Poetry and Policy Studies Field

Poetry and Policy Studies

In International Affairs (at CU and Harvard), I have tried to study the crossover between policymaking and poetry, between politics and rhetoric, between political culture and literary arousal. I seek to understand the role of poetry in campaigning and politics during election times. Furthermore I (or my work) seeks to understand broadly the crossovers between art as an encompassing domain on one end and polity-convincing and policymaking on the other.

Various propositions studied are a) a biographical study of politicians and policymakers etc. who have simultaneously lived lives of poetry or as other kinds of artists, b) the use of certain poems by politicians to get votes during crucial junctures of nation-building, and election times, c) the resonance of poetry in the masses as believable and understandable in election times, d) the presence of poets in policy circles historically in Mughal courts of India, and in dialectical circles in Greece, and e) the current currency of poetry and policy as an inter-disciplinary field of public space existence in South Asia and Middle East.

The focus of these studies has been on South Asia and Middle East. A further look at Parliamentary debates in rhetoric and poetic forms is also being considered. Another paper also being considered is a proposal for the formation of a joint MIA-MFA program between SIPA and the GSA—MFA program, and as a functional joint inter-disciplinary degree in Poetry and Policy, in other schools as well. Finally, a proposal also being debated is the idea of looking at the historical and current UN Diplomatic circles to find overlaps of Poetry and Policymaking, in forms of Poet-Diplomats, Poetry as Diplomacy in Conflict Zones, poetry/arts as middle areas for conflict resolution, and broadly the roles that Arts have played in the United Nations goals formation, and daily functioning. And one may add the poet/artists posing as aid workers in the world (or genuinely working because of a commitment and/or calling) but many times to get by…

The coursework applied towards Poetry and Policy Studies from scholastic work is as follows—State and Society in the Developing World, Applied Conflict Resolution Workshop, Limited Wars and Low-Intensity Conflict, Readings in Urdu Literature, Advanced Persian, Managing the UN system, Managing Complex Emergencies, Harvard Summer Olympia Program, and Independent Research in Poetry and Policy Studies.