News and Highlights

Spotlight Reseach

CAAPS and ABC News Release New "Black Politics Survey"

A new survey released by ISERP's Center for African-American Politics and Society (CAAPS), USA Today and ABC News in September 2008, reveals a sense of optimism and national pride among African Americans in the run up to the November 2008 presidential election. The Black Politics Survey shows that blacks express the greatest enthusiasm for the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. But despite a sense of pride and higher rates of political interest and engagement in the campaign, black Americans are deeply divided over what are the best strategies for individual and group advancement.

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Spotlight ISERP Events

Separating Reality from Rhetoric: ISERP's Election Panel Series Continues

ISERP is proud to continue its series of discussions of issues relevant to the 2008 presidential campaign. The Institute is hosting four panels in September and October with academics, journalists and experts discussing subjects of interest to candidates and voters in November.

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Spotlight ISERP Fellows in the News

Sudhir Venkatesh discusses HUD in the New York Times

To Fight Poverty, Tear Down HUD
By Sudhir Venkatesh
July 25, 2008
With the nation embroiled in a housing crisis, one would expect the Department of Housing and Urban Development to be playing a central role. But HUD is a marginal player. Although its Federal Housing Administration division has agreed to underwrite new mortgages, it is merely following the leadership of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.

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Spotlight Spring 2008 Newsletter

Robert Shapiro Appointed Next Director of ISERP

Renowned political scientist and public opinion expert Robert Shapiro has agreed to serve as Acting Director of ISERP. Since joining Columbia faculty in 1982, Shapiro has been a leading figure in the charge to reinvigorate the social sciences at the University. From his position as Chair of the Political Science department, as a leader and founder of multiple interdisciplinary initiatives, and through service on numerous University committees, he has facilitated key improvements to research, teaching, and overall quality of life for faculty and students at Columbia. Few people could match the record of leadership, deep institutional knowledge, and intellectual contributions that Shapiro will bring to ISERP when he assumes the post of Acting Director in summer 2008.

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Spotlight ISERP Fellows in the News

Frederick Harris discusses Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Fredrick Harris, Director of the Center on African American Politics and Society, speaks to NPR about the announcement of Barack Obama's former preacher, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as the Detroit NAACP's keynote speaker for their 53rd annual fundraiser. Harris speaks with Renee Montagne about the generational shift among black political leaders, and the significance and controversy surrounding Rev. Wright. Listen here

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Spotlight Program

Book jacket of "The Three Trillion Dollar War"

Joseph Stiglitz on the "Three Trillion Dollar War"

The cost of war in Iraq reaches far beyond the tab for bullets and bombs, says economist Joseph Stiglitz, co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of the new book The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.

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Current Research

Income Inequality and Partisan Polarization

by David Epstein, James Fowler, and Sharyn O'Halloran

Recent studies have started to outline a new consensus on politics and inequality in the United States. These studies analyze outcomes at a high level, relating partisan control of government to economic outcomes. Epstein, Fowler, and O'Halloran, with support from the Russell Sage Foundation, will extend this work into the legislature, at the level of individual votes, coalition formation, and the passage of legislation.

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Featured Working Paper

On Social Networks and Social Protest

by Dana Fisher

How do large-scale protest events differ across nation-states? Do social networks play different roles in different places and, if so, how do they matter? This paper compares the roles that social networks play in mobilizing participants in large-scale domestic protest.

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