IDS.410J Modeling and Assessment for Policy explores how scientific information and quantitative models can be used to inform policy decision-making. Students will develop an understanding of quantitative modeling techniques and their role in the policy process through case studies and interactive activities. The course addresses issues such as analysis of scientific assessment processes, uses of integrated assessment models, public perception of quantitative information, methods for dealing with uncertainties, and design choices in building policy-relevant models. Examples used in this class focus on models and information used in earth system governance.

Conventional legislative, administrative, and judicial means of resolving resource allocation and policy disputes in the public sector often produce less than satisfactory results. This is true in democracies around the world. Planners, policy-makers, developers, and advocates of the poor who are concerned about the fairness, efficiency, stability, and wisdom of public sector decision-making are searching for better ways of resolving public policy disagreements. Recent advances in the theory and practice of multi-party negotiation and dispute resolution are, therefore, of great interest. 
This seminar is designed for graduate students with no prior background or experience in the fields of  negotiation or dispute resolution. Lectures, scenarios, case studies, video analysis, and role-play simulations are used to introduce students to the “art” and “science” of negotiation and consensus building. The class also provides an intensive opportunity for each student to build their personal theory of practice and to strengthen their negotiating capabilities.

Networks are ubiquitous in our modern society. The World Wide Web that links us to the rest of the world is the most visible example. But it is only one of many networks in which we are situated. Our social life is organized around networks of friends and colleagues. These networks determine our information, influence our opinions, and shape our political attitudes. They also link us, often through weak but important ties, to everybody else in the United States and in the world. 
This course will introduce the tools for the study of networks. It will show how certain common principles permeate the functioning of these diverse networks and how the same issues related to robustness, fragility, and interlinkages arise in many different types of networks.

The course offers an analysis of the keen interest shown by France and the French in North American cultures since the 18th century. Not only did France contribute to the construction of both Canadian and American nations, but it has also constantly delineated its identity by way of praising or criticizing North American cultures. Using materials drawn from literature, comics, TV shows, and series as well as political debates, the course will historically trace this ambivalent relation exploring various themes such as liberalism, entertainment and the media, trade and cultural goods, transatlantic intellectual encounters, and translation.
The course is taught entirely in French.
About the instructor: Bruno Perreau is the Cynthia L. Reed Associate Professor of French Studies at MIT. He is also an Affiliate Faculty at the Center for European Studies, Harvard. Perreau recently published The Politics of Adoption: Gender and the Making of French Citizenship (MIT Press, 2014), Queer Theory: The French Response (Stanford University Press, 2016), Les Défis de la République (ed. with Joan W. Scott, Presses de Sciences Po, 2017), Qui a peur de la théorie queer ? (Presses de Sciences Po, 2018), Sphères d’injustice. Pour un universalisme minoritaire (La Découverte, 2023).

This course was designed to educate students about how nuclear weapons came into being, the physics of these weapons, how they are structured, how they have evolved over the past several decades, efforts to control them and limit the threats that they represent, and what the possibilities for the future are. Many people in our country and other countries are not aware of what an existential threat nuclear weapons represent, and this lack of awareness is an important part of the overall threat. 
The course was taught by an MIT Iterdisciplinary team coordinated by Robert P. Redwine, Professor of Physics Emeritus.  The full list of instructors is listed on the course page.

This resource curates a variety of activities for an Introduction to Sociology course that incorporate open pedagogy principles. The activities in this resource are designed so as to allow instructors to tailor them to their own needs, which may include a different assignment scope, a different topic, or even a different discipline, outside of sociology.

Open Social Work Education (OSWE) is a collaborative project dedicated to open educational resources (OER) in social work.

Optimal, Integral, Likely is a free, open-source textbook intended for UBC’s course MATH 105: Integral Calculus with Applications to Commerce and Social Sciences. It is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This resource is a course map that aligns with Psychology 2e and includes module level outcomes and suggested activities/resources/assignments. The course map was authored by four faculty from three different community colleges in Arizona including, Central Arizona College, Eastern Arizona College, and Yavapai College. 

Introduction to psychology through such topics as the scientific method in psychology, survey of different fields in psychology, heredity and environment, intelligence, emotions, motivation, nervous system, and learning processes.

This course explores policy and planning for sustainable development. It critically examines concept of sustainability as a process of social, organizational, and political development drawing on cases from the U.S. and Europe. It also explores pathways to sustainability through debates on ecological modernization; sustainable technology development, international and intergenerational fairness, and democratic governance.

This course introduces students to the conduct of political research using quantitative methodologies. The methods are examined in the context of specific political research activities like public opinion surveys, voting behavior, Congressional behavior, comparisons of political processes in different countries, and the evaluation of public policies. Students participate in joint class projects and conduct individual projects.

This course is designed to provide an introduction to a variety of empirical research methods used by political scientists. The primary aims of the course are to make you a more sophisticated consumer of diverse empirical research and to allow you to conduct advanced independent work in your junior and senior years. This is not a course in data analysis. Rather, it is a course on how to approach political science research.

This graduate reading seminar explores the role of religious groups, institutions, and ideas in politics using social science theories. It is open to advanced undergraduate students with permission of the instructor.

This class introduces students to the interdisciplinary nature of 21st-century engineering projects with three threads of learning: a technical toolkit, a social science toolkit, and a methodology for problem-based learning. Students encounter the social, political, economic, and technological challenges of engineering practice by participating in real engineering projects with faculty and industry; this semester’s major project focuses on the engineering and economics of solar cells. Student teams will create prototypes and mixed media reports with exercises in project planning, analysis, design, optimization, demonstration, reporting and team building.

What is a recession? What happened to the U.S. economy in 2020 and 2021, and how did the pandemic, tax and spending policies, and monetary policies affect it? What happened in 2008–2009, during the “Global Financial Crisis”? Why is inflation higher today than at any time in the last three decades? Why does the unemployment rate vary over time? Why is there unemployment at all? Why do exchange rates between currencies fluctuate? How do policies in one country affect other countries? Why do economies grow at different rates? Why has China’s growth rate exceeded that of the U.S. for more than 30 years, and will such disparities continue? What explains movements in the stock market? These are some of the core questions of macroeconomics. If you are curious about the answers, then this is the course for you.
The course is organized around four major themes: the determinants of short-run economic fluctuations; the determinants of long-run growth; the investigation of government policies, including monetary policy, government spending, and exchange rate policy; and the analysis of key economic sectors, such as consumer spending, business investment, and financial markets.

This book, Project Evaluation: Essays and Case Studies, is based primarily upon materials prepared between 1997 and 2010 by Carl D. Martland for 1.011 Project Evaluation, a required course within MIT’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering that he designed, developed, and taught for many years. It is structured to be of interest to anyone focused on infrastructure systems, especially engineers, planners, and managers who design, build and operate such systems. The book may also be of interest to students in planning or engineering who are interested in transportation, water resources, energy, city planning, or real estate development.
Project Evaluation: Essays and Case Studies is published in two stand-alone volumes. Volume I provides an overview of project evaluation as a multi-dimensional process aimed at creating projects that meet the needs of society. Volume II examines the equivalence relationships that can be used to compare cash flows or economic costs and benefits over the life of a project.

Provides standard introduction to psychology course content with a specific emphasis on social aspects of psychology. This includes expanded content related to social cognition, aggression, attraction and similar topics.

This course discusses the evolution and role of urban public transportation modes, systems, and services, focusing on bus and rail. It covers various topics, including current practice and new methods for data collection and analysis, performance monitoring, route design, frequency determination, vehicle and crew scheduling, effect of pricing policy and service quality on ridership.