News

The Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize for Visual Sociology is now accepting applications for the 2027 competition. The Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize for Visual Sociology recognizes students in the social sciences who incorporate visual analysis in their work. It is named for Rachel Dorothy Tanur (1958–2002), an urban planner and lawyer who cared deeply about people and their lives and who was an acute observer of living conditions and human relationships.

As we observe the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, we are revisiting essays from Items that examine the attacks and their aftermath through the lens of social science.The Items essay collections “After September 11” and “10 Years After September 11” along with other post-9/11 social science analyses illuminate a host of questions about social organization, grief, religion, militarism, and our changing social conditions in the wake of war and crisis. 

The Council is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026–2027 CUF Graduate Research Fellowships, which support interdisciplinary social science projects by advanced graduate students affiliated with CUF member institutions. Each fellowship provides an annual award of $7,500 to a graduate student at one of the member institutions of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences.

 This month our newsletter focuses on the Social Security Act, signed 91 years ago. The Council’s Committee on Social Security, established in 1935, advised the Roosevelt Administration’s Committee on Economic Security, bringing social science to bear on the creation of a national system of social insurance. We highlight how social insurance connects to democracy, risk privatization, and more.

With the FIFA World Cup coming to a close this weekend and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence earlier this month, the depths of social and cultural investments in national identity are on full display. This month our newsletter explores nationalism, a multivalent concept that social scientists, including at the SSRC, have wrestled with since the early 20th century.

This Pride month, our newsletter takes a closer look at gender and sexuality, rich fields of study that offer vital insights into broader social life. From 1996 to 2006, the SSRC’s Sexuality Research Fellowship Program (SRFP), with support from the Ford Foundation, catalyzed a new generation of sexuality scholars in a wide range of academic disciplines, including anthropology, communications, history, and sociology.