Beyond final exams, a glimpse of Spring

It's exam period at SAIS Bologna. You can tell by the look on students' faces. As they work their way through finals, there is something on the horizon: the Spring semester. Which for most of our students is their last semester in Bologna before transferring to Washington.

In the Spring, students will be able to choose from more than 30 courses, half of which are offered only in Bologna. Click here to view the course listing.

Some courses are similar from year to year. Prof. John Harper will offer his debating course, always well attended, again this year. Some readers may remember a previous post that highlighted segments of debate in his class last year.

Prof. Erik Jones will teach an advanced research seminar for SAIS Bologna and also for SAIS DC students, who will via video hookup.

Prof. Michael Plummer will return from a stint heading the Development Division of the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Prof. Plummer will teach a course that always attracts a large number of students: Asian Economic Development.

Each year some things do change. There will be a new course in Global Energy, part of the Energy, Resources and Environment concentration, and another in International Financial Markets.

The Spring semester will feature new speakers and seminars under the auspices of the Bologna Institute for Policy Research (BIPR). More on that later this week. You can have a look at past speakers by viewing BIPR's webpage.

Amina Abdiuahab

Concentrate on your future

Before we dive into concentrations, I would like to thank all of our candidates for attending your interviews. Now you can sit back and breathe a sigh of relief. The Admissions Committee will gather next week, and shortly after candidates will be informed.    

All SAIS students take up two concentrations. Each student needs to fulfill the requirements of International Economics. In addition, a student needs to choose either a Regional or Functional program of study.

The Regional programs focus on every area of the globe. The Functional programs include International Relations and its various strands -- conflict management, energy/resources/environment (ERE), international law, global theory and history, strategic studies -- as well as International Development.

If you have applied, you will have indicated either a Regional or Functional concentration on your application. The choice you indicated is not binding. During the first year a student has the chance to think things through, to attend different classes and to make a final choice. Your academic adviser will help you select your concentration and make sure it is aligned with your career goals.

International Development ("IDEV" in SAIS-speak) is the only program with capped enrollment. A limited number of students admitted to SAIS are accepted into IDEV, although courses are open to all SAIS students on a space available basis. Students are admitted directly to IDEV as part of the SAIS application process.

The International Economics concentration requires the successful completion of at least six economic courses. Four are required: intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics, trade theory and monetary theory. The other courses can be chosen from a rather long list covering economic theory, development economics, quantitative methods and international finance.

If you have already taken intermediate micro or macro, or both, you can opt to take a waiver exam to place out of that course and to enroll in higher level courses. If you have not taken intermediate economics, pre- term is a good way to meet some of the requirements before the start of the academic year. 

You have already heard us mention the importance of languages at SAIS. We deem them so important that Regional concentrations require students to demonstrate proficiency in a language of that region, whether or not they have already passed a proficiency exam in a language from outside that region.

A student at SAIS Bologna can pursue any concentration. We recommend that candidates interested in concentrating in Asian Studies consider spending two years in Washington, partly because Asian languages are not taught in Bologna. However, there are some top-notch courses on Asia taught in Bologna. This term, Prof. Plummer is teaching "Asian Economic Development" and Prof. Pomfret is teaching "The Economies of Central Asia".

Any questions? You know how to find us.

Amina Abdiuahab

Academics and practitioners

SAIS faculty and alumni are thinkers, movers and shakers in their fields. You've already seen the guide detailing the faculty's expertise.

Here is some recent activity:

SAIS graduate Abdul Ilah Khatib, former foreign minister of Jordan, was recently named the UN special envoy for humanitarian affairs in Libya.

Abdul Ilah Khatib (r)
 with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
(UN photo)

Prof. Karim Mezran discussed Libya on Italy's leading national talk show Otto e Mezzo.

Prof. Erik Jones and Saskia van Genugten, both SAIS graduates, authored an editorial on Italy in de Volkskrant, in the Netherlands.

Prof. Michael Plummer was noted in Johns Hopkins Gazette for his coming role as a speaker at the Singapore Economic Review Conference to be held in August in Singapore.

Fouad Ajami

In the past two months, Prof. Fouad Ajami has published pieces in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the New York Times and  Foreign Policy magazine.

Prof. Eliot Cohen published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

SAIS Foreign Policy Institute Fellow Josh Muravchik had pieces in both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

Prof. Michael Mandelbaum wrote an editorial for Project Syndicate.

For more information on our faculty, click here.

Nelson Graves