Coordinator: Angélica J. Huizar (ahuizar@odu.edu), Cathy Wu (xwu@odu.edu)

Comparative Cultural and Political Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach from the fields of Comparative Politics and Cultural Studies. The focus of Comparative Politics is on the study of political institutions, processes, and behaviors. It is devoted to understanding and analyzing similarities and differences in the practice of politics and in the characteristics of political institutions, economic structures and processes, and values across temporal and geographical space. It strikes a balance between developing the most general statements possible about political life and applying them to the understanding of political phenomena in specific places and times. Similarly, key to a Cultural Studies approach is the assumption that the study of culture in all its complexity requires cross-disciplinary work and an understanding that language, gender, race, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, and class organize identity, complex social relations, and cultural objects. Cultural Studies pays special attention to those forms that permeate everyday experience: subcultures, popular media (television, film, the internet), and a range of performance practices—dance, music, sports, and fashion. The goal of this concentration is to prepare students to understand cultural and political practices in diverse environments and fields. Students learn the key words, critical tools, and basic methods used in the practice of cultural and comparative critique.

Requirements

Students selecting this concentration as their major or minor must take both Theories of Comparative Social Political Studies (IS716/816) and International Cultural Studies (IS760/860) as the required core courses.

M.A. students selecting Comparative Cultural and Political Studies as their major must select one more course within this concentration. Ph.D. students selecting Comparative Cultural and Political Studies as their major must select three more courses within this concentration; Ph.D. students selecting this concentration as their minor must select one more course within the concentration. In consultation with the concentration coordinators, students may take courses other than those listed in the concentration to fulfill the concentration requirements.

Coordinator: Regina Karp (rkarp@odu.edu)

During the past decade, international security studies have undergone rapid transformation. No longer beholden to the study of East-West competition, the security field has become increasingly diverse regarding the themes and issues it embraces as well as the community of scholars it involves. As a result, many intellectual foundations have been questioned and the field has been opened to a variety of innovations.

This field aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the various discourses in security studies enabling students to undertake independent and original work of their own. Students learn to critically examine different epistemologies and theories as well as to apply and test competing explanations of security choices. Students will engage traditional realist and liberal theories as well as ideationalist propositions.

Students selecting this field as their major or minor must take Collective Security (IS 702/802) as their required field course. M.A. students must select two more courses within the field; Ph.D. students must choose four more courses. Students are strongly advised to take courses other than those listed below only in consultation with the field coordinator.

Students are also advised that they have the opportunity to enrich their classroom experience through Independent Study/Directed Research projects with the agreement and under the supervision of the field coordinator.

Coordinator: Matthew DiLorenzo (mdiloren@odu.edu) and Georg Menz (gmenz@odu.edu)

Political decisions influence economic outcomes and vice versa. Governments determine the nature and distribution of property rights and the rules governing the production and distribution of wealth; markets shape the distribution of power, policy choices and the institutions of governance. The International Political Economy and Development curriculum examines the intersection of politics and economics globally, focusing on political and economic behavior which cuts across national boundaries. This includes foreign trade, investment, monetary relations, migration, globalization, and foreign aid.

The track also studies the differential production of power and wealth in the world. The focus here is on problems of underdevelopment, debt, and dependence, along with a consideration of alternative strategies for reducing poverty and inequalities within and between nations. The field draws upon an eclectic range of theoretical models and conceptual frameworks to critically interpret state-market relations in the contemporary global order. In helping students understand the global economy and issues in poverty and development, the courses in this track direct attention toward the role of both international institutions (e.g., World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and United Nations) and domestic political institutions (e.g., democracy) in shaping economic decisions and outcomes.

Students selecting this field as their major or minor must complete Global Political Economy (IS 713/813) and Political Economy of Development (IS 740/840). M.A. students must select one more seminar within the field; Ph.D. students must choose three more seminars. Students should consult with the field coordinator in selecting these additional courses. Students also have the opportunity to enrich their classroom experience through Independent Study/Directed Research projects with the agreement and under the supervision of the field coordinator.

