Welcome to the Homepage of the Graduate Student Lecture Series!
Purpose
The Department of Public Policy is committed to advancing and highlighting graduate student research emanating from the department and in association with research centers and organizations both within and outside the University of Massachusetts. As part of its mission to provide strong applied academic foundations of public policy, the Department fosters student engagement in applied policy research with real world applications. Incubators for this applied policy research include departmental course offerings where the focus of the learning centers around a real-life policy question, for example the Policy Analysis Research Team (PART). In addition to course offerings, the Center for Policy Analysis and Urban Initiative provide opportunties for students to engage in applied policy research projects offering direct applications of conceptual policy tools learned in the classroom setting.
The graduate student lecture series provides a forum for graduate students to disseminate their research to a wider audience, while also giving the students the opportunity to develop public speaking and enagement skills. Since many of the projects undertaken by the students have direct application to the surrounding community, the lectures also serve as an important dialogue between the University and the community, providing a link between ongoing student research and civic engagement within the community.
Lecture Series
Below you will find links to the lecture series for each academic year. Simply click on the link to be taken to the series for the year indicated:
2013: Sustainable Cities Lecture Series
What makes our cities "sustainable?" What are the impacts of public perception on wind energy projects? What options do we have when thinking about the revitalization of open spaces in inner cities? How can we measure 'wellbeing' within urban centers? What options do post-industrialized medium population cities have to shape and revitalize their future? These are the questions at the heart of the four lectures presented in this series.
