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Announcing the 2026 Innovation in Religion and Spirituality Seed Grant recipients

The Social Science Research Council is proud to announce the ten scholars selected to receive 2026 Innovation in Religion and Spirituality seed grants. The seed grants aim to foster research on the wider implications of new forms of religious and spiritual life. This program is offered from the Religion and the Public Sphere program with the support of the Luce Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.  Seen as a whole, the funded projects examine novel practices, new technologies, and new forms of religious or spiritual mobilization and their ripple effects in politics, capitalism, and social …

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Items & Issues Newsletter: September 2026

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. 

African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics (APDD) News

Announcing the 2026 African Peacebuilding & Developmental Dynamics (APDD) Fellows

The SSRC is excited to announce the 2026 cohort of fellows for the African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics (APDD) program. This year’s cohort will conduct expert research on diverse topics and how they relate to peacebuilding in Africa. This year, the APDD has awarded 9 Individual Research Fellowships, 4 Dissertation Proposal Fellowships, 8 Dissertation Research Fellowships, 6 Dissertation Completion Fellowships, and 1 Research Policy Fellowship.

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Announcing the 2026-2027 Graduate Research Fellows

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.

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Items & Issues Newsletter: August 2026

 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.

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2026 Japan Global Network Collaborative Grant Awardees 

The SSRC and the Japan Foundation New York have awarded new research grants to five teams leading cross-disciplinary, cross-national research teams working on better understanding of important social issues. The projects address informal caregiving in aging societies, populism in the age of artificial intelligence, migrant civic inclusion, healthcare spending, and demographic futures in Japan.

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Items & Issues Newsletter: July 2026

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.

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Items & Issues Newsletter: June 2026

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.

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