Introducing an Emergency Management Curriculum into Public Affairs

Abstract

With the magnitude of disasters increasing in the U.S. and worldwide, a specialization in emergency management is clearly needed. This paper makes a case for introducing emergency management into public administration and traces the evolution of emergency management as a body of knowledge. Research contributions by sociologists, economists, social geographers, public affairs and political science specialists that have enhanced the body of disaster knowledge are presented. While disaster research has made great strides, emergency management has not flourished as a field in institutions of higher learning. Public affairs is a logical fit for this new specialization because emergency management is an integral part of local government. The emergency management program at the University of North Texas is presented as a case study; curriculum development issues and essential competencies of an emergency management curriculum, potential topics for inclusion in public administration curricula, and future prospects for the specialization are also addressed.This paper is the result of a presentation at the twenty-first National Conference on Teaching Public Administration, held in March 1998 at Colorado Springs, Colorado.