Joshua Sapotichne

Dr. Joshua Sapotichne (PhD, University of Washington, 2009) is an Assistant Professor of Political Science who teaches and researches in the areas of American public policy and urban politics.

Current research projects examine the changing policy relationship between the US national government and American cities (work for which he received the 2010 Best Dissertation Award from the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association), the direct and conditional impacts of state institutions and policies on the policy priorities and fiscal behavior of city governments (supporting research for which was supported in 2014 and again in 2015 by the C.S. Mott Foundation [co-PI Eric Scorsone]), and the optimal design and structure of local governments for navigating an increasingly complex American federal system. Prior research addressed the degree to which the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 disrupted policymaking across a varity of public risk sectors and the consequence of these disturbances vis-à-vis a design of coherent homeland security policy in the US.

Josh's prior and ongoing research has resulted in a series of journal articles published in such journals as Policy Studies Journal, Urban Affairs Review, City Culture, and Society, and Urban Research and Practice. He was recently selected as a Norton Long Young Scholar (2011) and as a Stone Scholar (2010); both awards are granted by the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association for outstanding scholarship in the field of urban politics at a young age. He (along with co-authors Peter May and Ashley Jochim) received the 2012 Theodore Lowi Prize for Best Article in Policy Studies Journal for the article "Constructing Homeland Security: An Anemic Policy Regime."