Coordinator: Jesse Richman (jrichman@odu.edu)

The modeling and simulation (or "M&S") concentration provides students access to some of the most innovative research in international studies. M&S arose as a field of study in response to three complementary trends over the last thirty years. First, the various economic, demographic, cultural and technological processes of globalization have given rise to a range of transnational phenomena that increasingly occur outside the territorial confines of nation-states. The growth of such transnational phenomena has given rise to an important second trend: the growing recognition among scholars of international studies of the inadequacy of traditional levels and methods of analysis predicated upon the territorial logic of sovereign states. Scholars today increasingly seek to develop new methods of analysis. The third trend--the explosive growth of affordable and powerful microcomputing--has equipped researchers with a range of new technologies and methods to understand contemporary international and global phenomena. Together, these three trends have synthesize the field of M&S in international studies.

The M&S in international studies concentration provides GPIS students with an education in the most innovative methods in the field. Students can choose to specialize in methods as diverse as statistics, game theory, agent-based modeling, geographic information sciences, and network analysis. These fields reflect the Hampton Roads area's emergence as a global leader in the modeling and simulation industry. Local M&S firms, government and military employers in the region, and the proximity of Washington, DC (just three hours away) all provide internship and job opportunities for students who specialize in M&S.

At Old Dominion University, graduate study in modeling & simulation is a campus-wide initiative. Each of the University's six colleges offers M&S courses in fields as diverse as mathematics, engineering, health sciences and education. With the approval of the track coordinator, a GPIS M&S student may take courses outside of GPIS and the College of Arts & Letters and receive credit toward his or her M&S field requirements.

Requirements

Students selecting this field as their major or minor field must complete the MSIM 601 Modeling & Simulation Fundamentals course and IS 620 Advanced Statistical Techniques.

Ph.D. students pursuing M&S as the major field will complete five courses including the MSIM fundamentals course.

Ph.D. students pursuing M&S as the minor field and M.A. students choosing M&S as the field of concentration will complete four courses, including the MSIM fundamentals course.

Strategic leadership is a critical quality in government and private sectors. This Concentration seeks to enhance student ability to think and act strategically. The Concentration in Strategic Leadership equips students with the knowledge and skills to assume leadership positions in government and private sectors. It educates students about issues of global relevance and the means to communicate and affect global concerns effectively. Through a contract with the US Navy, GPIS will offer this Concentration to Navy officers at the MA level but the Concentration is open to all admitted MA and PhD students

Coordinator: Dr. Richard Maass (rmaass@odu.edu)

Among the virtues of U.S. Foreign Policy and International Relations as a field of concentration is its multi-faceted approach. By its very nature, the study of this field requires that students develop a thorough understanding of all of the concepts and conditions that serve as key components in the making of foreign policy. These factors include --but need not be limited to-- economic, cultural, and political considerations. Emphasis is placed on the fundamentals of foreign policy: the construction, the execution, the evolution, and the implications. The seminars in this field allow our students to examine the transformation of the U.S. role in the world in the global context of the 20th Century and help them to identify the distinguishing characteristics of the unfolding global order of the 21st Century.

In our intimate seminar setting, debate focuses, for instance, on Cold War and post-Cold War U.S. relations with former communist states and the security issues related to their democratic transformation and economic reform, as well as reemerging ethnic cleavages. Efforts on the part of the U.S. government, as well as activities of non-governmental and private voluntary organizations are examined and principal security issues, such as NATO enlargement, the possession of chemical and biological weapons, adherence to nuclear non-proliferation agreements, and ethnic conflict are discussed. Doctoral candidates are urged, but not required, to take at least one history course dealing with the pre-1945 years.

Students selecting this field as their major or minor must complete U.S. Foreign Policy and World Order (IS 606) as their required field course. M.A. students must select two more courses within the field; Ph.D. students must choose four more courses. Students are strongly advised to take courses other than those listed below only in consultation with the field coordinator.

Students are also advised that they have the opportunity to enrich their classroom experience through Independent Study/Directed Research projects with the agreement and under the supervision of the field coordinator.

