Karas Montez awarded prestigious Carnegie Fellowship
April 25, 2018
Jennifer Karas Montez, the Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in
Aging Studies in the Maxwell
School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University, has been
named a 2018 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, the most generous and prestigious
fellowship in the social sciences and humanities. According to an announcement by the
Carnegie Corporation of New York, Karas Montez and 30 other “extraordinary
scholars and writers will each receive up to $200,000, making it possible to
devote their time to significant research, writing and publishing.”
A sociologist and demographer, Professor Karas Montez examines the
large and growing inequalities in adult mortality across education levels and
geographic areas within the United States. “Our life expectancy is increasingly
being shaped by where we live in the U.S.,” explains Karas Montez. “For example, in 1980, life expectancy in Mississippi
and New York differed by just 1.6 years. Over the next three decades, that
difference exploded to 5.5 years.”
At Maxwell, Karas Montez uses
large data sets from the National Center for Health Statistics to formulate and
answer a variety of compelling questions related to population health. For
example: Why is the life expectancy of low-educated white women in the United
States declining? Why do adults in some U.S. states develop health problems
nearly two decades before adults in other states? How has the changing policy
environment of states contributed to these patterns?
According to Karas Montez, in the 1950s and ’60s there were not many
differences between states in their social, economic, and health policies. “But
by the 1970s and ’80s, states began taking very different approaches to
things like Medicaid generosity, and whether they offer a state earned-income tax credit,
and how aggressively they raised cigarette taxes,” she says. The Carnegie
Fellowship will allow Karas Montez to accelerate her research documenting how state
policies have changed across the U.S. — the result of deregulation, federal devolution, and
state preemption laws — and how residents’ well-being may have been affected.
“We at the Maxwell School are enormously proud of Jennifer’s
accomplishments, and we are equally grateful to the Carnegie Corporation of New
York for their unparalleled support of social science research toward the
public good,” says David M. Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School.
Read the complete 2018 Andrew Carnegie Fellows press
release, and explore Karas Montez’s recent op-ed related
to health disparities and policies across U.S. states.
About the Maxwell School (@MaxwellSU)
The
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is
Syracuse University’s home for innovative, interdisciplinary teaching and
research in the social sciences, public policy, public administration, and
international relations. It is consistently ranked among America’s top graduate
schools of public affairs (U.S.
News & World Report), offering highly regarded professional degrees alongside
advanced scholarly degrees in the social sciences; and it is also home to
Syracuse University’s undergraduate programs across the social
sciences.
Maxwell scholars conduct wide-ranging research through nine
interdisciplinary centers, each focused on a topical area within
public affairs, such as governance, social and economic policy, conflict and
collaboration, public wellness, aging, energy and environment, national
security, regional studies, and more. For more information, please visit www.maxwell.syr.edu.
About
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private, international research
university with distinctive academics, diversely unique offerings and
an undeniable spirit. Located in the geographic heart
of New York State, with a global footprint, and nearly 150 years of history,
Syracuse University offers a quintessential college experience. The scope of
Syracuse University is a testament to its strengths: a pioneering history
dating back to 1870; a choice of more than 200 majors and 100 minors offered
through 13 schools and colleges; nearly 15,000 undergraduates and 5,000
graduate students; more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries;
and a student population from all 50 U.S. states and 123 countries. For more
information, please visit www.syracuse.edu