus, rather than on the description of the linguistic structure, is on the explanation of language use and behavior by social groups. This seminar will consider such topics as: language and ethnicity; language maintenance, languages of wider communication; language loyalties; language rights; language policies and planning; speech communities and social networks; language, religion and sacred languages and educational issues.
MUSIC
MUSIC 1340—MUSIC IN AFRICA
This course examines the historical, social, and cultural background of music in Africa with particular reference to the social context, musical instruments and ensemble practice, stylistic elements of traditional music, music in Islamic culture, music in the church, neo-African art music, and popular music. Videos and audio recordings will be used to illustrate lectures.
MUSIC 2340-GRADUATE SEMINAR IN AFRICAN MUSIC
The course is devoted to selected topics in traditional and modern music of Africa and is research oriented. Currently, the seminar is offered irregularly but can in future be offered once a year, if there is sufficient interest from graduate certificate students of African Studies
MUSIC 2450—SEMINAR IN CREATIVE MUSICOLOGY
Creative musicology is the practice whereby information derived from research and analysis are usually concerned with the music of oral traditions, such as the folk music of Europe and the traditional and popular music of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The purpose of the seminar is to study the activities of musicologist-composers and to see how they have transformed research into composition. Creative musicology, exemplified by the music of Bela Bartok, is practiced extensively around the world and the materials used in the course will reflect its global distribution.
PUBLIC HEALTH
PUBHLT 2009—CRITICAL ISSUES IN GLOBAL HEALTH
This course will introduce students to critical issues in global health emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach to understand global health problems. The concepts and issues of global health will be considered as well as emerging issues and future concerns. Selected critical global topics in areas of environmental health, chronic disease, infectious disease, nutrition, and mental health will be discussed.
BCHS 2553—WOMEN INT DEV AND GLOBAL HEALTH
This course will examine the impact of recent international developments on women’s lives, health and well-being, as well as explore responses of diverse groups of women to these global changes. The focus will be on societies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with some attention to comparative issues in the U.S. and Europe. Linking the fields of international development, anthropology, and global health, the objective is to identify and critically evaluate gendered dimensions of globalization, in order to support women’s own goals for creating and sustaining healthy lives and communities.
BCHS 2557—INTERNATIONAL HEALTH PRACTICUM
Students will be assigned to international health policies for experience abroad or on campus. Assignments will be arranged according to student goals and capabilities and coinciding program