Reflections from CSPC Fellows 2022
The following reflections have been written by PCJ students that participated in the 2021-2022 Centre for the Study of the President & Congress Fellows program upon their return from Washington, D.C.
The discussion on policing equity with the Chief was an opportunity for the International Fellows to discuss issues such as restorative justice and racial equity in the United States. Chief Monaghan said at one point, “I didn’t make good choices. I had good choices.” This quote resonated with me as it highlighted the inequities that exist when it comes to opportunity in the United States and elsewhere.
As a Pakistani Canadian who lived in the U.S. for a few years, I was able to ask critical questions about the outlook on racial justice in the United States and compare the systems in place with those in Canada and other countries.
Continuing with the theme of domestic politics, the Cook Political Report offered detailed insights into the upcoming elections and framed the associated partisan politics. In relation to foreign policy, we heard from Grant Murphy, Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Treasury, who offered a unique lens on how to interpret sanctions as a leverage point instead of a sunk cost in international conflicts.
Throughout the conference, I had a chance to personally speak with and hear from the President of the CSPC, Glenn Nye. The topic that always came up in the discussions was how to instill a sense of civic duty in your professional pathway. I saw this theme carry through with many of the other panelists as well and it helped me reflect on my own professional goals going into the field of law.
One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the Georgetown University campus where we received a historical overview of U.S. Foreign Policy while taking a tour led by Dr. Tony Arend, the Chair Department of Government at the University. As we made our way through the University, we stood where previous presidents such as Clinton and Obama stood to make speeches. The aura of the university instilled both excitement and opportunity.
Aside from the academic portions of the conference, it was a great opportunity to meet students from across the United States. From the Naval Academy to people studying computer science or international relations, everyone brought a unique perspective to the discussions. Overall, the trip helped me recognize my positionality as a South Asian woman and the unique perspectives I could bring to political discussions. It also highlighted for me the many different pathways available to people in my field when it comes to success and the importance of instilling civic duty in my work. I am coming away from the conference with a deeper understanding of American domestic and foreign policy and where it intersects and differentiates from other political systems. Our world today is filled with conflict and hostility, but only by understanding different perspectives can we learn how to work together. I hope to stay in touch with many of the fellows I met over the course of the conference and utilize what I learned in my future endeavors while practicing law.
Neha Dhaliwal
The International Presidential Fellowship program at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) has been a goal of mine ever since I entered the PCJ program in 2019.
As an aspiring researcher, I was particularly drawn to the research paper element. Under the mentorship of a Presidential Fellowship Alumna, who works in geospatial analysis for the U.S. Government, I used geospatial data and sociological theory to argue that the over-policing of Black communities is a consequence of historical practices and policy approaches that have failed to address their implications. Conducting this research reaffirmed my passion for intersectional approaches to tackling injustice and political inaction on these issues.
In addition to this research, the Presidential Fellows Leadership Conference in D.C. was one of the most valuable experiences I have had as an undergraduate student. We were given the opportunity to learn from professionals from various employers, including the Cook Political Report, the Center for Policing Equity, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Voting Rights Project, and the Center for Democracy & Technology. Additionally, we spoke with journalists for The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Reuters, and Axios. This exposure to professionals with such a wealth of knowledge expanded my understanding of the complexity of American political dynamics.
My greatest honour of this experience was being invited by the CSPC to prepare the question that the Senators would answer at the awards dinner on our last night in D.C.. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Sen. Angus King (Maine) were the recipients of the 2022 Publius Award, given out by the CSPC to honour leadership and bipartisanship in government. In relation to my research, I took this opportunity to ask the senators about the current outlook and future pathways for bipartisan action on racial injustice based on their experiences and conversations in the Senate. In their answer to my question and the personal conversations I had with each of them afterwards, I gained a deeper understanding of the intricacies of bipartisan relationships and the significance of incremental changes that we are currently seeing, for example, in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The most gratifying and impactful element of this conference was the connections I built with my peers from across the United States and the world. A moment that will stick with me is hearing a peer who expressed very rigid and abrasive opinions at the start of the conference say they were grateful for being exposed to new ideas and perspectives throughout the week. They told me that this experience showed them the importance of fostering diverse spaces to develop more effective governance and policy solutions. I feel that the role of international fellows in this program is integral because it provides nuanced perspectives from outside American systems and cultures. Similarly, this conference has opened my eyes to the root causes of different belief systems across the United States. Opportunities such as this conference allow us to break out of our echo chambers, which is critical for making effective solutions to our most challenging societal issues.
Charlotte Sullivan
My experience in Washington D.C. for the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) furthered my understanding of legislative and justice issues in the U.S. and the role of the U.S. in the international sphere.
Perhaps most importantly, this conference allowed me a much deeper insight to the intense polarization of parties in the U.S. today and taught tools and systems to cope with this polarization using bipartisan initiatives to create efficiency on both a domestic and foreign policy level.
Though I am a U.S. citizen, attending this conference as an international fellow from Canada afforded me opportunities to analyze U.S. history, culture, and policy from an outside perspective. Current PCJ fellows from this year were joined by last year’s PCJ fellows as well as other international fellows from Spain and Mexico. During the first four days of the conference, we attended several dinners, watched a baseball game, visited President Lincoln’s cottage, toured Mount Vernon, and participated in several talks on topics ranging from policing in America to NATO’s sanctioning of Russia. This period was meant to situate international fellows in the country and despite having grown up in the U.S., I found these days most interesting. Witnessing the other international fellows’ reactions to the activities we engaged in and discussing similarities and differences between the U.S. and our respective countries proved eye-opening and prompted me to think more critically about my U.S. education and citizenship.
Once the domestic students arrived, the conference focused more heavily on professional talks and experiences. One of my favorite talks I attended during this portion was the discussion of “Polarization in America: January 6th, COVID-19, and the Culture Wars,” which addressed why the Biden administration is having such a hard time getting legislation through Congress and the emerging and unexpected effects of political polarization on average Americans. During this presentation, I pondered my own CSPC research on the anti-COVID-19 vaccination movement in America as representative of a new avenue of public health through which political polarization is playing out in the U.S.
The conference ended with a lovely dinner on a Washington D.C. rooftop overlooking the Capitol building and was attended by Sen. Lisa Murkowski from Alaska and Sen. Angus King from Maine. Both Senators were honored for their efforts toward unification and bipartisanship in shaping elections in their respective states. I was grateful to personally meet both Senators and connect with several other influential individuals in government, reporting, and civil society.
Overall, this experience was highly empowering for me, and I feel that I am walking away from it with a significantly increased understanding of U.S. domestic and foreign policy and factors that influence that policy. I am most excited to have met so many other fellows passionate about a variety of policy issues and driven to create equitable justice in or in relation to the U.S. I very much look forward to keeping in touch with many of them and witnessing how their passions and ideas become concrete in the years to come.