The University will take center stage on the nationally syndicated program “The Academic Minute” during the week of Oct. 27-31, marking the first time the program has dedicated an entire week to showcasing Syracuse University research.

Five Syracuse scholars will share their groundbreaking work with audiences across more than 70 NPR-affiliated stations throughout North America and with international listeners worldwide. Each day of “Syracuse Week” highlights the breadth and real-world impact of the University’s scholarship:

Monday, Oct. 27: Leonard Lopoo, associate dean, chair and professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, explores how government policies—from “baby bonuses” to family leave and child care subsidies—shape fertility rates and family formation decisions.

Tuesday, Oct. 28: Claire Rubbelke, former College of Arts and Sciences postdoctoral researcher, examines what ancient climate patterns reveal about modern droughts and future water security challenges. (Related story)

Wednesday, Oct. 29: Rachael Goodwin, assistant professor in the Whitman School of Management, investigates unhealthy perfectionism in professional ballet and its parallels to high-pressure workplace cultures across industries. ()

Thursday, Oct. 30: Kristy Buzard, associate professor in the Maxwell School, analyzes today’s trade wars and tariff policies through the historical lens of early 1900s trade liberalization—revealing patterns that echo across a century.

Friday, Oct. 31: David Fastovich, former College of Arts and Sciences postdoctoral researcher, reveals the urgent story of forests failing to migrate fast enough to keep pace with Earth’s rapidly warming climate. ()

The Academic Minute is a daily two-and-a-half-minute showcase featuring researchers from leading institutions worldwide. This weeklong spotlight positions Syracuse faculty as authoritative voices on the environmental, economic and social challenges shaping our world.

Listen to each researcher’s full segment at .

A turning point in Pete Buttigieg’s public service career came with unrelenting rainfall while he was mayor of South Bend, Indiana. The city of roughly 100,000 experienced flooding that washed out roadways, damaged properties and endangered lives.

Buttigieg activated the city’s emergency operations center and hit the streets to assess the damage. At the urging of a councilmember, he knocked on the door of a woman who needed assistance.

Inside, he saw her family’s possessions floating in the flood water.

“And that was the moment that my mental image of climate change stopped being polar bears and ice shelves,” he said. “I think of political rhetoric around climate change. Not that I don’t care about what happens in the Arctic, but this was happening on the west side of South Bend, Indiana.”

Capacity Crowd at Syracuse

Buttigieg reflected on the flood’s aftermath during a conversation-style event in the National Veterans Resource Center at the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Building on Friday, Oct. 3. Part of the Pontarelli Speaker Series—named for its sponsors, alumnus and University Trustee Kenneth A. Pontarelli ’92 and his wife, Tracey—the talk was co-hosted by the and the .

Buttigieg shared the stage with , Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance and director of the Syracuse University . Their conversation encompassed environmental issues, leadership, American democracy and more.

In his opening remarks, Maxwell Dean said he was heartened to see so many students in the audience—all tickets for the event were claimed less than 20 minutes after it was announced. “These individuals are passionate about the issues we’re going to discuss today, and they are our future leaders,” said Van Slyke.

Before welcoming Buttigieg to the stage, Whitman’s interim dean, , shared some of his accomplishments. Buttigieg became mayor of South Bend in 2012 at age 29. He was elected for two terms and departed for a 2014 deployment to Afghanistan as a Naval reservist. In 2020, he sought the Democratic nomination for president, winning the Iowa caucuses. As U.S. secretary of transportation from 2021-25, Buttigieg implemented the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which funded over 70,000 projects.

The Syracuse event occurred three days into a shutdown of the U.S. government. Golden’s first question presented an opportunity for a general assessment: “Where are we today as a nation?”

Facing Unprecedented Challenges

“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that not since the Civil War has our country faced this level of challenges—certainly not since World War II,” replied Buttigieg. “And so much of it is actually happening not because of an external threat.”

Social media, with its misinformation and algorithms, has distorted perspectives and relationships, he said. At the same time, Buttigieg said, the U.S. is witnessing an unprecedented level of government assertion of control over not only its own branches but also entities that have long remained independent such as academia and even late-night television.

“That makes this an extremely challenging time, but also a particularly important time for universities, because universities exist for the purpose of finding the truth, for the purpose of fostering dialogue and healthy difference and for charting where we are supposed to go next in ways that maybe won’t fully resemble the status quo that we inherited,” said Buttigieg, who later said universities need to fiercely guard their independence.

Several of Golden’s questions focused on the environment. For instance, he wondered what the current administration is trying to accomplish by repealing and diminishing protections. Buttigieg shared his view that much of the transitions have served to benefit certain friends and allies.

“Part of the tragedy of this is there is a healthy conservative critique to be made of environmental policies that are either self-defeating or unreasonable,” added Buttigieg. “And I say that as a strong believer in environmental protection.”

Several students posed questions, some related to climate change and the recent downsizing and dismantling federal departments like USAID.

Donough Lawlor, who is pursuing a master of science in sustainable organizations and policy, asked Buttigieg to comment on the impact of doing away with USAID and the worldview of U.S. leadership.

