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The Council mourns the loss of Board and Visiting Committee member Michael Gellert (1931-2021)

Michael Gellert, philanthropist, venture capitalist, and vital member of the Council community, passed away on August 17 at the age of 90. Born in Prague in 1931, Gellert was a general partner of the investment firm Windcrest Partners, which he cofounded in 1968, a director of Dalet Technologies, and a director emeritus of Seacor Holdings. He received a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School. In addition to his business career, Gellert devoted much of his time, knowledge, and experience to advancing the work of nonprofits, including the Carnegie Institution for Science, Human Rights Watch, the …

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Announcing the 2021 SSRC Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal grantees

The Social Science Research Council is proud to announce the ten early-career scholars selected to receive 2021 Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal grants. The grants aim to bring knowledge of the place of religion and spirituality into scholarly and public conversations about renewing democracy in the United States. Established in 2020, the Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal grants are offered through the SSRC Religion and the Public Sphere program in partnership with the Fetzer Institute. This year’s competition emphasized research that examines the ways spirituality, religious traditions, and institutions shape democratic participation, debates, institutions, and public policies. Selected projects address topics including the complex

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Announcing the 64 recipients of the 2021 International Dissertation Research Fellowships

The Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) is proud to announce the 2021 cohort of IDRF fellows. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the SSRC IDRF program offers six to twelve months of support to graduate students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are currently enrolled in PhD programs in the United States and conducting dissertation research on non-US or US Indigenous cultures and societies. Since its inception in 1997, the IDRF program has funded more than sixteen hundred projects spanning the globe. This year, 64 doctoral students have been chosen to receive fellowships to support their research. The cohort

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The Council Mourns the Passing of Former SSRC President Eleanor Bernert Sheldon

Eleanor Bernert Sheldon, sociologist and leading figure in the establishment of the field of social indicators, who served as the first woman president of the Social Science Research Council (1972–1979), passed away on May 8 at the age of 101. Sheldon first joined the Council as a staff member from 1950 to 1951, after earning her PhD in sociology at the University of Chicago. She went on to work as a researcher at Columbia University, the United Nations, and the University of California, Los Angeles, and served as executive associate of the Russell Sage Foundation from 1961 until 1972. She

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