The Anthropocene is a new geological epoch with humans as the dominant force driving change across our Earth systems. Our social, ecological and technological systems are changing rapidly and characterized by increasing complexity and uncertainty. This presents a fundamental challenge to our ability to develop policy solutions to critical social and environmental problems from the local to the global scale. This course will explore these policy challenges and how our communities and institutions can develop new policy approaches to complex, wicked sustainability problems.

The seminar is designed to give students a preliminary understanding of how history, politics, economics, and the legislative and administrative processes in Washington shape US public policy on international trade, and the impact this has on US international relations. There will be a specific focus on the transition of trade policy from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia?s invasion of Ukraine on international trade.

This highly demanding course is for graduate students with a passion for getting things done through political and government processes. Students must be able to commit to participating fully in the class through careful preparation of the reading and through in-class discussion and problem solving.

An introduction to primary and secondary education policy in the United States, and to research on education policy. Emphasizes history and qualitative political science, but also includes other methodological and disciplinary approaches.

This course examines sociotechnical problems with existing modes of social media and works towards building new, affirmative visions for social media through technical and policy means. Students will examine interventions to address problems with contemporary social media and design and develop possible interventions.

This course (ProSem II) is designed to support you as you search for a job or internship. This class will provide structure, deadlines, and support from your instructor, peers, and alumni during your job/internship search. Whereas the required fall ProSem class provided the same foundational skills to all students, this class is driven by the individual job/internship search goals that each student will create.

The course integrates the subject matter interests of each student and the federal budget process by utilizing various federal agencies? current budgets as case studies. Students will become fluent in general budget terminology and the fiscal year budget schedule by exploring budget preparation, tracking, and execution. Emphasis will be put on developing the skills necessary to write clear succinct memos and presenting effective briefings.

Students synthesize what they learned in the MPP/MPPA programs in a paper that addresses an important gap in knowledge about a particular issue in public policy or management.

Second-year project/seminar. Students interpret and analyze problems for public sector or non-profit clients. Also examines how problems affect public organizations, and the real constraints and opportunities that face such organizations. Small teams work on policy problems facing public organizations, then write and present a report to the seminar and the client.

Introduction to basic statistics including use and interpretation of statistics used in policy research. Topics include statistical methods, descriptive statistics, probability theory, analysis of tabular data, correlation and regression, and multiple regression.