Winter Quarter 2026 Recap

In these newsletters, we showcase publications, research, grants, projects, and other updates relevant to this community of policy-engaged scholars and teachers. Read on to see what your colleagues were up to in winter quarter!

Naaz Barma, Professor; Director of the Scrivner Institute

• Awarded with DU's Translational Impact Award as a founder and Principal of Bridging the Gap, a grant-funded initiative devoted to enhancing the policy impact of contemporary international affairs scholarship. The award recognizes faculty whose scholarly work bridges the gap between discovery and application as part of DU's inaugural Research, Scholarship, and Creative Works Awards. 

Stefan Chavez-Norgaard, Teaching Assistant Professor of Public Policy 

• Awarded a $50k grant from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy with Co-PIs Susan Daggett, Eric Holt, and Luke Teater, for the project titled: “Bridging the Code Gap: Evaluating the Impact of Commercial vs. Residential Building Codes on Missing-Middle Housing in Colorado.” The DU team is part of a national grantee cohort for the Lincoln Institute project titled “Building for the Future: Research on Modernizing Building Codes to Advance Housing Affordability and Climate Resilience."
  
  
• Participated in two academic conferences in Winter 2026: 
  • Presentation for The Consortium for Scenario Planning Annual Conference (Salt Lake City, UT): “Teaching Exploratory Scenario Planning: Emergent Insights from the Classroom.”
  • Presentation for The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute Annual Conference (Denver, CO): “Designing for Complete Neighborhoods: Municipal Roles in Community Benefit Agreements.” 
    
    
• With support from the Korbel Research Fund (KRF), Dr. Chavez-Norgaard is actively working with a ten-person group of undergraduate PPOL and graduate MPP Research Assistants (RAs) on a project examining the relationship between various public policies and housing production in Denver, leveraging a novel housing policy simulator developed in partnership with the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation and TernerLabs. 

Ajenai Clemmons, Assistant Professor of Public Policy

• "It Goes Both Ways": How Mixed Police Encounters Influence Young Black Men's Decisions to Engage, Race & Justice: An International Journal
  
  

• Presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management on a paper currently under review, "Go Away or Come Closer? Parsing the Comparative Policing Preferences of Cynical Men"

Rebecca Galemba, Professor of International Studies

• Gave an invited keynote talk at Wayne State University's Transformations Conference on March 7th: "Beyond Borders: Adaptation and Reclamation in a Polarized World" 
  
  
• Received a Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation grant for research project: "Removed: Documenting Injustice in Non-Detained and Detained Immigration Courts in Colorado and Ohio"
  
  
• Will give the DU Scholar-Teacher Lecture with Professor Lisa Martinez (Sociology) on May 5th
  
  

Rafael Ioris, Professor of Latin American History and Politics

• Trump 2.0: Definitive Crisis or Opportunity to Rebuild Democracy, Washington Brazil Office
  
  
• Quoted in Analysts Warn Venezuela Invasion Could Empower Trump to Take Actions Elsewhere, truthout
  
  
• Interviewed for América Latina em risco: Trump inaugura modelo de intervenção, dizem especialistas, Bloomberg Línea
  
  
• Interviewed for Por que Trump aceitou a permanência da vice de Maduro?, CartaCapital
  
  
• Interviewed for How the US raid in Venezuela has triggered Brazilian fury and a Chinese opening, South China Morning Post
  
  
• Interviewed for The new age of aggression, International Bar Association
  
  
• Interviewed for Turbulent South America builds up resistance to U.S.’s ‘Donroe doctrine’, The Hindu
  
  
• Interviewed for Estados Unidos se dividem sobre apoio à guerra contra o Irã, Agência Brasil
  
  
• Interviewed for Por que Trump tem voltado sua atenção para Cuba, Nexo
  
  

Linda Mendez-Barrientos, Assistant Professor 

• Awarded with DU's Research Scholar Award—Emerging, which celebrates an assistant-level professor who is establishing a strong foundation for research and scholarship, as part of DU's inaugural Research, Scholarship, and Creative Works Awards.

Kaitlyn Sims, Assistant Professor of Public Policy

• New federal student loan limits affect social work graduate students, with impacts for survivors of domestic violence in Colorado and elsewhere, The Conversation
  • Co-authored by student RAs Leslie Carvalho & Kaelyn Lara
    
    
• Colorado has emergency domestic violence shelters in only half its counties, leaving survivors without safe housing options, The Conversation

  • Mentioned in CPR's Colorado Today podcast
    
    

• Jailization: Entering the lobby to the US criminal legal system, Sage Journals
  
  
• Hockey’s Cultural Renaissance Can’t Ignore Domestic Violence, Ms. Magazine
  • Co-authored by MPP student Samantha Berkowitz

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