While he expressed deep concern, Buttigieg pointed out that many entities were formed in the 1940s and 50s “based on the way the world was.”

“Sooner or later, it’s going to be somebody’s job to figure out what to put in there next,” he said. “And that’s actually a huge opportunity to set up development aid in a way that is more responsive to the needs of the people it’s supposed to serve.”

He added, “my main impulse is not despondency, even though it can be depressing to watch, but actually propulsion.”

Looking Forward, Not Back

In South Bend, he said, prior generations often reflected about the economic boomtime prior to the 1963 closure of a main employer, the Studebaker auto plant. His community had a breakthrough in part, he said, because his generation was the first that didn’t experience its automaking heyday. As mayor, he said, all he could consider is “what do we do next?”

A parting message seemed directed toward students.

“If you’re considering participating in civic processes, which I hope you will, don’t underestimate the moral authority that you carry as a young person saying, ‘This decision you’re about to make affects me,’” he said. “The longer you are planning to be here, the more you have at stake, and I think, the more you have to say.”

Forced labor in global supply chains may decline in coming years as Generation Z—today’s teens and young adults—gain financial influence. Unlike previous generations, they are more willing to pay a premium for products manufactured ethically.

These and other findings are the result of a two-year study by the University’s (DSL) on behalf of Thomson Reuters, a global content and technology company based in Canada.

In addition to revealing data that helps inform industry leaders, policymakers and the public, the collaboration provided valuable research and experiential learning opportunities to numerous University students engaged with the DSL.

It also laid the groundwork for a strategic collaboration that DSL Director Jay Golden says will complement the lab’s endeavors while giving students opportunities to interact with industry thought leaders and examine critical sustainability issues under the mentorship of Thomson Reuters experts.

“Given the impactful and positive experiences our students have had with the forced labor in global supply chain collaboration, we are thrilled to deepen our relationship with Thomson Reuters,” says Golden. “It provides student and faculty researchers within the Dynamic Sustainability Lab greater opportunity to tackle important real-world challenges in companies and governments around the world and come up with innovative, next-generation solutions, models and tools.”

Golden founded the Maxwell-based DSL in 2021 after he joined the school as the inaugural Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance. He describes the lab as a cross-disciplinary, nonpartisan think tank that examines the “opportunities, risks and unintended consequences” that arise from the adoption of new technologies, new strategies and growing dependence on foreign-sourced resources and supply chains used in energy, climate and sustainability transitions.

Students engaged with the DSL represent a wide range of programs including many Maxwell majors. They share their data findings in government reports and technical bulletins and at sustainability symposiums the DSL hosts annually in major cities like Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C.

A Student and National Thought Leader

The DSL’s connection with Thomson Reuters began with Maxwell graduate student Heather Panton G’26 when she enrolled in the executive master’s in international relations program in Washington, D.C. Today she is senior advisor for human rights crimes and social impact at Thomson Reuters.

In 2023, Panton was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship to advance her study of forced labor—a form of human trafficking—in global supply chains. She traveled to Malaysia and Thailand to study best practices and drive public awareness to educate consumers about making ethical purchasing decisions. She received academic guidance from Golden and shared with him a growing interest in the potential impact of up-and-coming consumers.

“When I was abroad, so many people asked about demand from the next generation,” Panton says. “Historically, American baby boomers often prioritized price, without fully considering how cost-cutting would ripple through suppliers and vendors across the supply chain. That has put pressure on companies to reduce costs in ways that sometimes affect workers’ wages and living conditions abroad. We believe Gen Z will play a critical role in shifting that dynamic by asking tougher questions, such as, ‘Was this product made with slave labor?’”

Golden was excited for the opportunity to work with Panton. Her resume included roles with the McCain Institute, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House. Among them: special advisor for human trafficking and the inaugural human trafficking czar during the first Trump administration.

“She was not only our student but also a thought leader in the country,” says Golden. “I’ve learned a lot—probably more than she’s learned from me.”

Golden brought Panton’s Eisenhower Fellowship research to the DSL, where students spent the next two years expanding her work, studying generational purchasing trends, gathering data and refining her findings.

“They’re such smart students—they’re right on the mark,” she says. “We’ve worked to expand the scope of what they’re thinking about. We want them to be focused and driven, thinking about exposing things that I don’t know that many people are talking about in the mainstream. We want them to be able to present in a way that’s not only academically rigorous but also digestible—something that industry or government can consume right away.”

Presenting Research to Global Industry Leaders

The students produced a by the DSL, and a has been posted on Thomson Reuters’ website. Both share that by 2030, Generation Z will represent 17% of retail spending in the U.S., and 81% of consumers in the age group have changed their purchasing decisions based on brand actions or reputation, with 53% participating in economic boycotts.

While pursuing a bachelor’s degree in policy studies, 2024 Maxwell alumnus Ka’ai I worked as a student researcher with the DSL. He gathered information about forced labor laws across the globe, collected related policies for multi-national corporations and assisted with surveys.

