social science dissertation grants

National Institute of Social Sciences (NISS) Dissertation Grant Program

• Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
• Social Sciences
• Spring Quarter (April-June)
• Research Grant
• Must be nominated to apply
• No citizenship requirements

NISS Dissertation Grants are designed to support outstanding Ph.D. students who need additional resources to complete doctoral work that promises to significantly advance their fields of study. NISS anticipates making two to four grants in amounts ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 each . NISS may consider granting larger amounts on a case-by-case basis.

UCHICAGO Deadline

April 15, 2024

Eligibility

NISS seeks projects in the fields of Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology , and Sociology. Interdisciplinary projects that include one or more of these fields as a major component may also be considered.

Application Process

Eligible doctoral students at the University of Chicago must apply to be nominated through UChicagoGRAD. Each application should include the following:

Curriculum Vitae

A personal statement of no more than 750 words describing the project, the planned uses for money requested, and any relevant skills (i.e., statistics, foreign languages).

A one-page project budget

A letter of support from your academic sponsor that addresses (1) your academic qualifications and (2) the merits of your research

Please submit all applications to Margaret Kurkoski at [email protected] no later than April 15, 2024 at 11:59PM CT.

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National Institute of Social Sciences launches 2023 Dissertation Grants Program

The National Institute of Social Sciences is pleased to launch its 2023 Dissertation Grants Program. NISS Dissertation Grants are designed to support outstanding Ph.D. students who need additional resources to complete doctoral work that promises to significantly advance their fields of study. Nomination packets due to UCSB by May 1.

The National Institute of Social Sciences is pleased to launch its 2023 Dissertation Grants Program . NISS Dissertation Grants are designed to support outstanding Ph.D. students who need additional resources to complete doctoral work that promises to significantly advance their fields of study.

For 2023, NISS is seeking nominations in the fields of Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology . Interdisciplinary projects that include one or more of these fields as a major component may also be considered.

Award For 2023, NISS again anticipates making two to four grants in amounts ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 each . NISS may consider granting larger amounts on a case-by-case basis. Grants may be used to cover any necessary expenses related to completing a dissertation, including but not limited to travel to a library or archive, photography or photocopying, field research, and conference support (including fees, childcare, and per diem).

Nomination Process and Deadline Each nomination must include the following information, uploaded via the application portal:

• The nominee's CV
• The nominee's personal statement of no more than 750 words describing the project, the planned uses for money requested, and any relevant skills (i.e., statistics, foreign languages) the nominee possesses
• A one-page project budget
• A letter of support from the nominee's academic sponsor that addresses (1) the nominee's academic qualifications and (2) the merits of the nominee's research

UC Santa Barbara can submit TWO nominations. Please submit all of the required documents by Monday, May 1 , to [email protected] .

Dissertation Research Improvement Grants

The Social Sciences Research Institute awards Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (DRIG) of up to $5,000 to support or partially support dissertation research projects proposed by graduate students in the School of Social Sciences who have completed their coursework and who have advanced to candidacy or will advance to candidacy by the time the DRIG awards are made. All subject areas and methodologies within the School will be considered equally.

Proposals will be evaluated by the School’s Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC), chaired by the Dean of Social Sciences, and a six-member panel of faculty, one from each department (Sport Management excepted).

Awards have a duration of 18 months. Pre-award costs may be incurred for expenditures up to 90 days before the award start date with approval from Chris ( [email protected] ); however, no-cost extensions will not be granted, and the SSRI will reclaim any remaining funds.

Application Deadline (Due by 11:45 p.m. CST)

Fall: Sunday, October 29, 2023 Spring: Sunday, March 24, 2024

Award Information (FY24)

Estimated Number of Awards: 8 Anticipated Funding Amount per Award: $5,000 The expected start dates are as follows: Fall cycle on January 1st, and Spring cycle on July 1st.

Eligibility

• The student must be a currently registered Rice University graduate student in a Social Sciences discipline
• Student must have completed their graduate coursework and advanced to candidacy or will advance by the time the award is made.
• The thesis/dissertation committee must have approved both a topic for the research and a particular approach to that topic.

Proposal Guidelines and Application Packets

Submit the completed online DRIG application by the deadline (the online DRIG application may be found at the bottom of this page). Incomplete applications will not be considered for funding.

