Providing grants for outstanding social policy research since 1997

The Economic Incorporation of lmmigrants Across the 50 United States

Lauren Apgar is a PhD candidate in sociology at Indiana University. Her research interests center on the fields of immigration, stratification, and political sociology. Her dissertation examines the association between U.S. state immigration laws and immigrants' labor market outcomes. She has coauthored publications in Geoforum and Population Review.

Conditional Cash Transfer, Child Labour and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Ghana

Rebecca Nana Yaa Ayifah, is a Phd economics candidate at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research interest include social protection; education; labour and health, with a focus on children and women in developing countries. Prior to starting her doctoral degree Rebecca worked with UNDP and IFPRI.

Enabling Justice: State Cooperation with the International Criminal Court

Franziska Boehme is a PhD candidate in political science at Syracuse University. Her research focusses on human rights and international organizations. In her dissertation, she analyzes different forms of cooperation between African states and the International Criminal Court.

Paid Family Leave and Infant Health: Evidence From State Programs

Special Award: Eli Ginzberg Award 

Lindsey Bullinger is a PhD candidate at Indiana University researching child, family, health, and anti-poverty policy. Her work examines how public policies affect children and families' health and well-being, especially low-income families.

Making a New Life: Syrian Refugee Resettlement in the United States and Canada

Heba Gowayed is a PhD candidate in sociology at Princeton University studying the short-term adaptation of Syrian refugees who have been resettled in the US, Canada and Italy.

A Partnership to Prevent Suicide in Homeless Individuals

Lori Holleran is currently obtaining her MPH and PhD, in health policy and clinical psychology, respectively. Her research interests include examination of trauma related behavioral outcomes, specifically risk for suicide.  Further, Lori is passionate about initiatives integrating technology with psychosocial treatments to offer more comprehensive and accessible care to vulnerable populations.

Examining How Big Data and Analytics Shape Coordination and Decision Making in Organizations

Special Recognition: Donald R. Cressy Award

Arvind Karunakaran is a PhD candidate in management (information technologies and organizational studies) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research examines how and in what ways do innovations in digital technologies and organizational forms create new uncertainties in the workplace, and how they reconfigure coordination, decision making, and organizational accountability.

Nationalism and Territorial Conflict in an Era of Interdependence: Explaining the Dynamics of Northeast Asia's Island Disputes

Special Recognition: Harold D. Lasswell Award

Katrin Katz, a doctoral candidate is political science at Northwestern University, previously served in various positions in the U.S. government focused on East Asia. She holds a master's degree in East Asian and international security studies from the Fletcher School and a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Collaborative Water Governance in the Colorado River Basin: Understanding Coalition Dynamics and Processes of Policy Change

Elizabeth A. Koebele is a PhD candidate in the environmental studies program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research examines how collaborative governance approaches can help improve the sustainability of water resources for a diversity of stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin. 

Local immigration enforcement: Have local initiatives made us safer or driven us apart?

Ashley Muchow is a PhD candidate in policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. Her work centers on low-income and vulnerable populations, with a focus on immigration and welfare policy. Her doctoral research explores how local immigration enforcement efforts impact communities and families.

Transformative Nudging: A Framework for Designing Policy Ecologies that Support Living Well

Special Recognition: John L. Stanley Award

Fay Niker is PhD candidate in political theory at the University of Warwick. Before coming to Warwick, Ms. Niker attained an M.Phil in political theory from the University of Oxford and a BA (Hons) degree in Philosophy and Political Science from Trinity College, Dublin.

Exit, Voice, Loyalty: Responses to Islamist Political Violence

Special Recognition: Irving Louis Horowitz Best Overall Project Award

Kerry is a doctoral candidate in political science at Stanford University. Her work explores reactions to Islamist political violence in the Islamic world and obstacles to mobilization against extremist ideologies. She received her A.B. summa cum laude from Bowdoin College and was a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia from 2009–2010. 

Variants of Significance? Constructions and Understandings of Genetic Risk for Cancer

Special Recognition: Martinus Nijhoff Award

Ronna is a PhD candidate in sociomedical sciences/sociology at Columbia University. Her research interests include gender, sexuality, reproduction, genetics/genomics, medicalization, risk, embodiment, and science studies. She formerly worked as a community sexuality educator and earned her MS in health education and BS in women’s studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

WHO's In Charge?: The World Health Organization (WHO) Confronts Private Authority

Mara Pillinger is a PhD candidate in political science at George Washington University. Mara holds an MSc from Oxford University, where she was a Clarendon Scholar, an MPH from Emory University, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked a project officer at the NYC Department of Health, and has conducted fieldwork in Ghana, South Africa, and Cameroon.

Controlling the Field: The History and Contemporary Practices of Social Experimentation in International Development

Special Recognition: Robert K. Merton Award

Margarita Rayzberg is a PhD candidate in the department of sociology at Northwestern University. Her dissertation focuses on the history of social experimentation in the context of US technical foreign aid. Her work draws on and contributes to the sociology of knowledge, social studies of science, and sociology of development.

From Unequal Play to Unwanted Contact: Title IX in American Universities, 1972-2014

Celene Reynolds is a PhD candidate in sociology at Yale University. Her research interests center on social change, law, organizations, politics, gender, and higher education. Her dissertation examines why the implementation of Title IX has shifted from an emphasis on gender equity in athletics to sexual harassment on campus.

We Are Not Sorry for the People We Kill: The Ideology, Targets, and Intentions of Nigeria's Boko Haram Insurgency

Kirk Ross is a PhD candidate in defence studies at King's College London. As an embedded journalist, Kirk covered the wars in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and he is the author of The Sky Men, a history of World War II airborne operations. 

The Nonprofit Organization Boom and Its Consequences for Charitable Giving

Danielle Vance-McMullen is a PhD candidate in public policy with a concentration in economics. Danielle’s research examines the causes and consequences of nonprofit market structure. Her dissertation focuses on the effects of the recent, dramatic growth of nonprofit organizations. Danielle holds Master's degrees in nonprofit management, philanthropic studies, and economics.

The Counterfactual Self: Community and Identity Pathways among American Muslims

Eman Abdelhadi is a PhD candidate in the sociology department at New York University. She uses mixed methods to study gender inequality, religion, ethnic identity, and community formation. Her dissertation project explores how gender constrains community and identity construction in Muslim communities.