Maxwell School News and Commentary

Audie Klotz, professor of political science, is the 2023 recipient of the William Wasserstrom Prize for Teaching of Graduate Students. The prize is awarded to a faculty member who exemplifies the qualities of William Wasserstrom, a noted professor of English at Syracuse, who died in 1985.

“It turns out that partisanship just swamped everything else as early as March of 2020," says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science. 

“Certainly, there’s not enough affordable housing,” says Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology. “You have a situation of high poverty and a really kind of outrageous rental market in Syracuse.”

“To me, de-dollarization just means a government’s ability to reduce its dependence or reliance on the dollar,” says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science. “I think the key thing here is to try to distinguish or separate the concept of de-dollarization from the end of dollar dominance. I don’t think those two things have to go together.”

"Moving policies toward racial and ethnic equality: The case of the supplemental nutrition assistance program," co-authored by economists Alfonso Flores-Lagunes and Hugo Jales, was published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, professor of economics, says the nomination [of Adriana Kugler] is “fundamental,” calling the lack of Hispanic representation at the Fed a “glaring aspect of inequality” in the U.S.

“Title 42 is only the most recent of a long history of using health concerns as a justification for free movement restrictions," says Elizabeth Cohen, professor of political science. "For example, it was only in 2010 that restrictions were removed on the entry of persons who are HIV positive."

"People are looking for that kind of connection, and if they can find it with a group that they don't know online, they don't necessarily see the bad parts of what's happening," says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science. "Then with the technological part of it where extreme voices get more airtime on the internet, you can see how people get radicalized."

Surveys indicate that Swedish citizens display less anxiety about robots taking their jobs, in part because when companies introduce new technologies, they often pay to upgrade their workers’ skills. “If you upskill workers, you pay them more,” says Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology. “That's a more durable and sustainable process.”

"Over the last 15 years or so, we've seen some policies aimed at promoting its [renminbi] international use, but we've also seen a lot of policies that make it less attractive," says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science.