Weidenbaum Center Newsletter July 2026

About our Center

The Weidenbaum Center is a research institute at Washington University in St. Louis that supports social scientific research in the fields of public policy, economics, political science, and sociology. Led by Weidenbaum Center Director Andrew Reeves (pictured), the Center funds faculty research, provides administrative support for research activities, and sponsors a wide range of public affairs programs. In doing so, the Center serves as a bridge between scholars, policymakers, and the general public.

Through unbiased empirical research and events, the Center addresses many of the pressing public policy issues facing America and the world today.

The Weidenbaum Center provides significant research support for faculty in the departments of Economics, Political Science, and Sociology. This support allows a wide array of faculty members to participate in a variety of impactful research, and is of particular importance to our younger faculty who are just starting their research careers. Research efforts contribute to work that addresses key social issues locally, nationally, and globally, and enhances the prominence of Washington University in the academic and policy world. Donations fund our grant programs which support this research. We could not support nearly as much research without this generosity.

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Our 2026 academic year by the numbers

In the 2026 academic year, the Weidenbaum Center hosted or co-sponsored 31 events with a total attendance of over 2500 people. Co-sponsors included WashU’s Law School, Business School, Brown School, Olin Business School, School of Public Health, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, & Equity, Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement, the Civil Society Initiative, and the Departments of Economics, Political Science, and Sociology.

The Center strengthened faculty research this year by awarding 34 competitive Small Grants to WashU tenure-track faculty. These grants fuel innovative research in the social sciences and public policy, spark interdisciplinary collaboration, accelerate high-impact publications, and help faculty secure large-scale external funding. The 2026 recipients span the Center's core departments—Economics, Political Science, and Sociology—as well as the Olin Business School.

Announcing our 2026-27 Weidenbaum Center Graduate Fellows

Please join us in welcoming our 2026-27 Weidenbaum Center Graduate Fellows: Tian Chen (Political Science), Eva Chi (Economics), and Armin Sauermann (Sociology). Fellows are selected by a jury of faculty members appointed by the Weidenbaum center, based on the relevance and promise of their research to the Center's mission of bridging scholarly work and public policy. Each fellow receives a $5,000 research account and additional funding to support their graduate training and dissertation research. In addition to funding, fellows are integrated into the Center's vibrant intellectual community and gain access to unique professional development opportunities that include small-group discussions with leading scholars, policymakers, and public officials.

Pictured, right, is new fellow Eva Chi, a third-year Ph.D. student in Economics. "We're proud to support graduate students who are conducting rigorous, policy-relevant research," said Weidenbaum Center Director Andrew Reeves. For more information on all of our fellows, click on title above.

Weidenbaum Center Faculty Research Fellows

Faculty Research Fellows are Appointed for a 3-year term.

Visit Our Faculty Research Fellows Page

Gaetano Antinolfi

Professor of Economics Research interests: macroeconomics, monetary economics, and international economics

Peter Boumgarden, Olin Business School

Koch Professor of Practice for Family Enterprise Research interests: direct investment, creating and redesigning inertia in organizations toward more optimal ends, informing leader thinking, and the prominence of commerce, technology, and entertainment for shaping society

Ana Babus

Associate Professor of Economics Research interests: micreconomic theory, finance, trade in over-the-counter markets and financial intermediation

Taylor Carlson

Associate Professor of Political Science and Weidenbaum Center Director of Survey Research Research interests: political behavior, political communication, political psychology, American politics, and experiments

Dino Christenson

Professor of Political Science Research interests: electoral behavior, public opinion, political psychology, political communication, interest groups, survey research design, quantitative methods, and data science

Yung Chun, Brown School

Research Assistant Professor Research interests: housing policy, social mobility, happiness, econometrics, and spatial statistics

Travis Crum

Professor of Law, WashU Law School Research interests: voting rights, election law, constitutional law, reconstruction, and U.S. Supreme Court

Ted Enamorado

Associate Professor of Political Science Research interests: political economy, political methodology, and criminal justice

Cynthia Feliciano

Professor of Sociology Research interests: race and ethnicity, immigration, and education

Matthew Gabel

Professor of Political Science Research interests: comparative politics legislative, judicial mass behavior, european politics, and health policy

Martín García-Vázquez

Assistant Professor of Economics Research interests: labor Economics, macroeconomics, and econometrics.

Limor Golan

Laurence H. Meyer Professor and Professor of Economics Research interests: labor economics and applied microeconomics

Andrew Jordan

Assistant Professor of Economics Research interests: criminal justice, discrimination, labor

Andrea Katz

Professor of Law Research interests: constitutional law, presidential power, comparative law, legal philosophy and history, and administrative law

Krister Knapp

Teaching Professor in History Research interests: U.S. national security, foreign policy, intelligence terrorism, and counterterrorism

Samuel Kye

Assistant Professor of Sociology Research interests: race & ethnicity, community and urban sociology, demography and Asian Americans

Timothy McBride, School of Public Health

Bernard Becker Professor Research interests: health policy and health economics, health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid policy, rural health care, health reform, and Social Security and pensions

Margot Moinester

Assistant Professor of Sociology Research interests: immigration, inequality, health, and policing and social control

Julie Holland Mortimer

James Langenfeld Professor of Industrial Organization and Professor of Economics Research interests: empirical industrial organization

Ismael Mourifié

Professor of Economics Research interests: micro-econometrics (identification issues: theory and applications), causal inference and policy evaluation, and empirical matching models.

Shiran Victoria Shen

Assistant Professor of Political Science Research interests: how institutions and incentives shape climate and environmental action

Michael Strawbridge

Assistant Professor of Political Science Research interests: American politics, quantitative methodology, and racial and ethnic politics.

Kiara Wyndham

Assistant Professor of Sociology Research interests: racial inequality, suburban inequality, community studies, and mixed methods.

"Working for the Weidenbaum Center has been one of the highlights of my time at WashU. I’ve been fortunate to work alongside incredibly talented and driven faculty, staff, and graduate students, and it’s been especially rewarding to help bring conversations about today’s most pressing challenges to the broader WashU community. Huge thanks to Alana Bame, Elizabeth Larson, Professor Reeves, and the entire Center for such a meaningful and inspiring experience. I am spending this summer in New York with Prosek Partners, a public relations firm, working in their special situations apprenticeship program."

Yasmeen Ibrahim

Former Weidenbaum Center Undergraduate Affiliate and recent recipient of a WashU Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies, with a concentration in International Affairs

"My time at the Weidenbaum Center has been one of the most rewarding parts of my WashU experience. Working alongside Alana Bame and the Center’s exceptional team has deepened my understanding of how public policy shapes the lives of individuals and communities. I am especially grateful for the welcoming environment and the opportunity to be part of conversations that have challenged my thinking and broadened my perspective. I’m thrilled to continue my work with the Weidenbaum Center this coming year while completing the Brown School’s Master of Social Work program. After graduation, I plan to pursue clinical licensure as a social worker."

Leilani Moise

Current Weidenbaum Center Undergraduate Student Affiliate and recent recipient of a WashU Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Brain Sciences

Join Us for the Launch of the Frick Initiatives!

Mark your calendars for August 24 as we celebrate the official launch of the Frick Initiatives at the Weidenbaum Center. Made possible through the extraordinary generosity of Bob and Barbara Frick, the Frick Initiatives will support innovative research, teaching, and programming that advance free speech, free and open markets, civil discourse, and personal responsibility. We hope you'll join us as we launch this important initiative and recognize the impact it will have on the WashU community and beyond.

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