With an ambitious five-year plan for growth and expansion in place, the Watson School is already changing the way international and public affairs are studied and taught at Brown in ways that stretch traditional academic boundaries.
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Site News from the Last 365 days
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News from Watson
The U.S. Energy Cost of the Iran War
A new Costs of War report by Jeff Colgan finds that higher fuel costs from the Iran war have topped $40 billion.
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The Policy in Action Project — a hands-on work and learning venture — is the capstone to every MPA student’s education at Brown. The MPA Program curates high-profile partnerships with governmental and non-governmental agencies across the country and around the world. The suite of projects also includes several in the Providence and Rhode Island area, allowing MPA students to see the tangible impact of their efforts.
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News from Watson
Climate Solutions Lab Launches Iran War Energy Cost Tracker
A new digital tracker developed by Climate Solutions Lab researchers measures the financial impact of the war in Iran on U.S. consumers by estimating rising gasoline and diesel costs in real time.
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UTRA funding supports research on major power cooperation
What leads major international powers like the United States, China and Russia to cooperate with one another? What causes periods of constructive engagement to end? These questions are central to research being conducted by Tyler Jost at the Watson School, which has been greatly aided by the work of undergraduate research assistants funded through the Undergraduate Research and Teaching Award (UTRA) program.
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Watson student awards, grants and prizes 2026
The 2026 Watson School student awards, grants and prizes celebrate students pursuing work across the globe and across traditional academic boundaries — through research, internships, language study, public service, honors projects and policy engagement.
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Juben Rabbani, a Watson Ph.D. fellow from the Department of Anthropology, created a unique art project as a “visual supplement” to his master’s thesis on the impact of the EV transition on the Salton Sea region of California. Now, he has teamed up with Art at Watson to turn it into a multimedia exhibition, which will be on display until the end of summer 2026.
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Having spent time at the Watson School’s Africa Initiative as a visiting research fellow in 2023, Chikezirim “Chike” Nwoke was eager to return as a postdoctoral research associate after completing his Ph.D. at Carleton University.
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Alumni Spotlight: Bryan Joffe ’06 MPA
Bryan Joffe realized at a young age that access to a good education was the largest determinant of long-term economic success. A degree from Brown’s Master of Public Affairs has enabled him to fight for a level playing field for those most often shut out of high-quality education throughout his career.
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Patrick Heller argues in a recent paper that democratic governance and stronger state institutions have helped countries in the Global South expand rights-based welfare systems despite colonial and economic constraints.
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The Ripple Effects of Police Violence on Community Reporting
New research by the Watson School’s Jesse Bruhn, funded by the Orlando Bravo Center for Economic Research, shows that crime victims are less likely to report crimes to the police after widely publicized acts of police violence.
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Ieva Jusionyte named 2026 Guggenheim Fellow
Ieva Jusionyte has been named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, joining 223 scholars, artists, and scientists selected from nearly 5,000 applicants.
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Student Spotlight: Bruna da Silva Melo ’26
Senior International and Public Affairs (IAPA) concentrator Bruna da Silva Melo found the perfect vehicle for community building in the Watson School’s Africa Initiative.
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The Watson School's Realizing Rights Lab, led by John Hazen White Professor of Public Policy, Susan Moffitt, brings together faculty, Ph.D., MPA and undergraduate students from across a variety of academic disciplines to research barriers citizens encounter to exercising their rights and what can be done to overcome them.
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Alumni Spotlight: Ellie Adair ’18 MPA
Using the skills developed at the Watson School, Ellie Adair plays the infinite game in her role as chief operating officer at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.
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In this paper, published in Policy Studies Journal, Watson School Postdoctoral Research Associate in Education Policy and member of the Realizing Rights Lab, Cameron Arnzen, examined how administrative burdens interact with education to shape democratic participation.
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This working paper from a Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies research team led by Ieva Jusionyte provides a first systematic look into Mexico-U.S. extraditions and expulsions.
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Student Spotlight: Minh Hoang ’26 MPA
Minh Hoang plans to leverage the skills he has developed in Brown’s Master of Public Affairs program to make life better in his native Vietnam.
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Celebrating the life and legacy of Mark Garrison
Mark Garrison, the founding director of Brown University's Center for Foreign Policy Development, a precursor to the Watson School, passed away peacefully in Haverford, Pennsylvania, at the age of 95 on January 1, 2026.
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Art at Watson’s exhibition, “Odisha Illuminated: A Celebration of Ritual in a Modern World,” features bold, colorful textiles from the Odisha region of India. It will run through the spring 2026 semester in Stephen Robert '62 Hall.
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Anarchy, Nature, and Innovation
In this invited review essay, published in International Studies Review, Jeff Colgan proposes three ordering principles as a framework for teaching and a guide for intellectual inquiry in international relations: anarchy, nature and innovation.
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Global Climate Politics after the return of President Trump
In this paper, published in International Organization, Jeff Colgan and co-author Federica Genovese explore how Donald Trump's second term has disrupted global climate politics.
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As the Watson Policy Mentor Network enters its third year, it has expanded to provide more one-on-one mentoring opportunities for MPA students, as the School continues to facilitate engagement between its students and highly successful public policy practitioners.
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