In groups, you will lead an in-class presentation and discussion. Your goal is to educate the class about a current policy issue related to racial inequality, facilitate a discussion connecting it to course theories, and lead us in developing policy recommendations. Total running time: 25-30 minutes.

Presentations should be ~15 minutes long, with equal participation from all group members. You should conclude your presentation with a class discussion you will lead with some guiding questions to the class. One group member please upload slides or notes to Canvas by date of presentation.

Choosing Your Policy

Select a policy that was passed or proposed within the past 3 years at the state or federal level. Your policy must either be 1) an executive order or 2) be a bill that has reached committee level (congressional committee, state assembly committee, etc.) to ensure it has real political momentum and substantive debate available for analysis. Use the committee structure to guide your search - look for policies that have had hearings, markup sessions, or floor votes.

Your policy can be explicitly race-focused (reparations proposals, voting rights legislation, criminal justice reform) or "race-neutral" with racial implications (tax policy, infrastructure spending, environmental regulations, education funding, housing/zoning). If you choose a seemingly neutral policy, your job is to help us see how it actually affects racial inequality. This can be also both policies with a positive impact that you want to highlight, or threats to racial equity that you want to discuss.

Part 1: Policy Presentation (15-20 minutes)

1. Explain what the policy actually does, who it affects, and what problem it's trying to solve.
2. Present the debate (whose for it and against it) and 1-3 alternatives that show us the broader landscape of how people are thinking about addressing this same issue. These alternatives can include other legislative proposals, nonprofit recommendations, think tank proposals, or community-based solutions that may not have reached committee level. This helps us understand the range of possible approaches.
3. Finally, analyze the potential impact on racial inequality - be specific about mechanisms, populations, and both intended and unintended consequences. You can either present actual findings on the impact of this policy on groups, or run us through a thought experiment laying out what you think will happen.

Where to find policies: Use Congress.gov or your state legislature website to search recent bills by committee. Look for committee hearing schedules, witness testimony, and Congressional Research Service reports. Policy analysis (or the alternatives) are available through think tank reports (Brookings, Urban Institute, Center for American Progress), policy journals, news coverage of hearings, and advocacy organization position papers.

Part 2: Facilitated Discussion (10-15 minutes)

Your job is to lead the class in a discussion.

Come prepared with 2-3 specific questions that get us thinking about how the theory of the week (or weeks prior) helps us understand, improve or criticize the policy.

• Optional approach: instead of general discussion questions, you might craft 2-3 questions that guide the class to consider how the policy could be strengthened, whether we should pursue a completely different approach, and what insights from our theoretical discussion should inform policy design.

Groups will receive an A grade if presentations:

• Successfully educates the class on a policy issue in a clear, comprehensive, and thorough manner.
• Integration of course material is supportive, relevant, and well-analyzed