“We basically did a level-set in terms of ‘How do we understand where we are at now, where are we at in terms of forced labor, and how that is affecting the market?’” says I.

The experience was empowering and prepared him for his current work with Deloitte Consulting.

“As a young professional, I’m working on many of the same things I did with the Dynamic Sustainability Lab—data analysis, survey development, stakeholder engagement,” I says. “As I navigate the professional workspace, I feel much more confident and capable going in to a pretty competitive workforce.”

Another outcome of the DSL forced labor collaboration with Thomson Reuters: two events in the 2024-25 academic year at which data findings were presented and expanded upon by subject area experts. The symposia in Washington, D.C., and in Portland, Oregon, drew representatives from footwear and apparel companies as well as government officials.

“Our students helped push the notion, ‘We are your growing customer segment,’” says Golden. ��“The leadership from these companies that were in attendance really acknowledged that and were receptive. The work that started with Heather has expanded to where we have the attention of the global footwear and apparel industry. It’s a rare occasion that the type of research finds its way into the mainstream in consumer decisions and draws the attention of international governments and especially the top leadership of global companies.”

Panton says the collaboration with DSL is mutually beneficial.

“The academic rigor is unbeatable,” she says of the research and resulting data. “It’s a great combination of practitioner-meets-academic—we’re taking substantive work and making it very easy for anyone in a C-suite to look at it.”

Ken Pontarelli ’92 credits the University for changing his life, opening up opportunities to pursue his passions and achieve professional success that allows him to focus on the public good. In return, he and his wife, Tracey, are paying it forward by supporting Syracuse students pursuing meaningful careers in the vital field of sustainability. Their recent gift endows the Pontarelli Professorship in the . It builds on their years of support that have helped position the University as a thought leader in sustainability. As part of the Forever Orange Faculty Excellence Program, the University has committed additional funds to support teaching and research activities in environmental sustainability, finance and public policy.

“Our goal is to build a sustainability program that ties together distinctive strengths from across the University, allowing business, policy and environmental science to work together to solve problems and tackle global challenges,” says Pontarelli. They are well on their way, thanks to previous support from the Pontarellis that a five-year funded professorship in 2019 and a scholarship fund in the , and helped create a unique master of science joint degree from the Maxwell and Whitman schools in sustainable organizations and policy, and the .

“When I (in 2022), Syracuse University was ranked No. 11 nationally for environmental policy and management by U.S. News & World Report,” says Jay Golden, Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance. “Each year our rankings have increased, and the most recent 2024 rankings have us tied with Harvard for No. 6. Certainly, our goal is to continue to rise in the rankings through the recognition of our peers of all the great programs we have going on at Maxwell and the other colleges at Syracuse.”

Growing Interest in Sustainability

Pontarelli graduated from the University with a bachelor of science in finance from the Whitman School and in economics from the Maxwell School. He immediately began what became a long career at Goldman Sachs, initially focusing on energy markets. “We made one of the first large-scale investments into renewable power back when few such investments were being made,” says Pontarelli. “As I gained more understanding of the field, I realized how critical private capital is, together with government policy, in addressing environmental issues. The business case for investing in sustainability is incredibly strong.”

In an interview with Private Equity International (November 2023), Pontarelli pointed out that sustainability was just a niche market with $20 billion of assets under management just 10 years ago and ballooned over the decade to more than $270 billion of assets under management.

At Goldman Sachs, where Pontarelli is partner and managing director, he leads the firm’s private equity impact investing efforts within the Asset Management Division. He was appointed to the University’s Board of Trustees in 2021, serves on the Whitman Advisory Council and, last year, was awarded the for Sustainability by Maxwell. His investments in academic and experiential programs are designed to ensure that environmental policy research is well-grounded in an understanding of markets and financial mechanisms.

“This is a pivotal time,” says Pontarelli. “There are so many things that could be done if we don’t get caught up in political issues. Everyone would agree that these are common sense business things to do.” He cites the example of one recent investment in a company that provides control panels to big data centers to manage power generation usage. The product can reduce usage by 10% for the average data center. “I’m focused on pragmatic solutions.”

That’s why Pontarelli is so impressed with the work being done by students in the which, according to Golden, is “a nonpartisan think tank and research lab focused on examining sustainability imperatives at the nexus of industry and government.” The lab launched in 2021 with just six students.

“From that early start we have maintained every semester 40 to 50 paid undergraduate and graduate sustainability research fellows spanning almost every college across the University,” Golden says. “In fact, we have more students interested than we can currently financially support or mentor with our current staffing levels. Not a week goes by that I don’t receive numerous emails from students interested in joining the lab.”

