The Cornell Center for Social Sciences fellowship program, which supports social science research by Cornell faculty members, has awarded a total of $85,000 to 10 researchers for their 2022-23 CCSS Faculty Fellows program.

The program seeks to nurture the careers of Cornell’s faculty members in the social sciences, with a special focus on supporting early-career research. The goal is to provide time and space for high-impact social scientific scholarship that results in the completion of ambitious projects with real-world impact, scholarly publications and external grant funding to expand fellows’ research.

The CCSS Faculty Fellows program is a yearlong fellowship with one semester in residence at the CCSS. During this semester the fellows are released from teaching and administrative duties so they can focus on their chosen research project.

The program is designed to create an environment of intellectual exchange and an appreciation for interdisciplinary scholarship. The fellows will meet as a group throughout the academic year to exchange feedback on current research and participate in professional development.

The fellowship application process includes a nomination from a Dean in the social sciences and a short research proposal including an itemized budget for $8,500.

Learn more about next year’s cohort below.

 

Jerel Ezell, Africana Studies and Research Center (College of Arts & Sciences)

The Water Justice League: Generating and Sustaining Water and Climate Resilience on Onondaga Lake through Citizen Science

The Water Justice League is a 4-week culturally tailored intervention and Community-Based Participatory Research Project that will assess and build water and climate change literacy and resilience in various indigenous communities in central and Western New York and generate ideas and pathways for sustainable business development and spiritual reprieve on their ancestral bodies of water.

 

Will Hobbs, Psychology (College of Human Ecology)

The Effects of Changes in Personal, Societal, and Political Contexts on Well-Being and Everyday Activities: Design and analysis of open-ended surveys

This project will study open-ended survey data for tracking and explaining well-being before and after major personal and societal changes. It will construct and validate measures of well-being using replicable artificial intelligence and create multiple measures from a single open-ended response to increase cost-effectiveness.

 

Pauline Leung, Economics, Public Policy (Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy)

The Effects of Work and Financial Assistance Policies on Child Outcomes: Long-Term Evidence from Welfare Reform Experiments

This project examines the long-term effects of welfare-to-work policies by following up on five randomized experiments conducted in the nineties. It will link the experimental data to a rich array of datasets held at the U.S. Census Bureau to understand the comprehensive economic and demographic impacts on welfare recipients and their children over a time horizon spanning more than 20 years.

 

Janet Loebach, Design and Environmental Analysis (College of Human Ecology)

Designing developmentally-supportive play environments: Testing and refinement of an outdoor playspace audit tool

The proposed work will contribute to the development of a validated outdoor playspace audit tool. Through this initial mixed-methods testing and preliminary validation of a draft tool at 6-8 pilot sites, the work will support the final refinement, testing, and publication of this valuable research and design tool.

 

J. Nathan Matias, Communication (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences)

The Science and Governance of Human-Algorithm Feedback

How can we predict and prevent catastrophes from runaway patterns in human and algorithm behavior? To advance the theory and methods on this question, this project proposes to convene scholars to write a review article, develop novel study designs, envision the needed systems and develop grants.

 

Laura Niemi, Psychology (College of Arts & Sciences)

The Psychological Science of Morality

This research program uses the methods of psychological science to develop a multilevel model of moral judgment and decision-making and applies moral psychology findings to address challenging social issues.

 

Devon Proudfoot, Human Resource Studies (School of Industrial and Labor Relations)

Culture, Social Class, and Experience of Positive Stereotypes

The proposed research will investigate how positive stereotypes impact stereotyped group members’ well-being and motivation. It will specifically focus on how two factors—cultural models of selfhood and social class—intersect with stereotype content to shape stereotyped group members’ experience of positive stereotypes.

 

Casey Schmitt, History (College of Arts & Sciences)

A Predatory Sea: Human Trafficking, Colonization, and Trade in the Greater Caribbean, 1530-1690

The Predatory Sea studies the role of captive-taking and smuggling in the development of Atlantic world slavery in1530-1680. Combining English and French manuscript sources with underutilized testimonies from victims of captivity, it traces networks of raiding and trade in captive people in the greater Caribbean.

 

Landon Schnabel, Sociology (College of Arts & Sciences)

Does Elite Philanthropy Legitimate Plutocracy?

This project examines whether, how, and the extent to which elite philanthropy legitimates rising inequality and plutocracy. It (1) develops measures of support for plutocracy, (2) establishes overall support for plutocracy, (3) determines effects of philanthropy on support for plutocracy, (4) tests mechanisms, and (5) identifies implications.

 

Ivan Rudik, Applied Economics and Management (SC Johnson College of Business, Dyson School)

Spatial and Sectoral Targeting of Climate Policy

Efficient real-world climate policy must be heterogeneous across countries and industries. This project will quantify the efficient distribution of carbon taxes and adaptation finance subsidies across the world. These estimates will inform policymakers where financing and capital should be directed to combat climate change.

 

Learn more about the CCSS Fellows program and next year’s cohort here.