MPP and PhD students and faculty engage in interdisciplinary research teams that include scientists from a full range of relevant disciplines on pressing policy issues to address the most pressing concerns of the 21st century such as water conflict in a globalized economy, educational reform in the face of shrinking public resources, and the implementation of increasingly contentious technologies such as genetically modified crops, nanotechnology, sustainable rural communities, and renewable energy.
There are many research opportunities for MPP and PhD students at OSU through our Sun Grant, Sea Grant, Land Grant and Space Grant programs and through various research institutes including the Institute for Natural Resources, the Institute for Water and Watersheds, the Hatfield Marine Science Center, the Pacific Marine Energy Center, and many other opportunities. Here are some examples of recent MPP and Executive MPP Capstone Research Projects.
Faculty coauthored and student publications from last 5 years (Bold=current or former SPP graduate student):
Burkhardt, Brett C., and Troy Ramsey. 2024. “A Second Trump Term May Be Very Good for the Private Prison Industry | USAPP.” https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2024/12/11/a-second-trump-term-may-be-very-good-for-the-private-prison-industry/.
Ajaz, Warda, and David Bernell. 2021. “California’s Adoption of Microgrids: A Tale of Symbiotic Regimes and Energy Transitions.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 138:110568. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2020.110568.
Ajaz, Warda, and David Bernell. 2021. “Microgrids and the Transition toward Decentralized Energy Systems in the United States: A Multi-Level Perspective.” Energy Policy 149:112094. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.112094.
Bashar, Shahinur, and David Bernell. n.d. “Stranded Ecosystems: Mitigating Environmental Impacts of Rohingya Refugee Camps in Cox’s Bazar.” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 0(0):1–19. doi:10.1080/09640568.2025.2494748.
Bingham, Julia A., Emily Miller, Lorren Ruscetta, Hossain Ahmed Taufiq, Greg Stelmach, Jeremy Firestone, Teresa R. Johnson, Shawn Hazboun, and Hilary Boudet. 2025. “Understanding the Roles, Limits, and Best Practices for Community Benefit Agreements in U.S. Offshore Wind Development.” Ocean & Coastal Management 268:107769. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2025.107769.
Boudet, Hilary, Leanne Giordono, Chad Zanocco, Hannah Satein, and Hannah Whitley. 2020. “Event Attribution and Partisanship Shape Local Discussion of Climate Change after Extreme Weather.” Nature Climate Change 10(1):69–76. doi:10.1038/s41558-019-0641-3.
Boudet, Hilary, Chad Zanocco, Greg Stelmach, Mahmood Muttaqee, and June Flora. 2021. “Public Preferences for Five Electricity Grid Decarbonization Policies in California.” Review of Policy Research 38(5):510–28. doi:10.1111/ropr.12442.
Buylova, Alexandra, Chen Chen, Lori A. Cramer, Haizhong Wang, and Daniel T. Cox. 2020. “Household Risk Perceptions and Evacuation Intentions in Earthquake and Tsunami in a Cascadia Subduction Zone.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 44:101442. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101442.
Buylova, Alexandra, Brent S. Steel, and Christopher A. Simon. 2020. “Public Perceptions of Energy Scarcity and Support for New Energy Technologies: A Western U.S. Case Study.” Energies 13(1):238. doi:10.3390/en13010238.
Chen, Chen, Alexandra Buylova, Cadell Chand, Haizhong Wang, Lori Cramer, and Daniel T. Cox. 2020. “Households’ Intended Evacuation Transportation Behavior in Response to Earthquake and Tsunami Hazard in a Cascadia Subduction Zone City.” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0361198120920873.
Furqan, M., and H. Boudet. 2025. “Nuances of Valuing Resilience from Microgrids.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 210:115236. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2024.115236.
Gardezi, Najam uz Zehra, Brent S. Steel, and Angela Lavado. 2020. “The Impact of Efficacy, Values, and Knowledge on Public Preferences Concerning Food–Water–Energy Policy Tradeoffs.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(22):8345. doi:10.3390/ijerph17228345.