Inspiring More Philanthropic Support

It’s easy to see why students are so interested. They are doing what Pontarelli calls “eye-popping work” in partnership with industry or government, and he hopes to inspire more philanthropic support so that more students can participate. Golden cites a few examples:

• Students from the Maxwell School, Whitman School and are doing research in energy systems, biotechnologies and carbon capture technologies for various industrial sectors. This includes providing technical, finance and policy insights to develop recommendations for government agencies, policymakers and business leaders that would benefit the U.S. economy and the environment.
• Students are working with Thomson Reuters as well as the global footwear and apparel industries researching innovative best management practices and policies that can eliminate the utilization of forced labor in the global supply chain.
• A team led by Golden and School of Architecture Assistant Professor Nina Wilson is working with architects, engineers, design/build firms, insurance, government and finance on developing innovative strategies, policies and professional practices for resiliency in the built environment.��They are holding workshops throughout New York state.
• Students have developed an energy dashboard to quantify and visualize energy consumption on campus, by buildings and by energy source, that is continuously updated while also modeling economic impacts and opportunities for the University to manage energy consumption and other environmental impacts. This also involves working with Campus Dining to quantify food wastes across the campus and modeling the economic and greenhouse gas opportunities by implementing new strategies.

Preparing Future Leaders for the Public Good

The new joint master’s degree from Maxwell and Whitman, supported by the Pontarellis and directed by Golden, offers an intensive professional sustainability consulting course each spring through the lab, in which students work in project teams to provide high-level research and consulting to public and private organizations, including Fortune 500 global companies and smaller start-ups domestically and globally.

“I am grateful to Ken and Tracey for continuing to promote the values of high-quality teaching, experiential learning, evidence-based research, engaged citizenship and public service impact, which we hold dear at the Maxwell School,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “This professorship, endowed in their name, will make certain their commitment to climate, energy and environmental sustainability and working across levels of government and sectors of the economy continues to be a hallmark of the instruction and scholarship the Maxwell School pursues in preparing future leaders that seek to promote the public good.”

Golden says that “we have an incredible job placement rate for students even before they graduate” with organizations as diverse as Morgan Stanley, KPMG, the State of New York and the Department of Defense. “They stand out in the job market because they have learned to take theory from the classroom and apply it in the real world, with plenty of opportunities to do the work thanks to Ken and Tracey Pontarelli,” Golden says.

“We want students to get excited about careers in the sustainability field,” Pontarelli says. “It’s purposeful, meaningful work as they become problem-solvers who can change the world.”

The chemistry of U.S. rivers is changing—and will change further in complex ways in different regions of the country. Scientists are exploring ways to predict future changes in watershed chemistry, which could improve managing them for climate change and community health.

University researchers are combining traditional geochemistry with artificial intelligence to predict how alkalinity—a measure of a solution’s ability to neutralize acids—and salts in rivers around the country could be affected by further climate warming and population growth, according to a study published in .

The research team was led by��, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Wen also directs the���������Dz���dz���𳾾����ٰ�����And eN�������DzԳ���Գٲ�����D���ٲ���Sciences (HANDS) ���Ի���Noble Gases in��E�����ٳ���S����ٱ𳾲���Tracing (NEST) research laboratories.

An excess of salt can make water undrinkable, increase the cost of treating water and harm freshwater fish and wildlife.

Past research shows that as salt levels in U.S. rivers have gone up, these waters have also become more alkaline, which can damage water, wastewater treatment and aquatic life. Increased alkalinity is occurring because of rising temperatures and more rainfall. Human activities, such as more people living in certain areas, might also contribute to it.

Yet alkalinity is also beneficial. When river waters are more alkaline, they help draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and limit climate warming over time. However, before rivers can be harnessed for this purpose, researchers must first understand the basic chemistry at play.

Using machine learning models, the Wen team projected how salinity—measured through sodium levels—and alkalinity will change in 226 U.S. rivers between 2040 and 2100 under different climate and human population scenarios.

In northern states, rivers would become less salty because warmer winters mean less salt will be applied on icy roads. However, in the South and West, where people don’t use much road salt, river salinity will likely stay the same. But as these areas get hotter and drier, more salt from the soil might accumulate and wash into waterways.

The study also found that rising temperature can affect alkalinity. In watersheds rich in carbonate rocks, such as limestone, researchers found that alkalinity flux—the product of the natural breakdown of rock minerals—declines when temperatures surpass 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit). This finding suggests that warming past a certain temperature level could suppress alkalinity in rivers.

However, in watersheds dominated by silicate rocks or organic carbon, higher temperatures accelerate silicate weathering and the decomposition of organic material, leading to increased alkalinity levels. More rainfall can also increase the amount of these chemicals in rivers, but only up to a certain point.

In the future, some watersheds with lower alkalinity could be manipulated to take up additional alkaline from watersheds, allowing rivers to sequester more carbon from the atmosphere.

For this and other multidisciplinary research, Wen received a 2025��. The award highlights excellent work by independent researchers in their early career that bring new insights into the field of geochemistry or to promote geochemical applications.

Visit the ��to read the full story.

Story by John H. Tibbetts

Eva Legge, a first-year Ph.D. student majoring in biology in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), is one of two researchers nationally to be named a Mollie Beattie Visiting Scholar by the����(SAF). The award honors Beattie, who was the first woman to head the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and its aim is to foster diversity in the natural resource professions.

