Maxwell School News and Commentary

“We can show the overlapping of areas of lead poisoning with poor educational performance, with teen pregnancy, with entry into the criminal justice system, and so on. So there's a whole set of ramifications,” says Robert Rubinstein, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology.

Professor of Geography and the Environment Farhana Sultana, concerned about how her work may be repurposed, says, “All this occurs while our intellectual property is woefully inadequately compensated, since there is abuse and profit off our mostly free intellectual labor by private corporations reaping profits in the billions of dollars annually from the sale of our books.”

“Calling Biden’s decision a ‘coup’ does not clarify anything about all of this. It does not accurately reflect any part of what has happened here,” says Matthew Cleary, associate professor of political science.

Keith Bybee, professor of political science, says 6-3 rulings such as the immunity decision make the court appear more partisan in its decision-making. “But also, this majority is quite emboldened,” he says, rendering decisions that are “quite sweeping and overturn decades-old precedents” such as in the case of abortion.

“They [delegates] themselves are part of the party apparatus,“ says Shana Gadarian, professor of political science. “As with everything in politics in the United States, everything comes from the states. Occasionally you see a delegate make an individual decision and decide to vote for somebody else but that's pretty rare.”

“It sounds like they are going full force into campaign mode and are trying to play up the prosecutor versus the felon, the future versus the past, so you're starting to see some themes emerge,” says Christopher Faricy, professor of political science. 

“It was a pivotal moment,” Kristen Patel, Donald P. and Margaret Curry Gregg Professor of Practice in Korean and East Asian Affairs, says of President George W. Bush's targeting of a North Korean bank in 2003. “Treasury got the go-ahead to start pounding things with this hammer.”

“Harris will likely reinvigorate the energy and enthusiasm behind the campaign—one can feel that already,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. “The early fundraising is a good sign for her.”

“The Trump organization is a family business, but once he took office the first time, and then you could really see that he brought that into the political realm and into the White House,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment.

Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science, says that Biden’s endorsement of Kamala Harris means she will more than likely be the Democratic nominee in the November election. “Already we are hearing a lot of calls for unity, statements of enthusiasm, and a lot of speculation frankly about who might be the vice president. But I do not see a lot of noise around the candidate at the top,” she says.