Baker School Hosts Student Research Showcase
The Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs (Baker School) hosted a Student Research Showcase on April 24, providing students an opportunity to present their research and scholarly activity. The exposition drew over 100 faculty, staff, and students.
Students’ scholarship covered a variety of policy areas, research approaches, and hands-on learning opportunities. A hallmark of all projects was their timeliness. Several projects took on pressing local issues like investment in transportation infrastructure or finding new ways to measure the health impacts of homelessness. At the state and national level, students addressed issues like higher education funding, health insurance regulation, and abortion rights and regulation. Students demonstrated skills designing and analyzing surveys, working with government agencies to code publicly available data, and working with geocoded data.
A variety of Baker School programs were on display, including the Baker Scholar program. Graduating Baker Scholars presented their research, covering topics including, State Tuition-Subsidy Programs, Mental Health Parity Laws, Anti-Abortion Policy, Bike Infrastructure, Consumers Recycling Plastics and more. Gavin Buehring was recognized by his peers for his project Proximity and Personal Experiences: Measuring Policy Change. His project is advised by Kirsten Widner, assistant professor of political science.
Additional undergraduate and graduate research projects highlighted the Baker Schools two research centers, the Center for Energy, Transportation, and Environmental Policy, the Center for National Security and Foreign Affairs. Students and faculty from Arts & Science, Haslam Business College, the College of Social Work, and the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences shared their work.
The showcase also included hands-on learning opportunities like the Local Government Interns Program and the Tennessee Grand Challenges Program. Local interns highlighted the research and creative work they produced as part of their internships in organizations like the City of Knoxville Department of Communications, the Knoxville-Knox County Office of Housing Stability, and the Emerald Youth Foundation.