Politics, Rights and Development

Politics, Rights and Development

Politics, Rights, and Development examines the historical contexts and controversies surrounding social action: power and policy, justice and human rights, and economic and social development. Questions are addressed in an interdisciplinary manner that combines political, economic, and cultural analysis to pursue topics in international relations; the many forms of imperialism; law, justice, and human rights; ethics and the conduct of war and peace; challenges of democratization, revolution, and social change; industrialization and globalization; and policies of health and the environment. This concentration highlights the role of governments, non-governmental organizations, individuals, and corporations in the effort to achieve sustainable development and social justice.
  • Politics, Rights, and Challenges of Advocacy
  • International Human Rights and Humanitarianism
  • Industrialization and Development Economics
  • Global Sustainability and Environmental Change
  • Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development
  • Peace and Conflict Studies
  • Genocide, Violence, and Human Rights
  • Human Rights, Health and the Environment
  • New Norms for New Wars: Irregular Warfare and the Utility of Just War Theory in a Post 9/11 World
  • Modern Slavery in the Middle East: A Focus on Female Domestic Migrant Labor
  • Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey’s Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis: The Roles of and Interactions between Governments, NGSs, and the United Nations
  • Going Mobile: How Sub-Saharan Africa is Leveraging the Power of Mobile Phones to Transform Global Development
  • The Politics of Water: Israeli-Palestinian Transboundary Resource Management and the Efficacy of Cooperation

Joyce Apsel
Research: modern European history, global history, comparative genocide, languages and literatures of human rights, human rights and humanitarianism, law and human rights, comparative pedagogy, history of ideas, imperialism and its consequences, politics and sociology of atrocity

Emily Bauman
Research: contemporary American culture, global humanitarianism, anthropology of religion, visual rhetoric

Nalei Chen
Research: Chinese philosophy (especially Confucianism and Legalism), social and political philosophy (including both contemporary Western political philosophy and ancient Chinese political philosophy), ethics, and global justice

Tal Correm
Research: political theory, social and political philosophy, ethics, political violence, sovereignty, transitional justice, peace and conflict studies, democratic theory, feminist philosophy, decolonial theory, existentialism and phenomenology, aesthetics, cross-cultural philosophy, history of philosophy

Peter Diamond
Research: modern political theory, democratic theory, liberal theory, international political and ethical theory, Enlightenment political and social thought

Cristina-Ioana Dragomir
Research: social justice theory, migration, gender and environment, human rights

Mona El-Ghobashy
Research: social movements in comparative perspective; law and politics in authoritarian regimes; revolution, democratization, and de-democratization; politics in the Middle East and North Africa (19th century-present); the interplay between political history and political theory

Brendan Hogan
Research: political philosophy, especially democratic theory, pragmatism, critical theory, and cosmopolitanism, ethics, philosophy of social science

Garnet Kindervater
Research: critical, cultural, and political theory; modern philosophy; politics of catastrophe; power; climate change; modernity; critical political economy; metaphysics; temporality; ontology.

Patricio Navia

Research: Patricio Navia is a political scientist who specializes on democratic consolidation, political parties, elections and public opinion in Latin America. He also studies the relationship between democracy and economic development in contemporary Latin America. Dr. Navia mixes quantitative methods and comparative analysis with case studies to evaluate the relevance of existing theories of democratization and economic development for the realities of contemporary Latin American political and social processes.

Michael Shenefelt
Research: political theory, moral philosophy, ancient philosophy, history of logic

Heidi White, Chair
Research: global justice theory and human rights, moral and political philosophy, 19-20th century philosophy, existentialism, American philosophy, history of logic

 

AFFILIATED FACULTY

B.Güney Işıkara
Research: Classical political economy, economic history, comparative economic systems, history of economic thought, political economy of the environment, philosophy of science

Johann Jaeckel
Research: political economy, growth and distribution, technological change, labor economics, globalization, history of economic thought

Roxana Juliá
Research: ecological economics, global economic-environmental modeling, the economics of climate change, sustainable development in relation to energy and food systems, behavioral economics, natural resource policy

Ascension Mejorado
Research: international development, political economy, European monetary economics, international trade and exchange rates, competition and product innovation, economic growth, technical change and employment, business cycles, economic history of the European Union, microfinance, social entrepreneurship

Eugenia Naro-Maciel
Research: conservation genetics, metagenomics, conservation biology, urban ecology

Politics, Rights, & Development students have won such awards as:

  • The Rhodes Scholarship
  • The Fulbright Scholarship
  • Humanity in Action Fellowship
  • The Princeton in Africa Fellowship

 

PRD alumni have gone on to a variety of professional roles in fields such as:

  • Government, at the White House Office of Legislative Affairs (Obama Administration), Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Office of the Mayor of New York, Office of the US Attorney, and the Foreign Service
  • Media, in careers with Huffington Post
  • Business, in positions at IBM and at Kearney
  • Non-Profit Work, with Girl Scouts of the USA, US Peace Corps, Global Poverty Project, New York Cares, HealthCorps, and the United Nations
  • Education, NYU Law School’s Immigrant Defense Initiative

 

Those who pursue graduate or professional school have been accepted at:

  • Harvard Law School
  • Oxford University, School of Development Studies
  • Columbia University:
    • School of International and Public Affairs
    • Human Rights Program
    • Global Thought
  • George Washington University:
    • Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration
    • The Elliott School of International Affairs, Security Policy Study
  • London School of Economics, International Migration and Public Policy
  • John Hopkins University, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
  • Cambridge University, Centre of Development Studies
  • Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Master of Advanced International Studies
  • UCLA, Law School
  • Brown University, Master of Public Affairs
  • National University of Ireland, Galway, MA program in Gender, Globalization, and Rights
  • Fordham University, Law School
  • University of Virginia, Law School
  • Pepperdine Law School, specializing in Dispute Resolution
  • New York University:
    • Graduate School of Arts and Science: International Relations
    • Graduate Center for European and Mediterranean Studies
    • Masters program in Bioethics, concentrating in Environmental Ethics
    • Masters Program in Latin American and Caribbean Studies
    • Master’s Program in Public Administration at Wagner School of Public Service
    • School of Law