Event

African Peacebuilding Network (APN) Event

2023 Next Gen Post-Doctoral Virtual Writing Fellowship Workshop, November 28, 2023.

On November 28th, the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen) Program hosted the Next Gen Post-Doctoral Virtual Writing Workshop. The workshop brought together Next Gen Post-Doctoral Writing Fellows and program mentors to discuss their draft manuscripts, strategies, and plans for publication. The event was convened to facilitate the finalization of fellows’ manuscripts based on their Next Gen-supported research projects for publication in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, or the completion of book proposals/manuscripts. The workshop began with welcome remarks by the APN and Next Gen program director, and the introduction of workshop participants. The …

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2023 College and University Fund Conference: Social and Behavioral Science as R&D

As a capstone to the Council’s Centennial year, this convening brought together leaders of consortium member universities, philanthropic foundations, and public funders of science to celebrate the achievements of 100 years of socially valuable social and behavioral science, and to explore new opportunities for social and behavioral science R&D to find cost-effective and scalable solutions to our most pressing societal challenges. Click here to learn more and read a full summary of the event.

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What Have Megastudies Taught Us about Successfully Encouraging Increased Vaccination?

In this lecture, Professor Milkman will discuss three massive field experiments testing dozens of different ways of encouraging increased vaccination. First, she will discuss a “megastudy” encouraging flu vaccination at doctor’s appointments among 47,306 patients of two large U.S. health systems in which 42 scientists worked in teams to design a total of 19 different text reminders using a variety of different behavioral science principles.

African Peacebuilding Network (APN) Event

5th Biennial Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA)

The Social Science Research Council’s (SSRC) African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen) program hosted a panel at the 5th Biennial Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa (#ASAA2023) under the theme: “Repatriating Africa: Old Challenges & Critical Insights.” The event was co-organized by the ASAA in partnership with New Horizons University (UNH) and the Arrupe Center for Research and Training (CARF), in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from October 25-28, 2023. The panel was an opportunity for former fellows of the program to showcase their research findings, connect with peers from

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What Conventional Wisdom Gets Wrong About Political Polarization

In this lecture, Professor David Broockman explores how Americans are politically polarized, why–and why not–this matters, and potential solutions. Professor Broockman discusses how his research has challenged conventional wisdom on: (1) to what extent Americans’ frustrations with government result from politicians being too extreme, (2) to what extent voters’ dislike of each other–so-called affective polarization–contributes to the nation’s political challenges, and (3) how we all can have more productive and persuasive conversations with our political rivals.

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Policy-Relevant Social and Behavioral Science: Effective Governance

In this virtual convening of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences, William Howell, director of the Center for Effective Government at the University of Chicago, and Cyrus Samii of New York University and Executive Director of the Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) network, discussed each organization’s approach to balancing high-quality research with practical partnerships with government officials, NGOs, and journalists.

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Building an Evidence Base for Climate Interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and facilitating adaptation to climate change requires effective public investments, yet many policies and programs lack crucial evidence of their effectiveness. In low and middle income countries, the cost of putting resources toward ineffective policies is particularly high. This talk discusses two recent randomized controlled trials aimed at filling the evidence gap. The first tests novel approaches to reduce agricultural emissions in India. The second improves smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate shocks in Niger. Findings highlight the need for piloting before scaling up policy — in both projects, cost effectiveness was improved through innovative policy design.

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What Can Linked Administrative Data Sets Teach Us About Eviction And Poverty In America?

The report leading to the creation of the SSRC in 1923 outlined several major challenges for social science: data collection, interpretation, measurement, and causality. This lecture will explore the extent to which newly available administrative datasets — linked together to create what is sometimes referred to as “big data” — can help address these challenges and contribute to our understanding of the causes and consequences of eviction and poverty in the United States. The lecture will draw heavily on a study of eviction in Chicago and New York, which is joint work with Robert Collinson, John Eric Humphries, Nick Mader, Davin Reed and Daniel Tannenbaum.

African Peacebuilding Network (APN) Event

APN-Next Gen Regional Proposal Development Workshop

From July 28-29, the African Peacebuilding Network (APN)-Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen) Program hosted a Regional Proposal Development Workshop for Southern Africa in Gaborone, Botswana in collaboration with the University of Botswana. The workshop brought together facilitators and prospective applicants to the APN-Next Gen fellowships to discuss the proposal-writing process in relation to the intent and scope of APN-Next Gen fellowships. The workshop featured participants from universities in Botswana, Malawi, Madagascar, South Africa, and Lesotho. After the opening of the workshop on the 28th, Prof. Gabriel Faimau (University of Botswana) delivered the workshop’s keynote lecture, “Developing Innovative

African Peacebuilding Network (APN) Event

APN-Next Gen Research Methods Workshop

From July 24-27, 2023, the African Peacebuilding Network (APN)-Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen) Program hosted its Research Methods Workshop for the 2023-24 cohort of APN Individual Research fellows and the Next Gen Doctoral Dissertation Proposal, Research, and Completion fellows. The workshop was hosted in collaboration with the University of Botswana at the Grand Palm Hotel and Convention Center in Gaborone, Botswana. On Monday, July 24th, the workshop began with opening remarks from the APN-Next Gen Program Director, Dr. Cyril Obi, and Prof. Gabriel Faimau, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Botswana and the head of

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