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Gadarian talks to WAER about Biden's proposals in speech to Congress
Shana Gadarian, associate professor and chair of political science, says the agenda President Biden laid out in his speech to a joint session of Congress is a vision that government can help people and be used for good. "This is a moment where the public in the election and public opinion polls is open to using big social policies and big government bills to try and help spur economic growth and rescue a lot of the industries that were hurt very badly by the pandemic," says Gadarian. Read more in the WAER article, "Biden Proposals 'Nothing Short of Revolutionary' For Families Hurt By Pandemic."
5/6/2021

Popp discusses Biden's infrastructure plan, cutting emissions in Grist
President Biden wants the U.S. to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50 to 52 percent by 2030. The administration’s best hope for meeting that 50 percent reduction target appears to be his $2 trillion infrastructure package. But as currently envisioned, the package doesn’t include legally binding limits on carbon pollution. "The infrastructure plan to me is a down payment," says Professor David Popp. "Without the ‘stick’—without some national level policy that puts a cap on emissions—it’s hard to make a credible case that we’ll definitely be able to follow through" on the 50 percent goal, Popp says. Read more in the Grist article, "Biden’s only hope to cut emissions in half? His infrastructure plan."
5/6/2021

Elizabeth Cohen quoted in Economist piece on race, class, wasted time
An analysis of Bureau of Labour Statistics surveys shows how time is wasted by race and class. Calculations suggest wealthy white Americans get what they want quickly. But among black Americans, those earning at least $150,000 actually spend more time cooling their heels than those earning $20,000 or less. Whether it’s about being asked to produce more paperwork for a mortgage or waiting while someone white is bumped to the front of the queue, says Elizabeth Cohen, professor of political science and author of "The Political Value of Time," "waiting is part of the experience of racism in the U.S.” Cohen was quoted in The Economist article, "Black Americans spend more of the day being kept waiting."
5/6/2021

Sultana participates in Race, Space and the Environment project
Farhana Sultana, associate professor of geography and the environment, participated in the first phase of a collaborative project between Syracuse University and Rhodes University (South Africa) titled "Race, Space, and the Environment." The project was launched with an international webinar to celebrate Earth Day on April 23, 2021. The video of the webinar and more information on the project is available via the Newhouse School Center for Global Engagement website.
5/5/2021

Reeher discusses political realignment in The Hill
Important figures in the Republican party that are usually pro-business are instead criticizing the corporate world; for example, the corporate reaction to the voting law recently passed in Georgia. Is there a possibility of a significant political realignment? Professor Grant Reeher says, "Political scientists and pundits have been looking for a fundamental realignment now for 50 years. I don’t know what the Mark Twain phrase would be—rumors of a realignment can be greatly exaggerated?" Despite the common narrative that Democrats had been abandoned by the working class, "the data doesn’t actually support that," Reeher says. Read more in The Hill article, "Exclusive — Cruz, Rubio ramp up criticisms of big business."
5/4/2021

Faricy cited in NYT article on state and local tax deduction debate
Christopher Faricy's book "Welfare for the Wealthy: Parties, Social Spending, and Inequality in the United States" (Cambridge University Press, 2015) was cited in the New York Times article, "Why a $10,000 Tax Deduction Could Hold Up Trillions in Stimulus Funds." The state and local tax deduction (SALT) allows people to deduct payments like state income and local property taxes from their federal tax bills. The deduction, previously unlimited, was capped at $10,000 in 2017. Proposals to raise or undo the cap have since been discussed as part of the stimulus packages passed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such benefits are known as “tax expenditures,” or tax breaks that flow mostly to the highest-earning households, which Faricy discusses in his book.
5/4/2021

Murphy receives 2021 Daniel Patrick Moynihan junior faculty award
Tessa Murphy, assistant professor of history, is this year’s recipient of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Teaching and Research. The award will be presented at the Maxwell School’s virtual Graduate Convocation on Saturday, May 22. As this year’s Moynihan Award winner, Murphy will be the featured speaker at Convocation. The Moynihan Award is presented annually in recognition of a non-tenured faculty member of the Maxwell School with an outstanding record of teaching, research and service.
5/3/2021

Maxwell students chosen to be 2021-22 Remembrance Scholars
Eight Maxwell School students were among those named 2021-22 Remembrance Scholars. The scholarships, now in their 32nd year, were founded as a tribute to—and means of remembering—the 35 students who were killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Those students, who were returning from a semester of study in London and Florence, were among the 270 people who perished in the bombing. The scholarships are funded through an endowment supported by gifts from alumni, friends, parents and corporations.
5/3/2021

