Civic and Leadership Learning
Students will gain leadership skills and boost their engagement in democracy through learning from policy professionals, elected officials, and civic leaders.
Spring 2025
Skills for Civic Leadership
Instructor: Emily Bhandari
Open to: Currently enrolled LBJ students
The principal objective of the course is to build skills and offer opportunities to practice what is needed to become an effective civic leader, including: as an everyday citizen; as an organization leader; or as an elected or appointed official. Students will get to hear from active professionals about their career journeys and receive personalized feedback reports on their own leadership strengths. Students will have increased their knowledge and skills about public leadership and will feel more confident in their ability to engage in civic life.
Difficult Dialogues Across Divides
Instructor: Becca North
Open to: Currently enrolled LBJ Students
This course examines interdisciplinary research as to why conversations across lines of difference are so challenging and yet so critical, and trains students on how to overcome the challenges and experience the benefits by offering practical guidance on how to engage in these types of conversations most effectively.
Psychology of Leadership
Instructor: Becca North
Open to: Currently Enrolled LBJ Students
This course will draw on psychological research to understand effective leadership as it applies to organizations that set policy and to politics. We will consider psychological research at the level of the individual and group, as well as research at the level of the organization. We also will look through the lens of other academic disciplines where findings are relevant to the psychology of leadership, such as history, sociology, journalism, and business. A central goal of the course is to expand students’ capacity to be effective agents of change and relatedly to enhance students’ ability to see ideas and problems from multiple perspectives.
Effective Advocacy for Influencing Federal Policymaking
Instructor: Emily Bhandari
Open to: All currently enrolled UT students and non-degree seeking professionals
Dates: May 12-16, 2025
Democracy functions best when policymakers receive information on the likely impacts of proposed policy. Located in Washington D.C., students will learn effective advocacy strategies and skills directly from active professionals.
Students will be able to develop an advocacy plan; frame an issue and present a cause to stakeholders; lead education campaigns; motivate decision-makers; recognize allies; and identify threats to success. Students will hear from elected officials, legislative staff, interest group leaders, lobbyists, communication professionals, and think tank representatives.
Students will increase their knowledge about advocating in Washington D.C. and improve their skills around developing an effective advocacy plan.
Politics and Issues of the Moment
Instructor: Evan Smith
Open To: All enrolled LBJ students
It’s right there in the name. This course will focus on the politics and issues driving the moment we’re in — the next session of the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress and the next biennial election cycle. Yep, 2026 is already upon us.
In Texas, it’s been thirty years since there were consistently competitive races at the state and federal level. At the legislature, redistricting has historically made the outcome of our November elections boring and predictable. You can argue whether, at the moment, Texas is a red state or merely a non-voting state, and you can make wishful predictions about whether the Democrats finally can get their acts together enough to snatch back some amount of power, but the undeniable reality is that, at least for now, Republicans rule the roost. At the same time, world domination hasn’t brought the GOP peace; Rs battling Rs in a test of ideologically purity has become as much of a commonplace and popcorn-popping-worthy feature of our politics in Austin as it is in Washington. The ongoing battle over the Lege’s attempt to impeach the Attorney General, the cage match between the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker, and the Governor’s largely successful targeting of apostate Republicans in the March primary are evidence of that.
Texas Legislative Process Internship
Instructor: Sherri Greenberg
Open to: Currently Enrolled LBJ Students
How does the Texas Legislature really work? What are the roles of legislators, staff, and committees? What are the functions of various State agencies, boards, commissions, and elected officials? What are the important public policy issues in the State of Texas? How do lobbyists and interest groups influence the process? In this course, students will learn about the Texas Legislature, Texas state agencies, interest groups, and lobbyists. We will investigate the inner workings of the Texas Legislature on a formal and an informal basis. Students will learn the formal legislative process including the procedural rules for bills, committees and floor debates. Also, students will investigate the informal process of lobbying and behind the scenes negotiating. Additionally, we will examine the legislative and policy implications of the 88thTexas Legislature. Dates to be added shortly.
Students in this course will intern on the staff of a Member of the Texas House of Representatives or Texas Senate, or intern on the staff of a Texas House or Senate Committee. Also, a few students may intern with a State of Texas Agency, or the City of Austin, or a nonprofit, or a lobbyist, if the student is working at the Texas Legislature in an advocacy, lobbying, or intergovernmental relations capacity. Since students in this class actually will intern at the Texas Legislature during the 87th Session of the Texas Legislature, students must meet with Professor Greenberg to gain admission to the class. This is necessary to determine if this Texas Legislature Internship is appropriate for the student’s schedule, skills, and goals, and ensure a successful experience for the student. Students will not register themselves for this course, instead OSAA will register admitted students.