Legge will receive a $10,000 scholarship to pursue her research on the role mycorrhizae play in boosting forest resilience. Mycorrhizae are fungi that grow on the roots of trees and plants and provide mutual benefits. As a Mollie Beattie Visiting Scholar, she will gain valuable professional development and networking opportunities. In addition to connecting with SAF members across the country, she can also submit her research to an SAF journal and collaborate with staff and partners at the SAF headquarters in Washington, D.C.

This latest award comes on the heels of Legge winning a����from the National Science Foundation over the summer. Like the Mollie Beattie award, the NSF fellowship includes a stipend and access to professional development opportunities. According to the NSF program, its mission is to “help ensure the quality, vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States.”

Legge is part of A&S biology professor����Mycorrhizal Ecology Lab and SUNY ESF Professor����Applied Forest and Fire Ecology Lab. As a member of these teams, she studies how climate-adaptive forest management, such as timber harvest, assisted tree migration and prescribed fire, affects the symbiotic relationship between fungi and forests. Their goal is to devise strategies to safeguard these crucial yet delicate symbioses, ultimately aiding in the development of effective forest management practices.

“Climate change will likely add to the many stressors facing eastern U.S. forests. However, the positive benefits of fungal partnerships with tree roots can, in certain contexts, increase a forest’s stress tolerance,” Legge said in an��.

With this funding, she will continue her research exploring the connection between forest management, mycorrhizal symbioses and seedling success. She hopes to improve management practices and maximize the advantages mycorrhizae offer to “future-adapted” seedlings, thereby enhancing the resilience of America’s forests.

“Eva is an exceptionally driven graduate student motivated by addressing critical knowledge gaps in forest ecosystem resilience to global change,” says Fernandez. “Her research focuses on the crucial role of belowground dynamics in forest resilience, bridging fundamental ecological research with applied forest management. Her multidisciplinary approach promises to advance both basic scientific understanding and sustainable land management practices in a changing world. I am thrilled to see her outstanding work recognized with these prestigious awards.”

Learn more about the�����Ի���.

Syracuse University thought leaders, events and research news were showcased in the following news outlets this month:

• (Law & Maxwell):
• (VP of Community Engagement and Government Relations):
• (VPA):
• (Maxwell):
• (Office of Veterans and Military Affairs): I
• (Maxwell) and Grant Reeher (Maxwell):
• (Athletics),
• (Arts & Sciences):
• (Law):
• (Whitman): I I
• (School of Education): I
• (Maxwell)
• (Law):
• (Falk):
• (Newhouse):

To get in touch and learn more about Syracuse University faculty members available for interviews, please contact��media@syr.edu.

A group of faculty and graduate students are part of a growing movement in academia that is re-evaluating long-held assumptions about research design.

Critical Quantitative Theory seeks to disrupt the traditional dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research methods, with the former typically assumed to be more rigorous and suited to “hard” sciences and the latter seen as more subjective and better suited for use with critical theoretical perspectives. By disrupting this dichotomy, CritQuant—sometimes called QuantCrit—seeks to use data and statistics in a more equitable way, arguing that by doing so, it might become a useful and more racially just method of examining social justice questions.

Introduced in a 2018 Race Ethnicity and Education journal article—“”—this method calls on education researchers to explore inequity by examining data sets and statistics through critical analytical frameworks, such as critical race theory (CRT), intersectionality and feminism.

At the School of Education, an interdisciplinary team of faculty and graduate students has been meeting twice a month—since spring 2023—as the Critical Quantitative Research Forum. Among its original members are , associate professor of reading and language arts; , associate professor of higher education; , associate professor of counseling and human services; , associate professor of quantitative research methodology; , associate professor of teaching and leadership; and doctoral student ParKer Bryant, a Lender Center for Social Justice Fellow.

Change and Possibility

“There is a primacy to quantitative data because it is seen as objective, so its findings have a privileged status,” says Professor Johnson. “Some people tend to trust quantitative data and see it as more valid than qualitative research methods, such as ethnographies, interviews or case studies.”

One reason for this paradigm, explains Johnson, is that in qualitative research, the researcher is the “instrument” that gathers data, through an interview or by analyzing texts “as opposed to a quantitative instrument, such as a survey that is analyzed by software.” Thus, the quantitative researcher is assumed to be impartial and their experiences or beliefs irrelevant. That assumption has sometimes cloaked biased research and conclusions, as with the widely criticized 1994 study .

“If quantitative research is the privileged approach, then it needs to be transformed if we are going to work toward equity,” Johnson says. “We can’t put all the work of addressing critical equity questions on qualitative researchers, so how can we use statistics to tell the story of social justice, point out inequities and put forward ideas of change and possibility that illuminate and address structural inequalities? I’ve been thinking about this since I was a grad student.”

A Challenging Space

As a current doctoral student, Bryant is researching the impact of academic language on creative thought. It’s a topic traditionally suited to qualitative methods, such as interviews, surveys and ethnography, she says. However, she became interested in CritQuant “because I wanted to explore my research question thoroughly. I’m already familiar with qualitative research, but I want to understand quantitative methods such as linear and advanced statistical models. There’s no reason not to know quantitative models.”

The research forum is collegial, Bryant observes. “What I tell my friends is that faculty really want to be there, so it feels as if you are having high intellectual conversation among colleagues. It’s a challenging space.”

