Interdisciplinary Concentration in International Political Economy

Program Planner

• International Political Economy (LIPE) Program Planner

The concentration in International Political Economy [IPE] introduces students to an important and inherently interdisciplinary field of study. IPE examines the interaction between political and economic phenomena over time; its concerns are both historical and contemporary. To appreciate the various aspects of IPE, students take courses across four schools, thereby completing their breadth requirements prior to their more specialized study in their majors.

The requirements for the IPE concentration include one of three introductory courses: International Relations deals, necessarily, with both economic and political issues. Politics and Society in Developing Countries approaches its subject using the tools of many disciplines including history, literature and film. International Studies: Processes, Themes, and Issues is the introductory course for the International Studies major and uses history, literature, economics and political science to understand interaction among peoples over time. All three courses introduce students to topics central to international political economy.

Having learned to appreciate the value of many disciplines in the introductory course, students proceed to enhance their understanding of IPE by taking a history course, an analytic course, and an economics or business course. Knowledge of world history is essential to an understanding of contemporary politics and economics. The subject matter of international political economy and macroeconomics bears directly on the concerns of the concentration. Microeconomics and statistics are essential tools for public policy analysis. An option from the list of business and economics courses below will deepen student's analytic capacity and their substantive knowledge of IPE.

Finally, students gain some understanding of the cultural context of political and economic interaction by taking two courses in art and literature from those listed below. With the completion of a lab science, students will have pursued courses across the liberal learning categories. Furthermore, they will have gained understanding of international political economy, an increasingly important concern of informed citizens.

Faculty Sponsors

Deborah Compte (Modern Languages), Christopher Fisher (African-American Studies), Jo Gross (History), John Landreau (Women’s & Gender Studies), Bozena Leven (Business), Miriam Lowi (Political Science), Jiayan Mi (English/Modern Languages), Brian Potter (Political Science), Marianna Sullivan (Political Science), Morton Winston (Philosophy & Religion/on Sabbatical leave during AY 2007/2008), Simona Wright (Modern Languages)

Curriculum

The required courses are as follows; prerequisites appear in parentheses after the course title:

Introductory Course

One of the following (counts as Behavioral, Social, or Cultural perspectives):

• POL 230/International Relations
• POL 250/Politics & Society in Developing Countries
• INT 200/International Studies: Processes, Themes, Issues

Social Change in Historical Perspectives

One of the following:

• HIS 334/Modern East Asia
• HIS 335/Modern Japan  
• HIS 342/Modern Middle East  
• HIS 349/The Soviet Union, 1917-1991  
• HIS 352 /Colonial and Modern Africa
• HIS 358/Colonial Latin America  
• HIS 359/Modern Latin America   
• History of World Economy (new course to be developed by Alejandra Irogoin)  

Analytic

One of the following (counts as Behavioral, Social, or Cultural perspectives :

• POL 380/International Political Economy
• ECO 102/Macroeconomics

Economics/Business

One of the following (counts as Behavioral, Social, or Cultural perspectives:

• ECO 101/Microeconomics
• INB 330/Capital Flows and Currency Crisis [prereq.: ECO 102]
• ECO 335/Economic Development [prereq.: ECO101]
• ECO 340/International Economics [prereq: ECO102]
• ECO 345/Comparative Economic Systems [prereq.: ECO102]
• MGT 310/Cross-Cultural Management

Arts and Humanities

Two of the following:

• AAH 105/Art History I: Caves to Cathedrals
• AAH 106/Art History II: Renaissance to Revolution
• AAH 115/The Arts of South Asia
• AAH 116/The Arts of East Asia
• AAH 117/Arts of the Islamic World
• AAH 145/Introduction to Non-Western Art
• AAH 344/Art of the Italian Renaissance
• AAS 222/LIT 282/Contemporary African American Literature
• CLS 250/Introduction to Greek Mythology
• CMP 370/LIT 394/Topics in Comparative Literature
• HON 347/Paris before the Great War
• INT 365/AAS 365/African Cinema:   Franco-Phone African Experience through Film
• LIT 212/Cultural Representation of Gender
• LIT 231/CMP 231/World Literature to 1700
• LIT 232/CMP 232/World Literature since 1700
• LIT 233/TTR 233/World Drama
• LIT 288/Contemporary Literature
• LIT 316/WGS 376/Global Women Writers
• WGS 360/LIT 334/Literature by Latinas & Latin American Women
• WGS 227/Transnational Feminism
• INT 410/Global Inequalities (prerequisite: one of the following:   ECO 335, POL 250, POL 380 or PHL 350 or permission of the instructor)

Quantitative Reasoning

One of the following (or an appropriate Statistics course by advisement)

• Stat 115/Statistics
• Stat 215/Statistical Inference

Natural Science

One lab science course

Total = 8 Courses