Maxwell School News and Commentary

In our most recent GenForward poll, “what they actually said [was most important to them] was income inequality and economic growth. It seems that what we saw four years ago has really shifted for young voters and they're more concerned now with how they're going to have economic longevity,” says Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science.

Professor of History Albrecht Diem's book chapter on the evidence of queer life in the Monastery of Reichenau during the early medieval period, based on a ninth-century visionary text and early medieval commentary to the monastic rule of Benedict of Nursia, was extensively discussed in an article published in Der Spiegel.

“We think the current civil service system is badly in need of reform. But the blueprints offered by both left and right are problematic. One side is firmly rooted in a status quo that (inadvertently or otherwise) impedes accountability, and the other could end up politicizing the very civil servants who should be politically neutral,” writes University Professor Sean O'Keefe and his co-authors.

“The U.S. and Canada will do anything possible to avoid a draft,” says Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs. If war breaks out, a coalition force of North American professional military personnel would likely do the fighting, alongside existing European troops, he says.

“As a candidate, she’s not someone who’s really made an effort to go to the center. She’s really tied more to the Trump style of right-wing politics," says Steven White, associate professor of political science. "My sense is this kind of thing helps her appeal to a certain part of the base maybe, but probably is not great for swing voters.”

“When she [Claudia Sheinbaum] comes in, she is inheriting this mess, but she doesn’t necessarily have the charisma that (López Obrador) does,” says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations. “So it’s going to be a tall ask.”

Though this fire is nearly contained, in general, fire burns hotter when the weather is hotter, says Jacob Bendix, professor emeritus of geography and the environment. He adds that drought contributes to dangerous fire seasons, but paradoxically, wetter years can too.

Brian Taylor, professor of political science, says that the authorization given by the U.S. and Germany to Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil with weapons they supply could have an impact on the balance of power on Ukrainian territory.

The world is now reaching the point “where it’s kind of the twilight of lived experience, where from this point onwards, D-Day is going to be just a historical event that nobody who participates in commemorations had any personal memory of,” says Alan Allport, Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History.