Giordono, Leanne, Hilary Boudet, and Alexander Gard-Murray. 2020. “Local Adaptation Policy Responses to Extreme Weather Events.” Policy Sciences 53(4):609–36. doi:10.1007/s11077-020-09401-3.
Giordono, Leanne, Muhammad Usman Amin Siddiqi, Greg Stelmach, Chad Zanocco, June Flora, and Hilary Boudet. 2023. “Trial by Fire: Support for Mitigation and Adaptation Policy after the 2020 Oregon Wildfires.” Weather, Climate, and Society 15(3):633–64. doi:10.1175/WCAS-D-22-0075.1.
Gray, Daniel, and David Bernell. 2020. “Tree-Hugging Utilities? The Politics of Phasing out Coal and the Unusual Alliance That Passed Oregon’s Clean Energy Transition Law.” Energy Research & Social Science 59:101288. doi:10.1016/j.erss.2019.101288.
Gunther, Stephen J., and David Bernell. 2019. “Challenging the System: The Role of Community Choice Aggregation in California’s Transition to a Renewable Energy Future.” The Electricity Journal 32(10):106679. doi:10.1016/j.tej.2019.106679.
Hazboun, Shawn, Greg Stelmach, and Paige Martin Cox. 2024. “Who Will ‘Go Electric’? American Homeowners’ Perceptions of Home Energy Sources and Home Electrification.” Energy Research & Social Science 113:103575. doi:10.1016/j.erss.2024.103575.
Inman, Cassandra, and Michael Jones. 2022. “Thinking Outside of the Lunchbox: A Narrative Policy Framework Analysis of School Lunch Policies.” World Food Policy 8(2):185–207. doi:10.1002/wfp2.12045.
Laufer, Adrian E., and Michael D. Jones. 2021. “Who Pays for Marine Conservation? Processes and Narratives That Influence Marine Funding.” Ocean & Coastal Management 203:105504. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2020.105504.
Mooney, Rachel, Hilary Schaffer Boudet, and Shawn Olson Hazboun. 2022. “Risk-Benefit Perceptions of Natural Gas Export in Oregon.” Local Environment 27(3):342–56. doi:10.1080/13549839.2022.2040470.
Muttaqee, Mahmood, Maham Furqan, and Hilary Boudet. 2023. “Community Response to Microgrid Development: Case Studies from the U.S.” Energy Policy 181:113690. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113690.
Muttaqee, Mahmood, Maham Furqan, and Hilary S. Boudet. 2025. “The Good, the Bad, and the Unplugged: Community Reactions and Key Challenges Facing Microgrid Development in the United States.” Energy Research & Social Science 122:104014. doi:10.1016/j.erss.2025.104014.
Muttaqee, Mahmood, Greg Stelmach, Chad Zanocco, June Flora, Ram Rajagopal, and Hilary S. Boudet. 2024. “Time of Use Pricing and Likelihood of Shifting Energy Activities, Strategies, and Timing.” Energy Policy 187:114019. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114019.
Najam, Rafiuddin, and Alison Johnston. 2023. “Information Provision and Preferences toward Tuition Introduction in Public Universities: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Afghanistan.” Education Economics 31(6):649–63. doi:10.1080/09645292.2022.2128053.
Ruff, Jonathan W. A., Gregory Stelmach, and Michael D. Jones. 2022. “Space for Stories: Legislative Narratives and the Establishment of the US Space Force.” Policy Sciences 55(3):509–53. doi:10.1007/s11077-022-09455-5.
Siddiqi, Muhammad Usman Amin, Leanne Giordono, Chad Zanocco, Greg Stelmach, June Flora, and Hilary Boudet. 2023. “Disaster Preparedness and Community Helping Behaviour in the Wake of the 2020 Oregon Wildfires.” Disasters 47(4):1138–72. doi:10.1111/disa.12584.
