Maxwell School News and Commentary

Prema Kurien, professor of sociology, says there is a logical reason why immigrant groups exhibit higher rates of religiosity. “Immigration and relocation from a familiar context to something completely unfamiliar is a theologizing experience,” Kurien says. “It raises existential questions—things that people don’t think about when they are in their home country with a familiar community.”

“There are enough moderate Republicans in the House, along with Democrats in the House, to pass a spending bill out of the House that they know the Senate Democrats, which control the Senate, would agree to,” says Chris Faricy, associate professor of political science. “But in doing that, you risk a backlash from the Freedom Caucus.”

Jacob Bendix, professor emeritus of geography and the environment, says the grasses provided “fine fuels that ignite easily” due to their high surface area-to-volume ratio, dense growth patterns and height.

"Explaining the U.S. rural disadvantage in COVID-19 case and Death rates during the Delta-Omicron surge: The role of politics, vaccinations, population health, and social determinants," co-authored by Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat, was published in Social Science & Medicine.

Talk of a BRICS common currency is “really a reflection of a desire among some segments of the world to have some counterweight to the U.S., the U.S. economy, the dollar,” says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science. But “I think most of this is just in fantasy land, because I don’t see any world in which it is really going to emerge in the way some people might hope.”

Generation Lab conducted the survey for Axios in partnership with Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship (IDJC) and the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute (ASPI). 

"If we want to meet timelines to reduce emissions, we have to build wind and solar at a totally unprecedented rate,” says Ethan Coffel, assistant professor of geography and the environment.

The political scientist and media scholar will engage colleagues and students in nonpartisan, evidence-based research to foster dialogue in the public’s interest. 

Bill Coplin, professor of policy studies, says he has been saving students from the damage done by the “bait-and-switch business model of the liberal arts programs” for fifty years. 

"Speech may be free in the form of currency, yet the price we may pay in what follows our words can be steep. And some pay a heftier price than others—a cost often set by mainstream and social media," writes James-Christian Blockwood, adjunct professor in Maxwell's Washington programs.