2019-2020 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Courses
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IDCE 310 - Intro to Geographic Information Systems
Intro to Geographic Information Systems / Lecture, Laboratory This graduate-level course introduces Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a powerful mapping and analytical tool. Topics include GIS data structure, map projections, and fundamental GIS techniques for spatial analysis. Laboratory exercises concentrate on applying concepts presented in lectures and incorporate two widely used GIS software packages - IDRISI (created by Clarklabs) and ArcGIS (created by ESRI). These exercises include examples of GIS applications in environmental modeling, socio-demographic change and site suitability analyses. Although the course is computer-intensive, no programming background is required. This course counts as skills course for IDCE graduate students.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
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IDCE 314 - Education and Youth in a Global Context
The human population is younger today than ever before. At the same time, education is seen as the most influential source of socialization for youth to become citizens, workers and change agents. This course, “Education and Youth in a Global Context,” is a graduate and upper level undergraduate (juniors and seniors) seminar that explores the natural synergies of youth and education from a global perspective. We will analyze the intersection of education and youth in thematic areas such as: self-discovery, identity and belonging; jobs and livelihood; vulnerability of youth; and the ways in which youth are viewed with suspicion and hope. We will also examine youth and education/schooling in the context of areas such as gender and sexuality, equity and equality, and justice in its various forms. The course aims to integrate practical field-based experience with classroom-based learning. Such practical experiences may take place through opportunities in Worcester and/or internationally (possibly Jamaica, Haiti or South Africa).
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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IDCE 319 - Quantitative Methods and Statistics For Evaluators
Research and evaluation (or Program Monitoring and Evaluation, M&E) spans a wide range of conceptualizations and definitions. Evaluators utilize a wide range of research methods and ways of thinking about and applying research, as they design and conduct evaluations.
Research methods can be either quantitative, qualitative, or a mix of both (i.e. mixed-methods). Similarly, evaluation can be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed, and evaluations draw on these very same research methods and methodologies but they are often used by evaluators somewhat differently than researchers.
What is important is that the methods and design that evaluators choose to use need to be relevant and appropriate to the specific program that is being evaluated and these methods need to be understood and used with the same level of insight, understanding, and rigor that formal academic researchers might do when conducting their own academic research. The nuances and differences between research and evaluation can be confusing at times.
Concentrations:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Effectiveness
Anticipated Terms Offered: Various
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IDCE 326 - Social Network Analysis for Health, Development, and Trafficking
Connections and flows across the world have become increasingly important for knowledge/information sharing, illicit activities coordination, trade, and the spread of misinformation and contagious diseases. Social network analysis (SNA), not to be confused with social networking, is a specialized methodology that examines the patterns of relationships among individuals, community, countries, etc. SNA uses visualization to identify how networks are structured, who the most important or influential people are in a network, social capital, sub-groups, and if time permits, “hidden or shadow networks”. SNA can also be used to evaluate collaboration, coalition, and partnerships.
In this course, students will gain an overview of the theories and methods of social networks including collecting and analyzing network data. Topics that will be explored include: network structures, network position and performance, peer effects, network formation, and network activation-maintenance-disruption. We will draw on examples from development, public health, criminal justice, and social media.
While no prior statistical knowledge will be assumed, a familiarity with using Excel is essential for success in the course. For those who are not very familiar with Microsoft Excel, they will be required to complete an online (free) training course in the first two weeks of the course.
Success in the course will largely depend on students’ curiosity , patience, and not being afraid to look at the world through a different and potentially unfamiliar analytic lens.
Classroom sessions include lectures, discussions, and technical sessions.
Course open to IDCE graduate students; ID seniors or ADP students with previous analytics experience. If space permits, graduate students from other departments may request permission to enroll in the class.
Concentrations:
Monitoring Evaluation, and Learning- Health Equity- Refugees, Forced Migration, and Belonging.
Anticipated Terms Offered: varied
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IDCE 327 - Visualizing Human Rights: Culture, Law, and the Politics of Representation
What do human rights look like? This seminar examines the advocacy strategies NGOs use to make human rights visible to different audiences the general public, government officials, policy-makers, international courts, etc. Particular attention is focused on the tactics NGOs employ to mobilize expert opinions, popular sentiment, and material resources to contest the status quo and to promote the protection of human rights. Students will gain familiarity with some of the key actors, legal frameworks, and best practices used in the “human rights community,” including their main strengths and weaknesses. They will also develop a grounded understanding of human rights campaigns and the role advocacy efforts play in shaping international affairs, legal proceedings, and moral debates. Finally, students will enhance their ability to critically analyze and to ethically employ the digital technologies (e.g. mobile phones, social media, crisis mapping, satellite imagery) that shape how human rights violations are visualized today.
Prerequisites: Instructor’s Permission.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring
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IDCE 328 - Food Security and Climate Change
Food and farming systems are both primary sources of greenhouse gases and highly vulnerable to the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. This course explores how we can reduce carbon emissions associated with food while at the same time enhancing food security under an increasingly variable climate. We begin by exploring the roles of plants, animals, and microbes in farming systems and understanding how they contribute to carbon and nitrogen cycles. Next, we evaluate some of the adaptations developed by farmers and scientists in response to variable environmental conditions including crop diversification, integrated pest management, and agroforestry. In the last part of the course, we consider how national and international policies might address the entangled challenges of food insecurity and climate change, and whether these answer the demands of food and climate justice movements. Throughout the semester, student teams work to model a historical or contemporary farming system, evaluate its contributions and vulnerabilities to climate change, and identify opportunities for mitigation and adaptation. Concentrations: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation; Healthy People Healthy Planet
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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IDCE 332 - Sustainable Development Assessment and Planning
We confront one of the most pressing issues of our time: How can society transition to more sustainable development (SD)? Specifically: How can diverse social groups work in concert to vision a sustainable future, assess existing development, compare the impacts - economic, social, political, cultural and ecological - of alternative development pathways, and move towards more sustainable development? Our responses to SD challenges/opportunities require a synthesis of social and technical approaches in ways rarely seen: a) a dialogue-enabled multi-stakeholder assessment and planning process at the core; b) integrative information/communication and education technologies; c) multi-issue/multi-sector integration models (e.g. water * health * energy * food etc.); and d) ways to navigate inherent complexity, including the political context and the mitigation of corruption. The goal of the class is: to help students think about, design and consider the deployment of 2nd generation sustainable development projects. Case studies are used extensively for discussions, and simulations provide practice and insight. The course includes a major SDA&P Team Project Practicum based on either a domestic development case study or an international one (previous cases include the Cape Cod Wind Farm, the Three Gorges Dam in China, a mining project slated for Indonesia). Students work in their SDA&P Team to do three things: a) critically analyze how positive and negative impacts have been estimated (on what basis), also considering their spatial distribution; b) articulate the socio-economic, political, cultural and ecological contexts of the proposal, incl. the power dynamics; and c) design an improved socio-technical SDA&P process.
