August 12, 2022
Dear Friend of the Weidenbaum Center,
It is my pleasure to write you for the first time as the director of the Center. Under the direction of Steven Smith and Steve Fazzari—and before that Murray Weidenbaum—the Center is on firm ground. I am thankful for their leadership and will work to continue their legacy.
The Weidenbaum Center is an important institution at Wash U. It serves as a bridge between scholars, policymakers, and the public. To fulfill this mission, the Center funds and promotes path-breaking research that applies cutting-edge tools and theories to the world's most pressing issues. We help to define the conversations around public policy issues for the campus, the region, the nation, and the world.
I am looking forward to again hosting in-person events, which will bring us closer to the pre-pandemic Center we know and love. The Center will continue hosting public policy lunches and other fora. Online participation will be open to all. I'm especially thrilled to welcome our Eliot Society members back in person for these events.
We are putting the finishing touches on our programming for the year and look forward to bringing you an array of topics, including the midterm elections, the European Union, and how local governments incentivize businesses to invest in their communities. We’ll host our first policy lunch on September 8th. Our first forum on October 20 will feature Deputy Ambassador Michael Curtis of the European Union.
I'm also excited about the new faces enriching the academic life of the Center. I am very happy that Professor Ariela Schachter (Sociology) is our new Associate Director. We will work together to enrich and expand the Center's academic community. Additionally, we’ll welcome new resident fellows and non-resident fellows to the Center.
We will also welcome three postdoctoral fellows who will call the Weidenbaum Center home for this academic year. The Center funds these positions to bring newly minted PhDs to Washington University to work with faculty on cutting-edge social science research. These scholars will join me and our fantastic staff in bringing their considerable talents to the life of the Center.
The Center will also continue its transformative small grant program. The Center's grants have produced hundreds of pieces of scholarly research over the years. In about a month, my second book will be published. In No Blank Check, my coauthor and I examine public opinion on presidential power and how citizens hold that power accountable. This research—like so much research in political science, economics, and sociology—would not have been possible without the support of the Weidenbaum Center.
We will have more news to share with you soon. Over the next year, we’ll announce initiatives to expand alum outreach, engage our excellent undergraduates, bolster faculty grants, and create a research infrastructure to study the St. Louis region.
One of the things that make the Weidenbaum Center such an important institution is its dedicated group of supporters. The Weidenbaum Center is responsible for its own financial support and relies heavily upon the generous gifts of its supporters. If you are new to our programs, please consider supporting the Center. For more information on supporting the Center, please contact Mary Maher, Associate Director of Advancement & Annual Giving, Arts & Sciences, at mary.maher@wustl.edu. If you prefer, you can make a gift to the Center at this link.
I’m looking forward to an exciting academic year, and I hope you are too. I am thrilled to continue the legacy of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, and I look forward to working with you on the next phase of the journey.
Sincerely,
Andrew Reeves
Director of the Weidenbaum Center
Professor of Political Science