PLEASE JOIN US IN CELEBRATING THE 2023-2024 ISSR SCHOLARS

The Institute for Social Science Research is pleased to announce the selection of the 2023-24 ISSR Scholars. This year's cohort brings an especially strong focus to vital questions in public policy, democrat inclusion, and public opinion. These six faculty members were selected from a competitive field of applicants, based on the strength and complementarity of their proposals to develop important new research spanning cultural, economic, environmental and political domains.

ISSR Director Jason Kamilar, Professor of Anthropology and a 2017 ISSR Scholar himself, notes the strength of social sciences across the disciplines at UMass, and credits the Scholars program with supporting faculty to win the next level of grant funding that can advance their research impact and careers, “ISSR Scholars are leading ground-breaking research programs and shaping ideas in fields from digital disinformation, to access to higher education, to the opioid epidemic. ISSR is thrilled to launch work with this new cohort of innovative social scientists."

ISSR Scholars have emerged from all of the UMass Colleges, and over 80% of them have become successful PIs on grants from private philanthropic and government agencies. 

With support from ISSR and their departments, this year's Scholars will participate in a year-long biweekly seminar that helps each of them develop a strong research grant proposal. In addition to attending in-depth sessions on grant writing and receiving valuable peer feedback on their proposals, ISSR Scholars are given unique opportunities to consult with nationally recognized experts about their proposals.  All of the faculty benefit from intensive support from ISSR's Research Methodology and Grant Support professionals, and from the interdisciplinary communication and learning that occurs as part of the program. The time, resources and relationships available to ISSR Scholars has had a demonstrated impact on promising faculty's careers, allowing Scholars to develop a successful large grant proposal by the end of their Scholar year - and raise over $38 million in research funding since 2012. 

The mission of ISSR is to promote excellence in social science research. One of its most important goals, served by the Scholars Program, is to strengthen existing social science infrastructure on campus in order to stimulate high-quality scholarship and build capacity for externally sponsored research grants..

Learn more about the ISSR Scholars program.

MEET OUR 2023-2024 SCHOLARS

AMEL AHMED
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Project Title: Framing Democracy: Can Democracy Frames Impact Support for Competition and Inclusion?

CHRISTOPH BAUNER
Assistant Professor
Department of Resource Economics
Project Title: Poverty and Inflation - Differential Effects Across Package Sizes

SETH GOLDMAN
Honors Associate Professor
Department of Communication, Commonwealth Honors College
Project Title: Understanding How People of Color Respond to Narratives of Rising Diversity

RONG RONG
Associate Professor
Department of Resource Economics
Project Title: Promote Grassroots Green Energy with Behavioral Interventions: A Randomized Controlled Trial

KELSEY SHOUB
Assistant Professor
School of Public Policy
Project Title: Shaping Data to Shape Policy: How Transparency & Data Design Informs Policy

VIVIANA CHIU SIK WU
Assistant Professor
School of Public Policy
Project Title: Distributive Justice in the Third Sector: Theorizing and Tracing Philanthropic Networks in the Grants Market