Concentrations:
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation - Education for Development - Refugees, Forced Migration, and Belonging - Monitoring, Evaluation, and Effectiveness - Gender and Identity - Conservation and Development - Youth Development - Health Equity - Healthy People, Healthy Planet - Urban Regeneration: Economic and Workforce Development
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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IDCE 334 - Planning and Zoning for Community Developers
This master’s-level course introduces students to the field of planning and zoning for community development. The student will be exposed to a wide range of methods used in planning, while also taking into account some of the challenges inherent in their use. The course work helps students understand the city, imagine the future, and move to action, while building skills in writing, oral, and graphic communication, research and analysis, and team work. This course helps prepare students to join the planning profession or learn how to navigate it in other roles. Students are introduced to the broad scope of the professional field, which involves different functional topics, scales, and sectors. The course work focuses on the practical application of planning theory, with case studies and hands on experience to understand the implications of analysis, the different types of plan-making, and the role of implementation.
This course fulfills requirements for skills and methods across all IDCE programs and is particularly relevant to students in the Community Development and Planning, Environmental Science and Policy, and GIS Programs.
Concentration:
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation - Conservation and Development - Youth Development - Healthy People, Healthy Planet - Urban Regeneration: Economic and Workforce Development
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring
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IDCE 336 - Capstone in Community and Global Health
The MHS Capstone course provides students with an opportunity to apply their graduate training to an initiative in the broad field of community and global health. Capstone students will work in small teams on various aspects of a faculty-led project. The projects will typically be problem-centered, meaning focused on real-world issues and challenges in which faculty are currently engaged as scholars and practitioners. Students will practice identifying key problems and questions, designing strategies to arrive at a deeper understanding of the problem, collecting and analyzing data, and producing final reports and other means of communicating their findings to diverse audiences. In short, the Capstone course offers students an immersive and integrative experience in which they will polish their professional skills through collaborative work. Open to MHS second year students.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Every semester
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IDCE 339 - Spatial Statistics with R
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the broad range of spatial statistical techniques available in the R statistical software to manage, visualize and estimate models applicable to spatial data. This course is ideal for students who want to learn R, study in depth spatial statistical techniques developed by the research community, and apply them to address research questions of their own interest. Topics include an introduction to R, how spatial data are managed and mapped using R, different functions that assess spatial point patterns, extensive capabilities of R to create a variety of spatial weights, global and local tests of spatial autocorrelation, fitting simultaneous and conditional autoregressive models, and geostatistical analysis. Different spatial statistical techniques will be demonstrated during the class and students will work on weekly assignments in order to master the material.
Prerequisites: IDCE302 Python Programming (or another introduction to programming course) and IDCE388 Advanced Vector GIS.
Prerequisites: IDCE302 Python Programming (or another introduction to programming course) and IDCE388 Advanced Vector GIS. Or by permission
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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IDCE 340 - Fundamentals of Youth Work
Youth workers are the front line staff at youth serving organizations, such as the Boys and Girls Club and youth centers. Youth workers have been referred to as “wizards” because they succeed with young people where other individuals and institutions have failed. Despite the critical role youth workers play in the lives of young people, they receive very little professional development or training; this comes to the detriment of the youth, the youth workers, and the field. There are emerging efforts in the United States to professionalize youth work and provide youth workers with critical training. This course is a one strategy to that end.
This course covers how to work with young people in a positive youth development framework-focusing on building protective factors (e.g. positive discipline, making referrals, and building relationships with families), reducing risk factors (e.g. violence, mental health problems, sexual behavior, and substance abuse) and building professional skills in program development and management. Reflection on youth work practice will be a key teaching and learning strategy in the course. Students in this class will be both community youth workers as well as Clark students. For Clark students who are not currently doing youth work, they will be matched with youth workers for an apprenticeship opportunity. Each week, a different youth development professional in the greater Worcester area will co-facilitate the course session. In this way, students have the opportunity to network with those working in the field.
Concentration:
Youth Development
Anticipated Terms Offered: Anually
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IDCE 341 - Nongovernment Organizations: Catalysts for Development
Many practitioners and theoreticians, disillusioned with governments in the development process, propose building nongovernment organizations (NGOs) as development catalysts. This seminar explores the proposal in light of the difficulties and progress NGOs have experienced.
