Courses at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)
All Government concentrators are allowed to meet up to 2 of their 3-4 elective requirements through courses at the Harvard Kennedy School. The courses must be chosen from the ones on the list below; petitions to count other HKS courses will not be considered. Please note that secondary-field requirements cannot be met through coursework at HKS. Enrollment in HKS courses is always at the discretion of the HKS professor; please refer to the HKS website for additional instructions.
Concentrators do not need to request permission to count the courses below for concentration credit, but they do need to fill out the appropriate paperwork so that the Government Department and FAS Registrar will know that these courses are being used for concentration credit. A Concentration Credit Petition for Cross-Registered Courses must be filed by the Fifth Monday of the semester in which the course is taken. Please contact Karen Kaletka for approval.
Please note that HKS or other cross-registered courses that do not count for concentration credit will not be included in the calculation of total GPA. See the Student Handbook for more information.
**Registering for Fall 2024 HKS courses: Undergraduates should keep in mind that HKS follows a different calendar than FAS. FAS course selection for Fall 2024 is occurring in April 2024, while class selection for Fall 2024 HKS courses won’t occur until August 2024. See the HKS Academic Calendar for more details. The list below will be updated with Fall 2024 HKS courses once the HKS course catalog is released.**
Harvard Kennedy School Courses Preapproved for Government Concentration Credit, 2023-24
Business and Government Policy
BGP 100 | The Business-Government Relationship in the United States | Roger Porter | Spring |
BGP 610 | The Political Economy of Trade | Robert Lawrence | Fall |
BGP 670 | Financial Crises: Concepts and Evidence | Carmen Reinhart | Spring |
Democracy, Politics and Institutions
DPI 115 (offered as Gov 1540**) | The American Presidency | Roger Porter | Fall |
DPI 120* | The U.S. Congress and Law Making | David King | Spring |
DPI 122* | Politics and American Public Policy | David King | Fall |
DPI 207 | Philosophy of Technology: From Marx and Heidegger to AI, Genome Editing, and Geoengineering | Mathias Risse | Fall |
DPI 342 | Religion, Politics and Policy in America | Carleigh Beriont | Fall |
DPI 348 (offered as Gov 1092**) | Progressive Alternatives: Institutional Reconstruction Today | Roberto Unger | Spring |
DPI 391 | Race, Inequality, and American Democracy | Khalil Muhammad | Spring |
DPI 413 | Democratic Backsliding | Pippa Norris | Fall |
DPI 418 | The Rise of Authoritarian Populism | Pippa Norris | Fall |
DPI 450 | The Political Economy of Transition in China | Anthony Saich | Spring |
DPI 464 | Latin American Politics | Fernando Limongi | Fall |
DPI 505 | The Supreme Court, Law, and Public Policy | Maya Sen | Fall |
DPI 543 | Corruption: Finding It and Fixing It | Jeeyang Rhee Baum | Fall |
DPI 600 | The Politics of the Press | Nancy Gibbs | Spring |
DPI 608 (offered as Gov 1719**) | Political Communication Breakdown: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions | Matthew Baum | Spring |
DPI 703 | Democracy: The Long View and the Bumpy History | Alex Keyssar | Fall |
Development and Economic Growth
DEV 130 | Why Are So Many Countries Poor, Volatile, and Unequal? | Ricardo Hausmann | Fall |
DEV 233 (offered as Gov 1025**) | Political Economy and its Future | Roberto Unger | Spring |
DEV 308 | Social Institutions and Economic Development | Michael Woodcock | Spring |
International and Global Affairs
IGA 103 | Global Governance | Kathryn Sikkink | Fall |
IGA 105 | International Law and Global Justice | Kathryn Sikkink | Spring |
IGA 170 | Realism in International Relations | Stephen Walt | Fall |
IGA 211 (offered as Gov 1796**) | Central Challenges of American National Security, Strategy, and the Press | Graham Allison, David Sanger, & Derek Reveron | Fall |
IGA 229 | Gender, Sex, and Violence in Global Politics | Dara Cohen | Spring |
IGA 233 | Rethinking Nuclear Deterrence | Matthew Bunn | Spring |
IGA 236 | Cybersecurity: Technology, Policy, and Law | Bruce Schneier | Spring |
IGA 385 | Strategizing for Human Rights: Moving from Ideals to Practice | Douglas Johnson | Fall |
IGA 513 | Science, Power, and Politics | Sheila Jasanoff | Fall |
IGA 538 | Technology, Privacy, and the Trans-National Nature of the Internet | James Waldo | Fall |
IGA 632 | Africa in Global Politics | Zoe Marks | Spring |
IGA 655 | Middle Eastern Politics and Policy | Tarek Masoud | Spring |
IGA 677 | Russian National Security Policy | Yuri Zhukov | Fall |
Social and Urban Policy
SUP 448 (offered as Gov 2490**) | The Political Economy of the School | Paul Peterson | Fall |
*Enrollment for this course is restricted to juniors and seniors.
**This course is cross-listed with the Government Department. College students should sign up for this course under the Government course number, not the HKS one.