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Second-round applications for select Spring 2019 are now open for a short time.
On-campus Practica
The following Practica are available to all on-campus students, as well as online MAIR/MIS students that can attend weekly on-campus classes.
Fall 2018 offerings
Conflict Mitigation and Peacebuilding
Professor: Hrach Gregorian
Course Time (subject to change): Wednesdays 5:30-8pm EST
This practicum is designed to increase familiarity with current practice in contemporary conflict prevention, mitigation, and settlement. Topics recently covered include conflict minerals, women's empowerment, youth violence prevention, and peace gaming. Hands-on activities emphasize such skills as narrative analysis, conflict prevention training, monitoring and evaluation, and conflict mapping. Practicum clients include NGOs such as Partners Global, Search for Common Ground, Saferworld, and Resolve; for-profit organizations such as Creative Associates; and government agencies such as the US Department of State.
Intelligence and Analysis
Professor: Aki Peritz
Course Time (subject to change): Thursdays 5:30-8pm EST
The class produces a report intended to serve the intelligence, policy, defense, and diplomatic communities. US national security priorities shift rapidly, and topics will be determined with the client organization.
A Wicked Challenge to US National Security
Professor: Sally Shelton-Colby
Course Time (subject to change): Thursdays 5:30-8pm EST
Students in this practicum study a country of strategic interest to the United States and develop policy recommendations for the US government. Specifically, the practicum addresses challenges with governance, the government's role in international conflicts, and fractious relationships within the country and in the international community. Students make policy recommendations for US Department of State officials and other relevant entities and identify the pros and cons of each policy recommendation.
Spring 2019 offerings
Cultural Diplomacy and International Exchange
Professor: Sherry Mueller
Course Time: W 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
International exchange programs are an essential component of public diplomacy. Practicum participants will learn about major actors and resources in the field. They will study a conceptual framework for evaluating the effectiveness of exchanges. They will also focus on efforts to conduct advocacy on behalf of U.S. Department of State sponsored flagship exchange programs, such as the Fulbright Program and the International Visitor Leadership Program, by building partnerships with elected officials.
Intelligence and Analysis
Professor: Aki Peritz
Course Time: Th 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
The class produces a report intended to serve the intelligence, policy, defense, and diplomatic communities. US national security priorities shift rapidly, and topics will be determined with the client organization.
Conflict Mitigation and Peacebuilding
Professor: Hrach Gregorian
Course Time: Th 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
This practicum is designed to increase familiarity with current practice in contemporary conflict prevention, mitigation, and settlement. Topics recently covered include conflict minerals, women’s empowerment, youth violence prevention, and peace gaming. Hands-on activities emphasize such skills as narrative analysis, conflict prevention training, monitoring and evaluation, and conflict mapping. Practicum clients include NGOs such as Partners Global, Search for Common Ground, Saferworld, and Resolve; for-profit organizations such as Creative Associates; and government agencies such as the U.S. Department of State.
A Wicked Challenge to US National Security
Professor: Sally Shelton-Colby
Course Time: M 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Students in this practicum study a country of strategic interest to the United States and develop policy recommendations for the U.S. Government. Specifically, the practicum addresses challenges with governance, the government's role in international conflicts, fractious relationships within the country and in the international community. Students make policy recommendations for U.S. Department of State officials and other relevant entities and identify the pros and cons of each policy recommendation.
Human Rights and Political Violence
Professor: Jeffrey Bachman
Course Time: T 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Military commissions are a form of military tribunal convened to try individuals for unlawful conduct associated with war. The Military Commissions Defense Organization is charged with providing a zealous defense for each accused tried by a military commission. This specific opportunity is to work on the defense team for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. This team is comprised of civilian and military attorneys charged with defending Mr. Mohammad in the ongoing tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.