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IDCE 342 - Dynamic Modeling of Human/Environment Systems
The transition to “sustainable futures” will be achieved through a process of social-technical integration and innovation. Pivotal to this innovation is the participatory application of environmental models to represent baseline systems and to forecast what those systems may look like in the future. Environmental systems are complex, open systems. The course material has three parts: 1) An overview of methods and approaches to modeling; 2) the state of the art for modeling environmental processes; and 3) tools and models for management. Current and future developments are also discussed. The approach to the course is one that simplifies complex systems, introducing students to modeling software and tools using practical examples from climatology, ecology, hydrology, geomorphology and engineering. A group project applies one model or a cluster of models to a real place/issue of interest to students. The course text has an associated website containing color images, links to web resources and chapter support pages, including data sets relating to case studies, exercises and model animations.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall
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IDCE 343 - Understanding and Responding to the Migrant/Refugee Challenge
This course is a Collaborative Final Project (CFP).lthough our world has seen forced migrations in the 20th Century in various places, the early 21st Century seems to be presenting new levels of complexity around migrations. The drivers are many, varied, and they may be conspiring: social and political violence and conflict; economic stress/anxiety and injustice; food and water insecurity/scarcity; and ecological stressors or uncertainty, including climate change. Given this complexity, there are challenges both on the assessment side (measuring people on the move and drivers) and the societal response side (mitigation and adaptive management by states, NGOS and other actors). Key questions form our roadmap: 1) What are the drivers and stressors of forced migration, and what are the locations and magnitudes of flows of people? 2) What are the degrees of agency, strategies, motivations, and concerns of movers (why do some move, others not)? 3) What is the status of existing support networks to receive and process immigrants across the Southern Border? 4) What do migrants’ own networks like? 5) Are there case studies of best practices we can apply to the US? 6) What does current US Immigration Law and Policy look like? 7) What would a more humane, effective Immigration Law and Policy look like? 8) What are the implications of U.S. socio-demographic trends and projections for immigration policy, society and the economy?
We will consider four stakeholder groups: 1) migrants and refugees themselves; 2) volunteer agencies (VOLAGs) and groups (e.g. GR, Catholic Charities, Sanctuary City Advocacy Groups); 3) government agencies (e.g. Massachusetts Office for Refugees & Immigrants); and 4) policy makers (state and federal lawmakers). There will be a 5-day field visit in Week 5 to Worcester, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. to meet with immigrants, community groups and NGOs, and government agencies working on the frontline of immigrant support services and refugee resettlement in their respective urban/regional contexts. The graded CFP deliverable will take the form of Assessment/Needs Reports and/or Response/Action Plans for one of the four specific stakeholder groups. The overarching question is: How can we strengthen the work of stakeholder X? What capacities are strategic?
Concentrations:
Refugees & Forced Migration- Healthy People/Healthy Planet- Climate Change Impacts & Adaptation- Monitoring Evaluation & Effectiveness.
Prerequisites: AS A CFP COURSE, IT IS EXPECTED STUDENTS WILL TAKE IT IN THEIR GRADUATING YEAR (FALL OR SPRING).
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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IDCE 351 - Global Environmental Issues: Science, Technology and Policy
Many environmental problems are not only issues for a local region or even a country, but rather are pervasive problems affecting the entire planet. Persistent pollutants, air and water pollution, habitat loss, and species extinction were recognized early on, followed by truly global scope problems such as ozone depletion and climate change. Undergirding the increased focus on global problems were complex questions about resource scarcity, population and to what came to be known as sustainable development. This course investigates these global environmental problems, first by examining and assessing the science behind several of these issues, and then by situating each in its historical and policy context. In doing so, we establish both an understanding of the science and the basic elements of each issues as well as develop a critical perspective on how each issue overlaps with questions of development, security, equity, and environmental protection.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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IDCE 355 - Epidemiology and Biostatistics
This course will explore current issues in global health from a multidisciplinary perspective, with emphasis on the tools of epidemiology. At a time of immense global changes, we will examine the changing spatial and temporal patterns of disease in developing and industrialized countries; the major social, demographic, and environmental determinants of health and health disparities; and public-health approaches to global health problems at the population level. The course will prepare you to use the scientific and medical literature to research public-health problems; integrate a range of disciplinary perspectives on health; and analyze public-health problems from a population perspective. The course has a seminar format with class discussion and student presentations. Case studies will include problems related to environmental health, such as air pollution and respiratory conditions; infectious diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS; and chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring
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IDCE 358 - Advanced Topics in International Development
Development and the environment are linked by concepts such as sustainability, vulnerability, and most recently, resilience. How development and the environment come together around these concepts depends on the issue at hand - whether climate change adaptation or mitigation, conservation, or natural resource governance. Further, this intersection depends on who we are talking about - their gender, age, social rank, livelihoods, religion, etc. This course will span the academic literature, policy documents, and donor guidance frameworks to help us understand what sustainability, vulnerability and resilience reveal and obscure for contemporary development in the anthropocene.
May be repeatable for credit.
FALL 2019 TOPIC- Section 1: Policy Analysis
Nonprofit and public affairs professionals are faced with finding viable solutions to increasingly complex public problems-from raising revenue to fix congested roadways to reducing poverty. To do so they rely on policy analysts to investigate problems, formulate solutions, forecast outcomes, and choose between competing policy proposals. This course introduces students to the major institutions and processes involved in the development and implementation of public policy in the United States. We will examine why some problems reach the public agenda, why some solutions are adopted and others rejected, and why some policies appear to succeed while others appear to fail. The course will also explore a selection of current issues in American public policy that can impact the work of nonprofit and public affairs professionals such as criminal justice, social welfare, immigration, education, health, and the environment. This course is designed to strengthen students’ problem-solving, analytic, and research skills in defining and crafting solutions to public problems.
FALL 2019 TOPIC- Section 2: Advanced Topics: The Policy and Practice of International Climate Negotiations
Since 1994, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been framework under which countries and the international community has aimed to formulate climate policy that would “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the UNFCCC and facilitate their participation in the annual Convention of the Parties (COP). Teaching takes place both in the classroom and in an online learning community consisting of several academic institutions. Student participants from different universities and programs with Observer Status to the COP will be exposed to the policy and practice of international climate negotiations and will follow current issues to be discussed at the COP, including cross cutting issues such as gender that also influence country positions on environmental issues. Students will then support the efforts of the young Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organizations (RINGO) constituency to the UNFCCC by tracking these issues and preparing report-backs for the course participants, the broader RINGO group, and the public. Some of the students will have the opportunity to attend the COP as part of the Clark University delegation.
This course has three main objectives:
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Provide students with the knowledge and networks to actively participate in the Convention of the Parties and support the RINGO constituency group by learning about the issues for this COP and tracking these issues through the negotiations
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Promote engagement and interaction with climate science and policy by producing content for social media, delivering daily report-backs on negotiations, and other forms of communication (e.g. side events, media releases, op-eds, contributing to RINGO position statements, etc.)
