Skip to Main Content
Colby College logo Go to colby.edu homepage

Public Policy Requirements

In the Department of Sociology

The minor in public policy equips students with the conceptual and methodological tools necessary to understand and analyze policymaking and implementation at various scales. Drawing on the interdisciplinary field of policy studies, the minor examines the origins of public policies, their ethical dimensions, and their intended and unintended consequences. Students are encouraged to engage directly with real-world policy challenges and practitioners through multiple courses and off-campus study experiences connected to the Bram Public Policy Lab.

The minor requires seven courses: four core courses plus three policy-focused electives at the 200 level or above. Only one elective may be taken in the student’s major department or program. Up to two approved courses taken abroad or at another institution may count toward the elective requirement. A list of approved elective courses for the upcoming semester can be found below; an archive of previously approved courses will be maintained on the Sociology Department website.

Students should plan their coursework in consultation with a member of the Advisory Committee. Students interested in the public policy minor may also contact Associate Professor Nicholas Jacobs with questions.

Faculty

Chair, Associate Professor Damon Mayrl (Sociology)

Advisory Committee and Faculty: Professor Neil Gross; Associate Professors Nicholas Jacobs and Christel Kesler; Assistant Professor Lauren Yoshizawa; Senior Distinguished Lecturer Alison Beyea

Questions about the public policy minor should be directed to Associate Professor Nicholas Jacobs.

Requirements for the Minor in Public Policy

The public policy minor comprises four required and three elective courses. Required: Introduction to Policy Analysis (SO297), Practice of Policymaking (SO397), and Policy Lab Practicum (SO/GO461). In order to gain entry into the Policy Lab Practicum course, students must have previously taken one of the following courses or their equivalents: Economics 293, Government 281, Psychology 214, Sociology 271, Statistics 212.

Elective courses: three courses at the 200 level or above that center around public policy, taught through any department or program at the college, including but not limited to courses on the history of policy, the process and practices of policymaking, study of policy implementation, analysis of policy effects, methodologies of policy analysis, or the ethics of policy. Only one of these courses may be in the department or program where the student is a major.

Determination of which courses count toward the elective requirement will be made by a faculty committee that will meet each spring to review the coming year’s curriculum; pre-approved courses will be listed on the webpage for the minor. Up to two courses taken during a student’s time abroad or at another US college or university can count toward the policy elective requirement; these course choices must also be approved in advance.

A checklist to help students track their progress through the major is available here.

Approved Classes for the Minor

African-American Studies (AA)

  • 221-A  Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital
  • 298-A  The Black Maine Project
  • 351-A  Minority Issues and Social Change in the Americas

American Studies (AM)

  • 238-A  Making Modern Science
  • 317-JP  Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change, and Power
  • 333-A  Neoliberalism

Anthropology (AY)

  • 236-A  Illegal Drugs, Law, and the State
  • 323-A  Medicine, Religion, and Bioethics
  • 398-A  Atmosphere, Environment, and Land Politics
  • 468-A  Anthropology in/of Maine

Computer Science (CS)

  • 231 – Data Structures and Algorithms

Economics (EC)

  • 223-A  Microeconomic Theory
  • 224-A  Macroeconomic Theory
  • 231-A  Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
  • 235-A  Organizational Strategy and Economics
  • 256-JP  Economics of Crime
  • 297-JP  Introduction to Experimental Economics
  • 313        Behavioral Economics
  • 316-A  The Political Economy of Public Health
  • 325-A  Econometrics
  • 334-A  Economics of Education
  • 338-A  Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy
  • 343-A  Environment and Development
  • 347-A  Computational Macroeconomics
  • 357-A  Poverty and Food Insecurity
  • 364-A  Gender in the Macroeconomy
  • 470     Seminar: The City in Economic History

Education (ED)

  • 213-A  Schools and Society

Environmental Studies (ES)

  • 214J-JP  Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis
  • 218  Exploratory Data Analysis in R
  • 233  Environmental Policy
  • 234  International Environmental Policy
  • 244  Marine Communities
  • 298  Communicating Global Change Science
  • 315  Plastics, Power, Politics
  • 345  Offshore Energy: Environmental Permits and Community Planning
  • 364  Climate, Justice, and Health
  • 366  Pollution and Human Health
  • 368 Global Climate Policy
  • 382  Population Modeling

Government (GO)

  • [241]     Politics of Public Policy in the United States
  • 263-A   Global Crisis of Democracy and Democracy Assistance
  • 297-JP  R for Political Science Research
  • [312]     Suburban Politics
  • 328s     Constitutional Choice and its Consequences: American Political Development
  • [330]    Law and Lawlessness in the United States

History (HI)

  • 210-A  The American Presidency
  • 226-JP  Cities from Scratch: A Global History of New Towns
  • 243-A  History of the U.S. West
  • 348-A  U.S. Environmental History

Jan Plan (JP)

  • 258  Social Impact Lab: Design and Systems Thinking
  • 297P  What Just Happened? The Expanding of Executive Power
  • 397  Investigative Journalism and Its Role in Policymaking

Latin American Studies (LA)

  • 372 Environmental History of Latin America

Philosophy (PL)

  • 248  Philosophy of Disability
  • 317  Philosophy of Science

Psychology (PS)

  • 219  Judgment and Decision Making
  • 233  Biological Basis of Behavior
  • 259  Lifespan Development
  • 297  Culture and the Workplace

Science, Technology, and Society (STS)

  • 231  STS Methods: Oral History and Narrative Medicine
  • 323  Medicine, Religion, and Bioethics

Sociology (SO)

  • 220-A  Organizations
  • 225-A  Tax Policy and Society
  • 243      College in Crisis?
  • 245      Sociology of Immigration
  • 262-A  Comparative Perspectives on Inequality
  • 319-A  Population Problems
  • 320      Social Determinants of Health
  • 326-A  Historical Sociology
  • 327-A  Public Opinion and Policy
  • 328      Sociology of Law

Statistics (SC)

  • 306-A  Topics in Epidemiology
  • 321-A  Statistical Modeling
  • 328-A  Introduction to Survival Analysis