EPIIC is a carefully integrated, multidisciplinary program. Through its innovative and rigorous curricula and projects, EPIIC prepares young people for informed activity in their communities, whether locally, nationally or globally.
Colloquium
At EPIIC's core is the year-long, multidisciplinary course on a global political theme. Undergraduate and graduate students of diverse nationalities, viewpoints, experiences, and interests participate in this rigorous colloquium that stresses critical, analytical, and normative thinking. Students are encouraged to confront the ambiguity and complexity of EPIIC's annual global theme through a multi-disciplinary examination of the issues and controversies that the topic reflects. They are taught the subject under investigation not only by a broad range of distinguished academics and practitioners, but also as active participants in defining the issues through classroom discussions, extensive readings, and independent research. There is an emphasis both on individual progress and on the collaborative effort -- in essence, on growing as an intellectual team. Students produce tangible outcomes of their studies through their individual research papers or projects, the international symposium in late February, and the Inquiry simulation for high-school students in early April.
Symposium
The Norris and Margery Bendetson International EPIIC Symposium is an annual five-day public forum featuring scores of international practitioners, activists, academics, public intellectuals, and journalists. EPIIC's symposia -- consisting of presentations, panel discussions, topical forums, informal gatherings, multimedia and dramatic presentations, and workshops -- are intellectually wide-ranging and accessible. The perspectives of the participants are intentionally diverse, often competing, and at times adversarial.
The 2014-15 EPIIC colloquium will focus on Russia and the international order. The 2015 symposium will be the Institute's 30th annual symposium. More information will be available on these pages soon.
Daniel currently manages a credit fund which invests in long term bonds and loans issued by Brazilian companies. He has been married since 2004, and has two incredible kids, Gabriela 4 and André 2. He interviews students for Tufts admissions and tells them that the IGL is about the best thing on campus.
“EPIIC taught me early on the strength of the famous quote by Mencken: ‘For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.’”
Megan is currently the Project Associate for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) where she oversees randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for development economists at top universities and the World Bank. In essence, she runs the on-the-ground rigorous evaluations of development and policy interventions ranging from reducing degradation of tropical forests to providing unconditional cash transfers to HIV positive individuals. Ms. Kearns oversees the collection of quantitative and qualitative data, coordinates with IPA's in-country implementation partners, and serves as the boots-on-the-ground for the economists overseeing the research design.
Adam is the founder of Atlas Workshops, where he leads high-school students on international research trips to investigate global issues through experiential and design-based research methods, and is co-founder of Groupshot, a Design and Development group working globally at the intersection of informality, social entrepreneurship, technology and development.