The School of Public Affairs at American University has a storied legacy that informs our values and approach.
In 1934, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began implementing New Deal programs that sought to increase “practical contacts between the collegiate and educational world, and the operations of government.” He believed that the collaboration of academia and public service would result in better decision-making, not only for Depression-era American, but also for future generations to come. From FDR’s vision, American University’s School of Public Affairs was born.
Over the last 80+ years, SPA has cultivated a culture of excellence. Our personalized teaching and experiential education transform the student experience. We empower those who seek knowledge to conduct and produce research. And we promote engagement to build a bridge between academic thought and policy planning - inspiring change in the world.
Today, with 1,800 current students and 23,000+ alumni, SPA continues to tackle complex issues with thoughtful research that educates, informs, and promotes change across a multitude of fields.
Katherine Engel, American University School of Public Affairs and Taryn Morrissey, American University School of Public Affairs
Republicans are pressing for policy changes based on a misconception that hardly anyone who gets help buying groceries with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits is employed.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announce their new trade agreement.
Dan Kitwood/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
A newly approved trade deal could be an opportunity to return Northern Ireland’s political attention to pressing issues of health care, housing, energy costs and inflation.
More than 110 million votes were cast in the U.S. midterm elections of November 2022.
Hill Street Studios/Digital Vision via Getty Iag
Voter demographics and policy priorities are two recurrent, big issues on Election Day – but shifts in election administration and voting laws are new challenges influencing the midterms.
Voters cast ballots in Orange County, Calif., in November 2018.
Paul Bersebach/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images
Jan Leighley, American University School of Public Affairs
Americans’ political affiliations and views on key issues vary a lot by age. When fewer young people vote, winning candidates and policies may not reflect their views.
When students are prepared for the newness of college life, their well-being is better off.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News vis Getty Images
Starting college after finishing high school is an exciting phase of a student’s life. But students need to prepare for the new challenges college brings.
Millicent Brown, left, was one of the first two Black students to integrate a South Carolina public school, in September 1963.
AP Photo
The effort to give every student equal access to an education has lasted decades and may need even more time before the goal is reached.
Classmates in grades 3, 4 and 5 are more likely to come from diverse economic backgrounds than their schoolmates in grades 6, 7 and 8.
Paul Bersebach, MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
Kari Dalane, American University School of Public Affairs
In middle school classes, students from lower-income families tended to be concentrated in just a few classrooms, new research from North Carolina has found.
Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the land.
Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via Getty Images)
President Joe Biden’s nominee for the US Supreme Court withstood four days of hearings and was confirmed to become the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.
Red sky at night, federal workers take fright?
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Congress is working on a spending bill to avert another government shutdown. Scholars explain what’s in store if they fail.
Sen. Dean Heller, right, and President Donald Trump, who endorsed him, at a rally on Sept. 20, 2018, in Las Vegas. Heller lost the reelection.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
A rare unauthorized public gathering in Havana on July 11, 2021. Some demonstrators on the streets that day chanted ‘Down with the dictatorship.’
Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images
The dire conditions that brought waves of Cubans to the US in the 1980s and 1990s are again escalating on the communist island, provoked by Trump-era sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Is Sen. Marco Rubio, espousing a polished populism, the future of the GOP?
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s ticket to the White House was a coarse version of populism. Will his successors in the GOP be different – or simply present a more polished version of his antagonistic rhetoric?
A kindergarten student practices social distancing in the playground of her private school.
Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
A set of efforts that registered 800,000 new voters since 2018 may have been the key to Georgia turning blue in a presidential election for the first time since 1992.
La sénatrice de Californie Kamala Harris est la colistière du candidat démocrate Joe Biden, en lice pour la présidentielle américaine de 2020.
SAUL LOEB / AFP
Les résultats d’une enquête récente montrent que la participation électorale des Noirs américains de moins de 30 ans aura un rôle déterminant dans la présidentielle américaine.