Maxwell School News and Commentary

“If we can’t find a way to do decarbonization and climate policy, in addition to materially improving working people’s lives…I really do fear that a lot of working people aren’t going to be that sympathetic to the climate agenda,” says Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

“The media doesn’t tend to cover current policy nearly as much as it covers policy conflict, policy outcomes,” says Emily Thorson, assistant professor of political science. “And what that means is that people kind of try to figure it out on their own. They engage in inductive reasoning to try to figure out how social security works, how refugee admission works, and often they get it wrong.”

“Inflection Points: Pax Americana at a Crossroad,” authored by Danielle Taana Smith, a senior research associate in the Maxwell African Scholars Union, was published in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

“There was a time when people felt that the military didn’t need women, or certain racial minorities. I think we need to be a lot more open-minded about our approach to age as a number,” says Sean McFate, adjunct professor in Maxwell's Washington programs.

“A Research Roadmap Toward Improved Measures Of Disability,” co-authored by Associate Professor of Sociology Scott Landes, was published in Health Affairs.

“The idea of a peace plan for Russia's war against Ukraine sounds nice, but the ideas proposed by two Trump advisers would not be acceptable to either Russia or Ukraine,” says Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs.

“In general, I'd like to hear answers or comments, not so much about Ukraine, but about Russia, because it's not Ukraine, but Russia, that poses the biggest challenge today,” says Tetiana Hranchak, visiting assistant teaching professor in the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs.

Professor of sociology and Lerner Chair in Public Health Promotion and Population Health, Shannon M. Monnat, and co-author Tim Slack, professor of sociology at Louisiana State University, share lessons offered from rural society and confront common myths and misunderstandings about rural people and places. Their main premise—rural America is not monolithic.

“Immigrants tend to be younger and employed, which increases the number of workers paying into the system. Also, they have more children, which helps boost the future workforce that will pay payroll taxes,” says Gary Engelhardt, professor of economics, in response to Trump's statement that Biden will destroy Social Security and Medicare by putting migrants entering the U.S. on the benefits.

“Watchful, skeptics, and system distrusters: Characteristics associated with different types of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among U.S. working-age adults,” co-authored by Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat, was published in Vaccine.