Prepare all materials using a minimum of 11-point Arial or Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins all around. Upload as a PDF. Be sure to include the following:

• The proposal narrative (single-spaced, three pages maximum) should discuss the proposed research and clearly explain, in terms accessible to a non-specialist academic audience, the research question of interest, the methods to be used, and their justification. Explain how and why this research question is significant and innovative in the context of existing literature in the discipline. Identify the anticipated end product of the research and discuss the feasibility of completion within the anticipated timeline. Indicate when you plan to begin the proposed research, where it will be conducted, and when it will end.
• Include a list of cited references (no page limit). Each reference should include the names of all authors (in the same sequence in which they appear in the publication), the article and journal title, book title, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication.
• Itemized budget and justification, maximum of two pages. Be sure to include the item, cost, quantity, and rationale for each item. Funds may support research-related travel (meals will not be allowed), human subject payments, supplies, and unique computer needs (e.g., laptop computers, software, printers, etc.) if the need is tied to the project and other miscellaneous research expenses. Financial requirements for dissertation research vary widely across projects and disciplines; we, therefore, welcome those applications asking for a modest amount of funding (e.g., requests for supplies, participant recruitment costs, or other miscellaneous expenses) as well as applications that have more intensive funding needs (e.g., research-related travel requests or special computer equipment needs not supplied by the department). The maximum amount a student may apply is $5,000, and there is no minimum.
• A curriculum vita, maximum of two pages.
• A description of other funding agencies to which the proposal will be submitted, if applicable; identify the funding source and total funding that has been or will be requested.
• A letter from the student’s advisor is required. It should include the following: a.) Confirmation that the dissertation committee has approved the student’s proposal. b.) Discussion of the impact and feasibility of the proposed research; c.) Assessment of the appropriateness of the proposed budget. d.) This letter should be submitted to Chris Rodriguez at [email protected] . The letter must be received no more than three business days after the DRIG proposal deadline . It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that the letter has been submitted by the deadline .

Successful Applications

Awardees are required to submit two pieces of information:

• Those who receive a DRIG are required to submit a 1-2 page research report within 60 days of the expiration of the award, and any remaining funds will be returned to the SSRI at that time. There is no specific report format that must be followed. Still, reports typically include information such as a summary of the research performed and the findings, whether and how your anticipated findings differed from the actual findings, and whether and how the project evolved. At this time, the SSRI does not require a specific accounting of how the funds were spent, but your report could also discuss how funds were generally spent and why actual expenditures differed from your proposed budget.
• If additional support for your dissertation project is received, please let Chris know as soon as possible.

If you cannot scroll through the complete application form, click on a field within the application and use your tab key to navigate to the attachments section of the form.

Dissertation Grants

The National Institute of Social Sciences (NISS) invites nominations for its 2022 Dissertation Grants Program. NISS Dissertation Grants are designed to support outstanding Ph.D. students who need resources to complete doctoral work that promises to significantly advance their fields of study. Any accredited U.S. university that awards doctoral degrees in the social sciences is eligible to nominate a graduate student for an NISS Dissertation Grant.

For 2022, NISS seeks nominations in the fields of  Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology . Interdisciplinary projects that include one or more of these fields as a major component may also be considered. 

• Duke Internal: April 19, 2022
• The submission deadline for this year’s competition is May 8, 2023

Any accredited U.S. university that grants doctoral degrees in the appropriate social science fields is eligible to nominate a graduate student to receive an NISS Dissertation Grant. Each university may nominate up to three (3) candidates per grant period. If a university nominates more than one candidate, they may come from one or more of the disciplines listed above.

For 2022, NISS anticipates making two to four grants in amounts ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 each . NISS may consider granting larger amounts on a case-by-case basis.

Owing to the sponsor's restriction on the number of applications that may be submitted from Duke, anyone wishing to pursue nomination should submit the following materials as one PDF.

Required materials:

The nominee’s CV 

The nominee’s personal statement of no more than 750 words describing the project, the planned uses for money requested, and any relevant skills (i.e., statistics, foreign languages) the nominee possesses

A one-page project budget

A letter of support from the nominee’s academic sponsor that addresses (1) the nominee’s academic qualifications and (2) the merits of the nominee’s research (letters of support can also be sent directly to [email protected])

Internal application link: https://www.grantinterface.com/sl/QTDUxS  

Instructions for creating an account (if needed) and submitting your materials:  https://ctsi.duke.edu/about-myresearchproposal

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Call for Dissertation Grant Proposals AERA Grants Program Seeks Proposals for Dissertation Grants

Deadline: May 30, 2024

With support from the National Science Foundation, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Grants Program seeks proposals for Dissertation Grants. The AERA Grants Program provides advanced graduate students with research funding and professional development and training. The program supports highly competitive dissertation research using rigorous quantitative methods to examine large-scale, education-related data. The aim of the program is to advance fundamental knowledge of relevance to STEM education policy, foster significant science using education data, promote equity in STEM, and build research capacity in education and learning. Since 1991, this AERA Program has been vital to both research and training at early career stages.   

