Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

06/02/2026

A fellowship that's helping reveal the hidden realities of court supervision. 📚

Maxwell sociologist Gabriela Kirk-Werner has been named a 2026-27 visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, one of the nation's most selective social science fellowship programs.

Her research examines how alternatives to incarceration, including electronic monitoring, mandated treatment and community service, shape the lives of the people assigned to them.

Read more about her work and this prestigious recognition at the link.

Maxwell Sociologist Named Visiting Scholar at Russell Sage Foundation

06/02/2026

WATCH: Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, was featured in the Financial Times film on oil frontiers and Suriname.

“We have a distorted global economic system that rewards fossil fuel extraction, that rewards fossil fuel dependency. And as a result, it is harder for smaller countries that are worried about their own energy security, their own economic security, their own social social development to forgo an oil discovery,” she says.

Suriname, South America's smallest and greenest country, is tying i...

05/29/2026

“A lot of Arizonans just kind of write [it] off, but I was beginning to realize that none of this is just passive, idle curiosities,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. “Like, this is a story of how Arizona was colonized. It’s kind of cute, it’s funny. There’s a little pyramid with a camel on top. It seems innocuous, but that’s the violence of the colonial project.”

Nearly two centuries ago, in the 1850s, close to a dozen Middle Eastern cameleers helped ex-naval officer-turned-explorer Edward Fitzgerald Beale lead a caravan of camels through the arid American Southwest.

05/28/2026

Associate Professor of Political Science Glyn Morgan's forthcoming book “The Rise and Fall of American Europe” was reviewed by Financial Times.

“In his short but incisive account, he argues that the decisive shove for postwar European integration came not from Europeans but from America,” writes reviewer Simon Nixon.

Two timely new books examine the European project, its history and the threats to its future

05/27/2026

Hadwen C. Fuller II started his MPA at Maxwell in the early 1970s. He finished it this spring—at 77.

He was six credits short of his degree when life intervened. Five decades later, a chance dinner conversation with a Maxwell professor changed everything. Fuller enrolled in a weeklong January course in Washington, D.C., bought his first laptop, taught himself how to use it, and dove headfirst into AI alongside classmates young enough to be his grandchildren.

At the Graduate Convocation, the loudest cheers for Fuller came from those same classmates.

“Having this intergenerational education experience was wonderful and something I would recommend to anyone,” Fuller says.

His story is a reminder that it's never too late to finish what you started—and that the Maxwell community will be here when you're ready.

Full story 🔗 https://bit.ly/3S5ynZX

📸 Photos from Maxwell's Graduate Convocation | Link in comments

05/25/2026

On this Memorial Day, we pause to remember and honor the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our nation.

We are grateful for their courage, service and dedication.

05/22/2026

“The overall erosion in the president’s approval ratings is still the consequence of the accumulation of many policies, orders, actions and statements during his term. There is no one reason or single inflection point. Certainly, the war in Iran and the quick, steep rise in gasoline prices have only added to the longer term trend,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

Trump has also landed record or near‑record lows among other key voting blocs recently.

05/21/2026

Dan Zhang came to Maxwell as an international student with $500, a teaching assistant scholarship and an unshakeable belief in what was possible. Today she is CFO of ClickUp—and she is paying it forward.

Zhang revived the Maxwell Student Emergency Support Fund, which helps students facing unexpected hardships like emergency travel, housing, visa issues and tuition. She knows firsthand what a timely act of support can mean.

“One timely act of support can really change the trajectory of someone's entire life,” Zhang said. “I know because I lived it.”

➡️ Read her story and learn how you can join her. https://bit.ly/3PBJN6T

05/20/2026

“Once you recognize that Iran has the right to enrich uranium under existing agreements, then you can negotiate how much uranium can be enriched, what do you do with the existing stockpile—does it go to a third country—and then finally, what do you do with the existing nuclear sites. That's going to take some time. We have a framework for that, but that also means the negotiators have to be negotiating in good faith and right now we're far away from that,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program.

Iran says its counterproposal to end the war is “reasonable and generous.” President Trump says otherwise and rejected the proposal as totally unacceptable. Osamah Khalil, who specializes in U.S. foreign relations and the modern Middle East at Syracuse University joined News4Jax anchor Bruce Ham...

05/20/2026

Five Maxwell alumni were honored at the school's fifth annual Awards of Excellence on April 30 in Washington, D.C.—a celebration of careers that have shaped climate policy, U.S. diplomacy, global food security, public administration and constitutional law.

This year's honorees:
🏅 Emily Fredenberg (M.P.A./M.A., 2016) | Compass Award
🏅 Susan T. Gooden (M.A., 1995; Ph.D., 1996) | Charles V. Willie Advocate Award
🏅 Jeff Eckel (M.P.A., 1982) | Bridge Award
🏅 George Farag (M.A., 2002; Ph.D., 2007) | Spirit of Public Service Award
🏅 Roslyn Mazer (B.A., 1971) | Maxwell 1924 Award

As Emily Fredenberg said in accepting her award: “Maxwell helped shape my compass. It's the place that taught me that service is not just a career path. It's a lifelong journey.”

➡️ Read more: https://bit.ly/4dyUC1L