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Foster collaborations among young and early career students from different institutions interested in international policy issues
Concentration: Education and Development- Youth Development- Refugee, Forced Migration and Belonging- Gender and Identity - Conservation and Development
Anticipated Terms Offered: varied
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IDCE 360 - Development Theory
An interdisciplinary graduate seminar which provides a critical overview of classical and contemporary theories of development by introducing students to writings on development across many disciplines (political economy, anthropology, geography, sociology, feminist theory). The seminar encourages students to think historically, politically and analytically about the multiplicity of development processes and the complex relations of power that underlie them.
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IDCE 361 - Development Program and Project Management
This course is an introduction to the professional field of development management. Over the semester, we will explore patterns of success and failure; obstacles to and possibilities for effective, project-induced change; intended and unintended effects of intervention; and the challenge of sustainability. The course methodology emphasizes case studies, action learning, and group participation and encourages students to take an active part in the course through project teams, discussions, working groups, and role-playing sessions. We begin the course with discussions of the political and institutional contexts of development management and strategic planning. The second part of the course carries us through the project cycle, including: participatory project identification; needs assessment and planning; construction of logical frameworks; professional communication and proposal writing; design of performance indicators; budgeting; and monitoring and evaluation. We then conclude with discussions of leadership and project implementation, then explore advocacy as an example of a non-project approach to social change.
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IDCE 362 - Energy System Transitions
This course explores energy systems, both the technological and social dimensions, with a focus on the potential for a low-carbon transition in electricity systems, transportation systems, and other energy systems (buildings, manufacturing, etc). The social structures and processes that reinforce and perpetuate fossil fuel reliance will be interrogated, as will the opportunities and challenges of alternatives. Fundamental tensions associated with systemic versus incremental change, centralized versus decentralized systems, and infrastructural lock-in versus flexibility will be explored through semester-long team projects in which students will contribute to existing, on-going, actual initiatives designed to advance energy system change. These projects will require students to learn through assessment of and engagement with non-academic “real-world” energy system transition initiatives.
Prerequisites:
EN 101 Environmental Science and Policy: Introductory Case Studies
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring
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IDCE 365 - Cities, Regions, Climate Change & Health
This course is a collaborative final project (CFP) course. Since 2007, our planet has become a majority urban-dwellers world - and the trend since then is strongly upward. Urbanization is particularly rapid in mid-sized cities in the so-called ‘developing world’, but mega-cities (>10M people) are also on the rise. Climate change can impact urban areas and the regions in which they are situated in powerful ways: more intense, frequent rainstorms that cause flooding and mudslides; wildfires that consume forests and dwellings; droughts that imperil water and food security; and heat waves that stress humans and other organisms. All of these impacts directly and indirectly affect human health and wellbeing, comprising a complex conspiracy of risk factors that are poorly understood, and even more poorly mitigated. By considering not just cities but their surrounding regions, we will capture interactions between them (e.g. migrations of people, trade relations, knowledge exchange); such interactions are also poorly understood in terms of dynamic, shifting impacts.
Cities/regions exemplify dynamic social-ecological systems to which climate change introduces unprecedented impacts and higher levels of uncertainty, demanding novel approaches to research and practice. Theoretical bases, readings and perspectives on the science side include sustainability science, social/environmental determinants of health; risk and vulnerability analysis; and urban ecology. On the policy/practice side, environmental and social impacts assessment, and integrative collaborative project design are used. As a CFP, there is a core practicum: Students will work in teams of 4-5 to interrogate urban/regional sustainability, climate-related adaptations and resilience, as well as risks and mitigations of a case study city/region of their choosing. There will be a 5-day field visit in Week 6 to cities in the Northeast, including Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C. - as well as some coastal and inland communities in those cities’ surrounding regions - to meet with government agencies, community groups and NGOs working on the frontline of urban sustainability and climate-change adaptation.
Concentrations:
Climate Change Impacts & Adaptation- Healthy People/Healthy Planet- Monitoring Evaluation & Effectiveness- Education for Development.
Prerequisites: AS A CFP COURSE, IT IS EXPECTED STUDENTS WILL TAKE IT IN THEIR GRADUATING YEAR (FALL OR SPRING)
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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IDCE 366 - Principles of Negotiation and Mediation: An Overview of Conflict Resolution Approaches
This skills-based course offers an overview of the principles of conflict management that can be applied internationally as well as interpersonally. A general framework for the understanding of conflict is presented that Includes: power-, needs-, interest-, and relationship-based conceptualizations of conflict management. Gives students a theoretical as well as practical experience of working effectively in conflict contexts. It explores some of the psychological obstacles that impede the resolution and implementation process and engages in a number of experiential exercises that help the student develop the wide range of skills needed to transform conflict relationships.
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IDCE 370 - Emerging Scientific Worldviews and Global Sustainability
In this course, alternative scientific worldviews are considered as potential means of reconciling the destructive relationship between modern civilization and the Earth, and the rift in modern science between matter and spirit. Our basis is a critical and creative exploration of the literature, supplemented by numerous video screenings, guest lectures and intellectually stimulating discussions. We will begin by critically examining defining characteristics of the dominating scientific view of the Earth and universe and themes such as modernism, materialism, reductionism and duality. We will explore how these attributes are influencing scientific conduct, government policy and human behavior, and consider various limitations and flaws of this worldview from the perspective of contemporary sustainability and social challenges. Emerging and alternative scientific paradigms are then examined from diverse fields such as ecology, biology, quantum physics, neuroscience and life sciences. Other alternative worldviews scrutinized include Gaia theory, non-duality and the unified field, in addition to indigenous worldviews and spirituality. Insights from these diverse areas of inquiry are meshed together to propose an alternative view of humanity, the Earth and universe based on principles such as consciousness, oneness, non-duality, interconnectedness and holism. It will be argued that this could provide the necessary human intelligence to guide society towards sustainability and unprecedented human development throughout this century. The practical and policy implications of this emerging vision of reality will also be thoroughly explored in relation to diverse areas such as climate change, environmental management, international politics, human and economic development, health and agriculture.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring
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IDCE 376 - Spatial Database Development
Spatial database development, a key component of GIS project management, focuses on the organization of location-based data. Participants will learn database development best practices, data collection and standardization, and how to apply topological rules to a database. Throughout the course, students will work on final database projects which will build skills required in professional GIS positions, with an emphasis on collaboration and real-world applications of data.
