The Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS) has named 10 faculty members from four colleges and eight departments to its 2026-27 Faculty Fellows cohort. The fellows will use dedicated time and funding to pursue research across the social sciences, including projects on how climate disasters influence public support for climate policy, new ways to measure economic development beyond GDP and studies of food and nutrition security among income-eligible households in New York.

The CCSS Faculty Fellows Program supports the research and professional growth of outstanding social science faculty at Cornell. Nominated by their deans, fellows receive a semester of course release while in residence at CCSS, enabling sustained focus on research, writing and collaboration. Past fellows have leveraged the program to secure major external funding, publish peer-reviewed articles, advance book manuscripts and explore new research directions. 

In addition to protected research time, the program also offers professional development and a forum for fellows to share their work, exchange ideas and build connections across the social sciences at Cornell.

“CCSS is excited to support another incredible cohort of Cornell faculty conducting research that positively impacts society,” said Peter Enns, the Robert S. Harrison director of CCSS and professor of government and public policy.

The 2026-27 CCSS faculty fellows and their projects include:

• Aaron Benanav (Global Development): The Multi-Dimensional Economy: A New Framework for Development
• Alexandra Blackman (Government): Personal piety and public religion: Understanding faith in North Africa
• Amiel Bize (Anthropology): Drylands Finance: Climate Change and Financial Experimentation in Pastoral Communities
• Helena Aparicio (Linguistics): Learning what others mean: meaning adaptation and pragmatic reasoning in childhood
• Jenna Wells (Psychology): Positivity Resonance in Dementia Caregiving Relationships
• Jessica M. Salerno (Psychology): The Impact of Arizona’s Peremptory Challenge Ban on Racially Discriminatory Questioning in Jury Selection
• Peidong Sun (History): Red DNA: How the Cultural Revolution Has Shaped the Xi Jinping Generation
• Roger Figueroa (Nutritional Sciences): Food Research Initiative on the Experience of Nutrition Diversity and Security (FRIENDS) 2.0: A community- and theory-based prospective cohort study
• Talbot Andrews (Government): The Pathologies of a Disaster-Driven Climate Response
• Yian Yin (Information Science): Quantifying the long-term impact of failures on creative careers

Michelle Lucio is the administrative coordinator for the Cornell Center for Social Sciences.