Research Briefs

Delve deeper into the most recent research published by Watson faculty.

   

In a newly released study, Susan Moffitt, director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, partners with Susanna Loeb, new director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and other researchers for Getting Down to Facts II, a project aimed at supporting improvements in California's K-12 public school system, originally released in 2007.
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Democratic Erosion

A multi-university course, Democratic Erosion, led by Assistant Professor Rob Blair, closed its first academic year with a full-day conference with faculty and students from across the nation at the Watson Institute.
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Invigorating U.S. Leadership in Global Development

Senior Fellow Brian Atwood shares a brief history of the United States foreign assistance program, that he presented at the Aspen Institute in Colorado in early August.
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The Naturalization of Work

In a collection of essays put together by Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Sarah Besky, examines the confluence of labor and environmental exploitation.
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How America's Wars Fund Inequality at Home

A new study by the Costs of War Project investigates the United States' government spending in wars since the War of 1812, addressing the relationship between war-related debt and societal inequality.
In a new study published in the American Journal of Political Science, co-author Provost Richard M. Locke uses new data on retailers and manufacturers to analyze how firm-level trade responds to information about social standards.
Based on three years of research in Rio de Janeiro, Postdoctoral Fellow Nicholas Barnes explores the replacement of state authority with the criminal violence of drug trafficking gangs in favelas (impoverished informal neighborhoods).
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The Evils of Polygyny

In her new book, Professor Rose McDermott examines one structural factor that instigates, enforces, and replicates patterns of male dominance: the practice of polygyny.
Unhealthy Politics: The Battle over Evidence-Based Medicine, co-written by Public Policy program director Eric Patashnik, describes the U.S. medical system, the most advanced in the world, and its insufficient evaluation process of treatments that often become widespread.
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Health Reform after the 2016 Election

In May 2017, Professor Eric Patashnik convened a conference on "Health Reform after the 2016 Election," bringing together scholars to examine and discuss the state of health reform. The contributions led to a special edition of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.
In a new article in American Sociological Review, Postdoctoral Fellow Ali Kadivar deconstructs the "elitist approach" to democratization by analyzing new democracies from the past half-century.
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Climate Change and the Politics of Military Bases

Driven by the U.S. Army's Project Iceworm initiative in Greenland, political scientist Jeff Colgan released a new study on the effects of climate change on military bases.
In new research, Adam C. Levine, Faculty Fellow and Director of the Humanitarian Innovation Initiative, joined colleagues to employ the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology to develop eveidence-based guidelines for the care of admitted Ebola patients.
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Do the Geneva Conventions Matter?

Nina Tannenwald, Director of the International Relations Program, co-edited the new book, Do the Geneva Conventions Matter?, offering a comparative analysis of the laws that govern warfare.
In March 2017, political economist Mark Blyth co-hosted a multidisciplinary conference on "The New Financial Geopolitics," that brought about new research on the issue of global monetary stability. These contributions were published together in a new e-book published by Foreign Affairs magazine.
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The Contemporary Congress

In her new book co-written with Burdett A. Loomis, political scientist Wendy Schiller deconstructs the U.S. Congress in an era of heightened partisanship and increased polarization.
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How to Think about 'Medicare for All'

In a new article, political scientist Jim Morone deconstructs Senator Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All" health plan, suggesting that it can win out in the end.
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The Equality of Educational Opportunity

Susan Moffitt, Director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, and Margot Jackson, Associate Professor of Sociology, recently co-edited a special issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences.
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Weighting for External Validity

Economist Emily Oster examines economic experiments in new research "Weighting for External Validity" in the National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Watson Faculty Member Wins "Best Paper" Award

Political Scientist Prerna Singh, with co-author Matthias vom Hau, receives the 2016 Best Paper Award from the Comparative Political Studies Editorial Board for their article "Ethnicity in Time Politics, History, and the Relationship between Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision."
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New Research on India’s Democratic Contradictions

In "India's Democracy at 70: Growth, Inequality, and nationalism," Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences, deconstructs the benefits and disadvantages of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Brown Faculty Members Earn Awards, Distinctions

Jayanti Owens, an assistant professor of international and public affairs and sociology, was chosen as one of 30 2017 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellows.
Susan Moffitt, Associate Professor of Political Science, is one of six Brown faculty members to be awarded the inaugural Brown Research Achievement Award, presented by the University's Office of the Vice President for Research.
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The Politics of Human Shielding

In 2015, Middle East Studies organized The Politics of Human Shielding workshop, allowing scholars and human rights experts to discuss the role of human shielding in warfare. Recently, some of those contributions were published in the American Journal of International Law Unbound.