Workshop in Social Policy

In the Fall term following the completion of "Problems in Social Policy," JDP students and Economics fellows in social policy will enroll in this workshop, whose primary purpose will be to hone the draft papers completed the previous year into contributions appropriate to the top disciplinary journals and other high visibility venues.

Toward this end, preparation for the workshop will begin in the Spring before it commences, when each student will communicate the topic of his/her paper and the names of four or five leading scholars outside of the Princeton community whose comments on the work would be of greatest value. These scholars will be invited to the campus throughout the Fall term and will participate as guests in the weekly workshop.

Students will be provided with extension comments and revision suggestions on their draft papers which are due on Dean's Day in the Spring term preceding the workshop. The revised papers will be due without fail on September 1. Absolutely no extensions from this deadline will be possible.

Our distinguished visitors will be sent the relevant student paper three weeks before their visit to Princeton. Students in the workshop will contribute via email/blackboard, a one page memo reviewing the same student paper, which must be delivered to everyone in the workshop at least 48 hours before the class meets. This gives the student presenter a chance to create a presentation that not only covers the basic argument and analysis, but to consider some of the critiques their fellow students offer in advance.

Our visitors will arrive the afternoon before the workshop and will present a paper of their own in our program seminar series, "Dilemmas of Inequality." The Dilemmas series usually convenes for a dinner/lecture on Tuesday evenings. The following morning, the guest speaker will join the workshop.

For the first part of the class on Wednesday morning, a student who is not presenting their own paper will lead a discussion of the visitor’s presentation from the day before. This provides an opportunity for JDP students to engage with the visitor in a substantial intellectual fashion and for the seminar as a whole to discuss their work. This will be followed by the student "on the docket" presenting a brief version of his/her paper. The guest speaker will then be asked to give his/her remarks on the paper, followed by a more general discussion from all of the students in the course.

With these comments in hand, each student will revise the paper again, create a "publication plan" for it (explaining which journals are appropriate and why) and send it out for review. When these steps are complete, the student will have met the workshop requirement, having completed an original paper of high quality and having contributed weekly memos for the benefit of fellow students.