Challenges of Multinational Enterprise
Professor: Catherine Bocskor
Course Time: T 8:20 PM - 10:50 PM
Students gain experience in the field of international business consulting by undertaking research projects for U.S. and foreign multinational enterprises, giving clients including such companies as Lockheed Martin, Rosetta Stone, EchoStar (Dish Network), and Danfoss, Inc., advice on real-life business and regulatory problems. The practicum emphasizes research, data presentation, and analytic skills, while teaching the students how to work together as a team. Students learn how to manage the clients' demands and expectations while working closely with high-level business executives who take a personal interest in the student's' growth and learning experiences. Students also learn new oral and written presentation skills to enhance their resumes.
Latin America: Prospects for Cooperation on Migration, Trade, and Other Issues.
Professor: Fulton Armstrong
Course Time: M 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Challenges in relations with Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America have rarely been so broad and important. This practicum will identify, analyze, and prioritize the options that the United States and other regional actors will have in dealing with issues, including migration, security, trade, and governance, that profoundly affect our whole hemisphere.
Planning for Conflict and Climate Migrants: A New (Adaptable) Socio-Spatial Paradigm
Professor: Vicky Kiechel
Course Time: W 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
This practicum seeks to develop alternatives to conventional responses to accommodating displaced and migrant populations. In dealing with disruption, we will employ disruptive policy and design strategies, and consider what the following can teach us: (1) ground-up community design examples from the informal sector; (2) successes in refugee-led interventions in “temporary” emergency camps and along refugee corridors; (3) best practices in the high-design, low-tech architectures of disaster response; (4) urban planning through the use of crowd-sourced information technology; and more. Our goal is to invent, for use by refugees or their formal sector sponsors, a mobile phone app (or another equally accessible and simple type of interface) that embeds an adaptable, replicable, scalable design framework and also connects migrants to tangible resources. The client will be a nonprofit or multi-lateral organization focused on refugees.
US Agricultural Policy: Domestic & International Impacts
Professor: Garrett Graddy-Lovelace
Course Time: W 2:30 PM - 5:20 PM
Alternatively known as: "Rural Community Diversity & Empowerment: Transnational Connections." This practicum will conduct background research to facilitate an early April Congressional Briefing on rural community needs and how policy can support diversity, empowerment, and equity in agriculture and agri-food systems. Working with our community partners--Rural Coalition and the National Family Farmer Coalition/Northatlantic Marine Alliance, the 2019 Practicum cohort will evaluate the ecological, social, economic, and political impacts of key agricultural policies and programs on small- and medium-size farmers, family farmers, farmworkers, agrarian cooperatives, and rural and urban communities and food systems in the US and abroad. A major theme of this Congressional Briefing will be the transnational connections comprising our agriculture and agri-food systems--from migrant labor to farming expertise to trade--and how these connections can be better understood and supported. Drawing upon mixed-methods community-partnered action-research methodologies, we'll research and produce multi-media briefing reports for our community partner coalitions to use in the Briefing and with outreach to USDA officials and agencies. Please see farmbillfairness.org to see what this client partnership has produced from past semesters.
Immigrant Health
Professor: Thespina Yamanis and Taryn Morrissey
Course Time: T 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Immigrant health is an increasingly important issue in the United States, given the current political environment and the exclusion of many immigrants from public programs, including the Affordable Care Act. Students in this course will explore Latino immigrant health in the Washington, DC area, while gaining important, job-ready skills in community-based action research and applied policy analysis. Community-based action research is a partnership between community members, policy makers, and researchers to use knowledge and policy action to improve the health of community members. The client for this course is La Clínica del Pueblo (La Clínica), a federally qualified health center that uses a community-based action approach to serve Latino immigrants, located in Washington, DC (DC) and Maryland. Students will develop the following deliverables: 1) qualitative and quantitative research on Latino immigrants’ health and well-being; 2) a policy analysis of a particular health issue facing the Latino immigrant community in the DC metro area; and 3) a communications toolkit, including policy briefs, video, or community forum for La Clínica. This is an opportunity to apply research and policy analysis to a very timely issue with a local community and client. Furthermore, students will learn how to analyze data, work in interdisciplinary teams, and develop communication tools, which are invaluable skills for the job market.
