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Graduate Certificate in Global Governance

 

Background and Rationale

It is commonplace today to speak, read and think about the impact of globalization in world affairs. But while we can all readily identify global impacts on our daily lives, it is less clear how and why decisions are made in this globalizing world, who is "in charge" of policy on global matters, and what implications globalization has for considerations of democratic governance around the world. As one scholar has aptly put it, global governance is "poorly done and poorly understood." UConn's Political Science Department (in conjunction with departments, offices and programs around campus) is uniquely placed to lead the way in promoting greater understanding of the politics of global governance and what global governance (or the lack thereof) will mean for people around the globe. Therefore, in an effort to capitalize on that programmatic strength, we have established graduate level certificate in Global Governance Studies.

 

Objectives

Creation of this certificate program would accomplish several academic goals and objectives:

  • Provide more structure and focus to the existing globally-oriented research and teaching programs already in place in POLS and around UConn more generally.

    • Increasingly, the research and teaching in international relations and comparative politics overlaps, although each subfield approaches politics from distinct conceptual and theoretical directions.

    • This certificate program helps student and faculty more consciously focus on that overlap and provide students with better ways of integrating and synthesizing their studies across the two subfields.

    • It will hopefully motivate students to integrate research across the discipline's subfields and to recognize the degree to which academic boundaries (and even political ones) can be artificial roadblocks to problem-solving and national and global progress.

  • Allow graduate students in POLS and other departments to highlight the substantive strength they have developed. This is particularly important as we attempt to provide Ph.D. students a comparative advantage when they enter a highly competitively tenure-track job market. Masters level students will also benefit from this specialization as they look for jobs in secondary school teaching, government, the non-profit sector and private industry.

  • Provide a structured, globally-oriented program for secondary school teachers (particularly in the social studies) who are working toward an M.A. in Education or their Sixth Year Diploma.

Program Director

  • Mark A. Boyer , Professor, POLS, International Relations (Negotiation and Bargaining, Conflict and Cooperation Studies, International Political Economy)

Core Faculty

  • Larry W. Bowman , Professor, POLS, International Relations (Development), Comparative Politics (Africa, Indian Ocean)
  • J. Garry Clifford , Professor, POLS, International Relations (American Diplomacy)
  • Lucy Creevey , Professor, POLS, Comparative Politics (Africa, Development)
  • Elizabeth C. Hanson , Professor, POLS, International Relations (Foreign Policy Analysis)
  • Peter Kingstone , Assistant Professor, POLS, Comparative Politics (Latin America)
  • Jeremy Pressman , Assistant Professor, POLS, International Relations (Security Studies, Middle East Politics)
  • Lyle Scruggs , Assistant Professor, POLS, Comparative Politics (Europe, Industrialized Countries)
  • Jennifer Sterling-Folker , Associate Professor, POLS, International Relations (IR Theory, International Organization)
  • Cyrus E. Zirakzadeh , Professor, POLS, Comparative Politics (Nationalisms and Nationalist Parties, Social Movements and Political Protest; Europe and Western Hemisphere)

 

Certificate Requirements

A total of twelve credits plus a synthetic research paper are required as detailed below.

The proposed requirements were created with the following rationale and relationship to the ideas discussed above:

  • Courses in Group 1 constitute the courses dealing with Global Governance in their broadest form. Group 1.A. includes the three courses in international relations that deal most directly with basic issues, problems and structures relevant to Global Governance and how they are dealt with at an international systemic level. Group 1.B. focuses on the study of the domestic political institutions that must cope with the forces of globalization.

  • Courses in Groups 2 and 3 allow the student to tailor the certificate program to their own interests and career goals.

  • Group 4 is viewed as the capstone component that will demonstrate the student's mastery of the subjects and issues at hand.
  • One course from Group 1.a. and one course from Group 1.b. (6 credits).

    POLS 323 (International Conflict and Cooperation), POLS 324 (International Political Economy), POLS 326 (International Organization)

    POLS 335 (Proseminar in Comparative), POLS 336 (Comparative Political Development), POLS 3xx (Social Movements and Globalization)

  • One course from the following (3 credits):

    7 ECON 3xx - International Trade and Finance (new non-technical ECON course designed for ECON terminal MA students and non-ECON grad students.

    7 ECON 350 - Economic Development

    7 EDCI 356 - Comparative and International Education

    7 HIST 349 - Topics in the History of American Foreign Relations

    7 POLS 311 - Proseminar in International Relations

    7 POLS 331 - West European Politics

    7 POLS 332 - Seminar in Latin American Politics

    7 POLS 337 - Politics of Russia and Former Soviet Union

    7 POLS 339 - Seminar in African Politics

    7 POLS 340 - East European Politics

    7 POLS 3xx - American Political Development

  • One other course from Groups 1 or 2 or a three-credit course as approved by the program director.

  • One research paper that shows mastery of research and writing on global governance. The paper must be read and approved by the program director and at least two other UConn faculty members.

Application materials and further information can be obtained from Christine Luberto, Political Science Department, HRM 136, 486-2079, Christine.luberto@uconn.edu .