The Fletcher School offers a Certificate in Human Security. If interested, please review the material below and contact the Certificate Director, Professor Eileen F. Babbitt at eileen.babbitt@tufts.edu.
Certificate Overview and Guidelines
Traditionally, practitioners and researchers seeking to promote social change across borders have tended to specialize in only one of the following domains: humanitarian relief, development, human rights, and conflict resolution. We are now beginning to realize that in real life, in many situations, these fields cannot meaningfully exist without the other. Any progress made in one without attention to the others risks being sub-optimal at best and is often unsustainable, since people who live in situations of extreme deprivation often face all these conditions simultaneously. People without subsistence or without respect for basic human rights means little more than continued structural violence; macroeconomic development without concern for democratization guarantees deep inequality and exploitation and will frequently lead to instability; humanitarian relief without attention to the dynamics of conflict may sustain the violence that gave rise to the need for relief in the first place.
In short, policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, and activists everywhere are coming to realize the urgent need for insights about the overlaps and interactions between these different fields, better staff who are able to collaborate with people from other areas of expertise, a better ability to anticipate the likely impact that actions in field may have on other fields, and innovative strategies that cut across traditional professional borders.
Students who graduate with the Certificate in Human Security will possess a deep understanding of the core issues and challenges that underlie all action for social change across borders, and be capable of leading inter-disciplinary teams for policy-making, research, field action, or advocacy.
The Certificate consists of five parts: 4 introductory courses, which will acquaint students with each of the four fields whose concerns and methodologies need to be understood within a human security framework; 2 capstone courses laying out the cross-disciplinary framework of human security; 2 courses allowing students to gain a degree of further specialization in one of the relevant fields; first-hand professional exposure through an internship or prior professional experience; and a capstone project whose subject matter falls within the realm of human security.
1. Core Courses (4 Required)
Reflecting the overall interdisciplinary structure of The Fletcher School, the Certificate requires four introductory courses that have been selected in such a way as to provide a solid foundation for a cross-disciplinary professional practice in human security. These courses are:
| Humanitarian Assistance | D230 | Humanitarian aid in complex emergencies |
| P216 | International Humanitarian Policy and Public Health | |
| Development | P222 | Development Aid in Practice |
| E242 | Microeconomics of Development | |
| Human Rights | L210 | International human rights law |
| Conflict Resolution | D220 | Processes of International Negotiation |
| D221 | Seminar on International Mediation | |
| D223 | Conflict Resolution Theory |
If students can demonstrate prior proficiency at any of these domains (whether through prior study or through professional experience), they will receive permission to substitute a more advanced course (for example, substitute L211 for L210). If one of the courses is not available in any year, another course may be substituted with the consent of the Certificate Director.
Students are expected to take at least three of these courses during their first year of study.
2. Capstone Courses (Select 2)
Students will take two cross-disciplinary courses analyzing the theoretical and methodological implications of crossing the boundaries between the fields. Each of these courses will deal in detail with the way various perspectives have been brought to bear on specific issues of social change across borders.
| [P229] | [Development and human rights] |
| P227 | Advanced Seminar in Development and Conflict Resolution |
| [L215] | [Transitional Justice] |
| D235 | Research methods in Humanitarian Settings |
| D233 | Daily Risks and Crisis Events: How People & Planners Cope with Vulnerability |
| D232 | Gender, Culture and Conflict in Humanitarian Complex Emergencies |
3. Specialization Courses (Select 2)
The two final courses for the Certificate will be chosen from the following list. They allow students to acquire more depth in the areas of relevance to the Certificate. Students may wish to use these courses to acquire more in-depths understanding of one of the fields.
| Humanitarian Assistance | D237 | Gender, Culture and Conflict in Humanitarian Complex Emergencies |
| D213 | Humanitarian Studies in the Field | |
| Development | L250 | Law and development |
| E245 | Managing Economic Reform in Low-Income Countries | |
| E240 | Development Economics | |
| E241 | Micro Development Economics: Policies for Alleviating Poverty in Developing Countries | |
| B241 | Micro-Finance: Issues and Breakthroughs | |
| P228 | Evaluation of Peacebuilding and International Development | |
| CIS202 | Interdisciplinary Approaches to One Health: People, Animals and the Environment | |
| Human rights | L211 | Seminar on Current Issues in Human Rights |
| L212 | Seminar on Self-Determination and Minority Rights | |
| Conflict resolution | L224 | Seminar in Peace Operations |
| D227 | Law and Politics of International Conflict Management | |
| L252 | Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Societies | |
| P240 | The Role of Force in International Politics | |
| P245 | Seminar on Crisis Management and Complex Emergencies | |
| P297 | African Communities in Crisis: Perspectives of war and its Aftermath | |
| P212 | State-formation, Conflict, and Intervention in Comparative Perspective: the cases of Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone |
Students can choose any additional capstone as well. Under exceptional circumstances, another course can be substituted with permission of the Certificate director.
4. Internship or Prior Professional Experience
Students enrolled in the Certificate in Human Security will benefit greatly if they acquire some first-hand professional exposure to the issues concerned. For that reason, students will spend the summer between their first and second year doing an internship that directly relates to the mandate of the Certificate. The choice of the internship has to be approved by the Certificate Director.
5. Capstone Project: Deepening the Understanding
Students will complete a capstone project on a subject relating to the human security agenda, subject to approval of the Certificate Director. Students can work with a faculty supervisor of their choice. For additional information on the requirements of the Fletcher capstone project, please refer to the Degree Requirements webpage.
Questions regarding admission to The Fletcher School and/or to receive a catalog and application can be sent to the Admissions Office at FletcherAdmissions@tufts.edu.