Publications in PPA

Our PPA Faculty often publish research in academic journals. This page will be updated frequently with recent and new publications by our faculty members.

For more information about our department, please visit our "Meet Us" page.

Full-Time Faculty

Dr. Shane Nordyke, Professor & Chair

Dr. Rob Wassmer, Professor & Vice Chair

• Robert W Wassmer and Michael D Turgeon, "Particulates Matter: The Influence of Cumulative Local Air Pollution Exposure on Sixth-Grade Academic Achievement in California"
• Robert Wassmer and Meredith Galloway, "Evidence That a Greater Presence of Latinx Faculty or Administrators Raises the Completion Rates of Various Cohorts of Community College Students"
• Robert W. Wassmer: "Past Structural Racism and Current Home Prices," Journal of Urban Affairs
• Robert W. Wassmer and Imaez Wahid: "Does the Likely Demographics of Affordable Housing Justify NIMBYism?", Journal of Housing Policy Debate.

Dr. Amal Kumar, Assistant Professor

• Amal Kumar, 2025. "Productizing Pedagogy: Educational Television, Wicked Problems, and the Study of Social Innovation", Big Picture Approaches to the Impact of Social Innovations, Silvia Dorado, Helen Haugh, R. Daniel Wadhwani, Ralph Hamann
• Kumar, A. & Higgins, M. "(De)Constructing the Disruption: Enacted Sensemaking and Sensegiving in Institutionally Plural Fields," Journal of Organizational Sociology
• Christopher, T., Kumar, A., & Benson, R. "Fine wine at discount prices? A review of the research on the part-time faculty workforce," CSHE Research & Occasional Paper Series
• R. Todd Benson, Amal Kumar: "From the Old Normal to the Next Normal: Inequities in Faculty Hiring, Promotion, Tenure, and Advancement," The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
• Amal Kumar: "The origins and evolution of academic drift at the California State University, 1960–2005," Higher Education

Dr. Ahrum Chang, Assistant Professor

• Ahrum Chang: "Recurring Street-Level Encounters: How Bureaucratic Representation Changes Through Citizen Interactions," Public Administration Review (This work was supported by the AY2024/25 Research Enhanced Support Grant from California State University, Sacramento)
• Ahrum Chang: "Risk aversion and the public sector employment," American Society for Public Administration
• Gene. A. Brewer, Ahrum Chang: "Street-Level bureaucracy in public administration: A systematic literature review," Public Management Review
• Ahrum Chang: "Resource Stability and Federal Agency Performance," American Review of Public Administration
• Ahrum Chang, Seong C. Kang, Brian N. Williams: "Does bureaucratic representation enhance overall organizational accountability in policing?" Wiley Public Administration

Dr. Saahir Shafi, Assistant Professor

• Shafi, S., & Mallinson, D. J. (2026). Policy performance in crisis: evaluating federalism and multi-party governance. Journal of European public policy, 33(1), 322-347.
• Shafi, S., & Mallinson, D. J. (2023). Evaluating punctuated equilibrium dynamics within a crisis context. Policy & Politics, 51(4), 647-672.
• Shafi, S., & Mallinson, D. J. (2023). Disproportionate policy dynamics in crisis and uncertainty: an international comparative analysis of policy responses to COVID-19. Policy Studies, 44(1), 90-111.
• Mallinson, D. J., & Shafi, S. (2022). Smart home technology: Challenges and opportunities for collaborative governance and policy research. Review of Policy Research, 39(3), 330-352.
• Shafi, S., & Mallinson, D. J. (2022). A decade in drug policy and research: evaluating trends from 2010 to 2020 and presenting major policy developments. Policy Studies Yearbook, 12(1), 71-102.