Bryant was invited by the faculty members to join an internal grant project that continues the forum’s work.

“How Can Educational Inequities Caused by Racial Wealth Gap Be Reduced? A Critical Quantitative Analysis of Individual, Home, and School” is using quantitative methods to examine whether individual or institutional-level factors have a greater influence on “the mediated relationships among socioeconomic status, opportunity to learn and students’ learning outcomes.”

“This study aims to contribute to advancing quantitative methods in educational research using the CritQuant framework based on critical race theory and intersectionality,” writes principal investigator Jang. “We believe that educational scholars would benefit from our work in considering CritQuant as a racially just method.”

Peeling Back Assumptions

Given her scholarly work focuses on the effects of campus climate on the sense of belonging of students of color in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, Johnson is well-situated to critique the quantitative vs. qualitative dichotomy.

The reason why qualitative research is appropriate for answering questions of social justice is that “it can tap into communities the way that other research can’t, by asking about lived experiences or centering marginalized and minoritized voices,” she says.

Conversely, quantitative research is seen as not amenable to social justice work because statistics can be used to advance and explain non-equitable conclusions, as in “The Bell Curve.” “The history and restrictions of quantitative methods are seen as having limited value in an equity agenda. Folks like myself, trained in quantitative methods, are trying to figure out ways to use statistical research methods within critical frameworks such as CRT.”

One technique to make quantitative research more equity-minded—“positionality”—dispenses with the idea that the researcher is impartial. “CritQuant forces researchers to position themselves in the research and asks them to consider their biases and subjectivity,” Johnson says. “Research questions arise from somewhere, after all.”

Johnson says her research interests often return her to when she was director of minority student affairs at Worcester (Massachusetts) Polytechnic Institute, supporting Black, Latinx and Indigenous students. “That experience created lots of questions for me, and I often think back to the challenges my students had,” Johnson says.

“My experiences as a Black woman working at primarily white institutions frames where I’m coming from in my research, and CritQuant makes me reckon with that,” Johnson says. “Qualitative researchers are expected to do this work, so why aren’t quantitative researchers expected to do the same? We encourage our doctoral students to write out their positionality in their research design, in order to peel back assumptions of unbias and objectivity.”

Structures and Systems

Another technique is embedded in the CritQuant forum’s grant project and speaks directly to why the method has the power to transform educational research.

“Quantitative research often can situate deficits on the people being studied, whereas CritQuant research can be used to examine structures,” says Johnson. “In other words, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to fix the student, but critical quantitative research has the power to examine whether outcome differences might be environmental or institutional. Maybe we don’t need to fix the student but instead look at fixing the structures and systems.”

As education graduate students ask more questions about how to integrate CritQuant into their research topics, the research forum is becoming a space where faculty can share their own experiences and challenges, such as how to use quantitative methods with subject groups that are small in number or how to incentivize participation ethically.

“I research groups that are already minoritized on campuses,” Johnson says, “so when researching campus climate, I have to be able to overcome survey fatigue and build relationships in order to ask questions about racism and sexism. There is an extra labor required on the part of the researcher.”

Johnson sums up the work of the research forum as enacting the “critical” part of Critical Quantitative Theory. “It’s exciting to engage with faculty and graduate students in an informal way to sort that out.”

Syracuse University thought leaders, events and research news were showcased in the following news outlets this week:

• , assistant professor of management at the Whitman School, was quoted in a article about 7,000 Stellantis factory workers joining the UAW strike.
  
• , media professor at the Newhouse School, spoke with about female celebrities and the questionable future success of their memoirs, and with about the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie.
• , adjunct professor from Falk College, shared his expertise with The Zoe Report for the story ““

• , a history professor at the Maxwell School, spoke with Al Jazeera for the story “.”

• , a professor in the political science department at Maxwell, was quoted in a article about the beauty of Africa.

• , Crandall Melvin Professor of Law at the College of Law, is in the IPWatchDog story “.”
• , professor of communications at the Newhouse School, was referenced in an piece about missing white woman syndrome.

• , assistant professor in the College of Arts & Sciences, was interviewed on the Academic Minute on the topic “.”
• , a sports management professor at Falk College, was quoted in the Spectrum News article “.”
• and , both professors at Falk College, were guest columnists in a article about gender affirming care saving the lives of transgender people.

• associate professor at the Maxwell School, was quoted Foreign Policy article��“” and The New York Times article “.”

• , Professor Emeritus at the Maxwell School, was featured in The Economist article “.”
• , the vice president of research, was interviewed for the Spectrum News story “.”

