Political Science Graduate Students

Our graduate students come to the Maxwell School with varied backgrounds, including coming directly from undergraduate and master’s programs or with work experiences ranging from law, to military service, to the Foreign Service.

26%

of domestic students are students of color

41%

of our doctoral students are international

58%

of political science Ph.D. students are women

Kaia Kirk

Contact Information:

kjkirk@syr.edu

Research Collaboration:

Emily Thorson

Kaia Kirk

Ph.D. Candidate, Political Science Department

Graduate Research Associate, Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Highest degree earned

M.A., Syracuse University, 2022

Bio

Kaia Kirk is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her research interests in race and ethnicity politics, political development, and social movements are situated within the studies of American politics and public policy.

Kaia’s dissertation examines how bureaucrats from underrepresented and marginalized racial groups influence policy change through a historical case study on the Black Cabinet, a group of African American advisors who worked under FDR’s presidency. This research further explores the development of the civil rights movement and the U.S. federal bureaucracy’s role in race relations. Kaia has received research grant support from the Roscoe Martin Fund and the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.

Kaia was a 2021-2022 American Political Science Association (APSA) Diversity Fellow. In 2023, she was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award by Syracuse University’s Graduate School. Most recently, she was presented the 2024 Lena Harris Stromile Student Leadership Award by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS).

Beyond her scholarly work, Kaia is dedicated to community building through her service in civic engagement and community engagement. She has previously spearheaded voter education projects and voter registration drives with Mississippi Votes and Woke Vote. She currently volunteers for the Cold Case Justice Initiative to reopen Civil Rights cold cases and revise political histories of the Civil Rights era.

Kaia holds a B.A. in political science from Jackson State University and a M.A. in political science from Syracuse University.

Research Interests

Black politics, American political development (APD), public policy and administration, political communication