Kristen Patel will teach undergraduate courses in policy studies and graduate courses in public administration and international affairs. 

"The most important action the Biden administration can do is to undertake all its policies and actions through a climate justice lens...and approach action with equity, accountability and justice in mind," says Farhana Sultana, associate professor of geography and the environment.

"This was a climate election since a large majority of voters noted that they were concerned with climate breakdown," says Farhana Sultana, associate professor of geography and the environment. "Biden has a climate plan and a mandate and he has promised to listen to scientists…which is vastly different from the last four years of war on science." 

Farhana Sultana, associate professor of geography and the environment, participated in "Intersectionality and Climate justice: Towards an Emancipatory Climate Research Agenda," an event organized by the Centre for Climate Justice at Glasgow Caledonian University. The international webinar brought together critical scholars interested in climate justice and intersectionality with the aim of exploring common threads between the two concepts.

Farhana Sultana, associate professor of geography and the environment, says "a divestment from fossil fuels signals a commitment to ending climate breakdown, to have climate justice, and to think about equitable and just transitions toward regenerative economies and societies that move away from fossil fuels."

The Dr. Ralph E. Montonna Endowed Professorship for the Teaching and Education of Undergraduates fund is designed to provide support, in the form of a supplemental research fund, to a professor with notable engagement in undergraduate education. Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology, received this year's award.

After serving as its director or co-director since 2005, Catherine Gerard has stepped down from her leadership role at the Maxwell School’s renowned Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC), effective July 1, 2020. Gerard will continue as an adjunct professor of public administration and associate director for the Executive Education Programs at Maxwell, and also continue her work as co-director of the Collaborative Governance Initiative at PARCC. 

"Every candidate has campaigned on a bureaucracy-bashing theme," says Tina Nabatchi, Joseph A. Strasser Endowed Professor in Public Administration. "That message has gotten through to affect people’s confidence in government."

Jok Madut Jok, professor of anthropology, "brings regional expertise on a part of the world that is critically important from a security standpoint,” says John McPeak, a professor of public administration and international affairs. “He also adds a new perspective on issues of humanitarian relief, post-conflict reconstruction, immigration and refugee flows, and negotiations."

"We need to democratize how water is managed and governed," says Farhana Sultana, associate professor of geography. "So that all voices are heard and much more ethical practices around water are pursued." Sultana was recently a guest on Princeton Environmental Institute's All for Earth podcast. Fundamentally, we need to "ensure that principles of equity collaboration and inclusivity are central to all of this," she adds. "Because we need to really have a better understanding of how water is very much a moral issue. And as a result that will help us think about much better transformations that are equitable and inclusive. In order to fight for water justice for all."