JOSEF KORBEL SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Degrees that matter
MASTER OF ARTS IN
International Studies Our flagship master’s program combines a broad analysis of traditional international studies with issue-oriented specializations, such as environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility, or humanitarian assistance. This flexible program allows for both internship opportunities and advanced research.
COURSE HIGHLIGHTS
Global Health Affairs
Theories of Non-Violence
This survey course explores international affairs at the intersection of global health, security, development and economics.
Can a state be non-violent? This interactive seminar explores the distinction between power and violence, whether non-violent politics are possible, and the distinction between an ethic of responsibility and an ethic of intention.
OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED BY
INSTITUTE OF INTERNAL EDUCATION
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
CAN SPORTS CREATE PEACE?
Over the course of 2020-21, Timothy Sisk, professor and director of the Institute for Comparitive Regional Studies, will work with partners from Colombia, Nepal, South Africa, El Salvador, Kenya and the Philippines to see whether sport-for-peace goes beyond “heartwarming anecdotes” to effectively contribute to peace building. The two-year project aims to determine whether such
programs are scalable beyond small communities and sustainable over time. Additionally, Sisk hopes to learn how and under what conditions these activities help build peace in conflictaffected countries. He’ll focus his work on refugees, ex-combatants, locallevel efforts and national initiatives. At its conclusion, the project will yield six case study reports--one per country studied--outlining his principal findings.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Sam Zhao
Tamra d’Estrée
Professor, Director of the Center for ChinaU.S. Cooperation and founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China
Associate Professor specializing in conflict resolution
MASTER OF ARTS IN
Global Environmental Sustainability The Korbel School’s newest degree program takes an engaged, interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, enabling students to understand the causes and consequences of global change and analyze the challenges posed by a rapidly warming environment. Graduates will be prepared to hold key positions in important organizations worldwide in public, private and nonprofit sectors.
COURSE HIGHLIGHTS
Global Environmental Governance
Environmental Security
How can sovereign nation-states agree to cooperate on environmental problems? And how can such cooperation include businesses and civil society? Global environmental problems pose seemingly intractable problems for international relations and policy. In this course, practical and theoretical difficulties associated with solving such problems are explored.
This course surveys the expanding literature on environmental impacts on conflict as well as conflict impacts on the environment. It explores the potential for making co-management of valuable natural resources and wildlife a source of cooperation rather than conflict between communities and states.
OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED BY
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Assistant professor and director of the Pardee Center for International Futures, Jonathan Moyer is focused on building data, tools and analyses that explore our deeply interconnected world, including the drivers of sustainable development goals. These goals are the backbone of a global effort, led by the United Nations Development Programme, to improve human well-being within the environmental constraints of the natural world. This research and analysis helps
to inform policy-making around the globe. A recent assessment by the Pardee Center in March of 2020 revealed the world is not on track to achieve many human-development related goals. Some issues, like access to safe sanitation, upper secondary school completion and underweight children are especially challenging, and 28 countries will fail to meet development goals by 2030. The research further reveals deeper challenges related to sustainable development in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries and the subsequent impact to domestic and international aid, policies and prioritization.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Cullen Hendrix
Linda Estelí Mendéz Barrientos
Professor specializing in environmental studies, international peace and security, and international trade
Assistant Professor who specializes on power and institutional change in the design and implementation of sustainability reforms
MASTER OF ARTS IN
Global Economic Affairs This program prepares students to make sense of pressing and complex economic issues — from economic inequality and sustainability to international development and the workings of the global economy.
COURSE HIGHLIGHTS
International Monetary Relations
Development Economics
Investigate the operation and evolution of today’s international monetary system. This course explores both the politics and economics of international monetary negotiations while examining several key public policy debates that concern governments and investors around the world.
This course covers major issues in development economics from both the macro and micro perspectives, and it discusses topics where research is active. The focus is on acquiring the necessary theoretical and empirical skills to understand the challenges related to the socio-economic transformation in developing countries.
OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED BY
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
HOW THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 2008 IMPACTED DEVELOPMENT
Professor Ilene Grabel’s recently published book, “When Things Don’t Fall Apart: Global Financial Governance and Developmental Finance in an Age of Productive Incoherence,” focuses on whether the 2008 financial crisis had a significant impact on global financial governance and developmental finance. Grabel, a professor of international
finance, challenges the conventional wisdom claiming a relatively small impact and instead holds that the global crisis triggered a host of ad hoc responses that are just now playing out in emerging and developing economies. That may be a good thing, she argues, suggesting that the crisis appears to have allowed for a level of experimentation in the design of institutions and policies that could foster financial resilience.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Rachel Epstein
George DeMartino
Professor of international relations and European politics, specializing in economic, security and international organizations
Professor of international economics, specializing in political economy and professional ethics
MASTER OF ARTS IN
International Development This cross-disciplinary program is designed to prepare students for a career where their work will improve economic, social and political conditions in developing nations.
COURSE HIGHLIGHTS
International Futures, Global Change and Development
Financial Management and Fundraising for Nonprofits
This course involves students in the forecasting and analysis process. In the lab, students learn to use the International Futures forecasting system, developed at the Korbel School. That system represents multiple issue areas (demographics, economics, energy, agriculture, education, health, sociopolitical and environment subsystems) and is supported by a sizable database.
This course introduces students to the legal, governance and financial structures that enable nonprofit organizations to function effectively. It also provides a practical orientation to financial management issues, such as budgeting, financial reporting and independent audits, and it combines exploration of the general conceptual issues with an emphasis on practical skill building.
OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED BY
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
CLIMATE AND MIGRATION IN GUATEMALA AND HONDURAS
In spring 2021, Associate Professor Rebecca Galemba was awarded a grant to study how increasing climate variability intersects with social, economic and political determinants of mobility to influence U.S.-bound migration from Western Guatemala and Western Honduras. Prevailing explanations of increasing migration
flows focus on the destabilizing impacts of climate change on agrarian livelihoods or on violence and insecurity. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this research seeks to understand how climate change and insecurity interact in these countries, to regional variations within and between countries in Central America, and how these dynamics inform the decisions of local populations.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Aaron Schneider
Singumbe Muyeba
Professor, specializing in urban politics and development in Latin America, Brazil, India and Central America
Assistant Professor of African studies, specializing in African development, urbanization, property rights and foreign aid
MASTER OF ARTS IN
International Human Rights Students will explore issues of human dignity while taking a critical look at the historical processes, social movements, strategies and institutions designed to promote and protect human rights in our globalized world.
COURSE HIGHLIGHTS
Gender, Security and Human Rights
Forced Labor and Human Trafficking
This course examines the gendered dimensions of security and human rights, with a particular focus on periods of violence and insecurity. Drawing from critical feminist analyses, this class introduces students to the concepts of gendered rights and security.
This course looks at a brief history of slavery, especially as it pertains to the British, West African, West Indies and American triangle. Students examine contemporary issues of forced labor, human trafficking and contemporary slavery, as human trafficking is a complex problem that requires a sophisticated, interdisciplinary critique.
OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED BY
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT EXAMINING WOMEN’S RIGHTS AFTER WAR
In 2018, associate professor Marie Berry published “War, Women and Power: From Violence to Mobilization in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina,” an examination of the rise of women in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina, both of which saw mass violence in the 1990s. In the intervening time, women’s rights made strong gains,
allowing women to rise to leadership positions and lead organizations, but a backward retreat is underway. Through 260 interviews, Berry dug into the relationship between war and women’s political mobilization to understand these cultural shifts and offer clear suggestions to policymakers, organizations and activists at the forefront of women’s rights.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Micheline Ishay
Nader Hashemi
Professor of international human rights, specializing in theory, human rights, foreign policy and the Middle East
Associate Professor and Director of the program on Middle East Studies at the Institute for Comparative Regional Studies. Specializes in political theory, Middle East/Islamic politics and U.S. foreign policy
MASTER OF ARTS IN
International Security Our international security program employs a multidisciplinary approach and prepares students to examine the causes and consequences of threats, as living in a globalized world requires innovative approaches to threat mitigation.
