Inequality—both in society at large and within the academy itself—remains an urgent issue. Council programs bring innovative social science analysis to bear on our understanding of the roots and consequences of unequal participation in political, economic, and social systems across the globe. By supporting programs that create a diverse pipeline of researchers, we help ensure that tomorrow’s scholars will seek answers to previously unasked questions and better address key issues facing marginalized and underserved communities.
How We Work
We facilitate scholarship that examines the historical roots and present-day manifestations of inequality. We uncover gaps in well-being across different groups and geographies and promote research that offers a blueprint for turning insights into action.
We provide pathways for scholars to further their research into issues of inequality, diversity, and access to opportunity. We address issues of bias and equity within the world of higher education and research, with the aim of building more diverse and representative research communities.
We mobilize scholars and decision-makers to examine how society and institutions should address major forms of inequality at local, national, and global scales. We seek to address issues of inequality and lack of diversity within higher education by providing opportunities to scholars from under-represented backgrounds.
Programs & Projects
The American Slavery’s Legacy across Space and Time initiative combines qualitative research with big-data methodologies to bring to light how an entire community was transformed by American slavery, while also establishing ethical norms for this type of emerging research.
An American Dilemma for the 21st Century is an archive and digital platform designed to preserve and extend the seminal work of Swedish economist Gunner Myrdals on the American ideals of equal opportunity and democracy in the face of deep and enduring racial discrimination.
The Just Tech program empowers an intersectional network of scholars and practitioners to imagine more equitable technological futures. Just Tech will foreground questions of justice and public impact to enrich discourse and inform policy on technological development.
Measure of America promotes fact-based public debate about well-being and access to opportunity in the United States, focusing on three issues Americans care deeply about: health, education, and standard of living.
The SSRC-Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program aims to address, over time, the problem of underrepresentation in the academy at the level of college and university faculties.
The Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network (SSMN) is a multi-pronged program serving the Sloan Scholar community through a strategic mix of professional development, mentoring, networking and leadership training opportunities.
Peer Review Objectives and Guidelines for Equity and Representation in the Social Sciences (PROGRESS) is a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Adaptation grant project intended to identify and address institutional processes that inhibit the advancement of women and intersectional scholars in the social sciences.
The Autoethnographies of a Pandemic Project supports student researchers from Brooklyn College to craft autoethnographies of their own and their family and community experiences, both in the months and years …