Program Highlights
Spring 2026 Dates
January 5 – April 25, 2026
Faculty Directors
Professor Daniel Gitterman, Chair and Professor, UNC Public Policy
Daniel Gitterman is Duncan MacRae ’09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill. He also serves as Director of the Honors Seminar in Public Policy and Global Affairs (Washington, DC). At Carolina, he has received fellowships from the Institute of Arts and Humanities (Academic Leadership Program; Chairs Leadership Program) and the Global Research Institute (inaugural program Globalization, the Economic Crisis, and the Future of North Carolina).
He has received the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the John L. Sanders Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Service at Carolina. Gitterman’s research interests include: the American Presidency and public policy; education and labor markets; American welfare state and politics of social and health policy, and globalization and labor standards.
Professor Shannon McGregor, Hussman School of Journalism and Media
Shannon C. McGregor (PhD, University of Texas – Austin) is an associate professor and PhD Director at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media and a principal investigator at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life – both at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She holds appointments also with UNC’s Department of Political Science and the School of Information and Library Science. Her research focuses on the role of media and social media in political processes, with a focus on the interplay of three groups essential to a functioning democracy: politicians, journalists, and the public. McGregor’s interdisciplinary and mixed-method research has been published across fields including top journals in communication, political science, and sociology, and she is co-editor of Media and January 6th, published in 2024 by Oxford University Press. She writes often for the public press, and her work appears in outlets such as The Washington Post, Wired, and The Guardian.
Highlights
This Honors Seminar on Public Policy and Global Affairs is centered around internships at non-profit and domestic and international public policy organizations. Students intern four days a week and attend weekly seminars. The seminars examine a range of domestic and international policy issues and allow students to hear directly from government officials and policy experts.
Several group excursions are planned, including visits to notable sites in the nation’s capital, a performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and a three-day trip to New York City to engage with policy issues there. A weekly research-intensive workshop and professional development sessions are a key to navigating the networks and skills necessary to be a policy professional.
This program is in partnership with the Hussman School of Journalism and Media’s Political Communication Specialized Focus Area.