Prerequisites: P=IDCE 310
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IDCE 381 - Critical Cartographies: Mapping Culture, History, and Power
This interdisciplinary seminar explores the political and cultural effects of cartographic projects in different colonial and post-colonial settings. The first half of the course focuses on the role map-making technologies have played in these projects, while the second half directs attention on a series of case-studies. These include: state formation, the management of mobile populations, the creation of political forests, and the re-territoralization of sovereignty following the neo-liberal turn, among others.
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IDCE 388 - Advanced Vector GIS
This course builds upon the concepts of GIS introduced in Introduction to GIS, and focuses on the more advanced analytical vector GIS tools. Topics include exploratory spatial data analysis, spatial statistics, interpolation techniques, 3D data presentation and analysis, network analysis and multi-criteria decision making. Hands-on laboratory exercises illustrate GIS applications in natural resource management, global change, environmental justice, urban and environmental planning, public health, and census data analysis. Students work individually and in groups to develop solutions to a weekly spatial problem, using ArcGIS or GeoDa software. Final project is required. Knowledge of basic statistics is useful. This is a prerequisite for the 5th year masters program and is a requirement for the GISDE masters program.
Prerequisites: GEOG 190 /GEOG 390 /IDCE 310 .
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring
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IDCE 391 - M.S. GIS Professional Seminar
This seminar gives a foundation for the Master of Science Program in Geographic Information Sciences and prepares students for careers after graduation. The specific objectives are: to examine topics concerning the current state of GIS profession; to provide resources and help students develop their professional online presence and to practice skills necessary in the professional world. Course compomemnts include readings, in-class discussions, professional development activities, and guest speakers. The Seminar is restricted to M.S. GIS students.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Anualy
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IDCE 397 - Master’s Thesis
Master’s degree candidates may register while working on research for their thesis or published paper.
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IDCE 398 - Internship
Academic experience taking place in the field with an opportunity to earn credit.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor needed.
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IDCE 399 - Directed Study
Students construct an independent study course on a topic approved and directed by a faculty member. Offered for variable credit.
Anticipated Terms Offered: every
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IDCE 30101 - The Political Economy of Food and the Ethics of Eating
Is it possible to eat in an ethical fashion in world with more than seven billion people? What would this entail? And what are the likely consequences of our choices upon others as well as the environment?
This course examines the evolving political-economy and ethics of food production, distribution, and consumption and its effects upon our ecosystems, animal welfare, worker safety, consumer health, and cultural identities. Course readings introduce different theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches to the study of what we eat. They range from: historical accounts to food exposés and detailed empirical studies to forecasts of what we will eat in the future. All of them are provocative and they provide us with the opportunity to develop critical perspectives on the following:
1)The development of a global food system and the industrial techniques used to sustain it: confinement livestock operations, genetic homogenization, fisheries and aquaculture, and (trans-) national supply chain management;
2)Contemporary debates over food safety: genetically modified organisms, oversight mechanisms, regulatory regimes, famine prevention and humanitarian relief;
3)The possibilities and limits of ethical alternatives: organics, locavore, fair trade, biotech, and food sovereignty.
Concentrations
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation - Conservation and Development - Health Equity - Healthy People, Healthy Planet
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall
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IDCE 30103 - Networks and Analytics of Development
This course introduces students to advanced analysis of data related to development and interpretation and communication of quantitative data. We begin with an overview of theoretical approaches to data analysis, explore their use, and guide students in applying them to individual projects. We will learn ways of organizing, analyzing, visualizing, and presenting data from publicly available national and international databases. The first half of the semester will include quantitative analytics, visualization, and presentation of health-related data. The second half of the semester will consist of ways of researching mobile, hidden, and vulnerable populations using social network analysis. Social network analysis, not to be confused with social networking, is a specialized methodology that examines the patterns of relationships among individuals, community, countries, etc. to identify who the most important people are in a network, who has the most influence or social capital, sub-groups, and if time permits, “hidden or shadow networks”. SNA can also be used to evaluate collaboration, coalition, and partnership networks.
This course will assume that students will have basic information/quantitative literacy and are not intimidated by data and numbers.
Classroom sessions include lectures, discussions, and lab sessions. Course open to IDCE graduate students; ID seniors or ADP students with previous analytics experience. If space permits, graduate students from other departments may request permission to enroll in the class.
Concentrations
Refugees, Forced Migration, and Belonging - Monitoring, Evaluation, and Effectiveness - Gender and Identity - Health Equity
Anticipated Terms Offered: Spring 2017
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IDCE 30104 - Citizen Engagement in Urban Design
The course will expose students to the tools and techniques needed to enhance citizen engagement in urban design, urban revitalization, urban environmental preservation, and public space management and restoration. Course draws from domestic and international case studies.
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IDCE 30106 - Political Economy of Urban and Regional Revitalization
We demand quite a bit of our regional economies: we want them to grow and to provide jobs; we want those jobs to provide a living wage. We want the private enterprises that comprise the urban and regional economies to earn enough profit or generate enough revenue to make significant contributions to workers’ health care and pensions, on the one hand, and to public budgets in order to fund a range of public goods including schools, roads, and environmental stewardship, on the other. In short, we care about the functioning of the urban and regional economy, the outputs of that economy, and the distribution of those outputs. Some metropolitan regions are on an upward trajectory on the “bundle of these indicators” (i.e., providing sufficient jobs at living wages in the context of a metropolitan regional economy where a high quality of life is widely enjoyed). Others, however, are not. This course will take a political economy approach to examining proposals for inventions that are aimed at significantly altering metropolitan regional trajectories.
Anticipated Terms Offered: varied
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IDCE 30110 - Social Policy: Qualitative methods for design and analysis
This course will prepare students to conduct qualitative research that informs the design and analysis of social policies related to poverty and inequality. It will explore how qualitative research methods are utilized to advance the field’s understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality, and how this kind of policy research can inform the development of policy alternatives. Research techniques to be covered in the course include: question formulation; semi-structured interviews; focus groups; participant observation and field methods; case study research; and participatory action and community-based research. The semester will also include case profiles of how qualitative research can influence policy makers.
