Fellowship / Fellows

Susan Moffitt

  • 2014–2015
  • Social Sciences
  • Hrdy Fellow
  • Brown University
Headshot of Susan Moffitt
Photo by Tony Rinaldo

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Susan Moffitt is the Mary Tefft and John Hazen White Sr. Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Brown University. Her research interests are in the fields of American political institutions and public policy, with particular emphasis on developing the capacity to implement policy in the fields of public education and public health. Some of her most recent work examines when public participation in government agency policy making contributes to policy outcomes.

During the Radcliffe fellowship year, Moffitt is examining how links between state administrative capacity and the professions of teaching and nursing bear on the delivery of public services to support maternal and child health and the education of students with special needs. Examining the time periods of 1890–1920 and 1980–2010, her project combines historical, statistical, and ethnographic research to assess the relationship between government administration, grassroots practice, and the mediating effects of professions on public education and public health.

Moffitt is the author of two books, The Ordeal of Equality: Did Federal Regulation Fix the Schools? (Harvard University Press, 2009), coauthored with David K. Cohen, and Making Policy Public (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Her scholarship has also appeared in journals including the American Journal of Education, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, and the Journal of Politics. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Michigan.

Our 2023–2024 Fellows

01 / 09

News & Ideas