News Archive

A message from Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs director Ed Steinfeld.

Jeff Colgan, a political scientist at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, weighs in on the current coronavirus-related tumble in oil prices, its impact on geopolitical power and climate change and the U.S. government’s role in the now struggling industry.

Five years ago, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs launched a new, one-year Master of Public Affairs (MPA) degree to respond to the growing demand for an accelerated graduate degree that prepares students for public service careers in government, consulting firms, and the nonprofit sector. With the 2021 U.S. News Graduate School rankings Watson's MPA program has continued its steady climb.

Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs Michael Kennedy, who relishes sharing his expertise through a variety of media, has contributed a thoughtful essay to a newly published comic book series, “On the Stump.” Kennedy, the first of five academics invited to write for this series, talks with the Watson Institute about the power and reach of 21st-century comics.

The Watson Institute recently hosted an unusual, and perhaps unprecedented, gathering of film scholars and practitioners in Israeli and Palestinian film.

Tapping into his extensive policy experience, David Wade ’97 brings theory and practice to Brown’s semester-long program in Washington D.C. A fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a public affairs strategist, Wade has held senior positions in the State Department, on Capitol Hill, and with two national presidential campaigns. Wade spoke recently with us about the Brown in Washington experience.

The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs will welcome four new senior fellows in the spring 2020 semester.

Over the last decade, a series of Ebola outbreaks have affected significant numbers of patients, often fatally, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Just 15 months after the latest major outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), approximately 3,300 cases and 2,200 deaths have been reported — a case fatality ratio of about 67 percent.

A project involving both historic and new buildings transforms the corner of Brook and Charlesfield streets.