Concentration:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Effectiveness
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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IDCE 30111 - Urban Development: Process and Change
This graduate level course provides students with a framework for understanding the complexity of change in urban environments, including city building, shrinking cities, and regeneration. The course looks at current challenges and new strategies in cities experiencing job and population loss (“gateway” or “legacy” cities), as well as the situation facing cities that are rapidly expanding throughout the world. The course will pursue several themes throughout: 1) the role of equity in urban development; 2) the challenge of resiliency in the face of changing external forces, and 3) the reality on the ground of real estate, governance, local culture, and politics that affect outcomes. The course is open to Clark University graduate students and prospective ADP students in their senior year, who would take this as a graduate level course.
Concentrations:
Conservation and Development- Refugees, Forced Migration, and Belonging- Youth Development - Urban Regeneration: Economic and Workforce Development
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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IDCE 30120 - Analytics & Visualization for Development
This course introduces students to basic methods of analysis and visualization of quantitative data. We begin with an overview of big data in development, theoretical approaches to data analysis, explore some applications in the fields of health and development (among other topics). Students will learn ways of locating, cleaning/wrangling, organizing, analyzing, visualizing, and presenting data from publicly available national and international databases.
This course will merely give students a taste of what data analysis is about, and how you can use it to make effective and well-thought-out decisions. We will not, unfortunately, dig too deeply into analytics, especially not machine learning or AI (although that would be tons of fun!). By the end of the module, students will be comfortable enough with the process of analyzing and visualizing data that they might want to pursue it further on their own.
While no prior statistical knowledge will be assumed, a familiarity with using Excel is essential for success in the course. For those who are not very familiar with Microsoft Excel, they will be required to complete an online (free) training course in the first two weeks of the course.
Success in the course will largely depend on students’ curiosity , patience, and not being afraid to look at the world through a different and potentially unfamiliar analytic lens. Classroom sessions include lectures, discussions, and technical sessions. Course open to IDCE graduate students; ID seniors or ADP students with previous analytics experience. If space permits, graduate students from other departments may request permission to enroll in the class.
Concentrations:
Monitoring Evaluation, and Learning- Health Equity- Healthy People, Healthy Planet- Refugees, Forced Migration, and Belonging
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-Annually
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IDCE 30121 - Food Systems: Place, Politics and Policy
Agriculture and animal production have changed dramatically over the last century, especially after WWII, bringing higher yields and less expensive food to people. The changes also brought considerable costs to the natural environment and human (and animal) health. The “agribusiness model”, as we have termed the combination of low-cost, industrial, mechanized, fertilizer-intensive food production, has fueled global climate change, which in turn is dramatically shifting yields and costs, and our strategies to feed people. This course will investigate the causes and consequences of the transformation, and alternative pathways to protect communities against the negative impact of such large-scale transformation. We will explore, first, the economic and political determinants of the industrialization of food and animal production: the agribusiness model and its diffusion throughout the world. The drivers of the agribusiness model are highly concentrated corporate entities, which control the production of agricultural commodities, and rely upon vast supply chains to move products from production to the consumer throughout the world. The global control and outreach capacity of such corporate entities is backed-up by a robust scientific and political complex whose main objectives are not necessarily to feed the growing population of the planet. The second section of the course will be devoted to understand and dissect in greater depth the joint effects of global climate change and the agribusiness model on the environment and health of territories, with a focus on trade, gender, health disparities, and food waste. The third section of the course will be devoted to examine the challenges of development for local and regional food systems, with a special emphasis on policy instruments, collective action, and community development. While the focus of the course is on the United States, we examine a variety of topics in a comparative and global perspective. The course has a seminar format.
Concentrations:
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation- Healthy People, Healthy Planet- Urban Regeneration: Economic and Workforce Development
May be repeatable for credit one time.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Spring
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IDCE 30185 - Sustainability and the Role of Higher Education
Sustainability and the Role of Higher Education Course. This course explores both the theory and practice of sustainability and sustainable development by examining the role of higher education in promoting change toward sustainability. The societal role of higher education involves more than providing formal course instruction for enrolled students; institutions of higher education are also critical places of discovery and innovation, centers for political discourse, and catalysts for political action and social change. This course explores the unique potential that institutions of higher education have to contribute to a sustainability transition. The focus on the university provides a lens for examining how organizations with complex structures make a myriad of decisions with environmental consequences, a context for considering the broad role of education in sustainable development, and a framework and perspective with direct and personal connections for us consider the challenges of promoting sustainability. In addition to reading and writing about the challenges of sustainability and the role of the university in promoting sustainable practices in society, we will engage directly with the challenges associated with promoting sustainable behavior and fostering institutional and social change through team projects right here in the Clark and Worcester communities. Graduate students enrolled in this course should be prepared to take on a leadership role with an associated team of undergraduate students.
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IDCE 30186 - Social Enterprise Practicum
This course involves the operation and organizational development of a 501c3 nonprofit corporation, the Community Development Training Institute (CDTI). The organization is transitioning from historic (1984) to a new governance structure–a student-run and inspired nonprofit, operated by graduate students and alumni at Clark University. The hope is to create a solid base in professional skill areas, to develop relationship networks and begin formulating training and consultancy resources to use in the future. The goal is use CDTI as an institutional base where we can promote mainstream classic and alternative community development tools and implementation strategies. In the process, students seek to shift community development discourse and practice by employing socially and ecologically transformative processes and practices. This will be accomplished by offering consultancy services and offering our innovative skills and ideas to clients. Some of this will be fee based and pro bono. Additionally, we will be promoting alternative tools and strategies by developing training programs for interested community organizations. The students will be responsible for the successful and ongoing operations of CDTI. During the ‘credit period’ with CDTI, students will learn about social enterprise governance which will prepare them for possible board membership after the credit period. During the credit period, students will provide staffing capabilities and consultancy to the CDTI student board. Board membership is solely by invitation only, extended after demonstration of capabilities, post-credit period time commitment, interest, and team-work propensities.
