Event Details

Event Date: December 12, 2025
Location: University of Southern California

On Friday, December 12, 2025, the Social Science Research Council will convene institutional leaders from the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences, together with leaders of philanthropic organizations and other research partners, to discuss “The Case for the Social Sciences.”

Universities are under immense pressure to demonstrate their value (and their values) to constituencies including governments, students, parents, and civil society. Recent changes in federal funding are symptomatic of, and increase, this pressure. In this context, this meeting will focus on the following questions:

• How do we, as social scientists, understand how universities arrived at this point of deep skepticism about their enterprise?
• How do we understand and explain our disciplines’ contributions to the world? What have been some of their successes in research and in policy, and what do we learn from these?
• How can social scientists make a stronger case for themselves, inside the university and to the broader world?

This year’s conference will be hosted by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. We will open with a reception on the evening of Thursday, December 11, followed by a full day on the USC campus on Friday, December 12. The day will begin with a Deans’ Breakfast for deans overseeing the social and behavioral sciences.

Registration is open to attendees from the member institutions of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences. We look forward to sharing details about the program and speakers in the coming months. For more information about the conference or the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences, please contact Lisa Marshall, Chief of Staff, at marshall@ssrc.org.