Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society

Public Housing Violence Research Earns Top Honor for Maxwell Doctoral Student

Wednesday, October 27, 2021, By News Staff
Share
geographyGuggenheim Foundation Emerging ScholarMaxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

Madeleine “Maddy” Hamlin ’17 M.A./M.P.A. says a books-for-inmates program she was involved in as a high school student in Urbana, Illinois, was the early spark that ultimately led to research focusing on urban issues ranging from public housing to mass incarceration.

That early passion has led to a prestigious national award. Hamlin, who is now pursuing a Ph.D. in geography at the Maxwell School, is among just eight doctoral candidates nationwide to be named a 2021 Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Emerging Scholar. The $25,000 award supports and recognizes promising graduate-student researchers in their final year of writing a doctoral dissertation.

Maddy Hamlin

Maddy Hamlin

Hamlin’s dissertation focuses on issues of public housing violence in Chicago and challenges long-held views that widespread violence in “the projects” must be blamed on the people who live there or on poorly designed living environments. “In contrast,” she writes in her project overview, “my work shows that police violence often precipitated community violence and lawlessness in public housing projects, rather than followed it.”

Hamlin says her research suggests public housing’s decline in Chicago and elsewhere “instead reflects some of the many failures of modern policing.”

Guggenheim scholars are working to advance knowledge of the causes, manifestations and control of violence around the world, the foundation says. Priority was given to those whose research addresses “urgent, contemporary problems of violence—how it originates, what sustains it and what reduces it.”

“Maddy is one of strongest students I’ve ever worked with,” says Jamie Winders, professor of geography and the environment and one of her dissertation advisors. “Her research and teaching on policing, housing, law and race prioritize topics that have profoundly shaped the development of political struggles in U.S. cities. Her work is incredibly important not just to academia, but also to the communities with which she works.”

Hamlin received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 2011, with a double major in English and peace and conflict studies. She worked for three years in the publishing industry before returning to school to pursue dual master’s degrees in geography and public administration at Maxwell.

Hamlin lauds Maxwell faculty, including Winders as well as her advisor, Don Mitchell, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment. She says several others supported her as she developed her dissertation, including Jonnell Robinson, associate professor of geography and the environment, and Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology.

“The mentoring I’ve received has been incredible,” she says.

Tom Perreault, professor and chair of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School, calls Hamlin a “remarkable and a fantastic student” and admires her research, “a real mix of academic work, but that is very directly policy-oriented.”

He says Hamlin has the ability to work in the academic and policy-making worlds, and envisions she may do both. “Her work is the best of what the Maxwell School represents,” Perreault says.

Hamlin says she’d love to ultimately teach full time and does believe in research that has an impact beyond academia.

“I hope my dissertation will be useful to scholars and the wider public,” she says. “I’ve really found an intellectual home in geography. It is a small field in the U.S., yet one I think is important and well-positioned to tackle some of the major issues we’re facing, from climate change to mass incarceration.”

This story was written by Steve Buchiere.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Syracuse Views Spring 2022
    Sunday, May 15, 2022, By News Staff
  • Black Hole Image Shows Einstein Was Right, Once Again
    Thursday, May 12, 2022, By Daryl Lovell
  • Section of South Crouse Avenue to Close Temporarily for Utility Project
    Thursday, May 12, 2022, By News Staff
  • Investing in the Bedrock of Discovery: New Endowed Professorship in Quantum Science
    Wednesday, May 11, 2022, By News Staff
  • Meditation and Mindfulness Platform Coming to Barnes Center at The Arch
    Wednesday, May 11, 2022, By John Boccacino

More In Health & Society

Falk Graduate Student Rebecca Garofano Honored by Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Rebecca Garofano, a Falk College graduate student in nutrition science, was honored with the Outstanding Dietetics Student Award at the New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Annual Meeting and Expo April 8-9 in Syracuse. Garofano is actively engaged…

Phillandra Smith Finds and Fosters Community at Syracuse University

Phillandra Smith hadn’t considered a Ph.D. until a professor at Barry University asked what she would do after finishing a master’s degree. Smith, who is from the Bahamas, had planned to return to the classroom. “This professor was honestly really…

Couple, Family Counseling Services Available at the Falk College

Sometimes we need extra support to manage the more difficult challenges in life, including challenges in our family relationships. A trained couple and family therapist can make an enormous difference in keeping these important connections healthy and strong for life….

Design Professor Co-Authors Book on Design Thinking for a Regenerative Future

A new book about the importance of design thinking for a regenerative future grew from a conversation at Syracuse University between two like-minded visionaries. In September 2018, world-renowned futurist and thinker David Houle ’69, a graduate of the College of…

From Orange to Black and Gold: Athletic Advising Certificate Helps Ella Simkins ’20, G’21 Land at Army Lax

Ella Simkins ’20, G’21 had big plans for the 2020 women’s lacrosse season. A standout defender, in her junior year she had started all 21 games, recorded career highs in caused turnovers and draw controls, and ranked third on the…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2022 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.