Global Arc

The Affordable Care Act, enacted by President Obama in 2010, is an unprecedented federal-state initiative, with provisions to expand health insurance coverage, control health care costs, and improve the health care delivery system. This course will focus on the history of health reform, as well as the implementation challenges since its enactment. We will examine the federal regulatory process, the role that states are playing in implementation, legal challenges to the statute, and Congressional oversight.

In both wealthy and low and middle income countries, the most disadvantaged people in societies are more likely to be exposed to health threats and more likely to suffer the consequences of those threats. We see evidence and the consequences of health inequities across countries and within them, and across socioeconomic, gender, racial and ethnic groups. In this course, we consider differences in the burden of disease and explore the myriad reasons for these differences. We also examine how the structure of health systems and health services, and the ways these are resources, can exacerbate inequities.

This course will explore the relationship between social movements and legal/policy reforms and critically assess the scope and limits of the 1960s-era civil rights laws through an examination of the following legal and policy issues that Black Lives Matter activists have pushed to the center stage of local and national policy debates: policing; mass incarceration; the role of prosecutors; protests and surveillance; labor, work, and wealth; education reform and school discipline; health care reform and access; housing and environmental conditions; and voting rights.

Open only to students enrolled in the school. See 'Program Information' for description. Juniors who are concentrators in the school must register for the policy task force as "Junior Independent Work.'' Seniors should register for SPI 401 or 402 as a course rather than junior independent work.

In the Policy Task Force seminars, students work in groups to formulate a policy problem/issue. Students then engage in individual research on subtopics, and at the end of the semester will present their findings/policy recommendations for discussion and debate. Individual student papers will also be collated into a collective and comprehensive policy report.

The junior policy research seminar serves to introduce departmental majors to the tools, methods, and interpretations employed in policy research and writing. Students may choose from a range of topics.

The junior policy research seminar serves to introduce departmental majors to the tools, methods, and interpretations employed in policy research and writing. Students may choose from a range of topics.

People have plowed up, cut-down and otherwise heavily manipulated more than 75% of the world's land, and the degree and extent of this manipulation continues to expand to meet rising demands for food and wood products. This course will explore the consequences for biodiversity and climate change, the drivers of change and scenarios for the future. Students will think through the complex issues behind conservation planning for biodiversity and gain understanding of what is known and not known about the global carbon cycle. Major class papers and a final presentation by each student will explore solutions.

Course introduces use of economics in understanding both the sources of and the remedies to environmental and resource allocation problems. It emphasizes the reoccurrence of economic phenomenon like public goods, externalities, market failure and imperfect information. Students learn about the design and evaluation of environmental policy instruments, the political economy of environmental policy, and the valuation of environmental and natural resource services. These concepts are illustrated in a variety of applications from domestic pollution of air, water and land to international issues such as global warming and sustainable development.

India's post-independence journey is a lens to study fundamental questions of economic development and political economy. Despite attempts at big-push industrialization, followed by economic liberalization in the 1990's, the country struggled to create jobs and provide public goods at par with rapid population growth. Extreme economic inequality is now only one concern amidst environmental degradation, gender-based violence, and a Hindu-nationalist political agenda. When, and how, will India achieve sustainable development? The seminar will draw on scholarly works and Indian cinema for a well-rounded economic, social and political commentary.