Campbell Institute News

Published in Social Work in Public Health, the article was co-authored by Robert Rubinstein, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Sanda Lane, professor emerita of public health; and Brittany Kmush, associate professor of public health.

“There is some sense that if they go low and you don't go high, then you end up being reduced to the level of the person you're disagreeing with. I would suggest something different, which is to focus on the real stakes,” says Keith Bybee, professor of political science.

“It is a very fine line, but it's a special obligation that public servants carry, particularly those in uniform, to follow through in this manner and to do so in a way that they understand precisely why what they're being asked to do is lawful in prosecuting the national interest of the United States,” says University Professor Emeritus Sean O'Keefe.

Robert Rubinstein, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and professor of international relations, has co-authored the textbook Cultural Awareness for Peace Operations Personnel to accompany a course of the same name offered by the Peace Operations Training Institute in Richmond, Virginia. 

“The images that these cameras capture have a lot of information. Even when you anonymize them by throwing away metadata, you can figure out where the image was taken,” says Johannes Himmelreich, associate professor of public administration and international affairs. “After all, you still see the street and everything around the car. So, I doubt that the anonymization is robust.” 

The maps are a tool to communicate more realistic flood risks to vulnerable groups, says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science. You can plug your address into a FEMA webpage and it will tell you your property’s flood risk. “But,” Pralle says, “if you don’t know where the risky areas are, none of that works.”

The school’s highest award was presented to the former dean, University Professor and senior statesman who “embodies Maxwell’s mission.” 

“The job is a leadership role, where your task is to motivate people from wide-ranging, different disciplines to come together to define the problem as the same and then go about trying to solve it through multiple avenues. Everything I’ve heard about him certainly suggests that he’s got a lot of talent and capability to make him the ideal person,” says University Professor Emeritus Sean O'Keefe.

“It is time to wake up, break the gridlock, and take steps to address a range of large and growing challenges that threaten our collective future—including the need to make the Social Security system both solvent and sustainable,” says University Professor and Dean Emeritus John Palmer and his co-authors.

“As government—especially federal—support recedes, competition for philanthropic dollars and other revenue sources is likely to intensify significantly,” says Jiahuan Lu, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

Ahead of the meeting between incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump, Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells Agence France Presse: “Look for the outcome of that meeting to be something to the effect of, ‘I think I can work with (him)—but we will see how it goes and I’m hopeful—we both want the city to succeed’.”  

“There are just so many things that have happened in the last six months in this presidential administration that to think that we know what the issues will be in 2028 and who the players will be—I think it's just asking too much,” says Shana Gadarian, Merle Goldberg Fabian Professor of Excellence in Citizenship and Critical Thinking.

A recent State of Democracy lecture offered varying perspectives from Maxwell faculty members Brynt Parmeter, Leonard Burman and Colleen Heflin in a discussion led by Chris Faricy, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.

In order to persuade Trump's loyal MAGA camp to critically question the economy, the country would have to fall into a deep, prolonged recession, according to Christopher Faricy, associate professor of political science. In addition, there is a need for “more uniform reporting” in the media, which attributes the economic crisis to Trump's policies, he says.

“Mamdani’s got to get his ideas realized in policy, and New York is notoriously difficult to govern. It’s arguably the second hardest political job in the United States, after the president. So whatever he’s able to accomplish, it won’t be easy,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

“As a person who has lived on three continents and traveled extensively through three more, and as someone who has thought deeply about the implications of gospel values for both church and world, Leo is well aware that all that he says and does will be examined and parsed for their repercussions,” says Margaret Susan Thompson, professor of history and political science.

Taught by a team of faculty experts, the minor is offered to undergraduates from across the University starting this academic year. 

Jamelle Bouie from The New York Times and Robert Mickey from the University of Michigan joined moderator and Maxwell School political scientist Chris Faricy on Oct. 3, 2025, for an event that explored authoritarian currents throughout U.S. history.