Maxwell School News and Commentary

Dean David M. Van Slyke said the retired investor and philanthropist is “a lifelong learner with a strong commitment to democracy and citizenship.”

“This conservative, anti-regulatory, anti-welfare-state ideology all comes together in kind of shifting risks back to individuals,” says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science.

University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer interviewed 48 working grandmothers; all but four “said they were doing much more care for the grandchildren than they expected—and much more than their own parents did for them,” she says.

“The seductive rhetoric of Trump tariffs hides a combination of contradictions, wishful thinking, and superficial understanding of economics, which sells America a mirage and threatens to weaken the stability of the global trading system,” writes Devashish Mitra, professor of economics and Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

“As I traveled to military installations around the world, I saw in action the powerful symbolism of the American flag. It means something when people see it on the shoulders of U.S. troops in conflict zones and to allies who fight alongside them. It means something when it arrives with humanitarian aid,” says Alex Wagner, adjunct professor in Maxwell's Washington programs.

Carroll, who retired in early 2024 as a research associate professor at Maxwell, passed away on June 21, 2025. He earned a master’s degree in social studies education from the University’s School of Education in 1970, followed by a Ph.D. in social science from Maxwell in 1985. 

The Maxwell sociologist was also awarded the organization’s Frederick H. Buttel Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award for her recent co-authored book.

“We’re not seeing young people go live on communes,” says Shana Gadarian, Merle Goldberg Fabian Professor of Excellence in Citizenship and Critical Thinking. “They’re working at banks, they’re starting gig economies, they’re working in high tech. If that’s not capitalism, I’m not clear what would be.”

Merril Silverstein, professor and chair of sociology, has been awarded the Sociology of Religion Distinguished Article Award for 2024 for his co-authored article, "Did Gender Egalitarianism Weaken Religiosity in Baby Boom Women? A Developmental-Historical Approach" (Sociology of Religion, 2023). 

Bartkowiak will lead existing online graduate programs and take charge of the school’s long-term plan to expand remote offerings.