Who We Are
Our Collaborative Student Research Labs in the Department of Government provide undergraduate students opportunities to work together with faculty and graduate students on cutting-edge research, to learn and put into practice marketable data analysis skills, and to pursue their own independent research. For years, our labs have been national leaders in integrating students into policy-relevant research experiences — experiences that have been for too long restricted to students outside of social sciences.
Policy Agendas Project Lab
For more than 10 years, Professors Bryan Jones and Sean Theriault, under the auspices of the Policy Agendas Project, have led a lab where undergraduates simultaneously conduct their own individual research projects, while contributing to graduate student and faculty research. These projects, which focus on research involving American political institutions and processes, are showcased during UT’s Undergraduate Research Week in April.
Innovations for Peace and Development
Over the last 7 years, Professors Mike Findley and Rachel Wellhausen have engaged over 500 undergraduate and graduate students in their lab, which is dedicated to uncovering and advancing solutions to global security and poverty. Their students work in tandem with the World Bank, UN agencies, US government agencies, and dozens of developing country governments and non-profits across the world to address these critical issues. IPD students showcase their research in influential academic and policy publications, at prestigious political science conferences, in front of government officials from the US and abroad, and in collaborations and internships in places like Tanzania, Uganda, El Salvador, Nepal, and American Indian tribal nations.
What We’re Fundraising For
Our collaborative labs facilitate student research of all kinds: interview and archival research in the US and abroad, data analytics with proprietary software, coding government documents into actionable data sets, real-world experience in internships around the world, and a wide array of their own innovative research projects. Providing our students with grants, training, technology, travel funds, and administrative support is expensive. We know that our labs enrich our students’ educations and jumpstart their professional lives. We are asking for your support as we continue to expand our efforts.
Your Impact
Alumni from our labs have gone on to the finest law schools, graduated from top Masters and PhD programs, sit in our nation’s top corporate boardrooms, work in the globe’s leading international governmental organizations, are at the forefront of new career paths in data analytics, and even serve in the US House of Representatives. With your donation, we can build on these successes in maximizing students’ education and marketable experience outside of the classroom. What starts in our labs really does change the world!
