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Wikigender University: CIDE

Wikis > Wikigender University: CIDE

 

What is CIDE?

CIDE is one of Mexico’s most important centers of teaching and research in the social sciences. Recognized both nationally and internationally, CIDE has been a non-profit public institution since its establishment in Mexico City in 1974. Part of the network of highly specialized public centers for research and higher education coordinated by the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), CIDE is fully committed to contributing to the development of Mexico through its demanding academic programs; rigorous, relevant research; and links to the public, private, social, and academic sectors. Both as a teaching and a research center, CIDE is a central point of reference in national academic debate and a key actor in efforts to improve public policy.

Academic Organisation

CIDE has six academic divisions:

  • Economics
  • Public Administration
  • International Studies
  • Political Studies
  • Legal Studies
  • History.

The center’s organizational structure reflects its pluralistic roots and its orientation towards promoting leadership and innovation. This flexibility allows faculty and alumni to pursue both individual interests and institutional priorities related to CIDE’s three core functions: teaching, research, and outreach to the public and decision makers.

Faculty

Diverse, highly-qualified, innovative, and committed: the faculty at CIDE form a community involved in groundbreaking research. Investigative work combines scientific rigor with social relevance; it aims to address the great challenges and problems Mexico faces. The academic staff, both Mexican and foreign, are selected and promoted according to strict, competitive performance norms. The majority are registered with the National System of Researchers, which evaluates academics on the basis of the excellence of their research work. CIDE faculty combine a concern for national issues with an international outlook. Faculty participates actively in international networks and scientific communities, and CIDE regularly receives visiting academics from major foreign universities. This international orientation is reflected in the balance of professors from Mexico and diverse North American, Latin American, and European countries. In addition, many faculty possess doctorates from renowned international universities including: the London School of Economics and Political Science, Oxford, Cambridge, l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC), the University of Chicago, Stanford, Harvard, Washington University in St. Louis, Columbia, and the University of California at Los Angeles, San Diego and Berkeley, among others. CIDE’s teaching and research activities are further enriched by the regular participation of affiliate professors and professionals, including public officials, company chairmen, and directors of international organizations.

Research and Publications: Quality and Relevance

The theoretical and empirical research done at CIDE has direct social and political relevance. It helps provide a basis for decision making in the public, private, and social sectors and, by increasing the quantity and quality of information available to citizens, helps make possible responsible public debate on major national and international issues. One unique aspect of CIDE’s research that has made meeting these objectives possible is the development of specialized empirical databases to provide systematic indicators and information on, for example, standards of living in Mexican households and mexican public opinion and foreign policy. Faculty research is frequently published by major academic publishers and in leading refereed international journals, including American Political Science Review; Annual Review of Political Science ; Comparative Political Studies; Eastern Economic Journal; Electoral Studies; Energy Economics; Quarterly Journal of Economics; Historia y Política; Historical Reflections; Interamerican Law Review; International Economic Review; International Management; International Political Science Review; International Public Management Journal; International Studies Quarterly; International Studies Review; Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice; Journal of Development Economics; Journal of Environment and Development; Journal of Latin American Studies; Journal of Mathematical Economics; Journal of Political Philosophy; Latin American Politics and Society; Social Compass; Social Science Quarterly, Sociologie du Travail. CIDE’s own publishing program seeks to help professionalize and modernize the social sciences, in Mexico and abroad, by publishing original research, including translations of foreign work. In addition to highly specialized working papers, CIDE produces ISTOR, an exploratory review of history and current affairs from an international perspective, and three formally refereed journals: Economía Mexicana. Nueva Época, focused on original economic research; Política y Gobierno, dedicated to innovative work in applied and theoretical political science; and Gestión y Política Pública, specialized in public policy, organizational theory, and local and regional government. The conviction that knowledge implies social commitment has led CIDE to move beyond traditional academic publications. For example, with the sponsorship of several international foundations, CIDE developed and coordinates the annual Award for Local Government and Management. This award recognizes, and in so doing promotes, best practices at the municipal level of government. Another project involved publishing a series of public education brochures on Mexico’s budget and public expenditure program. These brochures help non-specialists understand the country’s fiscal policy and structure and budgetary processes.