The Grants Program encourages the use of major data sets from multiple and diverse sources. It emphasizes the advanced statistical analysis of data sets from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other federal agencies. The program also supports studies using large-scale international data systems (e.g., PISA, PIRLS, or TIMMS) that benefit from U.S. federal government support. In addition, statewide longitudinal administrative data systems (SLDS) enhanced through federal grants are also eligible for consideration. The inclusion of federal or state administrative information that further expands the analytic capacity of the research is permissible. The thrust of the analysis needs to be generalizable to a national, state, or population or a subgroup within the sample that the dataset represents.

The Grants Program is open to field-initiated research and welcomes proposals that:

• develop or benefit from advanced statistical or innovative quantitative methods or measures;
• analyze more than one large-scale national or international federally funded data set, or more than one statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) or incorporate other data enhancements;
• integrate, link, or blend multiple large-scale data sources; or
• undertake replication research of major findings or major studies using large-scale, federally supported or enhanced data.

The Grants Program encourages proposals across the life span and contexts of education and learning of relevance to STEM policy and practice. The research may focus on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to such issues as student achievement in STEM, analysis of STEM education policies, contextual factors in education, educational participation and persistence (pre-kindergarten through graduate school), early childhood education and development, postsecondary education, and the STEM workforce and transitions. Studies that examine issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion across STEM topics and/or for specific racial and ethnic groups, social classes, genders, or persons with disabilities are encouraged.

Applicant Eligibility Dissertation Grants are available for advanced doctoral students and are intended to support the student while analyzing data and writing the doctoral dissertation. Proposals are encouraged from the full range of education research fields and other fields and disciplines engaged in education-related research, including economics, political science, psychology, sociology, demography, statistics, public policy, and psychometrics. Applicants for this one-year, non-renewable award should be advanced doctoral students at the dissertation writing stage, usually the last year of study. Applicants may be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents enrolled in a doctoral program. Non­U.S. citizens enrolled in a doctoral program at an U.S. institution are also eligible to apply. Underrepresented racial and ethnic minority researchers as well as women, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.

Data Set Eligibility The dissertation research project must include the analysis of large-scale data. The data set can originate from one or multiple sources, including (1) federal data bases, (2) federally supported national studies, (3) international data sets supported by federal funds, or (4) statewide longitudinal administrative data systems (SLDS) enhanced through federal grants. Although the emphasis is on large-scale education data sets and systems, other social science and health-related databases that can advance knowledge about education and learning are eligible for consideration.

Many national data resources, including important longitudinal data sets, have been developed or funded by NCES, NSF, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Institutes of Health, or other federal agencies. International datasets such as PISA, PIAAC, TIMMS, and others are supported. If international data sets are used, the study must include U.S. education.

NCES has enhanced and improved SLDS through grants to nearly every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and America Samoa. This federal investment has produced state-level data from pre-K to grade 12, through higher education, and into the workforce. Many SLDS are available for analysis and can be used to address salient issues in education research or linked with other data sets.

Data Set Access The data set(s) of interest must be available for analysis at the time of application. Use of public or restricted-data files is permissible. Prior to receiving funding, students must provide documentation that they have permission to use the data for the research project. In many cases, graduate students will gain access to restricted files through a faculty member or senior scholar.

Data Sharing All data or data-related products produced under the AERA Grants Program must be shared and made available consonant with ethical standards for the conduct of research. Grantees are expected to place article-related data, [1] codebook or coding procedures, algorithms, code, and so forth in an accessible archive at the time of publication. Also, at a reasonable time after completion of the dissertation research, all data or data-related products must be archived at the AERA-ICPSR Data Sharing Repository supported by NSF and located at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. AERA provides guidance to facilitate the data sharing and archiving process.

Dissertation Grant Award

Award Component 1, $27,500 Stipend . AERA will award each grantee up to a $27,500 stipend to study education, teaching, learning, or other education research topics using one or multiple large-scale databases. The funds can be used for research-related expenses such as tuition, living expenses, travel to secure data enclaves or scholarly conferences, books, computer equipment, and other expenses directly related to conducting this research. As part of the proposal, applicants provide a budget that outlines anticipated research-related expenses. AERA encourages cost sharing from universities in the form of tuition assistance, office space, university fees, and other expenses. In accordance with AERA's agreement with NSF, institutions cannot charge overhead or indirect costs to administer the grant funds. In addition to the funding, grantees will be paired with a Governing Board member who will serve as a resource and provide advice and feedback to grantees and monitor grantees’ progress.