Siddiqi, Muhammad Usman Amin, and Erika Allen Wolters. 2025. “Understanding Public Preferences for Energy Efficiency Policies in Building and Agricultural Sectors in the Western US: Values, Knowledge, and Identity.” Environmental Policy and Governance 35(2):228–45. doi:10.1002/eet.2131.
Siddiqi, Muhammad Usman, Brent Steel, and Erika Wolters. 2022. “Situational and Trans-Situational Correlates of Public Energy Literacy: A Western U.S. Case Study.” Current Alternative Energy 5:23–38. doi:10.2174/2405463105666220309142802.
Sievers, Tjorven. 2020. “Fieldwork Interrupted: Considering Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Qualitative Family Policy Research.” ADVANCE Journal 2(2). doi:10.5399/osu/ADVJRNL.2.2.7.
Sievers, Tjorven. 2023. “Enabled but Not Transformed – Narratives on Parental Involvement among First-Time Mothers and Fathers in Germany in the Context of Parental Leave Policy Design.” Community, Work & Family 26(3):356–72. doi:10.1080/13668803.2022.2099248.
Sievers, Tjorven, and Michael D. Jones. 2020. “Can Power Be Made an Empirically Viable Concept in Policy Process Theory? Exploring the Power Potential of the Narrative Policy Framework.” International Review of Public Policy 2(1):90–114. doi:10.4000/irpp.942.
Sievers, Tjorven, and Rebecca Warner. 2023. “(In)Stability of Gender Attitudes in Times of Family Policy Change—A Latent Class Analysis of Germany, Austria, and Sweden.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 30(2):470–95. doi:10.1093/sp/jxac027.
Spalding, Ana K., and Ricardo de Ycaza. 2020. “Navigating Shifting Regimes of Ocean Governance.” doi:10.3167/ares.2020.110102.
Steel, Brent, and Emily Mooney. 2025. “Oregon’s 2024 Legislative Session and Budget: From Incivility to Civility.” California Journal of Politics and Policy 17(1). doi:10.5070/P2cjpp17164739.
Stelmach, Greg, and Hilary Boudet. 2022. “Using Structural Topic Modeling to Explore the Role of Framing in Shaping the Debate on Liquefied Natural Gas Terminals in Oregon.” American Behavioral Scientist 66(9):1204–37. doi:10.1177/00027642211056268.
Stelmach, Greg, Shawn Hazboun, Diane Brandt, and Hilary Boudet. 2023. “Public Perceptions of Wave Energy Development on the West Coast of North America: Risks, Benefits, and Coastal Attachment.” Ocean & Coastal Management 241:106666. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2023.106666.
Stelmach, Greg, Chad Zanocco, June Flora, Ram Rajagopal, and Hilary S. Boudet. 2020. “Exploring Household Energy Rules and Activities during Peak Demand to Better Determine Potential Responsiveness to Time-of-Use Pricing.” Energy Policy 144:111608. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111608.
Wolters, Erika Allen, Brent S. Steel, Sydney Anderson, and Heather Moline. 2021. “The Future of Food: Understanding Public Preferences for the Management of Agricultural Resources.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(13):6707. doi:10.3390/ijerph18136707.
Wolters, Erika Allen, Brent S. Steel, Tamara Krawchenko, and Sadaf Farooq. 2025. “Small and Rural Local Government Environmental Sustainability Plans, Programs and Policies in Cascadia: A Comparative Analysis.” Society & Natural Resources 38(7):683–709. doi:10.1080/08941920.2025.2463075.
Wolters, Erika Allen, Brent S. Steel, Muhammed Usman Amin Siddiqi, and Melissa Symmes. 2022. “Public Water Policy Knowledge and Policy Preferences in the American West.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19(5):2742. doi:10.3390/ijerph19052742.
Zanocco, Chad, Philip Mote, June Flora, and Hilary Boudet. 2024. “Comparing Public and Scientific Extreme Event Attribution to Climate Change.” Climatic Change 177(5):76. doi:10.1007/s10584-024-03735-0.