About the Tracks

Humanitarian Crises, Refugees, and Human Rights Track

PUBPOL 860.01

Program Overview

Course explores how the international community can better respond to humanitarian crises such as the influx of refugees in Europe, HIV-AIDS in Africa, or ongoing civil conflict in countries such as Sudan. Students examine the importance of cooperation and collaboration on a global scale by organizations such as:

• the International Red Cross
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees
• Médecins sans Frontières (MSF)
• development organizations.

The course is led by Amy E. Hepburn (Duke MPP'01), a policy professional who has researched, published, and programmed extensively on issues affecting children in complex humanitarian emergencies,  including armed conflict and HIV/AIDS in the Balkans, Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Republic of Georgia. Her clients include international NGOs, the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees in Geneva, the United States Department of State, and the United States Agency for International Development.

Global Health Track

PUBPOL 860.03

Program Overview 

From year to year, the course offering varies, often highlighting current policy issues. In the past, course participants have heard from senior officials from a wide range of Geneva-based organizations engaged in global health, including:

• the WHO’s Tobacco-Free Initiative and World Alliance for Patient Safety to the Polio Eradication Initiative
• the WHO’s Department of Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property.

Participants visit nine to ten different leading global health organizations in Geneva. Past site visits have included:

• Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative
• Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
• Médecins sans Frontières
• UNAIDS.

The course is directed by Dr. Gavin Yamey, a professor of the Duke Global Health Institute and Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE POLICY Track

PUBPOL 860.04

This new track for Summer 2024 will explore some of the pressing issues countries face with respect to rising trade protectionism, shifting global supply chains, the impacts of government subsidies and industrial policy, and growing efforts to incorporate environmental considerations into trade policy.  We will meet with trade policymakers and practitioners from Geneva-based organizations to explore the impact of these changes on advanced, emerging-market, and least-developed countries and discuss several critical policy issues.  Organizations with which we may engage during the course week include:

• The World Trade Organization
• The International Trade Centre
• The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
• The World Economic Forum
• The International Institute for Sustainable Development
• The Geneva Graduate Institute

The course is directed by Dr. Cory Krupp, a trade economist and professor of the practice of public policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.  She is also the Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Director of Graduate Studies for the Master of International Development Policy program at Sanford.  Dr. Krupp has extensive teaching, research, and practice experience in trade policy and international finance issues and has worked with students and government officials from all over the world.  She most recently was engaged on a project with the higher education sector in Laos, and has also been a trade economist on anti-dumping cases.