Democratic systems cannot operate without rights, which are neither automatic nor uniform. What does it take – in terms of resources, organizations, politics, expertise, and more – to turn formal rights into lived realities? How do barriers to rights manifest at different phases of the policy process, across populations, and geographic spaces? What can we do to dismantle barriers and build supports to realize rights? The first phase of the Realizing Rights Lab takes up these puzzles in the context of disability rights in U.S. elementary and secondary education and voting rights.
Realizing Rights Lab
The Realizing Rights Lab focuses on identifying and relieving barriers to the experience of rights, with a focus on voting rights and disability rights in schools.
Realizing Rights Lab
The Realizing Rights Lab focuses on identifying and relieving barriers to the experience of rights, with a focus on voting rights and disability rights in schools.
Affiliates
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Susan Moffitt
John Hazen White Professor of Public Policy, Chair, Department of Political Science, Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs -
Cameron Arnzen
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Education Policy -
Lindsey Kaler
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Education Policy
Doctoral Student Researchers
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Alejandro Contreras
Doctoral Student Researcher -
Maya Nuñez
Doctoral Student Researcher -
Niamh Stull
Doctoral Student Researcher
Masters Students/Alum Researchers
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Olivia Hayes
MPA Student, MPA Research Fellow -
Hannah Rosenstein
Research Assistant -
Morgan Reilly
MPA Graduate, 2025 -
Emily Walshin
MPA Student, MPA Research Fellow
Masters Students/Alum Researchers
David Benoit
Undergraduate Researchers
Cassandra Coleman
- Shifts in the U.S. Education Labor Market and Impacts on the Education Ecosystem? Lindsey Kaler, Cameron Arnzen, Niamh Stull, Susan Moffitt.
- The Politics of Administrative Ease: Public Access to Local Special Education Information. Lindsey Kaler, Cameron Arnzen, Bryan Natividad, Alex Contreras, and Susan Moffitt.
- California’s System of Special Education Staffing. Lindsey Kaler, Michaela O’Neill, Patricia Strach, Susan Moffitt.
- Administrative Ease and Impediments: Implementing High Impact Tutoring. Michaela O’Neill, Patricia Strach, Niamh Stull, Hannah Rosenstein, Lindsey Kaler, Susan Moffitt.
- Subnational Independent Agencies: SELPAs and the Politics of Expertise in Special Education Governance. Cameron Arnzen, Lindsey Kaler, and Susan Moffitt.
- Defining Citizenship: Exploring Ideas of Citizenship Through State’s Civics Education Laws. Cameron Arnzen and Chloe O’Neill.
- Education and the Unequal Costs of Voting. Cameron Arnzen.
- Lessons in Federalism from the Devolution of the U.S. Department of Education. Cameron Arnzen.
- The Politicization of Schoolboards and Implications for Democratic Education. Cameron Arnzen and Rebecca Jacobsen.
- “Administrative Designs and Access to Political Arenas in Public Education.” in Governance. Maya Chanel Nuñez, Cameron Arnzen, Hannah Rosenstein, Jonathan Collins, Susan Moffitt
- “Impacts of Staff Turnover on Test Scores for Students With and Without Disabilities.” CALDER Working Paper No. 319-0525. Lindsey Kaler, Roddy Theobald, Nathan Jones, and Elizabeth Bettini.
- “Teaching About Schooling: Integrating Education Politics into the Political Science Curriculum.” in Journal of Political Science Education. Cameron Arnzen and Chloe O’Neill.
- “Service Delivery Models: Impacts for Students With and Without Disabilities.” in Educational Researcher. Nathan Jones, Lindsey Kaler, Jessica Markham, Josefina Senese, and Marcus Winters.
- The Influence of Partisanship in Rhode Island School Board Elections. Annenberg Institute Research Report. Cameron Arnzen, Layla Ahmed, Benny Lispector, Thomas Sfinarolakis, Mariana Melzer.
- “Turnover Patterns in the Paraeducator Workforce in Washington State.” CALDER Working Paper No. 323-0725. Lindsey Kaler and Roddy Theobald.
- “Leveraging IEPs to Understand Special Education Services at Scale.” Annenberg EdWorking Paper No. 25-1249. Christopher Cleveland, Lindsey Kaler, and Jessica Markham.
- “Service Delivery Models and Outcomes for Students With Disabilities.” in Remedial and Special Education. Lindsey Kaler, Nathan Jones, and Jessica Markham.
- IAPA 1700U: What Makes Policies Work (Spring 2026) - Susan Moffitt
- IAPA 1701D: Turning Rights into Realities (Spring 2025) - Susan Moffitt
- “The Politics of Administrative Ease: Public Access to Local Special Education Information.” Delivered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, December 2025. Susan Moffitt.
- “The Paraeducator Labor Market: A Text Analysis of Job Advertisements.” Delivered at the 2025 Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Conference. Lindsey Kaler, Andrew Camp, and Susan Moffitt.
- “The Politics of Citizenship Education in the U.S.” Delivered at California State University, Chico, October 2025. Cameron Arnzen.
- “Examining the Variation in IEP Services’ Cycles, Frequencies, and Minutes.” Delivered at the 2025 Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Conference. Christopher Cleveland, Lindsey Kaler, and Sarah Caroleo.
- “Defining Citizenship: A Typology of U.S. State-Level Civic Education Policy.” Delivered at the 2025 Annual Conference on Citizenship Education. Chloe O’Neill, Cameron Arnzen.
- “The Influence of Partisanship in School Board Elections.” Delivered at the 2025 American Political Science Association Conference. Cameron Arnzen and Rebecca Jacobsen.
- “Civic Returns to State Education Policy Investments.” Delivered at the 2025 Midwest Political Science Association Conference. Cameron Arnzen.
- “Teaching About Schooling: Integrating Education Politics into the Political Science Curriculum.” Delivered at the 2025 APSA Teaching & Learning Conference. Cameron Arnzen and Chloe O’Neill.
- “The New Literacy Tests: Education & The Administrative Burdens of Voting.” Delivered at the 2024 American Political Science Association Conference. Cameron Arnzen.
- “Service Delivery Models in Special Education.” Delivered at the Rhode Island State Superintendent’s Association (RISSA) Convening, March 2025. Lindsey Kaler
Recent News
Out of 35 applicants, the Watson Institute has selected nine students for the 2024-2025 Director’s Fellowship cohort, offering them the chance to collaborate on research with faculty across the Institute's centers and initiatives.
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Watson Policy Labs, a new initiative of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, will enhance the link between teaching, research and public outreach by addressing specific policy issues through a combination of faculty research, student training, research-based courses and public outreach.
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