Fall 2024
Skills for Winning Campaigns and Elections
Instructor: Emily Bhandari
Open to: Currently enrolled LBJ students
This course will give students the knowledge they need to win campaigns and elections. Sessions will help build skills in fundraising, campaign math, voter databases, crafting effective messages, talking with the media, getting your message out through earned or paid media, polling, and volunteer management.
Speakers will include active political professionals who will share their on-the-ground insights for gaining support and building a winning campaign. As a result of attending this course, students will have increased their knowledge about the dynamics of political campaigns and will feel confident in their ability to implement effective strategies to win.
Bridging Divides in Texas
Instructor: Becca North, Ph.D
Open to: Currently Enrolled LBJ Students
This innovative research project, at the intersection of psychology and public policy, cuts across academic disciplines in its scope and approach to address an urgent problem cutting across all aspects of our lives, and threatening our democracy: the painfully divided state of our country.
This project aims, at a broad level, to foster healing in the country by cultivating communication across divides, starting where we live—in Texas. In recent months, many leaders and writers have referred to the need to tend to the soul of the nation, referencing the deep divides, wounds, and antagonism that are ripping the fabric of the country. According to many metrics, one of the sharpest divides is between people with and without a Bachelor’s degree. This project, more specifically, aims to elevate voices of people who often are overlooked and unheard: people without a Bachelor’s degree.
This project will investigate the question: What is on the hearts and minds of people in Texas without a college degree? The voices of people without a college degree are worthy of listening to, and for our country to heal, they need to be heard. This project aims to elevate their voices in the national conversation—fostering communication, understanding, empathy, and healing across divides.
The Politics and Issues of the Moment
Instructor: Evan Smith
Open To: All enrolled LBJ students
It’s right there in the name. This course will focus on the politics and issues driving the moment we’re in — what’s left of the 2024 election cycle and the run-up to the next sessions of the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress and the next biennial election cycle. Yep, 2026 is already upon us.
In Texas, it’s been thirty years since there were consistently competitive races at the state and federal level. At the legislature, redistricting has historically made the outcome of our November elections boring and predictable. You can argue whether, at the moment, Texas is a red state or merely a non-voting state, and you can make wishful predictions about whether the Democrats finally can get their acts together enough to snatch back some amount of power, but the undeniable reality is that, at least for now, Republicans rule the roost. At the same time, world domination hasn’t brought the GOP peace; Rs battling Rs in a test of ideologically purity has become as much of a commonplace and popcorn-popping-worthy feature of our politics in Austin as it is in Washington. The ongoing battle over the Lege’s attempt to impeach the Attorney General, the cage match between the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker, and the Governor’s largely successful targeting of apostate Republicans in the March primary are evidence of that.
Spring 2024
Skills for Civic Leadership
Instructor: Emily Bhandari
Open to: Currently enrolled LBJ students
The principal objective of the course is to build skills and offer opportunities to practice what is needed to become an effective civic leader, including: as an everyday citizen; as an organization leader; or as an elected or appointed official.
Students will get to hear from active professionals about their career journeys and receive personalized feedback reports on their own leadership strengths.
Students will have increased their knowledge and skills about public leadership and will feel more confident in their ability to engage in civic life.
The Politics and Issues of the Election Cycle
Instructor: Evan Smith
Open to: Currently enrolled LBJ students
This course will focus on the 2024 election cycle — both the primaries (the first half of the semester) and the general election (the second half). Each class will be built around the central ideas of the moment in politics as well as the handful of issues atop of the campaign season's agenda.
We’ll have big-name guests visit our class each week, in person and virtually, to discuss what's really going on: in races and in parties, in the halls of government, from one end of the state to the other, and along the treacherous path from Texas to D.C. This class will put you in the intimate company of some of the most powerful and celebrated figures in politics and policy.
Psychology for Policy Analysis
Instructor: Becca North
Open to: Currently enrolled LBJ students
This course will explore how psychological research relates to public policy, including the design and analysis of public policy.
Findings from the field of psychology have implications for the development, evaluation, and analysis of policies that affect individual citizens, as well as the functioning and health of organizations that set policy. This course will guide students in thinking about the implications and applications of psychological research for public policy.
A central goal of the course is to expand students’ capacity to be effective agents of change.
Maymester in D.C.: Effective Advocacy for Influencing Federal Policymaking
Instructor: Emily Bhandari
Open to: All currently enrolled UT students and non-degree seeking professionals
Democracy functions best when policymakers receive information on the likely impacts of proposed policy. Located in Washington D.C., students will learn effective advocacy strategies and skills directly from active professionals.
Students will be able to develop an advocacy plan; frame an issue and present a cause to stakeholders; lead education campaigns; motivate decision-makers; recognize allies; and identify threats to success. Students will hear from elected officials, legislative staff, interest group leaders, lobbyists, communication professionals, and think tank representatives.