This interdisciplinary concentration aims to provide students with the tools to analyze policy-making processes and implementation and to evaluate policy decisions and outcomes from multiple perspectives. The concentration will take an interdisciplinary approach to case-study analysis and student research.

Students who intend to declare a policy studies concentration must, at the time of declaration, design a curricular concentration plan, which indicates how the student will meet concentration requirements 1-6 listed below. Ideally student plans will utilize students' major or other curricular interests as a focus for policy analysis and develop some expertise in a specific policy area. However, in order to ensure the interdisciplinary nature of the concentration, students may not count more than eight credits from any one department (including methods courses) towards the concentration.

Required, 22 or 24 credits as follows:

1. Policy Studies 220: Foundations of Policy Analysis (Spring) (prerequisites: Second year standing and at least one course from the following: ECN 111, POL 101)

2. Empirical Methods Course, one from the following list:

  • ANT/SOC 292 (Ethnographic Research in Complex Societies)
  • ECN 312 (Econometrics)
  • MAT 209 (Applied Statistics)
  • POL 310 (Advanced Seminar in American Politics)
  • PSY 225 (Research Methods)
  • SOC 291 (Methods of Empirical Investigation)

3. Humanistic and Scientific Context of Policy Making: Context List

  • Take at least one course from the posted Humanistic and Scientific Context List.
  • The concentration will periodically revise this list.
  • Recommendations:
    • This course should be taken prior to PST 320 (item 5)
    • Students with majors in the Social Studies Division should take at least two courses from this list, one humanities course and one science course.
    • Students with majors in the Humanities Division should take at least one science course from this list.
    • Students with majors in the Science Division should take at least one humanities course from this list.
    • Students who wish to pursue policy research projects (see item 6) in the sciences or humanities will be encouraged to take additional relevant courses from the list.

4. Institutional Context of Policy, take or enroll in at least one of the following: Context List

  • A course from the posted Institutional Context List. The concentration will periodically revise this list.
  • Contextual Policy Making (POL 295), offered by Grinnell-in-Washington.
  • A 2 or 4-credit internship with prior committee approval, which must be supervised through an existing Grinnell College program such as Grinnell-in-Washington or Grinnell-in-London.

5. Policy Studies 320 (Fall): Applied Policy Analysis

6. Research Project, either one of the following, with a prerequisite of PST 320:

  • Policy Studies 420 (Spring) (a 2-credit research projects); the most likely route
  • A four-credit Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) with prior committee approval.