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Banks examines impact of delayed transfer of power on Legal Talk
Professor Emeritus William C. Banks was recently a guest on Legal Talk Network's "Lawyer 2 Lawyer" podcast. He explored the practical impacts of a delayed transfer of power from an uncooperative incumbent administration, both for the incoming administration and the American people. Banks also discussed what lessons we can learn from the past, and what options the Biden administration may have going forward.
12/2/2020

Thompson discusses the possibility of Trump resigning with WPIX
President Trump could resign shortly before his term ends on Jan. 20 at which point Vice President Mike Pence would assume office and could issue a pardon. "This would certainly be legal, if questionably ethical, especially if there were a prior agreement between Pence and Trump," says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science. "You’ll recall that Ford pardoned Nixon under similar circumstances, though Ford denied throughout his life that there had been any agreement between him and Nixon." Read more in the WPIX-11 article, "Could President Trump resign?"
12/2/2020

New study examines age‐at‐death disparity, people with and without IDD
"Evidence of continued reduction in the age‐at‐death disparity between adults with and without intellectual and/or developmental disabilities," co-authored by sociologists Scott Landes and Janet Wilmoth, along with social science PhD student Erika Carter Grosso '10 MA (PSc), was published in the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. Evidence from the study demonstrates that the age‐at‐death disparity between adults who did or did not have an intellectual and/or developmental disability reported on their death certificate continues to decrease, but the magnitude of the remaining disparity varied considerably by type of disability.
12/1/2020

Allport's book reviewed in WSJ, makes The Times best history book list
Associate Professor of History Alan Allport's new book, "Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War: 1938-1941," was recently reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. "Britain at Bay"...might be the single best examination of British politics, society and strategy in these four years that has ever been written," says Paul Kennedy. "I put my copy down with deep satisfaction. History writing, and historical scholarship, sometimes seems as fine as ever it was." Allport's book also made The Times' list of the best history books of 2020.
12/1/2020

Sultana quoted in Truthout article on students' travel during pandemic
It’s a common practice for people throughout the world to observe holidays far from their loved ones, says Farhana Sultana, suggesting that observing Thanksgiving and Christmas in the United States should be no different. She points out that the largest pilgrimage in the world, the Hajj, was canceled earlier this year. "This pandemic needs to be reined in, so both individual choices matter alongside formal policy advice and institutional mechanisms that promote pandemic response," she says. Read more in the Truthout article, "Hundreds of Thousands of Students Traveled Home This Week Amid COVID Spike."
12/1/2020

Reeher weighs in on Biden healing the nation in The Hill
"The forces he is up against are much bigger than President Trump and are tectonic in nature. There are a set of forces that push us apart rather than bring us together," says Professor Grant Reeher. But, he adds, "I do think having a period of time for the country to experience the absence of the daily melodrama of the Trump presidency will help." Read more in The Hill article, "The Memo: Biden faces tough road on pledge to heal nation."
11/30/2020

CCE student brings authenticity to telling refugee stories
Sophomore Maggie Sardino, a CCE major, works with Syracuse's refugee community through the Narratio Fellowship program and InterFaith Works. "My CCE coursework has enabled me to recognize how important and rare a program like the Narratio Fellowship is," says Sardino. "CCE stresses how important it is that we resist the tendency towards imposing our own understanding onto communities, and instead equip communities with the tools to share their own understandings with the rest of the world. This is exactly what the Narratio Fellowship does," she says. Read more about her experience working with refugees via the Blackstone LaunchPad website.
11/30/2020

Banks discusses Biden's transition with WAER
Professor Emeritus William C. Banks thinks the delay by the Trump Administration to share information to Biden will be "negligible to none." However, he feels it comes with other costs. "I feel a great deal has been lost symbolically and I believe our democratic institutions have been severely beat up by the bruising battles that have been fought for no good reason," Banks says. He was interviewed by WAER for the segment, "SU Law Professor Optimistic About Successful Transition for Biden Despite Delays."
11/25/2020

McCormick quoted in Al Jazeera article on release of Gen. Cienfuegos
"At the end of the day, arresting Cienfuegos jeopardized future collaboration between the two militaries because it meant that no one on the Mexican side was safe from possible prosecution, even after helping the Americans," Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, tells Al Jazeera. "All in all, freeing Cienfuegos without any charges or penalties showcases that his arrest was a complete debacle for both the DEA and DOJ [Department of Justice]," she says. Read more in "Mexico denies deal to nab cartel leader in return for Cienfuegos."
11/24/2020

Jacobson talks to Politico, Wash Post about Biden's Cabinet picks
Mark Jacobson, assistant dean of Washington programs and former senior Defense Department official under the Obama administration, says that "the Kerry pick is really incredible from a structural standpoint." His selection, Jacobson says, is "an admission that our mid-20th Century national security structures were not designed to deal with some of the more holistic and potentially existential threats, in this case, climate change." Jacobson was quoted in the Politico article, "Biden reveals national security team stacked with Obama veterans." He was also quoted in the Washington Post article, "Biden’s national security rollout doesn’t include a Pentagon pick."
11/24/2020

Lovely discusses US-China trade under Biden in Iowa Capital Dispatch
Professor Mary Lovely says concessions would be key to returning U.S.-Chinese relations to normal. "If there’s going to be some type of rapprochement with China on this, there’s going to have to be negotiations before that between the Chinese and the Americans that deescalate the conflict and result in some other wins from both sides," she says. Read more in the Iowa Capital Dispatch article, "Farmers likely to see more multinational trade deals crafted in Biden administration."
11/24/2020

White quoted in Patch article on police unions
Steven White, assistant professor of political science, says one reason it's so hard to fire a police officer, even one who appears to have broken the law, is because there are so many opportunities for the officers and their unions to appeal. These provisions are often built into the collective bargaining agreements, which makes it unlikely that there will be much in the way of reform, he says. "The language in the contracts is very much stacked toward officers and letting officers get away with things, which is not surprising," White says. Read more in the Patch article, "Here's How One Honolulu Cop Got His Job Back After He Was Fired For Misconduct."
11/20/2020

DeCorse talks to the Sunday Times about Sierra Leone's Bunce Island
"Bunce is remarkable in a variety of ways," explains Christopher DeCorse, professor of anthropology, who has been studying the island since 1978. "In its connections in the early Atlantic world but also from an archaeological standpoint, it’s unique." DeCorse believes the fort was just years from disappearing. "The ruins have been mouldering quietly. But in the past decade, the tempo of collapse has accelerated." DeCorse was interviewed for the Sunday Times article, "Saved for history, the British island fort that sent 50,000 slaves to a life of misery."
11/19/2020

Monmonier presents at 2020 annual meeting of the NACIS
Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor of Geography, presented "The Quest of the Missing Maps: Copyright, Deposit Copies, and the Pamphlet Curse,” at the 2020 annual meeting of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS). In his presentation, Monmonier criticizes the destruction of copyright "deposit copies" by the Library of Congress.
11/19/2020

McCormick speaks to AP, Reuters about US case against Gen. Cienfuegos
The United States dropped a high-profile drug trafficking and money laundering case against a former Mexican defense secretary, retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, an extraordinary reversal that followed an intense pressure campaign from Mexico. Gladys McCormick tells the Associated Press that prosecuting Cienfuegos would have been enormously fraught for the United States. "Following through on prosecuting Cienfuegos would have compromised intelligence gathering and joint military operations for years to come, which is part of the reason why the original arrest was so scandalous," she says. McCormick was also quoted in the Reuters article, "Mexico's president: we didn't threaten to expel U.S. drug agents over General Cienfuegos arrest."
11/19/2020

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