Syracuse University thought leaders, events and research news were showcased in the following news outlets this week:

• , associate professor in Maxwell, was interviewed by ABC News Chicago for the story “”
• , associate professor in the School of Architecture, was featured in the NHK World Japan story “.”��
• , professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute in the Maxwell School, was interviewed for the CNY Central story “” and the Washington Examiner story “.”
• Bill Werde, director of the Bandier Program in the Newhouse School, was quoted in the Marketwatch story “.”
• Dwayne Murray, deputy director of the Office for Veteran and Military Affairs, was interviewed for the WSYR Radio story “.”
• , associate professor of public health in Falk College, was quoted in The City story, “.”
• , a professor in the Department of African American Studies in the Maxwell School, was quoted in the Newsweek story “”
• , director of digital engagement and communications for Alumni Engagement & Giving, spoke with Dave Allen on WSYR Radio about the .
• , associate professor for the Maxwell School, was quoted in the Boston Globe story “
• was interviewed for the Washington Examiner story “.”
• , associate professor in the Newhouse School, was interviewed for the Morning Brew story “”
• , University Professor in the Maxwell School, was interviewed for The Washington Post story “.”
• , professor in the College of Law, was quoted in the BBC piece “.”��
• , professor of French and Francophone Studies in College of Arts and Sciences, was interviewed by WPLG Local 10 News (Miami, FL) for the story “.”
• , Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, was interviewed by in its��coverage of the D.E.I.A. Symposium.
• , Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in the College of Law, was interviewed on the MSNBC Show “Reid Out” about the Trump Corporation .��
• , director of the Bandier Program in the Newhouse School, was interviewed by The Wall St. Journal for the story “.”
• , professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the Maxwell School, was interviewed by The World for the story “.”
• Gregory Germain, a professor in the College of Law, was interviewed for the MoneyGeek article

To get in touch and learn more about Syracuse University faculty members available for interviews, please contact��media@syr.edu.

Each semester, upper-level architecture students participate in the visiting critic program that brings leading architects and scholars from around the world to the school. Four studios will be held on campus this fall.

Li Han and Hu Yan (Drawing Architecture Studio)

and , co-founders of Beijing-based , will teach the visiting critic studio, “Building Stories: The Poetry in Everyday Space,” where students will showcase how architecture and space transcend their utilitarian functions to become integral components of storytelling.

Inspired by the backdrop of the multi-family house featured in the graphic novel “Building Stories,” the studio is conceived as an experimental exploration of a design approach based on narrative and sensitivity. Beginning with the interior design of a multi-family house and gradually expanding to encompass various scales and design domains, ranging from everyday items and furniture to architecture and urban landscapes, students will embody different roles and derive inspiration from everyday spaces in Syracuse, defining poetic moments through design and telling their own building stories. The entire design process—emphasizing intricate observation, detailed representation, multi-threaded storytelling and collage—is viewed as a comprehensive study of multi-family housing, spanning from the functional layout of living spaces to the lifestyles of residents, and from the cultural aesthetics of architecture to the historical memories of the city.

Han and Yan will give a , focusing on their upcoming exhibition, “,” on Sept. 21 at 6 p.m. in the Hosmer Auditorium at the Everson Museum of Art.

Da-Un Yoo (Ewha Womans University)

, professor in the Department of Architecture at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea, will teach the visiting critic studio, “Extreme Living: 22nd Century Seoul Housing,” which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the publication “Towards a New Architecture” by Le Corbusier by exploring the ‘new architecture’ for the 22nd century.

Just as Le Corbusier explored the various housing typologies and lifestyles that new technologies would change in the era of automobiles, airplanes, ships and mass production about 100 years ago, students will imagine the future of urban housing based on the latest technologies such as autonomous vehicles, drone taxis and online telecommunication. Using Seoul as the site for their investigations, students will research scenarios for extreme living and design a high-density urban housing proposal for 22nd-century Seoul. In addition to typical studio sessions, students will travel to Seoul in the fall, as part of a one-week sponsored trip, to gain a greater understanding of the city’s extreme housing culture—the high-rise apartment buildings and neighborhoods resembling ‘towers in the park’—reminiscent of the city Le Corbusier predicted 100 years ago.

Yoo will give a on Sept. 28 at 5:30 p.m. in the atrium of Slocum Hall.

Bing Bu (Syracuse Architecture and INCLS)

, director of the Syracuse Architecture Three Cities Asia program, will teach the visiting critic studio, “Project Promised Land,” where students will examine “managed retreat” as a necessary measure in response to climate change induced natural hazards in the contexts of social, technological, economic, ecological and political aspects.

Climate change now feels more real than ever as we have witnessed New York City covered by wildfire smog or California deserts flooded by a hurricane in the past summer. Whether or not we have lost the tipping point in the war against global warming, it’s time to take actions to adapt to these new climate patterns. Structured in two phases, the research phase and the design phase, the studio will focus on a relatively new approach to increased coastal hazard risks—managed retreat, the purposeful and coordinated action to move infrastructure and people away from areas of high-risk of negative impacts due to climate change. In phase one, students will research climate change and managed retreat for Lake Ontario communities in upstate New York and represent their findings through visual mediums. In phase two, working in site-specific project teams, students will identify issues and challenges from a local view and establish their managed retreat frameworks, design proposals and means of implementation for the built environment in both sending and receiving sites.

