Hudson Institute Political Studies offers top undergraduates a Summer Fellowship in that broadens and deepens understanding of public policy and American political principles. The Fellowship combines rigorous study of politics and political thought through week-long seminars led by master teachers, policy workshops featuring think tank experts and experienced government officials, and a distinguished speaker series of exemplary figures from public life. Seminars examine Plato’s Republic, Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, along with selections from the Bible, Federalist Papers, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and current scholarship on American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Hosted at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, the 2016 Fellowship begins June 20 and concludes July 29. Students participate free of charge, are given complimentary accommodations, and receive a $3,000 stipend. Find out more and apply here by February 26.
Tag: political science
Constitutional Amendment Debate [Recommended Event]
Should We Summon A Convention to Propose Amendments to the Constitution?
a debate sponsored by the Politics & Values Program and Institute for Humane Studies
The U.S. Constitution has not been amended since 1992 and only 27 times in its history. With the country facing unprecedented challenges, should we summon a convention to propose new amendments to make the federal government operate more effectively? Would such a convention enhance Americans’ ability to control their government? Or would it threaten our basic institutions?
Please join Ian Millhiser and Michael Stern as they debate these important questions. Mr. Millhiser is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he specializes in constitutional issues. Mr. Stern is editor of PointOfOrder.Com, a blog focusing on legal issues in Congress, and a member of the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force.
Event Details
Wednesday, November 4, 3:30-5:00 PM. Marvin Center 406.
The Debate is Free and Open to the Public. For more information, email swgoldman@gwu.edu.
To Democracy or Not to Democracy? [SURE Stories]
The following post was written by UHP student and SURE Award winner Jenny Hamilton.
Research doesn’t always go as planned.
That’s what I learned with the help of a UHP SURE Award, and it is a valuable lesson to be sure. My research explores the impact of popular definitions of democracy on democratic legitimacy – essentially, it investigates the idea that how people define democracy impacts whether they consider it to be the best form of government.
I applied for the SURE Award last fall to finance electronic crowd sourcing of a survey in the United States. Most of my data came from Afrobarometer, a survey conducted in thirty-three African countries. I wanted to create a matching dataset for the United States, so that I could have a consolidated democracy as a comparison case. After considerable research, I decided that electronic crowdsourcing was the way to go. The results would not be nationally representative, but they would be as close as you could get on a budget. Having secured the funding, I looked up coding to create the survey. I obtained permission from Afrobarometer to use items from their questionnaire and worked with GW’s Internal Review Board to ensure the project met ethical standards. After a beta round and a few modifications, I launched the survey and results poured in. Everything went (roughly) according to plan.
A few weeks later, I presented my thesis for peer review. During the session my friend said, “Jenny, I’m going to tell it to you straight. The United States does not belong in your paper.” I has a sinking feeling, but I knew she was right. Almost an entire continent reduced in comparison to a single country… it had seemed like a good idea, but now I wondered I had been thinking. A few weeks later, my friends celebrated when I told them I had excised the United States from my draft.
Even though it won’t be in my paper, I know that my data is not useless. Obtaining that data taught me how to deal with ethical review forms, how to apply for funding, how to construct a survey, and a little bit of coding. It made me a more capable researcher. I also know that the data still has an interesting story to tell, perhaps in another paper.
Despite your best laid plans, you never know where your research will lead you. But almost always, you will discover something new, even if it’s not what you intended.
