A “Major” Split for the HSS Division
Major changes (pun intended) have hit the History and Social Sciences (HSS) Division at Reed. The interdisciplinary program formerly known as International and Comparative Policy Studies (ICPS) has been reworked into International Affairs and Public Policy (IAPP). The original ICPS major will be divided into two new majors starting in the 2025-26 academic year: an International Affairs (IA) major and a Public Policy (PP) major. According to the new IAPP webpage on the Reed website, rather than a department, IAPP is an interdisciplinary committee composed of representatives from HSS constituent departments. Students interested in an IA or PP major will work with both this committee, but ultimately remain rooted in one of four participating HSS departments. The choices for IA/PP majors will be IA-Anthropology, IA-History, IA-Political Science, PP-Political Science, or PP-Sociology, replacing ICPS-Anthropology, ICPS-History, ICPS-Political Science, and ICPS-Sociology (Economics, the fifth HSS department, left the original ICPS program in 2024).
To answer the questions surrounding the ICPS program’s decision to split, the Quest spoke to Professor of Political Science Alex Montgomery, the current chair of the ICPS committee. First, it is important to contextualize the ICPS program in Reed’s history. Montgomery explained that an International Studies major existed in the 1990s, but it often ended up being a “last resort” major for HSS juniors who had failed their qualifying exams twice and needed to transfer into a new major. In order to reinvigorate the major and support authentic pursuit of interdisciplinary studies, ICPS was formed by History, Political Science, and Economics professors, with the first ICPS major graduating in 1997.
While the original intentions of the ICPS program were positive, there were some issues, leading to the recent split. Montgomery elaborated that during his first decade at Reed between 2006 and 2016, he noticed that “the major was ill-defined, inconsistent across home departments, and sacrificed depth for breadth.” Despite a revision to the curriculum in the fall of 2016, which refocused the ICPS major for consistency and required students to choose a home department in the HSS division, a few significant problems still remained. Montgomery said that despite increased interest, “the concept of the major was still too broad,” and the “name of the committee and major still wasn't easily understood by internal or external audiences.” From 2016 to 2024, Montgomery and fellow ICPS collaborators worked tirelessly to revise and discuss the best possible future plans for both the committee and students who are passionate about studying international relations and policy.
Montgomery shared that he and his fellow committee members made the decision to reassess the program in spring 2024. Montgomery explained the initial evaluation process that the committee followed: “all of the courses in all five HSS departments [were recoded] as either international, comparative, or policy.” This led to the discovery of two rough groups: international affairs and public policy. Montgomery expressed hope for the reworked program to be more recognizable and understandable, more academically focused by promoting depth of knowledge, and overall easier for both students in IA/PP and the professors who will advise them.
An excerpt from the forthcoming 2025-26 Reed Catalog states that IA/PP’s main goal will be to help students “develop a range of analytical skills to study either international or comparative policy issues that could be applicable to any area of the world.” IA and PP will require specific applications for a student to declare either of the majors as they advance to upper division standing. The major guide alerts potential IA/PP students that this course of study will require “careful planning and much independent study,” and therefore interested students need a clear vision of their goals. For any current ICPS majors, there is no need to panic over potentially having to switch majors. Although they will be encouraged to choose IA or PP, students who matriculated before fall 2025 can still apply for a combined major. However, it will be called IA&PP rather than ICPS. More specific details, dates, and application deadlines can be found on the International Affairs and Public Policy page of the official Reed College website.