Three Maxwell faculty members receive awards

Three Maxwell faculty members receive awardsApril 30, 2009Jill Leonhardtjlleonha@maxwell.syr.edu

The Maxwell School of Syracuse University has announced three faculty awards, including the newly established Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History.History professor Dennis Romano will become the inaugural Montgomery-Gruber professor. The Michael O. Sawyer Chair in Constitutional Law and Politics will be filled by political science associate professor Thomas M. Keck. And the annual Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Teaching and Research goes to Leonard M. Lopoo, assistant professor of public administration.

Romano joined the Maxwell faculty in 1987. He is author of four books on the history of Venice, including “The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscare, 1373-1457” (Yale University Press, 2007), and he has written extensively on various aspects of Italian Renaissance society and culture. Romano is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, an Ailsa Melton Bruce fellowship at the National Gallery of Art, an NEH fellowship at the National Humanities Center and a Fulbright fellowship in Italy. He is currently working on a study of markets and marketplaces in medieval Italian cities and on a comprehensive history of Venice, and will use the professorship to further his research and also to bring distinguished speakers to campus.

Montgomery ’67 and his wife, Marian Gruber, established the professorship out of “deep appreciation for the importance to our education system of teaching, research and scholarship. No one better exemplifies a commitment to such work than Professor Romano,” Montgomery says.

Keck will become the third occupant of the Sawyer Chair, which was created and endowed in 1995 by students and friends of Michael Sawyer, professor of political science and longtime member of the Maxwell faculty, to carry on the student-centered tradition of teaching that Sawyer practiced for more than 40 years. Keck’s research and writing focus on the Supreme Court, American constitutional development and the use of legal strategies by movements for social change. His first book, “The Most Activist Supreme Court in History: The Road to Modern Judicial Conservatism” (University of Chicago Press), was published to wide acclaim in 2004. He is currently at work on a second book that looks at the impact and independence of American courts in the context of the contemporary culture wars. In recognition of his contributions and leadership in creating a campus community that is inclusive and nurturing for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, faculty and staff, Keck received the 2007-08 Foundation Award for Outstanding Faculty Member from the campus LGBT community.

Lopoo becomes the 27th outstanding untenured Maxwell School faculty member to win the Moynihan award since its establishment in 1985 by former U.S. senator and Maxwell faculty member Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Lopoo’s research falls in the intersection of demography, economics and public policy analysis. His investigations focus primarily on low-income families, particularly the choices made by adolescents, and the public policies designed to influence this population. Lopoo has been published extensively, and he is co-editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. He is the 2005 recipient of the Birkhead-Burkhead Teaching Award and Professorship given annually to recognize outstanding teaching in the Department of Public Administration; he also was honored with SU’s Meredith Professors Teaching Recognition Award in 2006.