Linking Scholarship and Public Policy: An Interview with New Ketcham Chair Steven Heydemann

As the brutal civil war and the refugee crisis in Syria dominate news headlines, students are studying the issues with a range of professors, including a new faculty member who bolsters the college’s existing strengths in this critical area of study.

Steven Heydemann joined the Smith faculty this fall as the Janet Wright Ketcham ’53 Chair in Middle East Studies—a new position, funded by trustee emerita Janet Wright Ketcham ’53 and her children, designed to enable Smith students to better understand this complicated and critical area, and perhaps bring the world closer to security, peace and prosperity.

Heydemann comes to Smith with a long and distinguished history in both academic and policy settings. He’s served on the faculty at Georgetown and Columbia, and also held leadership positions at the U.S. Institute of Peace and at the Social Science Research Council. A political scientist who specializes in the comparative politics and political economy of the Middle East, with a particular focus on Syria, Heydemann has research interests in authoritarian governance, economic development, social policy, political and economic reform, and civil society.

Heydemann will join Smith government professors Mlada Bukovansky and Greg White on Wednesday, Sept. 30, for a Humanities Lab discussion titled “On Forced Displacement, Refugees, Immigration and Security.” The event, which begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Neilson Browsing Room, is open to the public at no charge.

We talked with Heydemann about his new job at Smith and about his ongoing work integrating the academy’s rigorous research findings into public policymaking.

You come to Smith with an unusual background—one that combines experience in academic organizations and policy organizations. How does that varied experience shape your perspective?

“As peripatetic as my background appears, there really is a thread that runs through everything I’ve done. Way back in graduate school, I applied for an NSF Ph.D. fellowship and noted in the application that academic research and public policy had trouble talking to one another. I expressed an interest in finding ways to better integrate the two. Much of my career has been an expression of that early interest in finding new ways to link theory and practice.

I’ve always been drawn to what I saw as the intellectual benefits that result when we bring disciplinary rigor to bear on real-world problems. The Middle East work I do touches on a lot of big global challenges—global governance and peacebuilding, security, economic development—and there isn’t very much attention among policymakers to how scholars in the disciplines think about these problems. There’s a general perception that scholars often fail to think like policymakers; my sense is that policymakers need to think more like social scientists. I felt that we were missing opportunities to make headway in addressing big global problems because policymakers weren’t taking into account what social scientists have learned about how to unpack big problems, understand their moving parts, and make sense of how they fit together. Through my work, I hope to push people to understand how the social sciences can improve public policy.”

You’ve taught previously at larger research universities. Why did you want to teach now at a liberal arts college—and why Smith?

“Smith is appealing because it provides an opportunity to work directly with students, both in the classroom and in research. In the classroom, by presenting an integrated picture of the world—one informed by insights of the academic discipline, as well as real-world issues—I hope I can help shape the way Smith students think about the world, equipping them to be well trained and effective in whatever they do next. Outside of the classroom, I’m eager to work with students on my own research. For example, one of the interesting attributes of the Syrian conflict is that it’s been so widely recorded, especially through social media. I’m hiring a student to help analyze social media so that we can better understand its role in the conflict.”

Who will be your collaborators?

“Well, students, of course. And people may not realize that at Smith, we have three political scientists doing work on Middle East: Greg White, Bozena Welborne and now me. Many top-tier research universities have only one professor in this area. I’ll also be one of the coordinators of the Five College Middle East Colloquium, so there’s an opportunity to reach out and enlarge our activities across the Five Colleges. I’m only beginning to know my colleagues, but I’ve found the faculty here to be incredibly welcoming, and I’m excited about finding innovative ways to work together.”

What are you teaching?

“I’m teaching a First-Year Seminar called ‘Syria Beyond the Headlines;’ it focuses on a country that has been devastated by almost five years of violent conflict, offering a chance to explore the origins and dynamics of a civil war that now threatens the stability of the Arab east and has generated the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. I’m also teaching a course called ‘Explaining the Arab Uprisings.’ The mass protests that swept across the Middle East in 2011, and whose effects are still being felt very keenly, were such transformative events that it’s critical to take stock of them—what caused them, why they’ve taken the forms that they have, how they’ve unfolded, what they’ve changed—and assess their impact to date.”

How do you stay connected to the ongoing issues in Syria?

“I’m a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy of the Brookings Institution, and I remain engaged with Syrian issues, especially with the Syrian opposition and its efforts to prepare for a possible political transition. From 2011 to 2014, through my former position at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), I was part of a group that supported 60 leading Syrian activists in thinking very seriously about possibilities for political transition in Syria. For six months in 2012, we met monthly with these activists to talk about how to manage the challenges of a transition, and about what do regarding various aspects of what might follow the Assad regime. The course that the uprising has taken has differed dramatically from what we first predicted, but the work this group did is still relevant. In 2012, with the Syrian leaders of the project, I helped to establish an NGO, called The Day After, to keep the work going. The NGO has done wonderful work. It is based in Istanbul and has supported dozens of Syrian activists inside of Syria to improve the conditions of people struggling to survive the current conflict. Of all the work I did with USIP, my association with The Day After project is the thing I’m most proud of.”

Why is it important to study Syria right now?

“In Syria right now, we have 11-12 million displaced people, out of a population of 23 million. About four million are refugees. Another seven million or more are internally displaced. I view it as a matter of necessity to do something about the conflict, and in a way that makes use of the skills we have as social scientists. This is one of those moments that people will look back on and say, ‘What did I do to make this situation better?’ I stay engaged on Syria as my own way to have a positive answer to that question.”

You’re in a newly created position—one that was endowed by Janet Ketcham ’53. Have you had a chance to talk with her about your plans for your work at Smith?

“Yes! We had a fascinating conversation. She is deeply committed to making Middle East studies more active and visible as an area of teaching and research at Smith. I’m glad to have the opportunity to work with students and colleagues at Smith and at the Five Colleges to help achieve that goal.”