Policy Studies Concentration

Print Degree Planner (opens a new window) |

Department Home Page

Search Current Schedule of Courses

Policy Studies

Chair(s):

William Ferguson

This interdisciplinary concentration aims to provide students with the tools to analyze policymaking processes and implementation and to evaluate policy decisions and outcomes from multiple perspectives. The concentration will take an interdisciplinary approach to case-study analysis and student research.

Students who intend to declare a policy studies concentration must, at the time of declaration, design a curricular concentration plan, which indicates how the student will meet concentration requirements 1–6 listed below. Ideally, student plans will utilize students’ major or other curricular interests as a focus for policy analysis and develop some expertise in a specific policy area. However, in order to ensure the interdisciplinary nature of the concentration, students may not count more than eight credits from any one department (including methods courses) toward the concentration.

Concentration requirements: 22 or 24 credits as follows:

1. Foundation Course: 4 credits

PST 220 - Foundations of Policy Analysis 4 credits

2. Empirical Methods Course: 4 credits

One from the following list:

ANT 292 - Ethnographic Research Methods 4 credits or the cross-listed SOC 292 .
ECN 286 - Econometrics 4 credits
MAT 209 - Applied Statistics 4 credits
POL 310 - Advanced Seminar in American Politics 4 credits
PSY 225 - Research Methods 4 credits
SOC 291 - Methods of Empirical Investigation 4 credits or the cross-listed ANT 291 .

3. Humanistic and Scientific Context of Policy-Making: 4 credits

Take at least one course from the Humanistic and Scientific Context List. The concentration will periodically revise this list on-line.

Recommendations:

This course should be taken prior to PST 320 - Applied Policy Analysis .
Students with majors in the Division of Social Studies should take at least two courses from this list (one humanities course and one science course).
Students with majors in the Division of Humanities should take at least one science course from this list.
Students with majors in the Division of Science should take at least one humanities course from this list.
Students who wish to pursue policy research projects (see item 6) in the sciences or humanities will be encouraged to take additional relevant courses from the list.

BIO 150 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits
CHM 210 - Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry 4 credits
CSC 151 - Functional Problem Solving 4 credits
ENG 120 - Literary Analysis 4 credits
ENG 204 - The Craft of Argument 4 credits
HIS 100 - Making History 4 credits
LIN 114 - Introduction to General Linguistics 4 credits
PHI 111 - Introduction to Philosophy 4 credits
PHI 106 - Contemporary Ethical Issues 4 credits
PHY 131 - General Physics I 4 credits
PHY 132 - General Physics II 4 credits
PSY 113 - Introduction to Psychology 4 credits
REL 241 - Religion in U.S. Public Life 4 credits

4. Institutional Context of Policy: 4 credits

Take at least one of the following:

One course from the Institutional Context List below. The concentration will periodically revise this list online.
Contextual Policy Making (POL 295), offered by Grinnell-in-Washington, D.C.
A Two- or four-credit internship with prior committee approval, which must be supervised through an existing Grinnell college program such as Grinnell-in-Washington, D.C. or Grinnell-in-London.

ANT 210 - Illness, Healing, and Culture 4 credits
ANT 238 - Cultural and Political Ecology 4 credits
ANT 252 - Culture and Agriculture 4 credits
ECN 215 - Labor Economics 4 credits
ECN 218 - Gender and the Economy 4 credits
ECN 230 - Economic Development 4 credits
ECN 233 - International Economics 4 credits
ECN 240 - Resource and Environmental Economics 4 credits
ECN 245 - Financial Economics 4 credits
ECN 250 - Public Finance 4 credits
HIS 220 - U.S. Environmental History 4 credits
HIS 222 - The History of Women in the United States 4 credits
HIS 228 - The Promised Land: U.S. Immigration History 4 credits (offered 2013 Spring)
POL 216 - Politics of Congress 4 credits
POL 219 - Constitutional Law and Politics 4 credits
POL 237 - Political Parties 4 credits
POL 239 - The Presidency 4 credits
POL 250 - Politics of International Relations 4 credits
POL 251 - International Political Economy 4 credits
SOC 220 - Sociology of Global Development 4 credits
SOC 242 - Deviance and Social Control 4 credits
SOC 248 - Self and Society 4 credits
SOC 265 - Sociology of Health and Illness 4 credits
SOC 275 - Race and Ethnicity in America 4 credits

5. Applied Policy Analysis: 4 credits

PST 320 - Applied Policy Analysis 4 credits

6. Research project: 2 or 4 credits

Either one of the following, with a prerequisite of: PST 320 - Applied Policy Analysis

A two-credit research project PST 420
A four-credit Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) POL 499 with prior committee approval

Policy Studies Course Descriptions

Click here to list Policy Studies course descriptions.