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Three faculty members from the School of Public Policy at UMass Amherst have received grants for use in teaching in the Feinberg Innovation Space, a new campus facility with cutting-edge audio and video capabilities that will allow them to connect students with speakers and experts from around the globe.
Martha Fuentes-Bautista, Brenda Bushouse, and Marta Vicarelli were selected by the UMass Amherst Office of the Provost to receive grants for teaching in the new classroom, located in Engineering Lab II. The facility and the grants were made possible by a gift from UMass Amherst alumnus Ken Feinberg, who received a bachelor’s in history in 1967 and an honorary degree in 2002. Feinberg, an attorney and leading expert in mediation, was director of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
“The School of Public Policy is grateful for this support, which allows us to continue offering our students exciting courses in innovative ways,” said SPP Director Al Roberts.
Fuentes-Bautista, who teaches in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Communication, will use her grant for her Internet Governance and Information Policy seminar this fall. Students will collaborate with counterparts at McGill University and at the Brazilian Institute of Consumer Protection to study institutional design of data protection authorities across the Americas and how civil society groups participate in online privacy and consumer protection policy debates. Fuentes-Bautista will use the grant to bring in expert speakers from the US, Canada, and South America to take part in the seminar online.
Bushouse, who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Political Science, will use the funding in her fall semester Politics of the Policy Process graduate course. The new facility and the grant will allow her to expand the technology-intensive pedagogy she already employs in her classes, by using the two-way video capabilities to bring in federal policymakers and other experts to share their insights with students.
Vicarelli, a joint faculty member in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics, will use her grant in her graduate-level Environmental Policy and Economic Analysis course. The course, to be offered in the spring 2019 semester, will examine sustainability innovations from multiple perspectives, with an eye toward preparing students for careers in the field. Teaching in the Feinberg facility will allow Vicarelli to bring in speakers from corporations, nonprofits, and government via teleconference and to record those talks so they can be made available to others.
About the School of Public Policy: Established in 2016, the UMass Amherst School of Public Policy is a hub for research and teaching, preparing students for leadership in public service. The program’s focuses include social change and public policy related to science and technology.
— Maureen Turner, communications manager, School of Public Policy
