Four faculty members and a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science — Tatishe Nteta, Douglas Rice, Jesse Rhodes, Justin Gross and Adam Eichen write that efforts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in more than two dozen states are rooted in racism. Citing their research conducted through the UMass Poll, they say, “The troubling connection between racism and opposition to DEI programs highlights that there is still work to be done until the nation’s citizens are truly judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.” (The Conversation, 4/8/24; syndicated to Beaumont Enterprise [Texas], (Oregon Public Broadcasting, 4/15/24)

Rebecca Hamlin, Professor and Director of Legal Studies, has been awarded a grant from the UMass Amherst-University College Dublin 2024 Seed Funding for Strategic Research Initiatives program. The grant will be used to launch the Research Partnership on the Law and Politics of the Global Refugee Regime. Convened by Co-PIs, Professors Rebecca Hamlin (UMass) and Cathryn Costello (UCD), the partnership aims to engage in and enable interdisciplinary research on the role of international refugee law in the global refugee regime. In particular, the partnership aims to develop and foster deeper global comparative research on refugee recognition practices, and the role of refugees in shaping the global refugee regime.

Paul Collins, Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, discusses what the court’s decision to delay Trump’s federal trials further means for the 2024 presidential election. “Whether you like Donald Trump or not, people want to know whether he is guilty of the crimes in which he’s being charged before they vote for him… So essentially what the court did was slow walk this case. I mean it’s almost impossible to slow-walk it more than they have.” (WORT, 3/7/24)

Jesse Rhodes, Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of UMass Poll, comments in an article on the security required to protect shelters housing migrants in Massachusetts. Jesse says“In the context where immigrants have been consistently represented as a fundamental threat to the U.S., there are a huge amount of conspiracies theorizing around migrant centers and where people are being kept and are living." (Boston Globe, 03/13/24)