Law, Politics and Society

The Institute for Policy & Social Research at the University of Kansas will host a public reception to showcase the research efforts of the 2024-2025 IPSR Doctoral Research Fellows. The event will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on April 4.

Tribal leaders and scholars will collaborate on campus at the LandBack Leadership Summit to discuss leadership skills and strategies related to land reclamation and land stewardship initiatives.

In a new study, Brian Donovan, professor of sociology at the University of Kansas, focuses on a thriving subset of Taylor Swift fans called “Gaylors,” who embrace subversive readings of Swift’s songs and seek to compile evidence she is secretly queer. His study explores how those interpretations cultivate joy, shape personal identity and build community.

Despite belief or skepticism on the topic, Kansas and Missouri farmers avoid talking about climate change with neighbors, community members and even family for a variety of reasons, including avoiding arguments or violence or fear of damage to their livelihood, research from the University of Kansas has found.

A study of feminist protesters who took part in the 2019 Algerian “Hirak“ protests found they experienced dismissal and violence from people on social media, even when they shared goals of reforming their government. The findings indicate the power of social media to unite people around a common cause can be limited when all are not viewed as equals.

In his new autobiography, David Roediger, the Foundation Professor of American Studies at the University of Kansas, chronicles his intellectual and political transformation from growing up in a Midwest “sundown town” to becoming a leading figure in working-class history and whiteness studies.

In a new book chapter, David Norman Smith, professor of sociology at the University of Kansas, examines Donald Trump’s intention to be a dictator “on day one” of his second term in office. He scrutinizes Trump’s assertion that many individuals “like” such talk of a dictatorship and finds that this is fueled more by the culture wars than the economy.

Given changes in democracy around the world, the field of public administration education should reevaluate its accreditation standards to examine what democratic accountability standards are to better educate the next generation of public servants, a KU professor argues in a new article.

In a new study, Jack Zhang, assistant professor of political science at the University of Kansas, presented business managers with information about the input costs of new tariffs to their bottom line and invited them to take political action to express support or opposition to these tariffs. The findings suggest this information did not significantly increase managers’ propensity to take any political or social action.

International policy organizations that aim to address social problems such as domestic violence tend to provide guidance, especially to developing nations, but more could be done to consider what they could learn from those on the ground.