Diplomacy Lab Call For Spring Course Bids Due October 4
Give your students an inside view into the US government's involvements abroad! The Spring 2025 Diplomacy Lab Project Menu has been released, with over 80 topics suitable for courses across levels and disciplines. This program offers real-life research opportunities for students in cooperation with US embassies and the Departments of State and (for the first time this year) Treasury. Projects are situated across the world and address a range of policy challenges including public health, energy security, women’s economic inclusion, extremism, emerging technologies, accessibility, climate change, human rights, disinformation, sustainability, and more. They are intended to be incorporated into existing curricular offerings as research practicum.
Instructors at any level may apply through a simple proposal process involving a brief description (less than one page) of the course and how they propose to incorporate the DipLab project into it. Please submit this statement of interest to outgoing DipLab coordinator Angela Brintlinger cc incoming DipLab coordinator Dr. Lorraine Wallace by Monday, September 30th; they will coordinate the bids for final submission on October 4th.
Bidding Reminders:
- Only bid on projects you can undertake if selected: there are no alternate or back-up bids. But to ensure that everyone who wants to participate can secure a project, there will be a Round 2 with projects that remain unclaimed as of October 18.
- Please keep in mind that DipLab projects are designed for teams of students and not as individual study projects. A team can be as small as two students, but unfortunately we cannot support projects intended to be carried out by a sole student researcher.
Questions? Ask Angela, Lorraine or Mershon Director Dorothy Noyes. If you see cool projects that you think your colleagues might like to tackle with a team of students, please share the menu and have them get in touch with us! We stand ready to help implement this second iteration of Ohio State Diplomacy Lab projects.
Note that the State Department hosts an April “Diplomacy Lab Fair” in Washington, DC and if you and your team of students would like to attend in 2025, we will work to find funds to help!
About Diplomacy Lab
The Mershon Center is the institutional host at Ohio State for the Diplomacy Lab, a program offering real-life research opportunities for students in cooperation with US embassies and the Department of State. Projects are situated across the world and address a range of policy challenges including public health, energy security, women’s economic inclusion, drug trafficking, extremism, urban planning, emerging technologies, accessibility, climate change, human rights, disinformation, sustainability, and more.
Prior to each semester, the Lab provides its partner academic institutions with a menu of research topics. Faculty bid on these, through a simple process, to develop group projects at levels ranging from GEs to graduate work. Normally these projects are incorporated into their regularly scheduled courses. During the semester, students have several opportunities to consult with State or Treasury Department experts; course-end deliverables vary by project. Students learn about the work of the Departments and have an opportunity to influence global cooperation initiatives through their research.
Ohio State begin its Diplomacy Lab collaboration in Autumn 2024, with three courses that are happening now:
- In a 3000-level course in Public Health, Lorraine Wallace's twelve students are cooperating on the modernization of medical clearances for US diplomats. Final products will include (1) compendiums of best practices and data summaries, (2) prioritized lists of actionable strategies and recommendations, and (3) interactive slide presentations and accompanying written reports with executive summaries.
- Center for African Studies director Ousman Kobo and assistant director Jacien Carr created a 4000-level seminar for students on the “Resurgence of Military Coups in Africa and the Impact of Colonial Legacies.” After studying the historical background, students are collaborating on a policy paper on the present sources of instability in military-civilian government relations in Francophone West Africa.
Diplomacy Lab courses for Spring 2025 will be publicized on this page once the bids are accepted.