Courses | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

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PubPol 475

PubPol 475.050 Topics: Municipal Socialism

Mo Torres
Municipal socialism is back. But was it ever gone? In his election night victory speech,Zohran Mamdani invoked arguably the most famous socialist in U.S. history: "The sunmay have set over our city this evening," he began his speech, "but as Eugene D...
PubPol 746

PubPol 746 Social Welfare Policy

Katherine Michelmore
This course is designed to provide an overview of U.S. social welfare policy, with some discussion of other nations' approaches to social welfare policy. We will segment social welfare policy into three major branches: welfare and income-based progra...
PubPol 447

PubPol 447 Excel for Public Policy

Alton Worthington
This course is designed to familiarize students with core skills in data access, manipulation, analysis, and presentation using Excel (and Excel-like alternatives). Spreadsheet programs remain an important part of professional life, and this course w...
PubPol 580

PubPol 580.002 Values & Ethics in Public Policy

Morela Hernandez
This is a core course restricted to Ford School students only. We often think of policy analysis as a technical field in which we apply analytical tools to determine the most effective and efficient way to achieve policy goals. However, every time we...
PubPol 477

PubPol 477 R for Public Policy

Alton Worthington
*Note: Instructor consent required* This course is an introduction to programming in the R statistical language. R is a flexible, open-source statistics platform which has gained broad adoption in a variety of fields. Through interacting with R, RStu...
PubPol 521

PubPol 521.011 Essential Skills of Policy Writing

Beth Chimera
This course provides a five-week deep dive into strategies to maximize the persuasiveness of your writing for various policy-relevant audiences: from decision-makers in professional policy spaces to the readerships of national and local news-and-opin...
PubPol 457

PubPol 457 Data Visualization for Public Policy

Alton Worthington
This course will provide students with fundamental principles of and practical experience in presenting data in a visual form for communication and analysis. The class will cover collection of data, management of data for visualization, creating a wo...
PubPol 479

PubPol 479.001 Evaluating Public Policies

Natasha Pilkauskas
This 4-credit course will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of evaluation research design and methods as applied to public policies and programs. The course will cover the role of evaluation in the public policy process, and both process an...
PubPol 521

PubPol 521.012 Essential Skills of Policy Writing

Beth Chimera
This course provides a five-week deep dive into strategies to maximize the persuasiveness of your writing for various policy-relevant audiences: from decision-makers in professional policy spaces to the readerships of national and local news-and-opin...
PubPol 475

PubPol 475.051 Topics: Write to Change the World

Molly Spencer
Structured as a seminar and writing workshop, this course centers on writing in three domains of policy change: the third sector (e.g., non-profits, advocacy organizations, think tanks), legislative and regulatory bodies, and the individual citizen i...
PubPol 582

PubPol 582.001 Leading Organizations

Morela Hernandez
This course will introduce you to the fundamental leadership concepts and skills you need to successfully navigate and shape dynamic policy environments. You will have opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of yourself and build your ability...
PubPol 521

PubPol 521.003 Essential Skills of Policy Writing

Beth Chimera
This course provides a five-week deep dive into strategies to maximize the persuasiveness of your writing for various policy-relevant audiences: from decision-makers in professional policy spaces to the readerships of national and local news-and-opin...
PubPol 474

PubPol 474.002 Values & Ethics: Racial Justice

Mo Torres
Even a casual observer of U.S. society would note the centrality of race and racism inour country's politics and culture. This course is for students who want to build a criticalunderstanding of race, racism, and racial justice, and how these concept...
PubPol 529

PubPol 529.001 Statistics

Catherine Hausman
Policy makers have long relied on quantitative analysis to inform their decision-making, and recent advances in data gathering and in computing have made quantitative analysis even more prevalent. The goal of this course is for students to be able to...

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