Week 2 of UCalgary MPP 2023-2024 Class

Sept. 5 – Sept. 8 2023; this was a short week as we were off for Labour Day Monday. This fall I only have lectures (and tutorials) Monday through Wednesday, given my chosen elective.

We started a year long weekly capstone workshop series, led by Dr. Jennifer Winter and Dr. Blake Shaffer, to help us produce a high quality capstone paper. The capstone paper is required to fulfil the requirements of the MPP degree and it is a public policy centric academic paper to be submitted at the end of the program; Aug. 23 2024.

This week's workshop topic was an introduction to the MPP capstone requirements, potential supervisors and topic selection do's and don'ts. My key takeaways from the discussion:

  • Research on human subjects must be reviewed by and receive approval from the appropriate University of Calgary Research Ethics Board (REB) prior to the commencement of the research project. The process takes time for review and needs to be planned appropriately.
  • Grey literature means legitimate sources that are not peer reviewed such as government, reputable advocacy agencies and think tank reports.
  • Ensure that the chosen topic has relevance to public policy and that it is specific/focused while remaining neutral in order to produce a high quality paper.

The instructors did mention a couple of times that the capstone project is a great "show and tell" tool for future employers, and I can see what they mean. I think that long-term I would like to pursue a PhD in climate change and energy security to allow me to delve deeper into studying and formulating ideas for robust climate change policymaking in developing nations. Emphasis on 'thinking' because I am not sure if that is the path that I necessarily need to take in order to affect positive change on the world. In order to increase my chances of pursuing higher education, I believe it would be beneficial to try to write a capstone that could be published in a peer-reviewed journal. It is something that I have done before during my undergraduate studies and truly enjoyed.

As I discuss future prospects, I'd like to share my short-term aspiration to deepen my understanding of government operations through a role in formulating and implementing energy policies in AB. Leveraging my 5.5 years of technical engineering expertise in AB oil and gas sector, I aim to round off my experience by intersecting policy with hands-on industry experience.

Dr. Duane Bratt delivered the first lecture of PPOL 619: Governance, Institutions and Public Policy early in the week. Dr. Bratt is a regular commentator on AB political events. The discussion revolved around the foundational concepts of political science; power, authority, legitimacy, government, governance, sovereign state, rule of law, levels/orders/branches of governments, and constitution. Dr. Bratt mentioned that this information is typically covered in introductory courses for first and second-year political science undergraduates. I have been exposed to the material here and there via the news, but this is my first time to systematically study it and I am finding it quite interesting. The readings are a lot and some of them require multiple reads for me to make sense given the lack of previous exposure.

*Photo: Old Man (or Roche Bonhomme) trail summit in Jasper National Park, AB Jul. 18/20.

Summit photo