Bridging the Gap: Maxwell School awarded $1 million grant to develop programs connecting academics and policymakers
The
Carnegie Corporation of New York has named Syracuse University’s Maxwell School
of Citizenship and Public Affairs as one of five institutional recipients of $1
million, two-year grants through its initiative “Rigor and
Relevance: Bridging the Academic-Policy Gap.” With this funding,
the Maxwell School will create the “Carnegie International Policy Scholars
Consortium and Network,” which will bring together faculty from a number of top
international relations graduate programs to teach and mentor students,
scholars, and policymakers about ways to prepare graduate students for
successful careers in both policymaking and academia – and thus to foster
enhanced interaction between the two communities.
"We
are excited and honored to receive this Carnegie Corporation grant that will
support efforts to prepare a new generation of thought leaders to be successful
and influential both in the academic world and in the world of practice,
bridging the gap between the two," says Maxwell School Dean James Steinberg.
"With this funding, we will develop educational materials and innovative
instructional approaches that combine intellectual rigor with the ability to
adapt that thinking to the constraints of real-world decision making. Through the Carnegie International Policy
Scholars Consortium and Network, we seek to bring an interdisciplinary approach
to complex international affairs and to build a network of faculty and students
across multiple institutions to pursue these goals." Initial
consortium members include faculty from Duke University, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Indiana University, the University of Virginia, as
well as scholars from CSIS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The
grant will support curriculum-building, opportunities for mentorship,
conferences and workshops, and the creation of a synchronous, distance-learning
environment based at Syracuse University -- the “Distance Learning
Collaboratory" -- that will allow students in international
relations and security studies to interact with faculty members and other
students in the consortium schools in real time. The goal of the project
is to improve the communication between academics and policymakers and thereby
produce better policymaking and more policy-relevant research and
teaching.
The
five grant awardees had responded to the Corporation's competition
challenging the 22 American-based members of the Association of Professional
Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) to present proposals outlining novel,
feasible ways to bridge the gap between academics working on complex
foreign policy issues and policymakers dealing with the same
concerns. All proposals were reviewed by experts in the
international relations field who were chosen for their understanding of the
policymaking process in Washington, D.C.; knowledge of APSIA; and awareness of
the administrative challenges of universities.
Dean
Steinberg observes that, "Carnegie's Rigor and Relevance initiative is a
reflection of the Corporation’s long term commitment to supporting the
strengthening of ties between universities and policymaking." This
new grant builds on an existing project at the Maxwell School, funded by both
the Carnegie Corporation and the Smith Richardson Foundation, "Toward a
New Approach to the Advanced Study of Security and International Affairs."
This
new grant will be managed through the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at
the Maxwell School, and will be co-led by Steinberg; Margaret Hermann,
Gerald and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs and Director of the
Moynihan Institute; and Francis J. Gavin, Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear
Security Policy Studies and Professor of Political Science at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to
promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and
understanding." In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation's work
focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance:
international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the
strength of our democracy. 09/23/14