Award Component 2, AERA Research Conference. Grantees will participate in an AERA research conference held in Washington, DC. During this 2-day conference grantees will participate in seminar-type sessions on substantive, methodological, and professional issues. Also, they will have the opportunity to network and interact with the Grants Program Governing Board, senior scholars and researchers, other graduate students who use large-scale datasets in their research, and representatives from key federal agencies such as the National Center for Educational Statistics, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education. The award will cover all travel and lodging expenses for grantees to participate in the conference.

Award Component 3, AERA Annual Meeting Capstone Research Institute. Each spring AERA holds its Annual Meeting which brings together over 15,000 researchers, scholars, and policy leaders to present their research, share knowledge, and build research capacity through over 2,000 substantive sessions. Grantees will take a data analysis or appropriate methods course while attending the AERA Annual Meeting. The grantees will present their research in an invited poster session along with other graduate students who received dissertation support from AERA and other prestigious fellowship programs. Finally, grantees will participate in a Capstone conference directly after the Annual Meeting that will address issues such as building a research agenda, searching for a faculty appointment, and publishing research. Grantees must include travel and lodging expenses to the Annual Meeting in their budget.

Informational Webinar Applicants are encouraged to watch the informational webinar to learn more about the AERA Grants Program and discuss the application process..

Project Dates AERA is flexible on research project start dates, depending on what is best for the applicant. The earliest date a grant may start is approximately three months following the application deadline. Alternatively, an award start date several months or more after that may be requested.

Funding Restrictions Dissertation Grantees may not accept concurrent grant or fellowship awards from another agency, foundation, institution or the like for the same dissertation project that is funded by the AERA Grants Program. If the awardee is offered more than one major grant or fellowship for the same project for the same time period, in order to accept the AERA Grants Program Dissertation Grant, the other award(s) must be declined. Awardees may accept Research Assistant or Teaching Assistant appointments at their doctoral institutions and may have additional employment.

If the applicant is employed by a contractor of NCES, NSF, other federal agency, state agency, or other entity that provides the dataset proposed for the project, the dissertation research must not be considered part of the applicant's work responsibilities. An additional letter from the applicant's employer is required as part of the application submission, stating that the dissertation project is separate from the applicant's job duties. This letter must be sent electronically by the deadline to [email protected] .

Evaluation Criteria Evaluation criteria include the significance of the research question, the conceptual clarity and potential contribution of the proposal, the relevance to an important STEM education policy issue, the strength of the methodological model and proposed statistical analysis, and the applicant’s relevant research and academic experience. Additionally, the review criteria include the following: What is already known on the issue? How might this project inform STEM education policy? How does the methodology relate specifically to the research question? Does the applicant know the data set? Does the analytic plan fit the question and the data? How does this project promote equity in STEM education and learning? Is the applicant qualified to carry out the proposed study? Reviewers will be members of the AERA Grants Program Governing Board. Due to the large volume of applications received, the AERA Grants Program is unable to provide individual feedback on unfunded proposals.

Reporting Requirements Dissertation Grantees will be required to submit a brief (3-6 pages) progress report midway through the grant period. A final report will be submitted at the end of the grant period. The final report consists of an extended dissertation abstract (3-6 pages), a statement of research dissemination and communication activities and plans (1-3 pages), and the complete approved dissertation. It should be submitted electronically to [email protected] . All reporting requirements and deadlines are outlined in the award letter.

Funding Disbursement Funding will be linked to the approval of the progress report and final report. Grantees will receive one-half of the total award at the beginning of the grant period, one-quarter upon approval of the progress report, and one-quarter upon approval of the final report. Grants are awarded through the grantee’s institution. In accordance with AERA's agreement with NSF, institutions cannot charge overhead or indirect costs to administer the grant funds.

Considerations in the Development of the Proposal Applicants are strongly encouraged to read Estimating Causal Effects: Using Experimental and Observational Designs , by Barbara Schneider, Martin Carnoy, Jeremy Kilpatrick, William H. Schmidt, and Richard J. Shavelson prior to submitting a dissertation grant proposal. Selection bias is a recurring issue during the review process and should be addressed in the proposal.

Applicants should choose research topics that can be supported by the samples and variables contained in the proposed data set(s). Applicants should also be familiar with the User Guides and/or Manuals (e.g., use of design weights and design effects) of the specific data sets. Applicants should be familiar with statistical methods and available computer programs that allow for sophisticated analyses of the selected data.