Elizabeth Cohen discusses immigration policy in 2021 in AlterNet piece
"From a failure to rescind the former president's Title 42, causing almost all recent asylum-seekers to be expelled from the U.S., to President Biden's equivocation on the 2021 refugee cap, it's almost impossible to find good news about immigration policy in 2021," writes Professor Elizabeth Cohen. "But the very phrase 'border security' is misleading, training our minds on ominous-sounding but imaginary threats from outside the U.S. and distracting us from the very real threat posed by an enormous militarized force charged with policing immigration," she says. Read more in Cohen's article "Immigrants aren't the real threat in the United States — ICE and the Border Patrol are," published by AlterNet.
4/30/2021

Ma examines science identity change, college major shifts in new study
"Math and Science Identity Change and Paths into and out of STEM: Gender and Racial Disparities," co-authored by Associate Professor of Sociology Yingyi Ma, was published in Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. Using data from the Pathways through College Study, Ma and Ph.D. candidate Shiyang Xiao '20 M.A. (Econ) find that science identity changes matter more than math identity changes in their association with the decision to switch majors. Most notably, underrepresented racial minority women are the most vulnerable in terms of decreasing science identity and the associated probabilities of leaking out of STEM.
4/30/2021

Burman piece on Biden's capital gains tax proposal published in Forbes
President Biden wants to boost taxes on the wealthy. One way he proposes to do this is by raising capital gains tax for people earning $1 million or more. "This [proposal] is a significant reform that would close loopholes that fuel inefficient tax sheltering and make the income tax more progressive, and help pay for some of Biden’s domestic policy wish list," writes Leonard Burman, Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics. Read more about Burman's assessment of President Biden's proposal in his article, "Biden Would Close Giant Capital Gains Loopholes—At Least For The Rich," published in Forbes.
4/30/2021

Heflin featured in The Well article on material hardship, COVID-19
A recent Urban Institute survey found that compared with adults whose family employment was unaffected by the pandemic, families who lost jobs during the pandemic were twice as likely to report food insecurity, and nearly three times as likely to report problems paying utility bills, and nearly four times as likely to report problems paying rent or mortgage. "There’s a sense in our affluent world that we don’t need to be so careful at measuring material hardship, but the COVID-19 crisis taught us it’s more prevalent than we thought," says Professor Colleen Heflin. "Material hardship should measure an ability to cover basic needs," she says. Heflin was featured in The Well article, "Material Hardship Can Cause Adverse Health Outcomes in Young Adults."
4/28/2021

History undergrads participate in 2021 Phi Alpha Theta conference
The 2021 Western/Central New York Phi Alpha Theta Conference featured five Syracuse students and a recent graduate. Phi Alpha Theta is the History Honors Society and has almost 1,000 chapters across the country with over 400,000 members. This year’s regional conference was held on April 24 and hosted by SUNY Geneseo’s Department of History.
4/28/2021

Banks comments on President Bush's handling of 9/11 attacks in SCMP
Former President George W. Bush’s foray into Afghanistan came back into focus last week, with Biden announcing he would withdraw all U.S. troops from the country by September 11. With a combined 6,800 Americans dead, along with hundreds of thousands of other fatalities, and trillions of dollars in U.S. spending, the toll of U.S. engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan has been staggering. "Bush and many others overreacted to 9/11," says Professor Emeritus William Banks. "I blame him and especially (vice-president) Dick Cheney and then (defense secretary) Donald Rumsfeld for the reckless policies," he says. Read more in the South China Morning Post article, "Former US president George W Bush resurfaces as immigration advocate against Republican tide."
4/28/2021

Shana Kushner Gadarian is a 2021 Carnegie Fellow
Shana Kushner Gadarian, associate professor and chair of political science, has been named a 2021 Carnegie Fellow. As recipients of the so-called “brainy award,” each Carnegie Fellow receives a grant of up to $200,000, making it possible to devote significant time to research, writing and publishing in the humanities and social sciences. The award is for a period of up to two years, and its anticipated result is a book or major study. Gadarian’s Carnegie-funded project, “Pandemic Politics: How COVID-19 Revealed the Depths of Partisan Polarization,” will investigate the long-term impacts of the pandemic on health behaviors and evaluations of government performance.

4/28/2021

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