Centers, Institutes, and Initiatives

Centers, Institutes, and Multidisciplinary Research Initiatives

Maxwell’s unique strength derives from its multidisciplinary approach to the study of contemporary policy issues. Within the school’s research units, you will find faculty scholars and practitioners with expertise across the full spectrum of social sciences and public affairs specialties analyzing and problem solving alongside our students.

From aging, population, and public health, to the environment, conflict resolution, and the governance of autonomous systems, Maxwell faculty and students engage in the sort of silo-busting work that is essential to developing solutions and educating tomorrow’s effective leaders.

Aging Studies Institute

Promoting aging-related research, training, and outreach. Co-sponsored with SU’s Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

Autonomous Systems Policy Institute

Advancing knowledge and teaching in the field of autonomous systems by exploring new frontiers in policy, law and governance of these fast-expanding technologies.

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Serving a better understanding of contemporary challenges in democratic governance — particularly, the idea of citizenship, its evolution, and the conditions under which it thrives.

Center for Environmental Policy and Administration

Exploring environmental issues from an integrated perspective that considers technical, social, and humanistic aspects.

Center for Policy Research

A home for domestic policy concerns — among them health studies, econometrics, public education, public finance, social welfare, poverty and income security, and urban and regional studies.

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media

Assessing the ways in which judicial independence is established and maintained. Co-sponsored with SU’s College of Law and with the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion

Dedicated to creating public health programs that are motivating, sustainable, and effective replicated in community and national prevention programs.

Maxwell X Lab

Leveraging behavioral science and randomized controlled trials in partnerships with the public and nonprofit sector to build evidence for what works.

Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs

Facilitating research on issues raised by an increasingly interdependent world and studies challenges to the quality of governance worldwide.

Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration

Dedicated to the enhancement of knowledge about social conflicts and to collaborative governance and collaborative problem solving.

Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law

Educating and inspiring the next generation of national security thought leaders and practitioners, through interdisciplinary research, teaching, public service, and policy analysis. Co-sponsored with the SU College of Law.
Formerly known as the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT).

Research News

Rothbart examines hospitals' responses to policy changes in new study
"Do Minimum Charity Care Provision Requirements Increase Nonprofit Hospital Performance? Examining Hospitals’ Responses to Regulatory Changes," co-authored by Michah Rothbart, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Rothbart and co-author Nara Yoon found no evidence that nonprofit hospitals increase charity care in response to the minimum charity care provision requirements on average. Instead, they found that there is heterogeneity in responses; hospitals providing low levels of charity care prior to the policy increase charity care, while hospitals providing high levels of charity care prior to the policy do not respond or, if anything, decrease charity care.

Keck study on international judicial behavior published in LSI
"Diplomats in Robes: Judicial Career Paths and Free Speech Decision-Making at the European Court of Human Rights," co-authored by Thomas Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics, and Ph.D. candidate Claire Sigsworth, was published in Law & Social Inquiry. Their findings show that former judicial career is related to voting patterns in free speech cases. This relationship is clearest for former diplomats, who stand out both for their willingness to vote against freedom-of-expression claims and for their inclination to author dissents against holdings supporting such claims.

Wilcoxen, CEF team release report on 80×30 clean electricity standard
Professor Pete Wilcoxen and members of the Clean Energy Futures team released a report titled "An 80x30 Clean Electricity Standard: Carbon, Costs, and Health Benefits." The report analyzes the energy, economic, environmental and health outcomes of an illustrative clean energy standard (CES) design that reaches 80% clean electricity by 2030, and offers important information on the costs and benefits of such a policy.

Monnat receives Excellence in Research, Fred Buttel awards from RSS
Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, has been recognized by the Rural Sociological Society (RSS) with its Excellence in Research Award. This prestigious award acknowledges an RSS member who has made outstanding contributions to rural-oriented research and/or theory. Monnat, along with her co-authors, was also awarded the 2021 Fred Buttel Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award from the RSS for their article “The Opioid Hydra: Understanding Overdose Mortality Epidemics and Syndemics Across the Rural-Urban Continuum” published in Rural Sociology.

Yingyi Ma examines role of school counselors in China in new study
"Educating the Elites: School Counselors as Education Nannies in Urban China," authored by Yingyi Ma, was published in Comparative Education Review. Ma's qualitative study of 18 school counselors across eight international divisions in Chinese public high schools reveals that school counselors are like “education nannies” to the children of elites in China. This means that they work assiduously and relentlessly to provide around-the-clock services to students and their parents, who target top-ranked colleges overseas. Their work is complicated by the differences between the U.S. and Chinese school systems, so that much of their job is to shepherd anxious children and their parents through the muddy waters of the cross-cultural straits of college admissions.

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Faculty Experts
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Centers, Institutes, and Multidisciplinary Research Initiatives

Research News

Faculty Experts