Teaching: Excellence, Equal Opportunities, and diversity

CIDE’s academic programs maintain the highest of international standards and its graduates are well-prepared to either compete in the international labor market or pursue further studies at top international universities. CIDE currently offers six degree programs: three undergraduate—Political Science and International Relations, Economics, and Law—two masters—Economics, and Public Policy and Administration and a PhD program in Public Policy. CIDE’s selection process for aspiring students is rigorous. Candidates must have an excellent academic record and a strong desire to pursue professional development in the social sciences. As a public institution, CIDE strives to ensure equal opportunity despite Mexico’s marked inequalities. To ensure talented youth from disadvantaged socioeconomic strata, in particular those from outside the capital, have the opportunity to develop their talents, CIDE promotes its programs at both public and private schools, provides partial and full scholarships and cost of living bursaries, and offers other types of financial support such as loans to purchase a computer or to study English abroad. Through its Office of International Academic Affairs, CIDE coordinates exchange programs that allow students and faculty to study, research, or teach at universities around the world. CIDE is committed to excellence in teaching and is constantly seeking to incorporate innovative and effective teaching methods. Programs are interdisciplinary and combine sound methodological training with a broad base of historical and empirical knowledge. CIDE’s pedagogical approach, supported by small classes and personal tutoring, leads students to develop excellent analytical, problem solving, and communication skills. Students develop the knowledge and familiarity with methodological tools necessary to seek solutions to pressing national and international issues: poverty, energy supply, corruption, and education, to name but a few. CIDE graduates are social science professionals characterized by their solid academic preparation, leadership skills, and sense of professional ethics. They have the skills to take full advantage of intellectual and professional opportunities and to adapt to the demands of a global society. Many CIDE graduates currently hold decision-making positions in the federal government, international organizations, and the private sector. Others have chosen to pursue academic careers and have successfully undertaken graduate studies at internationally renowned universities such as Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, UCLA, Oxford, the Sorbonne, and Sciences Po, among others.

Education and Research: Knowledge Open to the World

CIDE is committed to using innovative, methodologically-solid research to create the knowledge needed to further the development of Mexico. Ensuring this research is part of contemporary national and international debate allows CIDE to contribute to decision making in the public and private sectors. To help make research available to non-academic audiences, CIDE has established a Liaison and Development Office. This office undertakes, promotes, and administrates innovative academic projects directly related to the improvement of public policy in strategic areas of the national agenda. Because of their relevance, these projects have an immediate effect on public and private sector decision making. Such projects have addressed, for example, the factors affecting indigenous peoples’ voting behavior, the development of natural gas pricing schemes, proposals to reform the professional service of various political and government agencies, performance assessments for a large number of public organizations, the analysis of market opportunities for private companies, the development of regulatory frameworks for the telecommunications market, and the evaluation of standards of living in Mexican households. Through its Continuing Education program, CIDE offers seminars, conferences, individual courses, and certificate programs of study. These continuing education activities provide a strategic space for bringing together academics and decision makers and encouraging communication between the worlds of ideas and practice. To reach a wider audience, CIDE also organizes conferences on major public issues and encourages faculty to participate in the media. These activities have been helping to make public debate in Mexico more responsible and better-informed.

Challenges

Since its establishment in 1974, CIDE has succeeded in earning national and international recognition as an academic center of excellence. To remain competitive and surpass past achievements, CIDE continually defines concrete institutional objectives and strategies. Current priorities include diversifying the funding base; extending and consolidating national and international alliances and cooperative networks with academic institutions, private firms and organizations; strengthening the Library and Information Center by constructing larger facilities and expanding its holdings; increasing awareness of our academic programs, especially among those public school students who, given the opportunity, have the talent to become tomorrow’s leaders; continuing to make an important contribution to public debate and decision-making in Mexico; and, steadily producing innovative comparative and interdisciplinary research. Building upon our internationally respected teaching and research programs, and drawing force from the commitment of the CIDE community to furthering the social sciences and contributing to national development, the CIDE of today is sure to reach— and surpass—these goals for the future.

Student author profiles

  • Carolina Rivas Herrera
  • Georgina Jiménez Ríos
  • María Fernanda Castrellón Almanza
  • Danae Hernández Cortés
  • Ana Carlota Hernández Velázquez

Contributions

Since April 2012, CIDE students have been contributing to a series of articles on the Wikigender site. All of them written in Espanol. Click on the topics below to read the articles:

MEDIA REVIEW
ONLINE DISCUSSIONS
EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS