EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING COURSES

Opportunities to embrace leadership and enact change at HKS.

Social Movements: The Art and Science of Social Change

Liz McKenna
Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

What's the difference between a movement that wins victories for its constituents, and one that fails? What are the factors that make collective action powerful? What roles do culture, media, and technology play in collective action? Social Movements: The Art and Science of Social Change explores what makes social movements successful. Discussion-based lectures are paired with an experiential learning lab to give students hands-on experience with analyzing, creating, and implementing social movements.

This course is recommended for MPPs and MPA/IDs interested in working with a civic, political, or advocacy organization for their PAE or SYPA.

Creating Justice in Real Time: Vision, Strategies, and Campaigns

Cornell Williams Brooks
Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations, Harvard Kennedy School
Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice, Harvard Kennedy School

Students will develop visions, strategies, and campaigns as well as design legislative, policy, organizing, communications, and moral framing strategies to address injustice. This class will work with the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice, U.S. municipal governments, and national- and state-level advocacy organizations on real-time campaigns with a focus on what is demonstrably effective.

Moral Practice for Public Leadership

Christopher Robichaud
Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy

What's the best way to think about what moral excellence in public leadership looks like? And what are the practices that promote it?

This course pioneers a new approach to professional ethics, one that aims to tether more closely self-development to world-intervention, art and gameplay to leadership, and moral psychology to moral philosophy. Students will explore cross-cultural philosophical traditions to learn about this conception of ethics and will engage with traditional tools, such as cases, simulations, film and other forms of fiction, as well as new experiential exercises, including simulations, the reading of superhero sequential art (comic books), and activities that encourage creative gameplay. Students will come away with insight into their own ethos, strategies on how to continue to develop it (a lifelong pursuit), and models on how to have it deeply inform their own public leadership practice.

WELCOMING OUR FALL 2023 HAUSER LEADERS

We are excited and grateful to welcome an outstanding cohort of Hauser Leaders to campus this fall with experience to share from across public, nonprofit, and private sectors.

• Dame Jacinda Ardern, 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand (2017-2023)
• Colette Pichon Battle, Vision and Initiatives Partner, Taproot Earth, 2022 William O. Douglas award-winning lawyer and climate justice organizer
• Gov. Larry Hogan, 62nd Governor of Maryland (2015-2023)
• LTC(R) Alexander Vindman, Former Director for European Affairs, U.S. National Security Council
• Hon. Mark Wolf, Judge, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts; Chair, Integrity Initiatives International

Hauser leaders will engage with the HKS community by teaching skill-building and leadership development workshops, engaging key external stakeholders, and advising students and alumni.