Core Courses

PUPOL 100: Introduction to Public Policy

PUPOL 100 is an interdisciplinary course designed to introduce students to basic concepts in policy studies. The course will introduce students to the study of public policy at a time when acute, critical, analysis of governance, policy processes, and the meaning of ‘the public’ are more urgent and necessary than ever. The class will bring our experiences of global pandemic and overlapping crises of capitalism, environment, and human rights into the classroom using an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to public policy as a subject inextricably intertwined with power relations, political beliefs and values, long established institutions, structural inequalities, and the agency of individuals and groups. Students will have an opportunity to focus on a policy area of their choice as they make ‘real-life’ contributions to the policy process by writing an op-ed, conducting a policy analysis, and finally presenting a policy brief to the class. The class is designed to be accessible to all students and requires no previous study of American politics or government.

Monday/Wednesday, 11:40 AM – 2:00 PM (Online) with Sarah Kostecki

Public Policy Electives

PUPOL 20N00: The Global Pandemic and its Impact: Preparing for the Future, Interdisciplinary Perspectives

The impact of the rapid spread of COVID-19 has been felt throughout the world with more than 137 million infections, and 2.95 million deaths. The fallout from a deadly pandemic and a contracted global economy of this magnitude has revealed the deep fissures of existing and chronic inequalities in the world along the dimensions of job security, capacities of overburdened public health systems, limited ability for local economies to withstand shocks and risks, access to technology and digital divides, governance, emergency preparedness and coordination at multiple levels of government. This course will explore the big questions raised by the global pandemic through an interdisciplinary lens of critical inquiry and analytic frameworks that will bring in perspectives from the social sciences, humanities, and STEM fields. The instructors for this course will represent diverse departments/Schools at Hunter and will offer readings and interpretations from their disciplinary focus that is required to gain a holistic understanding of the crisis and its aftermath.

Tuesday/Thursday, 11:40 AM – 2:00 PM (Online) with Catherine Voulgarides and multiple Hunter faculty from across various disciplines.