CONGRESSIONAL FELLOWSHIP REPORT: Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes: Two Professors Back in the Classroom in Washington, D.C.

Abstract

Last fall, we had the opportunity to return to the classroom as students. We were invited by the American Political Science Association to take a course titled Congress and the Making of Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. The course, which was taught by professor Charles Stevenson, met twice weekly during September and October, prior to the start of APSA's Congressional Fellowship Program in November. The course was designed to give APSA Congressional Fellows and SAIS students an overview of the role that Congress plays in the foreign policymaking process. Since both of us teach a course on Congress, much of the course was an excellent refresher for us. But it also differed in important ways from the courses we teach at our respective schools. It is these differences that deepened our understanding of Congress and the foreign policymaking process and provided an important introduction to our work as APSA fellows on Capitol Hill.