Legal Studies 499C - Big Problems: Policy Methods
Fall
2024
01
3.00
Bridgette Davis
TU TH 10:00AM 11:15AM
UMass Amherst
37289
Machmer Hall room W-22
b.davis@umass.edu
36269
What are your community's most pressing problems? Policing? Housing? What are the world's? Ending global hunger? Climate? How might we address this problem today? This is the first course in the two course honors thesis capstone within the School of Public Policy, with the end product being a research proposal and design that will be carried out in the Spring semester. This course is an introduction to methodologies for analyzing, implementing, and evaluating public policy. Topics include research methods, participant observation survey research and questionnaire construction, research design, measurement theory and practice, and framing categories. Throughout the two-course sequence, students will first learn about different approaches to research culminating in solidifying a design for their project, which they then implement and execute the following semester. Further, they will reflect and synthesize their experiences, knowledge, and skills developed throughout their undergraduate careers. The end product is a thesis written by the student relating to a policy or management problem today.
Registration for the course is by permission of the instructors. To begin the registration process, please fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/hgAN38yQVcyXrvVUA