Mission Statement
The interdisciplinary political economy & public policy major embodies the mission of a liberal arts education: cultivating thoughtful, articulate, active and responsible citizens who are able to apply multi-faceted approaches to understand and address the wide variety of issues facing the domestic and international community and their diverse constituencies.
By introducing students to the tools of the contributing disciplines – their theories, concepts and research methods – political economy & public policy enables students to explore the power relationships; institutional arrangements; social, economic, environmental conditions; and ideological commitments that shape public policy in an increasingly diverse and interdependent world.
The major offers courses and research experiences emphasizing the development of writing skills, critical thinking, and active and intelligent engagement with issues affecting contemporary public life.
Learning Goals
- Students demonstrate the skills and confidence necessary to make critical, informed evaluations and judgments about national and global political-economic issues, processes, trends and policies;
- Students can write and speak clearly, thoughtfully, critically and persuasively about political and economic phenomena.
- Students can understand, interpret, analyze and synthesize information about political and economic phenomena.
- Students understand the theoretical and analytical frameworks of policy analysis.
