Mountz, London and Keller Awarded Grants. Alison Mountz, assistant professor of geography, and Andrew London, professor of sociology, received their Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life grant for "Queering Syracuse." In addition, William Kelleher, associate professor of anthropology, received funding for "The Ethnography of the University: Studying Scholarship in Action." These grants will support new courses emphasizing public scholarship and practice; benefit some component of the community and SU students; demonstrate the likelihood of becoming sustainable; incorporate the arts, humanities or design; and serve a democratic purpose.  04/30/08

Brechin to Participate in Panel. Steven Brechin, professor of sociology, is one of 25 leading sociologists who have been invited to participate in a National Science Foundation panel on "Sociological Perspectives on Global Climate Change." The panel will meet in May 2008 and will "identify major research efforts currently underway, facilitate collaborations, and set an agenda for future research." The workshop will focus its attention on "drafting recommendations for social science research topics, data needs, tool development, funding priorities, and promising strategies for understanding and addressing the human dimensions of global climate." 04/29/08

Lambright Invited to Event Sponsored by Al Gore. W. Henry Lambright, professor of public administration and political science, has been invited to participate in a “summit on solutions” to the climate crisis sponsored by Al Gore. He will be on a panel titled “Can government be part of the solution? Lessons for the efforts to solve the climate crisis from the history of large-scale federal initiatives.” This event will take place in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 14. 04/29/08

O'Connor Honored with Award. Inge O'Connor, assistant professor of economics, was recently announced as a recipient of the Teaching Recognition Award.  O'Connor began teaching at SU while receiving her Ph.D. in economics from the Maxwell School. As part of the Ph.D. program, O'Connor served as a teaching assistant in the economics department and was subsequently presented with the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, given annually to only the top four percent of all TAs campus-wide. O'Connor went on to earn a Certificate in University Teaching through the Future Professoriate Program at SU. The Teaching Recognition Awards program was established in 2001 through an expansion of the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorship Program. The Meredith Professors themselves proposed that the Teaching Recognition Award program recognize excellence in teaching by non-tenured faculty and adjunct and part-time instructors. Recipients are selected for teaching innovation, effectiveness in communicating with students, and the lasting value of courses.  04/17/08

Monmonier Book About Coast Lines Published. Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor of Geography, has written Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change (The University of Chicago Press, 2008). With rising sea levels expected to impact coastal existence around the world in the next century, Monmonier's book examines the challenges to environmental, economic, and other aspects of coastal life and cartography. He presents the topic of coastal cartography, its history, assumptions, societal beliefs, and technology in a format accessible to lay readers and historians. Earlier in the year, Monmonier presented a lecture in New York City at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. Titled "Mapping Hazards in America: Earthquakes, Coastal Storms, and Sea Level Rise," the talk was co-sponsored by the New York Map Society. In addition Monmonier was interviewed for a segment of the radio program Weekend America, for the March 1, 2008, broadcast. The segment was titled "Don't Ask the GPS." Questions concerned the reliability of GPS navigation systems and famous map errors. 04/17/08

Mathiason Writes Article for Global Governance. An article titled "What Kind of International Public Service Do We Need for the Twenty-first Century?" by John Mathiason, professor of international relations, was published in Global Governance, the journal of the Academic Council on UN Studies in its April-June 2008 number. In the article, Mathiason urges the Secretary-General of the United Nations to convene a high-level commission to consider the future of the international civil service in the context of the growing importance of international organizations. Read the article. In addition, Mathiason directed a workshop on results-based management at the National University of Rwanda in Butare, Rwanda from March 6-7, 2008. Sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the workshop assisted the authorities of the National University in developing a strategy for institutional improvement and the means of verifying results. 04/12/08

Brooks Writes Op-Ed Piece. Arthur Brooks, a Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy, recently wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Sun titled “Recession's Gift.” In the piece, Brooks finds that even as crises in housing, credit, and financial markets are threatening to increase unemployment, charitable giving from the religious community in New York is not disproportionately harmed during a recession. However, secular people do tend to treat giving like a luxury, giving more when times are good — but a lot less when times are bad. Indeed, a 10% income decrease for the average secularist leads to a 14% decrease in charitable giving. Read the op-ed piece. Earlier in the year, Brooks wrote a piece for the National Review Online titled "Barack as Scrooge?," where Brooks investigates presidential hopeful Barack Obama's history of giving to charities.  Brooks concludes that many political liberals simply don’t believe that redistribution is very effective at the voluntary level; rather, redistribution is so important that it should be undertaken at the large-group level as a matter of law. Read the article. Finally, a Brooks essay titled "The Joys of Parenthood: Why Conservatives are Happier Than Liberals" was published in The Economist on March 27, 2008. Read the essay. 04/09/08