A component of the work will also be grounded in theory with academic elements; namely, exploring state of the art community development strategies, social enterprise and implementation accompanied by corresponding literature and research.
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IDCE 30196 - Special Topics in Community and Global Health
This course is meant to engage in deeper conversations about different topics related to Community and Global Health (GCH). The course will be in a seminar format.
The topics covered range from methods, to theories, to applications from GCH emerging scholarship. May be repeatable for credit.
FALL 2019 TOPIC: Community and Global Health
This course will examine a number of key theories that have been used in health promotion globally (e.g., health belief, stages of change, PRECEDE-PROCEED and social-ecological models, among others). We will draw on real-world examples to explore the strengths and weaknesses of these various approaches. Additionally, students will be introduced to detailed case studies of specific health “interventions”, and will explore why some interventions succeed and others fail. Case studies will largely be drawn from the Global South and will focus, among others, on infectious disease control programs (e.g., TB, malaria), reproductive health (e.g., maternal health), sexual health (e.g., sexually transmitted infections) and child health (e.g., immunization campaigns). The course will discuss these issues from a multi-disciplinary lens that encompasses anthropological, feminist, global health and public health perspectives.
Course Designation/Attribute: No
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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IDCE 30205 - Climate Change, Energy and Development
This course explores climate change, energy and development from multiple perspectives, disciplines and scales. Fusing perspectives from both the natural and social sciences, this interdisciplinary course will grapple with diverse themes and issues at the intersection of environmental science and policy. Climate change related topics deal with the evolving science of climate change, current observations, extreme weather and long term impacts, in addition to climate ethics and international climate governance. Our analysis of climate change will also include an examination of geoengineering, carbon capture and storage and the phenomenon of climate denial. Energy related themes deal with renewable energy (wind and solar), gas fracking, methane hydrates and an examination of the pros and cons of nuclear energy. Development dimensions then deal with human dimensions of climate change and energy challenges and address ethical and economic perspectives, diet and food and human security. This is a graduate level course, required for all Environmental Science and Policy (ES&P) graduate students.
Concentrations
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation - Healthy People, Healthy Planet - Urban Regeneration: Economic and Workforce Development
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring
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IDCE 30213 - Master’s Final Research Paper
A year long seminar for second-year IDCE master’s degree students writing their final research paper.
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IDCE 30216 - Sustainable Fisheries Management
This course explores the complexities of marine and freshwater fisheries and aquaculture, including basic fish science and monitoring, policy and regulation. The emphasis is on vulnerable fish stocks under international multilateral treaties and policies. A range of scales and perspectives will be used: small-scale fisheries and communities; international fisheries and the Law of the High Seas; and aquaculture including shell fish, shrimp and salmon. Students will use case studies from specific fish treaties as the basis for team research on sustainable fisheries science and policy. The course is highly interdisciplinary and deals with national and international controversial topics such as fish science and monitoring, marine sanctuaries and IUU (illegal, un-flagged and unregulated) fisheries.
Anticipated Terms Offered: varied
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IDCE 30217 - Economic Fundamentals for International Development
This course is primarily intended for students entering the IDCE masters program. Its objectives are to introduce economic history, as well as microeconomics and macroeconomics to the noneconomist, while illustrating practical applications of these techniques in real-world situations. A flexible seminar format is used, in recognition of the diverse backgrounds and perspectives that students bring to this class.
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IDCE 30222 - Advanced Topics in Development Theory
Advanced Topics in Development Theory. This seminar provides students with an opportunity to engage in an in-depth study of some classical theorists of modernity and development. It aims to establish firm theoretical and textual foundations for the future study of politics, economics, culture and social relations related to “third world development.” Topics vary. May be repeatable for credit.
Spring 2020 TOPIC: ADVANCED MONITORING AND EVALUATION
This courses is for students who intend to ‘practice’ M&E professionally and who have successfully completed an introductory M&E course (including training in qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation methods), and/or who have substantial prior experience working in program M&E or a closely related field. It will focus on exploring the range of M&E methods and methodologies and M&E systems and will provide opportunities for applying and practicing these modes and methods. The course aims to enable students practitioners to develop deeper understanding of the characteristics of an effective M&E system, review approaches to planning for M&E, including Theory of Change, select and use appropriate data collection methods and tools effectively, consider principles and steps in data analysis and the issue of quality of evidence, toward improved M&E within projects, programs, and organizations. This course will have a substantial professional and applied component which will run concurrently and parallel with the regular weekly course/class meetings and workshops.
Anticipated Terms Offered: typically in the spring
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IDCE 30238 - Public Communication Seminar
This master’s level course introduces students to public presentation, professional writing, and record keeping skills as used in public and private planning practice and the community development field.
Gain experience verbally communicating professional objectives, research findings, and various viewpoints through improved public presentation skills in informal and formal settings. Obtain necessary tools for producing professional written documents and organized and accurate record keeping principles as it relates to the project management and public administration tasks of planners and community development practitioners. Students will also become familiar with strategies to avoid common communication pitfalls in the field. The class format is structured around various public speaking activities with opportunities for peer and instructor feedback as well short, focused technical writing tasks that reflect practicing planners’ typical assignments
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IDCE 30239 - Microfinance, Gender & Newliberalism
Today, micro-finance is the dominant policy in the poverty alleviation strategies world-wide. The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Mohammad Yunus, a leader in micro-finance in Bangladesh. Increasingly micro-finance is used as important instrument in development policies concerned with income generation, sustainable development, gender inequality, empowerment, reproductive health, education, good governance etc., Hence, the need to develop increasingly flexible, responsive and sustainable financial products constitutes perhaps the most compelling challenge facing in development interventions. This course will take an in-depth critical look at micro-finance from developmental, political economy and operational perspectives. It is based on case studies and analysis of microfinance models and experiences in different geographical regions in order to understand the strengths and weaknesses of micro-finance based financial intermediation in development. It will also examine the strategic planning, implementation and evaluation strategies of micro-finance projects. The purpose is to provide a sound theoretical and practical knowledge of micro-finance.
