Maxwell's Emily Thorson Receives Moynihan Award for Teaching and Research

Emily Thorson, assistant professor of political science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, has received the 2024 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Teaching and Research, the highest honor the Maxwell School offers to untenured faculty. The award will be presented at the Maxwell School’s Graduate Convocation on Friday, May 10, with Thorson as the featured speaker.

The Moynihan Award is given each year for an outstanding teaching, research and service record. It was established eponymously in 1985 by then-U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former member of Maxwell’s junior faculty.

Thorson joined Maxwell in 2017 after serving as an assistant professor of political science at Boston College and the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. She is a senior research associate for the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. Her research focuses on how information and misinformation shape citizen attitudes and behavior in U.S. politics. Her book “The Invented State: Policy Misperceptions in the American Public” (Oxford University Press, 2024) explores how the lack of media coverage of existing policy leads the public to form systematic misperceptions about what the government actually does. Her work has been published in major journals such as the American Political Science Review, the British Journal of Political Science, Nature, and Science. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013.

In his nomination letter, Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science Seth Jolly wrote that Thorson “is in the top tier of researchers not just in the department but also in the field…Her research record is extraordinary in political science.”

Jolly, who is a senior research associate for the Center for European Studies, added that Thorson “has an incredibly strong teaching record at Syracuse University,” highlighting “her ability to engage all students in discussion.”

Jolly also emphasized that Thorson is a “very good departmental citizen,” serving on search committees and the University’s Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE) grant review committee and as an editorial board member of two journals and a reviewer for top political science journals. “In short, [she] is an outstanding member of the faculty across research, teaching and service.”

Story by Michael Kelly