COURSE HIGHLIGHTS
Defense and Security Methods
Intelligence and National Security
This overview course in defense analysis methods provides the foundations to successfully conduct research and analysis in defense-related topics, whether within the national security community, in academia or as a contractor.
This class focuses on the craft of United States intelligence and helps students better understand its role in the making and implementation of national security policy.
OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED BY
Colorado Information Analysis Center
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
CIVIL ACTION AND VIOLENCE
At the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy, professor Deborah Avant leads a team of faculty in exploring nonviolent, civil action in violent settings. Recent events in Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere
make clear a lack of understanding of civil action and its consequences for violence. This research investigates the effects of nonviolent action in conflict settings to better inform efforts to shape security environments, reduce violence and create conditions for long-term peace and stability.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Deborah Avant
Gen. George Casey
Professor, specializing in global governance, non-state actors, pragmatism, networks and civil-military relations
Adjunct faculty and Korbel alumnus, specializing in civil-military relations, conflict resolution and civil protection in armed combat
MASTER OF
Public Policy Our public policy program prepares students to find collaborative, creative solutions to the complicated challenges in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. A truly interdisciplinary degree, the program draws both from the expertise of international policy faculty at Korbel and the breadth of knowledge in other departments like business, education and social work. This provides a local-to-global foundation of learning that prepares our students to make an impact, whether their career leads them to Denver, Washington, DC or Nairobi.
COURSE HIGHLIGHTS
Urban Policy
The Policy Lab
This course introduces students to major policy challenges facing urban areas worldwide with a comparative focus on cities in both the U.S. and across the industrialized and developing world. Topics include socioeconomic development, housing policy, urban mobility, sustainability, civic safety and more. The class features prominent guest speakers from city governments, policy organizations and businesses across sectors.
In this course, student teams work together on an issue for a real-world client. The course is led by faculty who coach the student teams, connect them to clients and identify other experts and policy makers to serve as resources. Teams conclude the course by generating professional consultant reports for their chosen clients.
OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED BY
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
SCRIVNER INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC POLICY
The Korbel School’s Scrivner Institute of Public Policy sits at the intersection of real-world problems and practical policy solutions to those problems. By its nature it is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, bridging knowledge between academic disciplines and today’s most crucial issues. Under the leadership of Naazneen Barma, a leading political scientist whose research spans topics ranging
from peacebuilding and economic development to natural resource politics and global governance. The institute’s 40 affiliate faculty members disseminate public policy research and engage stakeholders across government, industry and community organizations. The institute and MPP program are further enhanced by the expertise of Dean Fritz Mayer, who specializes in climate change legislation, energy and trade policy, and the role of narrative in global politics.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Tricia Olsen
Naazneen Barma
Associate Professor in the Daniels College of Business, faculty member in the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy, and co-director of the Daniels-Korbel Global Business and Corporate Social Responsibility certificate
Associate Professor and Director of the Scrivner Institute of Public Policy
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS
Expand Your Education CERTIFICATES OF SPECIALIZATION
JOINT AND DUAL DEGREES
GLOBAL BUSINESS AND
MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK
CORPORATE SOCIAL
AND MASTER OF ARTS
RESPONSIBILITY MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL
AND MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY
CHANGE AND ADAPTATION MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY GLOBAL HEALTH AFFAIRS
AND JURIS DOCTOR
HOMELAND SECURITY
MASTER OF ARTS IN INTERNATIONAL AND
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE RELIGION AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
“Today our mission is more important than ever. We are taking on the great challenges of our time: making the global economy more equitable and inclusive, responding to new and emerging security threats, advancing human rights and social justice, combating climate change and promoting healthy democracy.” Fritz Mayer Dean, Josef Korbel School of International Studies