Coordinator: Angélica J. Huizar (ahuizar@odu.edu), Cathy Wu (xwu@odu.edu)

Comparative Cultural and Political Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach from the fields of Comparative Politics and Cultural Studies. The focus of Comparative Politics is on the study of political institutions, processes, and behaviors. It is devoted to understanding and analyzing similarities and differences in the practice of politics and in the characteristics of political institutions, economic structures and processes, and values across temporal and geographical space. It strikes a balance between developing the most general statements possible about political life and applying them to the understanding of political phenomena in specific places and times. Similarly, key to a Cultural Studies approach is the assumption that the study of culture in all its complexity requires cross-disciplinary work and an understanding that language, gender, race, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, and class organize identity, complex social relations, and cultural objects. Cultural Studies pays special attention to those forms that permeate everyday experience: subcultures, popular media (television, film, the internet), and a range of performance practices—dance, music, sports, and fashion. The goal of this concentration is to prepare students to understand cultural and political practices in diverse environments and fields. Students learn the key words, critical tools, and basic methods used in the practice of cultural and comparative critique.

Requirements

Students selecting this concentration as their major or minor must take both Theories of Comparative Social Political Studies (IS716/816) and International Cultural Studies (IS760/860) as the required core courses.

M.A. students selecting Comparative Cultural and Political Studies as their major must select one more course within this concentration. Ph.D. students selecting Comparative Cultural and Political Studies as their major must select three more courses within this concentration; Ph.D. students selecting this concentration as their minor must select one more course within the concentration. In consultation with the concentration coordinators, students may take courses other than those listed in the concentration to fulfill the concentration requirements.

Coordinator: Regina Karp (rkarp@odu.edu)

During the past decade, international security studies have undergone rapid transformation. No longer beholden to the study of East-West competition, the security field has become increasingly diverse regarding the themes and issues it embraces as well as the community of scholars it involves. As a result, many intellectual foundations have been questioned and the field has been opened to a variety of innovations.

This field aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the various discourses in security studies enabling students to undertake independent and original work of their own. Students learn to critically examine different epistemologies and theories as well as to apply and test competing explanations of security choices. Students will engage traditional realist and liberal theories as well as ideationalist propositions.

Students selecting this field as their major or minor must take Collective Security (IS 702/802) as their required field course. M.A. students must select two more courses within the field; Ph.D. students must choose four more courses. Students are strongly advised to take courses other than those listed below only in consultation with the field coordinator.

Students are also advised that they have the opportunity to enrich their classroom experience through Independent Study/Directed Research projects with the agreement and under the supervision of the field coordinator.

Coordinators: Matthew DiLorenzo (mdiloren@odu.edu) and Georg Menz (gmenz@odu.edu)

Political decisions influence economic outcomes and vice versa. Governments determine the nature and distribution of property rights and the rules governing the production and distribution of wealth; markets shape the distribution of power, policy choices and the institutions of governance. The International Political Economy and Development curriculum examines the intersection of politics and economics globally, focusing on political and economic behavior which cuts across national boundaries. This includes foreign trade, investment, monetary relations, migration, globalization, and foreign aid.

The track also studies the differential production of power and wealth in the world. The focus here is on problems of underdevelopment, debt, and dependence, along with a consideration of alternative strategies for reducing poverty and inequalities within and between nations. The field draws upon an eclectic range of theoretical models and conceptual frameworks to critically interpret state-market relations in the contemporary global order. In helping students understand the global economy and issues in poverty and development, the courses in this track direct attention toward the role of both international institutions (e.g., World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and United Nations) and domestic political institutions (e.g., democracy) in shaping economic decisions and outcomes.

Students selecting this field as their major or minor must complete Global Political Economy (IS 713/813) and Political Economy of Development (IS 740/840). M.A. students must select one more seminar within the field; Ph.D. students must choose three more seminars. Students should consult with the field coordinator in selecting these additional courses. Students also have the opportunity to enrich their classroom experience through Independent Study/Directed Research projects with the agreement and under the supervision of the field coordinator.

