Executive Master's in Humanitarian Crisis & Emergency Management
Course Details
The coursework required for the Executive Master of Professional Studies in Humanitarian Crisis & Emergency Management includes five required courses. Below represents a sample of course offerings. Format and content may change.
Core Courses
Natural & Technological Hazards and Climate Change (6 credits; required)
This course increases knowledge and awareness about natural and technical disasters and climate change as well as provides an overview of the complexities of preparedness activities, response operations, and the recovery process. The emphasis is on understanding the mechanisms of why natural and technological disasters occur, how they are enhanced by climate change, and how preparedness and adaptation measures minimize the societal implications of disaster events. The primary goals of this course are: to learn about the underlying natural process that gives rise to natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods, etc. and technological hazards such as airplane crash, oil spills, critical infrastructure accidents, etc.; to understand how society evaluates and confronts the dangers posed by various hazards from an interagency perspective and across the community, and; expand upon the techniques and innovations that monitor, predict, warn, inform, and prepare society about impending disasters. During this course students will also begin work on developing a capstone project topic. Additional lectures on capstone development will be provided. Students will be required to identify a capstone advisor.
Residency location: Tokyo/Fukushima, Japan
Ethical Strategic Leadership, and Theory & Legal Framework (6 credits; required)
This course provides students with an understanding of the theories and legal frameworks that underpin the field of Humanitarian Crisis and Emergency Management from American (federalism) and international (nation-state, multi-national, and non-governmental) perspectives. It will ground students in the historical context and evolving factors impacting Humanitarian Crisis and Emergency Management practices, including various types of hazards, their impact on society, and progressing approaches to disaster management. It will also provide students with an understanding of the basic leadership, management, and political skills required to lead in the field as practitioners. Additional lectures on capstone development will be provided. Students will be required to complete an annotated literature review for their capstones and begin meeting with their advisor.
Residency location: Virtual
Global Conflict: Terrorism, War, and Disasters
This course introduces global conflict and terrorism including risks posed from weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive hazards), cybersecurity, energy security, infrastructure failure, special events, and warfare. It provides students an overview of efforts to manage these events, focusing on strategy, policy, organizational, and operational methods for preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Students will examine the elements of a coordinated, multi-jurisdictional, multi-disciplinary response, and an emphasis will be placed on coordination strategies for senior elected and appointed officials charged with leading the preparations for, and consequence management of, such an event. This course employs case study methodology focusing on American (domestic) and European (international) events. Students are required to read extensively and take on the role of National Security Council members and Senior Advisors charged with providing advice to the President, the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and others, by providing a series of policy memorandum, presentations, and policy papers on global conflict and terrorism. Students will engage in ongoing capstone development by completing data collection. Students will engage in ongoing capstone development and create research questions and develop a 10- to 15-page capstone proposal.
Residency location: Doha, Qatar
Global Health and Pandemic
This course discusses the complexities of Global health and pandemic from local, regional, and global perspectives while studying emerging health security risks that could result in short-long term damage to critical global and public health infrastructure. Students will be challenged to examine the ways in which the operating environment is changing and what this means for international humanitarian action and global and public health response. The course introduces students to a broad range of issues and practical research and is not an operational instruction course. Students will continue their Capstone research.
Residency location: Virtual
Humanitarian Crisis Management
This course explores how the field of international disaster response and humanitarian assistance has extensively transformed over the past few decades and what that means for this dynamic field. The course will focus on how global governments and global humanitarian organizations, both public and private, respond to international disasters, how emergency/disaster management is structured in other nations, and how nations come together to respond to an international disaster. Students will be introduced to case studies and presented scenarios that will require considering factors such as interpretation of complex international arrangements, political climates, economic environments, social/media influences, and state sovereignty. Students will be introduced to threats and hazards with global implications, how those threats/hazards shape the systems that exist to mitigate, respond, or recover from them, and the complexities that exist in international disaster operations and humanitarian assistance efforts. Students will complete research analysis and the writing and presentation of the final capstone project.
Students submit their final capstone project via a 6,000- to 8,000-word manuscript and an hourlong in-class presentation.
Residency location: Geneva, Switzerland