Diplomacy Lab
Engage students and faculty in U.S. State Department foreign policy projects
IU Indianapolis is one of 38 U.S. institutions of higher education that participates in the Diplomacy Lab, the U.S. State Department’s initiative to “‘course-source’ research and innovation related to foreign policy challenges”. Faculty and students can explore real-world challenges, contribute to the policymaking process, and further global learning.
How does it work?
The State Department identifies foreign policy projects in which faculty and their classes can be involved. Faculty from around the nation bid on the projects. If the bid is accepted, over the course of a semester, professors guide their students in developing a final work product that accomplishes goals outlined by the State Department. Students have opportunities throughout the semester to discuss their research with State Department officials.
What is a bid?
A bid is a 200 word proposal of why your department is suitable to address the challenge outlined in the project and how the faculty members and students will approach the project. A faculty member submits the bid to IU Indianapolis’s institutional coordinator, Leslie Bozeman, who then compiles all the bids for submission.
Example bid:
"Entering our fourth year with the Diplomacy Laboratory Program, from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs of Indiana University, IU Indianapolis Campus, we would be honored to author “Effective Anti-corruption Reforms” for the Office of Political and Economic Affairs of the U.S. Mission to Guatemala. This will be utilizing my graduate class of twenty-eight students from “J531 United States National Security and Homeland Security” this fall. It is our opinion this subject is very important to U. S. National Security and to the vital interests of the United States. Additionally we also desire to improve Guatemalan security and stability and thus the quality of life in Central America’s Violent Northern Triangle. Our Department is Criminal Justice, my field is National Security and we have a number of graduate students from Public Affairs as well. By capitalizing on their academic, law enforcement and government experience, these graduate students will provide concrete recommendations for systemic reforms to strengthen Guatemalan public institutions. Identifying and using successful examples of anti-corruption and institution strengthening reforms from other countries, focused on improving current Guatemalan institutions is the model. The format will be a thirty-page paper."
Projects
Semester projects change with each bid cycle to address the most current global issues.
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View the current Diplomacy Lab Project Menu
The deadline for submitting bids to Leslie Bozeman, lbozeman@iu.edu is in advance of the Diplomacy Lab deadline.
Watch the Diplomacy Lab Demo Day video:
Project Cycle and Campus Timeline
Diplomacy Lab member institutions can bid on project proposals developed by the State Department during the semester prior to the project semester. There is a set “bidding window”. The State Department informs the institutional coordinator of the specific dates, then the institutional coordinator announces the dates to the campus.
Contacts
IU Indianapolis Diplomacy Lab Institutional Coordinator
- Leslie Bozeman, Director, Curriculum Internationalization; Email: lbozeman@iu.edu