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IDCE 30241 - Environmental Toxicology
Focuses on the assessment of hazardous properties of toxic chemicals in the environment and on development of public-health policy. Covers the principles of absorption, distribution, excretion, and toxic action of chemicals on humans; animal testing; and human epidemiology. Also covers assessment of public-health risks on the basis of animal and human test results, development of standards for air and water contaminants, and uncertainty in regulating hazardous chemicals.
Prerequisites: One semester of organic chemistry or permission of the instructor.
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IDCE 30245 - Natural Resource Management
Natural resource management is the planning and operation of ecosystem components and processes for human benefit. Management of natural resources can be approached from many sometimes conflicting perspectives such as exploitation versus conservation. The purpose of this course is to explore the science of natural resource management by examining the fundamental topics that include ecology, climatology, and economics; latest concepts and technology such as mathematical modeling and life cycle analysis; and policy and institutional frameworks such as planning and policy development.
Concentrations
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation - Monitoring, Evaluation, and Effectiveness - Conservation and Development - Healthy People, Healthy Planet - Urban Regeneration: Economic and Workforce Development
Anticipated Terms Offered: varied
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IDCE 30247 - Development Economics
You simply cannot understand and practice development without having a good grasp of economics. This course is designed to help you understand how economists produce knowledge, and their concepts, models, specific methodologies and analytical processes, so that you will know how they theorize and formulate policies relating to development.
The first part of the course will introduce you to the essential concepts in micro and macroeconomics in order to provide a foundation for understanding development economics. This part will also include a brief history of economic thought from classical to modern period. The second part of the course will explore topics in development economics.
Development economics is the branch of economics that studies theoretical and policy issues relating to economic development in developing countries. Development has been one of the liveliest and thought provoking areas in economics. Over the past two decades there have been many advances in mainstream economic theory, which have allowed economists to reformulate some age-old questions and seek new answers. This course will introduce you to these advances and give you a feel of the debates that have ensued, and their implications for development.
Development economics will take you through an exciting journey that will acquaint you with new ideas and new ways of answering fundamental questions about economic development. These are the very ideas that have enriched our understanding of the processes that ultimately engender economic development. The course has a broad reach and is relevant for scholars and practitioners. It is designed to equip you with the theoretical and applied tools that will allow you to analyze the problems faced by deprived communities across the world in a systematic and analytical way.
We will explore economics development policies since World War II. We will trace the interplay of the theory and the practice of economic development from the state-led, import-substituting industrialization that was the dominant development paradigm in the 1950s and 1960s, to the rise of dependency analysis in the 1960s and ‘neostructuralism’ of the 1970s, the resurgence of market-oriented policies in the 1980s, the ‘second generation’ reforms of the 1990s, and the current questioning of free market economics.
The scope of the course is strictly limited to how mainstream economists think about policy issues relating to development. It will provide an introduction to development economics. Topics covered include:
(a) conceptual approaches to economic development; (b) theories and facts pertaining to economic growth, inequality, poverty, rural-urban transformation, population and human development; (d) development policy issues including, food security, education, health, population, land reform, credit, industrial policy and globalization; governance; conflict and security.
Anticipated Terms Offered: varied
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IDCE 30250 - People and Places: Theories of Community Development and Planning
This course deepens students’ understanding of social, economic, and political forces that shape places. Students learn to critique assumptions, values, and methods of various approaches in order to more effectively apply them to actual cases. Topics covered include political economy of urban areas, race, social construction of space, and planning models and theories.
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IDCE 30253 - Sustainable Communities
Communities around the world are taking a lead role responding to sustainability challenges, including climate change, by pursuing various forms of sustainable communities which seek to re-imagine the relationship between human societies, the built environment, and ecological systems. This course will explore the different approaches to sustainable community development and it will interrogate the assumptions, philosophies, and economic models that underlie these different approaches. It will investigate the many dimensions of sustainability that are valued in lived communities, including ecological integrity, economic security, empowerment, responsibility, and social well-being, and it will consider the extent to which different approaches to sustainable communities support these goals. Case studies will be drawn from around the world.
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IDCE 30262 - Web Mapping and Open Source GIS
This course introduces open source GIS for spatial database development and web mapping. The course emphasizes a hands-on learning approach to real-world problem solving. Several web services and programming languages will be introduced to explore different ways to gather, manipulate, and display spatial data on the web. The course will explore a variety of web services and open source tools with the goal of deciding how they can best be used with stakeholders in different contexts.
Prerequisites: IDCE 302 - Python Programming and IDCE 310 - Intro to Geographic Information Systems or IDCE 388 - Advanced Vector GIS
Anticipated Terms Offered: varied
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IDCE 30274 - Computer Programming for GIS
This course introduces fundamental concepts of computer programming to automate geoprocessing, spatial analysis and mapping. This course is ideal for graduate students and upper level undergraduates who want to learn about programming skills for GIS. Topics to be covered include object-oriented programming, scripting, error handling and customization using Python within the ArcGIS environment. A series of hands-on lab exercises will walk students through the Python programming and development with ArcGIS modules.
Prerequisites: IDCE 302 & IDCE 310 OR GEOG 390 OR IDCE 388
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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IDCE 30277 - Sustainable Consumption and Production
The increasingly unsustainable pressure on the Earth’s natural systems calls for radical changes in the way people in the industrialized and in the rapidly growing economies satisfy their appetite for goods and services. Some believe that innovation in technologies is our great hope, while others emphasize the need to change the consumption patterns of individuals and societies. Both necessitate changes in institutions, values, and social arrangements. This advanced seminar examines the role that changes in technology, institutions and culture might play in bringing about the necessary change toward more environmentally sustainable development. Four types of innovation are discussed: in the production process, in product design, in function delivery by way of products and services, and in a larger sociotechnical system. The course draws on theories of technological innovation, consumer behavior and institutionalism as well as empirical case studies from the United States, Europe and some developing countries. The course considers the key drivers of change, such as government policy, market forces, cultural norms, activities of mission-oriented organizations, social movements and others.
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