Spring 2026 PUBPOL Courses for Undergrads

The Evans School of Public Policy & Governance is offering the following undergraduate PUBPOL courses in Spring 2026.  Email evansug@uw.edu if you have questions.

 

This course examines how communities work with governments, businesses, and nonprofits to solve complex problems. Explores ways to assess value trade-offs between profit, people, planet, and purpose. Students will learn to address these questions through immersive learning experiences, guest speakers, small group exercises, and reflective assignments. Recommended: PUBPOL 201 

 

This course provides a foundation in the application of psychology, behavioral economics, judgment and decision-making to study public policy problems. Students will learn how cognition, heuristics, biases, emotion, and social dynamics interact in decision-making, and how context and framing shape decisions. We will also engage in how decision-making influences the effect of public policies on the equity and efficiency of the production and distribution of goods and resources.  Recommended: PUBPOL 201 

 

Provides an overview of central environmental, natural resource management, and climate policies, focusing primarily on those in the United States. Students will learn about the actors and institutions involved in environmental governance, as well as key social science and policy theories that help to explain environmental conflicts and decision-making. This course will cover environmental governance issues in both legislative and executive branches and across levels of government.   

 

This course provides a survey of leadership techniques and an experimental space for practicing them. We will demystify leadership, explore the many ways you have already been a leader, emphasize learning about yourself and your leadership style, and identify what makes leaders genuinely successful. You will also improve your skills in participation, teamwork, and facilitation. Recommended: PUBPOL 201 and LEAD 100. 

 

Focuses on geographic information systems in public policy analysis with attention to the tools widely used by social scientists, public policy scholars, urban planners, and environmental scientists.