Coordinator: Jesse Richman (jrichman@odu.edu)

The modeling and simulation (or "M&S") concentration provides students access to some of the most innovative research in international studies. M&S arose as a field of study in response to three complementary trends over the last thirty years. First, the various economic, demographic, cultural and technological processes of globalization have given rise to a range of transnational phenomena that increasingly occur outside the territorial confines of nation-states. The growth of such transnational phenomena has given rise to an important second trend: the growing recognition among scholars of international studies of the inadequacy of traditional levels and methods of analysis predicated upon the territorial logic of sovereign states. Scholars today increasingly seek to develop new methods of analysis. The third trend--the explosive growth of affordable and powerful microcomputing--has equipped researchers with a range of new technologies and methods to understand contemporary international and global phenomena. Together, these three trends have synthesize the field of M&S in international studies.

The M&S in international studies concentration provides GPIS students with an education in the most innovative methods in the field. Students can choose to specialize in methods as diverse as statistics, game theory, agent-based modeling, geographic information sciences, and network analysis. These fields reflect the Hampton Roads area's emergence as a global leader in the modeling and simulation industry. Local M&S firms, government and military employers in the region, and the proximity of Washington, DC (just three hours away) all provide internship and job opportunities for students who specialize in M&S.

At Old Dominion University, graduate study in modeling & simulation is a campus-wide initiative. Each of the University's six colleges offers M&S courses in fields as diverse as mathematics, engineering, health sciences and education. With the approval of the track coordinator, a GPIS M&S student may take courses outside of GPIS and the College of Arts & Letters and receive credit toward his or her M&S field requirements.

Requirements

Students selecting this field as their major or minor field must complete the MSIM 601 Modeling & Simulation Fundamentals course and IS 620 Advanced Statistical Techniques.

Ph.D. students pursuing M&S as the major field will complete five courses including the MSIM fundamentals course.

Ph.D. students pursuing M&S as the minor field and M.A. students choosing M&S as the field of concentration will complete four courses, including the MSIM fundamentals course.

Strategic leadership is a critical quality in government and private sectors. This Concentration seeks to enhance student ability to think and act strategically. The Concentration in Strategic Leadership equips students with the knowledge and skills to assume leadership positions in government and private sectors. It educates students about issues of global relevance and the means to communicate and affect global concerns effectively. Through a contract with the US Navy, GPIS will offer this Concentration to Navy officers at the MA level but the Concentration is open to all admitted MA and PhD students

Coordinator: Dr. Richard Maass (rmaass@odu.edu)

Among the virtues of U.S. Foreign Policy and International Relations as a field of concentration is its multi-faceted approach. By its very nature, the study of this field requires that students develop a thorough understanding of all of the concepts and conditions that serve as key components in the making of foreign policy. These factors include --but need not be limited to-- economic, cultural, and political considerations. Emphasis is placed on the fundamentals of foreign policy: the construction, the execution, the evolution, and the implications. The seminars in this field allow our students to examine the transformation of the U.S. role in the world in the global context of the 20th Century and help them to identify the distinguishing characteristics of the unfolding global order of the 21st Century.

In our intimate seminar setting, debate focuses, for instance, on Cold War and post-Cold War U.S. relations with former communist states and the security issues related to their democratic transformation and economic reform, as well as reemerging ethnic cleavages. Efforts on the part of the U.S. government, as well as activities of non-governmental and private voluntary organizations are examined and principal security issues, such as NATO enlargement, the possession of chemical and biological weapons, adherence to nuclear non-proliferation agreements, and ethnic conflict are discussed. Doctoral candidates are urged, but not required, to take at least one history course dealing with the pre-1945 years.

Students selecting this field as their major or minor must complete U.S. Foreign Policy and World Order (IS 606) as their required field course. M.A. students must select two more courses within the field; Ph.D. students must choose four more courses. Students are strongly advised to take courses other than those listed below only in consultation with the field coordinator.

Students are also advised that they have the opportunity to enrich their classroom experience through Independent Study/Directed Research projects with the agreement and under the supervision of the field coordinator.