Online Practica
Priority for online Practica admission is given to online students, but on-campus students are also welcome to apply!
Summer 2018 offerings
Growth Strategy in Intercultural Communications and Leadership
Professor: Alessandra Zielinski
Course Time (subject to change): Saturdays 9:00-10:20am EST
Our world is increasingly connected through technology, yet we've also witnessed mounting divisiveness and an upswing in nationalist sentiment. This class will focus on growth strategies for programs that foster global connections and bridge divides between individuals from different cultural groups. Students will work with non-profit organizations that cultivate cross-cultural dialogue and create new cohorts of global leaders by exploring different organizational growth strategies and models to help organizations achieve their mission and scale their programs. Students will research and assess growth models, provide recommendations to clients, and craft documentation that outlines a strategic vision for sustainable organizational growth.
Countering Propaganda and Disinformation
Professor: Jorhena Thomas
Course Time (subject to change): Tuesday 7:30-8:50pm EST
During the past year, reports about ISIS-inspired attacks and Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election have dominated the headlines. This practicum will focus on the evolving use of propaganda and disinformation campaigns by international terrorist organizations and nation-states. Students will work with the State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC) to evaluate and provide recommendations for the United States' efforts to "recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining United States national security interests." Students will work in teams to conduct high quality, original research and develop practical, forward-leaning recommendations that can be of immediate use to the client.
Fall 2018 offerings
Alternative Strategies: Challenges to the Third Offset
Professor: Stephen Mariano
Course Time (subject to change): Wednesdays 7:30-8:50pm EST
Third offset is a strategy meant to give U.S. forces technological overmatch of its adversaries. Possible examples of this new offset include robotics, autonomy, miniaturization, 3-D printing, and/or big data. While the costs of developing new technologies continue to limit the number of immediate peer competitors, the costs of imitation appear to be declining over time. It is also unclear whether the technologies being developed are contributing to a larger unified operating concept or whether the technological edge will extend the era of U.S. offensive power dominance. Students in this practicum will work to answer the questions: What capabilities and/or advances in technologies need to occur to ensure SOF maintain a technological advantage over adversaries? How can SOF capitalize on the third offset? How can SOF benefit from these same technologies for operators' safety and effectiveness? How can SOF use recent technological advances to sustain a force in austere environments, or decrease the footprint of a force in a situation that demands low visibility? Are the basic assumptions of the third offset valid? Can the third offset strategy be successful without a unifying concept on how to employ military forces? What is the low-end of the third offset? What is the poor man's version (e.g., 3-D printer-enabled weapon manufacture)? Does DOD's pursuit of technological third offsets undermine efforts to build mil-to-mil relationships with less advanced partners? Are SOF pursuing advances that so outpace allies and partners that it could isolate itself militarily? What are the future technology-based threats to SOF operators across the range of military and special operations? Can SOF overcome these threats? Are performance enhancing drugs a third offset capability? Advanced technologies may make the human-machine interface even more complex as the human side must recognize when the machine side is out of tolerance. Will that complexity outpace the education and training of the force? What are the legal, moral, and ethical issues associated with advanced technology concepts such as autonomous machines and machine-assisted decision making?
Program Evaluation and Development
Professor: Terrence Jantzi
Course Time (subject to change): Saturdays 9:00-10:20am EST
This practicum increases familiarity with the practice of program evaluation in the context of peace building and development operations. Students will collaborate with an international NGO to identify an evaluation opportunity within the framework of an international project being implemented in a development or peace building context. Over the 15 weeks of the semester, students in the course will work together to design the evaluation, collect data, and develop the analysis and conclusions. The semester will culminate by producing a final report with recommendations to be submitted to the NGO. The practicum students will use both qualitative and quantitative methodologies during the evaluation process. Prior coursework or experience in monitoring and evaluation required.
