Undergraduate Minor Program
Global Poverty and Practice Minor
The Blum Center for Developing Economies is proud to announce the launch of a new undergraduate minor in Global Poverty and Practice. The minor is housed in the International and Area Studies Teaching Program (IASTP) and governed by an interdisciplinary faculty committee with faculty from the social sciences and professional schools.
The Global Poverty and Practice Minor seeks to train students in the study and analysis of global poverty and to allow students the opportunity to participate in forms of praxis that engage global poverty in imaginative and practical ways. Undergraduate students in all disciplines are encouraged to join the minor.
Summary of the Minor [PDF]
The minor is organized around:
2 Core Courses
IAS 115: Global Poverty: Challenges and Hopes in the New Millennium
(4 units, Fall)
This course will train students to be participants in the key theoretical debates about global poverty and inequality. It will teach students about different models of poverty alleviation and different methods of evaluating such models and practices.
IAS 105: The Ethics, Methods and Pragmatics of Global Practice
(4 units, Fall/Spring)
This course will expose students to a diversity of methodological frameworks and techniques and will also allow students to discuss, reflect upon, and debate the ethics of global citizenship. Students will work on individual and group projects to prepare for research and practical work they hope do in a specific region or country.
2 Directed Electives
Directed Elective 1: Global & Area Studies [PDF]
Directed Elective 2: Sectors and Methods [PDF]
Practice
A meaningful service-learning or research experience focused on poverty and its alleviation. Coupled with reflection on that experience by linking this work to a thesis or senior project in the major field of study, through another UC Berkeley credit bearing experience, or an independent study (IAS 196).
Declaring & Completing the Minor
Students wishing to pursue the Global Poverty and Practice Minor must declare their interest by submitting a minor declaration form [PDF]. The declaration will allow the student to meet with advisers to discuss and plan for their possible practice option. It will also allow entry to the 2nd core course, which is open only to students who have declared the minor. L&S majors can only have one course overlap from their major and students from other colleges should check with their major advisers.
On completion of the minor, students have to submit the minor declaration form. Without submission of a completion form, the minor will not register on the official UC Berkeley transcript.
Blum Center Undergraduate Fellowships
The Blum Center offers competitive student fellowships to facilitate the participation of declared minor students in the various internship/service-learning/research experiences that include travel to developing countries. Fellowship applications [PDF] are reviewed based on the merits of the proposed experience and financial need. The fellowship application process runs on a Spring/Summer, due in Fall semester, and Fall/Winter, due in Spring semester, schedule.