This studio is a part of the “ launched earlier this year by the New York Department of State (DOS) to engage graduate and undergraduate students in DOS programs and projects that focus on climate change and climate justice. During the semester, students will access a wide range of data and information provided by the DOS and meet twice a month with DOS officials and regional staff, as well as in-house experts and trusted partners. The final works produced by students will be shared with policymakers, program managers and decisionmakers from the Office of Planning, Development and Community Infrastructure as a visual tool, and incorporated into statewide policy and program guidance to be utilized by both DOS and other state agencies working on coastal and climate resilience.

Stephanie Davidson and Georg Rafailidis (DAVIDSON RAFAILIDIS)

and , co-founders of the architecture practice , will teach the visiting critic studio, “House for Everyone,” where students will look at an adaptive reuse project that exemplifies how architecture is both a private matter and a public good.

In this studio, students will examine a property located at the southern edge of the Adirondacks. Owned by a family with ties to Syracuse University, they have expressed an interest in opening up the use of the property, which has historically been a private summer home, and finding new ways that it can serve their private needs and serve a wider community. Students will analyze the existing buildings on the property: their materiality and construction, their apparent tectonic logics, the types of spaces they offer and their relationship to the landscape of the Adirondacks and the climate of upstate New York. They will study existing spatial typologies that have—either through design or happenstance—proven to be spaces for everyone: radically inclusive, and not bound to a specific program or user group, as well as a typology specific to the Adirondacks: “Great Camps.” Following these investigations, fragments of these studies will crosspollinate with documentation and exploration of the site—detailed measurements, exhaustive photos and an inventory of materials—taken from a sponsored site visit during peak fall foliage season. Through the complex process of adaptive-reuse, students will create outcomes that are typologically unclassifiable and alive, informed by the past and imaginings of the future, hopeful and provocative, populist and joyful.

Syracuse University thought leaders, events and research news were showcased in the following news outlets this week:

• , director of the Goldring Arts Journalism and Communications program at Newhouse, was quoted in the Associated Press story “.”
• , associate professor of law, was interviewed for The New York Times story ““
• , a professor in the history department at Maxwell, was featured in the Al Jazeera article “‘.”
• , chief operating officer at the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families, was for the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
• , professor of environmental systems in the College of Engineering, spoke with Salon for the story ““
• , an assistant professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, was in the EcoWatch article “.”
• , professor at the College of Law and director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute, was interviewed for the Bloomberg Law story “.”
• , professor of practice & chair, music industry & technologies at the Setnor School of Music, was quoted in the Lifewire story “.”
• , vice president of community engagement and government relations, was on discussing Syracuse’s partnership with the Salvation Army.
• , teaching professor at the College of Law, was in the Fortune story “”
  
• , Esther M. Larsen faculty fellow in the humanities and assistant professor, was quoted in and
• , head of digital stewardship and the digital library program at the Libraries, was featured in Yahoo Finance’s story “.”
• , associate teaching professor in Falk College, was quoted in the Better Homes and Gardens story “”
• Carrie Mae Weems, Syracuse University artist in residence, was featured in the New York Times for the article “.”
• , professor of political science in the Maxwell School was interviewed by Inside Higher Ed for the article
• , Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, was quoted in the in Senior Executive story “ ”
• , associate professor in the iSchool, was interviewed by Agence France-Presse for the story “.”
• , founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at Newhouse, was quoted in , , , , , , (Dallas), and (Los Angeles).

To get in touch and learn more about Syracuse University faculty members available for interviews, please contact��media@syr.edu.

Syracuse University thought leaders, events and research news were showcased in the following news outlets this week:

• , assistant professor of television, radio, and film in the Newhouse School, was quoted in the LA Times article “.”��
• , professor of law and director of the Bankruptcy Clinic in the College of Law, was interviewed for the Moneygeek.com piece “.” He was also featured in a about junk fees.��
• , the David B. Falk Endowed Professor in the Falk School, was published in the Sports Business Journal article “” and the Yahoo Sports story “”
• , professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, had research featured in the Genome Web article “.”��
• , professor of practice and supply chain management and director of executive education in the Whitman School, was interviewed for a and a .��
• , professor of advanced media in residence in the Newhouse School, was quoted in the Spectrum News story “.”
• , associate professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, was quoted in the Lifewire story “.”
• , Vice President of Community Engagement and Government Relations, and , associate professor and director of the Aphasia Research Lab, were spotlighted in this month’s .
• , associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in the Activist Post article “.”
• , professor of practice and director of the Newhouse Sports Media Center in the Newhouse School, was quoted in stories that ran in the and��.
• , assistant professor of geography in the Maxwell School, was quoted in the Bloomberg story “.”��
• , Retired Vice Admiral and deputy director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, was quoted in the POLITICO piece “.”
• , professor of marketing practice in the Whitman School, was interviewed for the WalletHub story ““
• , associate professor and chair of the Human Development and Family Science Department in Falk College, was quoted in the Parents Magazine piece “.”
• , professor of magazine, news and digital journalism and associate dean of graduate programs in the Newhouse School, was interviewed for the CBC story “.”��

To get in touch and learn more about Syracuse University faculty members available for interviews, please contact��media@syr.edu.