Spring 2019 offerings
Leadership & Management of International NGOs
Professor: Chic Dambach
Course Time: W 7:30 - 8:50 PM
This practicum focuses on key aspects of nonprofit organizations, specifically on leadership, organization development and program strategies, staffing structures, financing and governance. Students work with international organizations, such as the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Institute for Economics and Peace, and USAID prime contract agencies such as MSI and Creative Associates. Topics include strategic planning, budgeting, leadership concepts, and evaluation.
Countering Foreign State Propaganda and Disinformation
Professor: Jorhena Thomas
Course Time: Sunday 7:30 - 8:50pm
During the past year, reports about ISIS-inspired attacks and Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election have dominated the headlines. This practicum will focus on the evolving use of propaganda and disinformation campaigns by international terrorist organizations and nation-states. Students will work with the State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC) to evaluate and provide recommendations for the United States' efforts to "recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining United States national security interests." Students will work in teams to conduct high quality, original research and develop practical, forward-leaning recommendations that can be of immediate use to the client.
Practica Abroad
These international Practica are offered to all students through SIS's Office of International Programs. Funding may be available to help cover part of the cost of your Practicum abroad through OIP.
Summer 2018 offerings
Program Evaluation in Global Education Bahamas
Countries around the world are working to improve access to quality education, especially for historically underserved youth, in order to support national development, health, and peace. Through this practicum experience, students will not only practice program evaluation skills in international education and youth development, but will also develop cross-cultural research and communication skills. Students will also exercise intercultural competence skills as they engage with our Bahamian partners.
Professor: Amanda Taylor
More on Bahamas PracticumCooperation for Peacebuilding Israel and Palestine
Students will become familiar with the wider transboundary cooperation efforts of AIES, PWEG, and other organizations in the region. During the desk study portion of the practicum, they will study the theory and practice of environmental peacebuilding, learn about the challenges and opportunities of conducting research and evaluation in a conflict setting, and develop skill in rapid-appraisal techniques, interview methods, and others. They will be required to read extensively and participate in the formulation of an assessment framework/matrix. During the field portion of the practicum, they will live and work in close quarters, meet practitioners working for these NGOs as well as the beneficiary-participant parties of the projects and communities. They will also meet Israeli and Palestinian officials whose governance practices have bearing on water, cooperation and peace in the region. Team members will undertake desk-study and research design work early in the summer of 2018; travel to the region to collect data in the field through participant-observation, interviews, focus groups, and/or archival work at the project sites; and produce a report that will be submitted to the partners to help them assess, improve, and further develop their activities. The collaborative report-writing phase will take place through the remainder of the summer, and possibly into the fall, when one or more public presentations will be made.
Professors: Eric Abitbol and Ken Conca
More on Israel & PalestineThe Future of Cyber Conflict Norway or Denmark
Recent election hacks and the proliferation of malware linked to state-sponsors open new fronts in strategic competition between rivals. What is the emerging character of cyber conflict? How do revisionist states use cyber operations short of war to coerce domestic and international opponents? To what extent to these operations spillover into the commercial space creating new markets for malware and cybercrime? The course will take students to NATO's "northern flank" - Scandinavian and Baltic countries whose territorial and commercial interest leave put them in the Kremlin's crosshairs. The class will combine remote seminars with visits to multiple countries in Northern Europe. At the conclusion of the course, students will present government and corporate partners forecasts about the future of cyber conflict in the region.
Professor: Benjamin Jensen
More on NATO practicumProject Design, Monitoring and Evaluation in Indonesia
Students will spend roughly two weeks in Indonesia conducting project design, monitoring, and evaluation with local NGOs in the country. Student teams will work with their assigned NGO to fulfill these needs, to be determined by the organizations. In most cases, students will evaluate one of the local partner's projects and help them to assess their impact, but in some cases they may assist in project design or proposing grants. Students will develop concrete project design, monitoring, and evaluation skills, such as the ability to design a theory of change and Logframe relevant to project goals, develop evaluation tools, collect and analyze data using these tools, and teach these skills to civil society organizations in an international context. The program will conclude with students leading a training for VIA's local NGO partners and providing a manual for VIA to use to train their partners in the future.
Professor: Alex Cromwell