The WPF offers several opportunities for Fletcher School students to work with us: as research assistants aiding with communications, organization, and project-based work, as well as teaching assistants associated with specific courses offered by WPF staff. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about these opportunities. The WPF also runs an annual student seminar competition, which invites student groups to conceptualize, organize and run a seminar with top experts from around the world on a topic of the students' choosing paid for by the WPF.
ANNUAL STUDENT SEMINAR COMPETITION
The World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School invites proposals from students at the Fletcher School for a two-day seminar to be held on campus in February 2013. WPF seminars offer a rare opportunity for leading experts to engage in incisive, collegial and sustained dialogue on the pressing problems of our day. The student competition enables Fletcher School students to frame an issue and interact with leading global experts on the topic of their choosing.
THE 2012-2013 COMPETITION
Congratulations to Jennifer Ambrose, Casey Hogle, Trisha Taneja, Keren Yohannes, and for the winning submission, "Western Advocacy in Conflict: Methods, Impacts and Ethics."
GUIDELINES
The topic should be related to conflict, security, peace or human rights. The criteria for selecting the winning proposal will be that it is innovative, well-articulated, and relevant to the Foundation’s vision that intellectual leadership is important to promoting peace. Noting that the vision of these seminars is to explore issues that might otherwise not gain attention, the WPF does not make a requirement that the issue should be directly connected to policy outcomes.
All costs will be borne by the WPF, including travel and accommodation for invited participants, catering, costs for interns for organizing and taking notes, and other associated costs. The competition winners will work with the WPF to organize the seminar, and will be paid a standard hourly rate for their time.
SEMINAR FORMAT: Two days of ‘restricted’ sessions that allow for an intense exchange of views, following the ‘Chatham House Rule’ (remarks cannot be attributed). The seminar will consist of a welcome, five panels, and concluding session with 12-15 full participants around the table.
OPEN EVENT WITH SEMINAR: The open event may be in the format of a lecture and questions and answers, or a panel discussion open to the broader Fletcher community.
ELIGIBILITY: The competition is open to all current Fletcher School students. Proposals are invited from groups of students (between two and five, Masters and/or PhD).
PROPOSALS -- please include the following information as attachments sent to worldpeacefoundation@tufts.edu:
- List of all students involved in organizing the seminar.
- Outline of the issue, including why it is an important issue for the WPF (one page).
- List of potential invitees. 15 full participants should include: the organizers, members of Fletcher faculty, outside experts. Observers and secondary participants from Fletcher need not be specified. Additional names may be included on the basis that not all invitees may be available. Do not extend invitations at this point.
- Agenda for the seminar, including both the restricted and open sessions.
Proposals will be reviewed by Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the WPF and Peter Uvin, Academic Dean of the Fletcher School.
IMPORTANT DATES:
October 11, 2012: deadline for proposals to be submitted to worldpeacefoundation@tufts.edu.
October 16, 2012: winners announced via email.
February 2013: Seminar held at The Fletcher School
PAST WINNERS
The winners of the 2011-2012 Student Seminar Competition are, as pictured, Jennifer Keene, Mario PatinĚo, Katharine Davis, Anne Wanlund, and Leah Greenberg (not pictured), who organized a fantastic seminar, "Drug Trafficking and Transnational Organized Crime: Re-Framing the Debate," held at the Fletcher School on May 7 & 8, 2012.