Meet the IDJC Team

IDJC Director  

Margaret Talev is the Kramer Director of the IDJC and a professor of practice of magazine, news and digital journalism at the Newhouse School. She has covered American politics for 30 years and is a past president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. She is senior contributor at Axios and a frequent political analyst on CNN, NPR, Sirius XM and other major outlets.

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Research Director

Johanna Dunaway is a professor of political science and research director for Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism, & Citizenship, in Washington, D.C. Her areas of research include news media and political communication, with an emphasis on how the changing media environment shapes political knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Johanna’s recent books include: Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers Can Slow Polarization (2021), and News and Democratic Citizens in the Mobile Era (2023), and The House that Fox Built? Representation, Political Accountability, and the Rise of Cable News (2025). Johanna is a Carnegie Fellow for her work on news and polarization. 

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Senior Researchers

Joshua Darr is a senior researcher at IDJC and an associate professor at the Newhouse School, teaching classes in political communication. His research focuses on campaign strategy, political knowledge, partisan polarization and local news. He has written about politics and media for The Boston Globe, FiveThirtyEight, The Washington Post, Vox, The Conversation, Nieman Journalism Lab and Scientific American.

Website

Emily Sydnor is Associate Professor of Communications at Syracuse University and a Senior Researcher at the university’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship, based in Washington D.C. Her research agenda focuses on how people communicate about politics in the face of conflict, as well as the importance of state identities for political behavior in the federal system. She has authored a book, “Disrespectful Democracy: The Psychology of Political Incivility” (Columbia University Press, 2019), and been published in journals such as Political Communication, PS: Political Science & Politics, and Publius: The Journal of Federalism. 

Wesbite

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Graduate Research Assistant

Trevor Hart is a doctoral student at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University. His research interests include environmental and political communication, with a particular focus on how advocates navigate media to advance climate justice. In 2024, Trevor graduated summa cum laude from the University of North Alabama, where he studied public relations and political science. He also holds a M. A. in Communication and Media from the University of Northern Iowa, where he taught oral communication for two years.

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Affiliated Researcher

Murat Abus received a Ph.D. from the Maxwell School and previously worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at IDJC.  He is a student of American Politics and Comparative Politics.  His interests are political behavior, media, public opinion and political methodology. In addition to Turkish, he speaks Russian. His work is published and forthcoming in Mediterranean Politics and Political Research Quarterly.

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Director of Administration

Susan Nash is the director of administration at IDJC. Nash brings over 35 years of executive-level leadership to IDJC where she works with the Institute’s faculty and staff to develop and implement programming, events, curriculum, and research activities that align with the Institute’s mission and strategic goals.

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Partner Programs

Newhouse DC

Beverly Kirk is director of Washington programs and a professor of practice of broadcast and digital journalism at the Newhouse School. She leads student programs for the school across multiple communications majors with a primary focus on journalism.

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Maxwell in DC

Nayyera Haq is the associate dean for the Maxwell School’s Washington programs and associate dean of research for the Maxwell School.