Course Catalog 2009-2010

Committee: Professors Ted Burczak, Eric Boehme, Anthony Lisska

Faculty: Robin Bartlett (Economics), Sohrab Behdad (Economics), Eric Boehme (Political Science), David Boyd (Economics), Laura Boyd (Economics), Alexandra Bradner (Philosophy), Theodore A. Burczak (Economics), Katy Crossley-Frolick (Political Science), Sue Davis (Political Science), Paul Djupe (Political Science), Quentin Duroy (Economics), Barbara Fultner (Philosophy), Fadhel Kaboub (Economics), Andrew Katz (Political Science), Ross LaRoe (Economics), Songhua Lin (Economics), Anthony Lisska (Philosophy), Timothy Miller (Economics), Mark Moller (Philosophy), James Pletcher (Political Science), Steven Vogel (Philosophy), Andrea Ziegert (Economics)

The PPE Program enables students to pursue a rigorous course of studies exploring the important historical, methodological, and theoretical interconnections among the three indicated fields of study. It is designed, specifically, to meet the needs of students seeking to understand the theoretical foundations of political and economic thought.

The PPE Program is overseen by the PPE Committee comprising one faculty member from each of the PPE departments. Each PPE major must choose a member of the PPE Committee to serve as his or her PPE advisor. The PPE Committee (as a whole) must approve the individual program of each PPE student. Students wishing to pursue a PPE major should contact one of the three PPE Committee members listed above.

The course requirements for the PPE Program are divided into three sections, 1) Core Courses [12 courses], 2) Electives [5 courses], and 3) Senior Research [one semester]. Core courses are chosen to provide students with a grounding in each of the three disciplines; electives allow each student to concentrate upon a specific area or topic of interest; and the senior research project provides a culminating experience allowing students to draw together their work in the three disciplines. In effect, the PPE major is a double major distributed across three departments.

Electives. A student must select five additional advanced courses in at least two of the three departments. The courses which satisfy this requirement must be approved by the PPE Committee. Under special circumstances, and with the approval of the PPE Committee, a student may be permitted to fulfill up to two of his or her elective requirements with courses outside of the Political Science, Economics, and Philosophy departments. It is the responsibility of each student's PPE advisor and, ultimately, the PPE Committee, to see that the student's course of study realizes the overall goals of the PPE Program.

Senior Research/Honors Project. In addition to completing the course sequence indicated above, each PPE student must complete at least one semester of senior research culminating in a senior research project or honors thesis linking the three areas and approved by readers chosen from the three departments.

PPE Proposal. Each prospective PPE student must submit a formal PPE proposal by March 15 of his or her sophomore year, indicating a general topic or theme that will serve as the focus of the major, and proposing a program of study that includes specific plans as to which core courses and which electives will count towards the major. This proposal must be approved by the PPE committee before the student registers for the junior year. In addition, by the end of the junior year each PPE student must make a formal proposal for a senior research project, which must again be approved by the PPE committee.