Prof. Ran Libeskind-Hadas has been elected vice chair of the Computing Research Association, which represents the computer science research community in North America, and more than 250 universities, colleges, industrial research labs, and other organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Libeskind-Hadas, who is the inaugural chair for the Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences, is the first faculty member from an undergraduate institution to serve on the executive council of the board.
The Daily Beast interviewed Prof. Jack Pitney about President Joe Biden’s re-election strategy focusing on economic benefits. “Tangible benefits are what people like Joe Biden do,” Pitney said. “He’s an old-fashioned lunch bucket liberal delivering real benefits to real people, and the people who benefit are not just marginalized groups. Everybody uses roads and bridges. He’s playing to strength.”
Prof. Hilary Appel was interviewed by Newsweek about Ukraine’s potential attempt to reclaim Crimea from Russia.
“President Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 paid huge political dividends for Putin and he will defend Russia's control of the peninsula to the end,” Appel said. “Kyiv knows how valuable Crimea is to Putin, but it also knows the Russian military is stretched very thin at the moment.”
In an opinion piece for Bloomberg, Prof. Minxin Pei analyzed Republican lawmakers’ stance on China. “The metamorphosis of the GOP from a pro-trade party into a staunch advocate for protectionism cannot help but benefit China, the top trading partner of more than 120 countries,” he wrote.
Prof. Esther Chung-Kim has been elected as the incoming President of the American Society of Church History, the oldest academic society in the field of religion. Chung-Kim is chair of the Religious Studies Department, and specializes in the history of world Christianity, including the European Reformations. Her research examines religious conflict, history of poverty, and the impact of religion on politics, economics, and society.
Prof. Jack Pitney was interviewed by Newsweek about whether the Republican focus on culture wars will deliver votes in mainstream America. "The sustainability of culture war issues depends on the battlefront," he said.
Research conducted by the Rose Institute for State and Local Government, in collaboration with Kosmont Companies, was featured in the Los Angeles Times. The Rose Institute’s “cost of doing business” study analyzes business migration in and out of California.
In an opinion piece published by Bloomberg, Prof. Minxin Pei wrote that China caused a diplomatic crisis with its burst balloon over the U.S. “Now it’s up to Chinese leaders to take the first step to salvage ties,” he argued.