Public Policy Minor
Public policy, as defined by Kraft and Furlong (2007), is “what public officials within government, and by extension the citizens they represent, choose to do or not to do about public problems. Public problems refer to conditions the public widely perceives to be unacceptable and therefore requiring intervention.” The minor in Public Policy is designed to give Bucknell students from a variety of academic majors the additional analytical and theoretical skills to supplement their academic majors and to participate knowledgeably and effectively in the public arena once they leave Bucknell, whether as policy makers or as engaged citizens.
The gateway course is an interdisciplinary Public Policy course that incorporates public policy theories and topics from two or more social sciences. The methods requirement ensures that students have exposure to at least one social science research discipline. Elective courses offered in various disciplines give students the opportunity to apply the basic theoretical and analytical tools to specific areas of public policy. These courses will prepare students completing the minor for graduate programs in public policy and other social science disciplines, as well as for fruitful careers in government and industry.
The minor consists of an introductory course, and a social science research methods course and three electives from the list below. If the student has fulfilled the methods requirement in their major, the minor consists of the introductory course and four of the elective courses. Sociology majors wishing to fulfill the Public Policy minor may count SOCI 208 Methods of Social Research or SOCI 209 Analyzing the Social World as their methods requirement, but these courses are not open to non-majors. Students must distribute their electives in the following way:
- For depth, they must take exactly two electives from a single department; and,
- For breadth, the third (and fourth if applicable) elective must be taken from a different department.
- None of the electives may be in the same discipline as the student's major.
| Core Course | ||
| UNIV 200 | Integrated Perspectives Course (Introduction to Public Policy) | 1 |
| Methods Course in Social Sciences | ||
| Select one of the following: | 1 | |
| Field Research in Local Communities | ||
| Econometrics | ||
| Quantitative Research Methods | ||
| Qualitative Research Methods | ||
| Community-Based Research Design | ||
| Research Methods in Health Psychology | ||
| Research Methods in Abnormal Psychology | ||
| Research Methods in Emotion | ||
| Research Methods in Developmental Psychology | ||
| Research Methods in Personality | ||
| Research Methods in Social Psychology | ||
| Field Research in Local Communities | ||
| Electives in Different Disciplines 1 | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| Modern Africa | ||
| Women and Development | ||
| Environmental Anthropology | ||
| Anthropology of Tourism | ||
| Ritual, Resistance, and Rebellion in South America | ||
| Sustainable Transportation Planning | ||
| Economic Principles and Problems | ||
| Cultivating Change | ||
| Resources and the Environment | ||
| Unemployment and Poverty | ||
| Health Politics and Health Policy | ||
| Urban Economics | ||
| Labor Economics | ||
| Money and Financial Institutions | ||
| Health Economics | ||
| Public Finance | ||
| Industrial Organization Economics | ||
| Social Foundation of Education | ||
| Remaking Public Education | ||
| Immigrant Youth in U.S. Society | ||
| Higher Education in the United States | ||
| Introduction to Environmental Studies | ||
| Environmental Planning | ||
| Water Politics and Policies | ||
| Environmental Policy and Politics | ||
| Environmental Injustice | ||
| Environmental Law | ||
| Advanced Topics in Environmental Policy | ||
| Global Environmental Change | ||
| Food and the Environment | ||
| The Stakeholder Organization | ||
| Managing for Sustainability I | ||
| American Politics | ||
| American Public Policy | ||
| State and Local Internship Program | ||
| The American Congress | ||
| Political Behavior | ||
| Ethics and Public Policy | ||
| Race and Ethnicity in American Legal Thought | ||
| American Foreign Policy | ||
| U.S. National Security Policy | ||
| Social Policies in Rich Democracies | ||
| Justice and Public Policy | ||
| Health Psychology | ||
| Law and Society | ||
| Medicine and Society | ||
| Nongovernmental Organizations | ||
| Remaking America: Latin American Immigration | ||
| Sociology of Medicine | ||
| Women and the Penal System | ||
| 1 | Other courses may count as a Public Policy elective with the approval of the coordinator. |
Faculty
Co-coordinators: Janet T. Knoedler, Amy M. Wolaver
Steering Committee: John A. Doces, Elizabeth Durden, Christopher Ellis, Abra N. Feuerstein, R. Douglas Hecock, Michael R. James, Gregory A. Krohn, Christopher S. P. Magee, Scott R. Meinke