Reeher Writes Op-Ed Piece. Grant Reeher, associate professor of political science, recently wrote an op-ed piece for The Post Standard titled “Would We have Chosen Paterson?” In the piece, Reeher writes that "Paterson's style -- more open, respectful and friendly toward his former colleagues, whom he actually appears to like -- could serve both him and the political process quite well. Just as Spitzer was a bad fit, Paterson might be just right for what ails New York." In February, Reeher wrote an analysis of electoral events for the Syracuse Post-Standard, focusing on New York State's early primary. His article can be read here. 03/30/08

Dennison Gives Keynote Address. On March 27, Thomas Dennison, Professor of Practice of Public Policy, gave the Keynote Address at a forum on health care costs. Dennison told a gathering of area employers, doctors, insurers and hospital officials that medical spending will continue to soar unless the system pays more attention to preventing illness and reassesses the wisdom of providing costly and often futile end-of-life care to the elderly. In addition a new report by Dennison on New York State nursing homes finds that short-term stays in these facilities have tripled in the past decade, and residents are increasingly more cognitively impaired. The study, titled “Changes in Nursing Home Care, 1996-2005: New York State” looks at the changing role of nursing homes as a part of the medical care delivery system since the mid ‘90s. Read more. 03/28/08

O'Leary Gives Plenary Lecture. Rosemary O'Leary, Advisory Board Chair of Public Administration and co-director of the Maxwell School's Program on the Analysis or Resolution and Conflicts, gave a plenary lecture at the University of Texas's conference on "Ethical Leadership" in March. The title of O'Leary's lecture was "The Ethics of Dissent." In addtion, O'Leary co-authored a recently published report entitled “A Manager’s Guide to Resolving Conflicts in Collaborative Networks” that argues that multiagency collaboration and decision-making necessitates a new kind of public manager. O’Leary states in the report published by the IBM Center for The Business of Government that public managers must now be skilled in negotiation, bargaining, collaborative problem-solving, conflict management and conflict resolution. A special attitude is needed in instances when negotiations take place across organizational lines in which no one person is in charge; this attitude must be of “understanding others when they misunderstand you, consulting others even if they appear not to listen…being non-coercive and not yielding to coercion, and accepting others and their concerns as worthy of consideration.” The study states that collaborative managers must view others as negotiating partners, honestly disclose what is important to them and willingly revise their positions when presented with good options. In addition, collaborative managers must look for ways “to expand the pie” rather than fight for the largest piece. Collaborative managers should be willing to ask “What will having X do for you? What difference would it make for you to have X? How would it be helpful or beneficial to get X?” The study also cites several successful collaborative projects that engage citizens in public policy decisions: the Public Conversations Project, AmericaSpeaks and the Kettering Foundation National Issues Forum. 03/11/08

Roberts Speaks at Carter Center. On March 5, Alasdair Roberts, professor of public administration, spoke at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, for the International Conference on the Right to Public Information. He spoke about governance and information access. Earlier in the year, Roberts wrote The Collapse of Fortress Bush: The Crisis of Authority, which studies the Bush Administration’s failed leadership. In the book, Roberts portrays a surprisingly weak president, hamstrung by bureaucratic, constitutional, cultural and economic barriers and strikingly unable to wield authority even within his own executive branch. Read more. In addition, Roberts was one of four international experts invited to speak to a conference on anti-corruption policies sponsored by Yale Law School's China Law Center and Peking University that was held in Beijing on January 12-13. Participants included legal scholars, government and party representatives, and journalists. 03/05/08

Harrington Meyer Writes Op-Ed Piece. Madonna Harrington Meyer, professor of sociology, co-wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the current condition of social security and retirement policy, positing recommendations for Medicare coverage problems. The piece refers to research laid out in her recent book, Market Friendly or Family Friendly? The State and Gender Inequality in Old Age. 02/28/08

Keck Awarded Fellowship. Thomas Keck, professor of political science, has been awarded a sabbatical fellowship by the American Philosophical Society. This will support a year-long research leave (academic year 2008-09), during which he will be working on a book entitled Rights and the Right: Judicial Politics in the Culture Wars. 02/25/08