Maxwell School News and Commentary

According to Ryan Griffiths, associate professor of political science, separatist aspirations are "alive and kicking" elsewhere in the world. That includes Catalonia and Scotland in Europe, and also French territory New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville.

University Professor and former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe was tasked with informing the families and friends of the terrible fate of the astronauts on the Columbia Space Shuttle. "It went from being a moment of great anticipation and elation...to a stillness, recognizing that the time that had been anticipated for the shuttle to land had passed," he says of the tragic event.

Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, explains how Trump overperformed in places with high rates of drug use, suicide, and family distress. According to Monnat, Trump's message of economic nationalism and promises to bring back manufacturing jobs resonated with people in these areas who felt left behind by globalization and the decline of traditional industries.

"The Privacy Act is a big hurdle here unless Congress takes control of the materials and tries to release them themselves," says William C. Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs.

"The workforce is not going to be as dynamic as other parts of the country," says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs. "It's going to be a pull on our economy going forward," because children growing up in poverty traditionally have lower educational attainment and wages.

"One of the things I’ve been most struck by is how the reaction to Trump has so deeply affected state-level contests, even at the district level," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.

According to Mary Lovely, professor of economics, most of the tariffs that have been imposed have hit U.S. companies, not the Chinese.