The Maxwell School of Syracuse University has announced three faculty awards, including
the newly established Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History.
History professor Dennis Romano will become the inaugural Montgomery-Gruber professor.
The Michael O. Sawyer Chair in Constitutional Law and Politics will be filled by political
science associate professor Thomas M. Keck. And the annual Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Award for Teaching and Research goes to Leonard M. Lopoo, assistant professor of public
administration.
Romano joined the Maxwell faculty in 1987. He is author of four books on the history of
Venice, including "The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscare, 1373-1457"
(Yale University Press, 2007), and he has written extensively on various aspects of Italian
Renaissance society and culture. Romano is the recipient of numerous grants and
fellowships, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, an Ailsa
Melton Bruce fellowship at the National Gallery of Art, an NEH fellowship at the National
Humanities Center and a Fulbright fellowship in Italy. He is currently working on a study of
markets and marketplaces in medieval Italian cities and on a comprehensive history of
Venice, and will use the professorship to further his research and also to bring distinguished
speakers to campus.
Montgomery '67 and his wife, Marian Gruber, established the professorship out of "deep
appreciation for the importance to our education system of teaching, research and
scholarship. No one better exemplifies a commitment to such work than Professor Romano,"
Montgomery says.
Keck will become the third occupant of the Sawyer Chair, which was created and endowed
in 1995 by students and friends of Michael Sawyer, professor of political science and
longtime member of the Maxwell faculty, to carry on the student-centered tradition of
teaching that Sawyer practiced for more than 40 years. Keck's research and writing focus on
the Supreme Court, American constitutional development and the use of legal strategies by
movements for social change. His first book, "The Most Activist Supreme Court in History:
The Road to Modern Judicial Conservatism" (University of Chicago Press), was published to
wide acclaim in 2004. He is currently at work on a second book that looks at the impact and
independence of American courts in the context of the contemporary culture wars. In
recognition of his contributions and leadership in creating a campus community that is
inclusive and nurturing for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, faculty and
staff, Keck received the 2007-08 Foundation Award for Outstanding Faculty Member from
the campus LGBT community.
Lopoo becomes the 27th outstanding untenured Maxwell School faculty member to win the
Moynihan award since its establishment in 1985 by former U.S. senator and Maxwell
faculty member Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Lopoo's research falls in the intersection of
demography, economics and public policy analysis. His investigations focus primarily on
low-income families, particularly the choices made by adolescents, and the public policies
designed to influence this population. Lopoo has been published extensively, and he is co-
editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. He is the 2005 recipient of the
Birkhead-Burkhead Teaching Award and Professorship given annually to recognize
outstanding teaching in the Department of Public Administration; he also was honored with
SU's Meredith Professors Teaching Recognition Award in 2006.
