This course is one I am most proud of because I got the amazing opportunity to work with my two mentors, Dr. Tanya Corbin and Dr Paige Tan to create it as my senior independent study.This course is an individual independent study that is in partnership with the domestic Politics of Disaster and Crisis course. Similarly, this course explores the politics of disasters and crises, both human caused and ‘natural’ hazards, as they relate to the political process and policy outcomes, however, this course solely focuses in international disasters. In this course I was able to explore how disasters and crises affect political leadership, policy agendas, policy change, and intergovernmental relations. I also explored the ways in which the citizenry participates in the political and civic processes related to disasters, crises, and emergencies.
An important component of the course is an emphasis on developing applied skills of policy analysis. Similarly to the domestic disasters course, this international disasters capstone applies the policy analysis process to address questions about the best ways to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. This course will help students prepare for policy analysis work in government or nonprofit agencies, and strengthen writing and critical thinking skills.
This course was very different than all of my other courses due to the fact that since it was an independent study, I helped design the curriculum and met with Dr. Corbin individually to discuss my research and my findings in addition to attending the Politics of Disasters course which was open to all students.
My topic of research was the Fukushima disaster in Japan and how culture played a large role in the mitigation and disaster response effort. I then wrote a research paper on the topic and presented my findings to the Politics of Disasters students as my final capstone. to view my research please click here.