Sarah Pralle

I am an associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. I received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington and a B.A. in political science from Bates College. Prior to joining the faculty at the Maxwell School, I was a post-doctoral fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

My research focuses on the politics that affect public policy processes, particularly in the area of environmental policy. Currently I am working on a project that examines the politics of mapping flood zones in U.S. communities, which is part of a larger effort to understand climate change adaptation. I am also examining the social construction of policy success and failure. 

FEMA and the politics of mapping flood zones

Moynihan Institute, Syracuse University, “Building Community Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change across Sites, Groups, and Scales,” 2015-2016 ($10,000).

Maxwell School 10^th Decade Project, “Citizenship and Climate Change,” 2016-2019 ($60,000).

NYSERDA grant (New York State Energy Research and Development Administration), “Integrated Assessment of the Effects of NH3, NOx, PM, SO2, and VOC emissions on O3 and PM2.5 Concentrations and Trends in New York State,” 2016-2017 ($9,000).

NYSERDA grant, “Wind Turbine-Related Noise in Central New York,” 2011-2013.

Summer research grant, Campbell Public Affairs Institute, Maxwell School at Syracuse University, 2009 ($2,000).

Smith Richardson Foundation, Domestic Public Policy Program grant, 2007 ($44, 916).

Dean’s Research Award, Department of Political Science, Syracuse University, 2007 ($3,000).

Appleby-Mosher Award for Faculty Research, Maxwell School at Syracuse University, 2007 ($1,100).

Faculty Research Fellowship, Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media, Syracuse University, 2007 ($750). 

Faculty Research Grant, Canadian Embassy, Washington, D.C., 2005 ($5,000). 

Campbell Citizenship Research Grant, Maxwell School at Syracuse University, 2005 ($1,200).  

Northern Forest Grant, Northeast States Research Cooperative, Co-Principal Investigator, 2004 ($90,000). (To support graduate student research.)

Institute on Qualitative Research Methods, Arizona State University, January 6-17^th, 2003.

Summer Support for Faculty, Department of Political Science, Maxwell School at Syracuse University, 2004 ($1,500).

Appleby-Mosher Award for Faculty Research, Maxwell School at Syracuse University, 2003 ($500). 

Junior Faculty Research Grant, Department of Political Science, Maxwell School at Syracuse University, 2003 ($1,800).

Dissertation Fellowship, Department of Political Science, University of Washington, 2001 ($3,600 stipend plus one quarter’s tuition and benefits).

Graduate Student Dissertation Fellowship, Canadian Embassy, Washington, D.C., 2000 ($3,000). 

Books

Branching Out, Digging In: Environmental Advocacy and Agenda Setting. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2006.

*Honorable Mention for the 2007 Charles Levine Prize for the best book in Comparative Policy and Administration and Special Recognition for the 2007 Lynton Keith Caldwell prize for the best book published in Environmental Politics and Policy.

Peer Reviewed Articles

“Governing Complexity: Recent Developments in Environmental Politics and Policy,” Policy Studies Journal, Volume 44 (May 2016), pp. 28-49. With Bridget Fahey.

“Framing Trade-offs: The Politics of Nuclear Power and Wind Energy in the Age of Global Climate Change,” Review of Policy Research 28:4 (2011), pp. 323-346. With Jessica Boscarino.

“Agenda Setting and Climate Change,” Environmental Politics 18 (September 2009): 781- 799.

 “‘I’m Changing the Climate, Ask Me How!’: The Politics of the Anti-SUV Campaign,” Political Science Quarterly 121:3 (2006), pp. 397-423.

“The Mouse that Roared: Agenda-Setting in Canadian Pesticides Politics,” Policy Studies Journal 34:2 (2006), pp. 171-194.

“Timing and Sequence in Agenda Setting and Policy Change: A Comparative Study of Lawn Care pesticide Politics in Canada and the U.S.” Journal of European Public Policy 13:7 (2006), pp. 987-1005.   

*Winner of Best Paper in Public Policy presented at the 2006 American Political Science Association meeting.

“Venue Shopping, Political Strategy, and Policy Change: The Internationalization of Canadian Forestry Advocacy,” Journal of Public Policy (September 2003), pp. 233-260.

Book Chapters

“Shopping Around: Environmental Organizations and the Search for Policy Venues,” in Aseem Prakash and Mary Kay Gugerty, eds., Rethinking Advocacy Organizations (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2010).

“Reform, Not Revolution: Pesticides Regulation in Canada,” in Debra Van Nijnatten and Robert Boardman, eds., Canadian Environmental Policy: Context and Cases (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009).

“Governing Energy Innovation: The Case of New York State.” In Dianne Rahm, ed. Sustainable Energy and the States: Essays on Politics, Markets, and Leadership (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc, 2006: 48-63). With W. Henry Lambright and Jessica Boscarino.

Policy Reports

“Wind Turbine Noise and Community Response,” New York State Energy Research and Development Administration, Albany, NY