Applicants should explicitly address the curricular content when it applies. Applicants are encouraged to capitalize on the capacity of large-scale data sets to examine diverse populations, including racial, ethnic, social class, and gender groups. Studies are encouraged that promote or inform diversity, equity, and inclusion for underrepresented population as well as across STEM topics. The proposed topic must have education policy relevance, and the models to be tested must include predictor variables that are manipulable (e.g., course work in mathematics, instructional practices used by teachers, parental involvement). Studies focusing on STEM education policy are strongly encouraged. Studies that model achievement test data should clearly define the achievement construct and identify the kinds of items to be used to operationalize the topic of interest. Also, when planning to use existing sub-scales, the applicant should describe why these sub-scales are appropriate and how they will be applied. Existing sub-scales provided by NCES or other agencies may not be appropriate for the proposed construct.

Dissertation Grant Application Guidelines AERA Grants Program

Application Deadline All applications for the AERA Grants Program must be completed using the AERA online application portal by 11:59pm Pacific time on May 30, 2024 . An applicant may submit only one proposal to the AERA Grants Program for review at any one time. Due to the large volume of applications received, the AERA Program is unable to provide individual feedback on unfunded proposals.

Submission Information Please enter the background information requested in the proposal submission portal. This includes the applicant’s contact and background demographic information. Also, enter the proposal title, amount of funding requested, and the start and end dates of the project.

Dataset(s) used: Name data set(s) used (e.g., ECLS­K, ELS:2002, IPEDS, CCD, AddHealth, SLDS-State, PISA, and so forth). Proposals must include the analysis of at least one large-scale federal, international, or state administrative data system.

Dissertation abstract Enter the abstract of your proposed research project (250 words maximum).

Contribution to the field Briefly describe the potential contributions this research will make to the field of education (250 words maximum). You may cut and paste or type into the text box.

• Statement of how this research advances the current state of knowledge in the field, substantively and/or methodologically
• Theoretical or conceptual framework for the research
• Brief review of relevant research/policy literature
• Research questions, hypotheses to be tested
• Description of methodology including the data set(s) and justification for selecting data file to address research question; any additional or supplemental data sample (e.g., groups used, exclusions to sample, and estimated sample sizes); rationale for variables used; and specification and clarification of variables and analytic techniques
• Data analysis plan and/or statistical model or formulas, appropriately defined
• Brief dissemination plan for this research including proposed conferences to present the findings and potential scholarly journals to publish the research  
• Variables list: A categorized list of the variables from the NCES, NSF, or other data set(s) that will be used in this research project. (2 single-spaced pages maximum)  
• References cited (not part of page limit)  
• Budget . Awards for Dissertation Grants are up to $27,500 for 1­year projects. The budget must include funds to attend the AERA Annual Meeting. The funds can be used for research-related expenses such as tuition, living expenses, travel to secure data enclaves or scholarly conferences, books, computer equipment, and other expenses directly related to conducting this research. AERA encourages cost sharing from universities in the form of tuition assistance, office space, university fees, and other expenses. In accordance with AERA's agreement with NSF, institutions cannot charge overhead or indirect costs to administer the grant funds. There is no specific template for the budget. It may be a simple 2­column format or a more complex spreadsheet. (no page limit)  
• Research and academic employment history
• Relevant graduate courses in statistics and methodology
• Relevant publications and presentations
• Relevant professional affiliations and/or memberships

Please combine items 1-5 as one PDF document and upload on online application.

Letter(s) of support: The letter(s) must be sent separately, by the faculty member. One substantive letter of support is required from the applicant's primary faculty dissertation advisor that includes an indication of the applicant's current progress toward the degree and expected date of completion, and of the student's potential for success in his or her anticipated career path.

If the applicant is from a discipline other than education, a second letter of support from a faculty advisor who has an education research background is also required if the primary faculty advisory does not specialize in education research. Although this second letter should focus mainly on the applicant's qualifications, research experience, and potential, it should also include a brief paragraph on the advisor's own education research experience.

Further Questions Contact George L. Wimberly, Co-Principal Investigator, AERA Grants Program ( [email protected]) or 202-238-3200 if you have questions regarding the application or submission process. NOTE: All awards are contingent upon AERA's receiving continued federal funding.

Visit the AERA Grants Program Website at http://www.aera.net/grantsprogram .

[1] Awardees with access to data under restricted access provisions are expected to archive a detailed specification of the data set so that others can request the same data under the same or similar restricted conditions. 

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is pleased to announce the selection of the 2024 Data Fluencies Dissertation Research Grantees. These five researchers— Yeonhee Cho , Jewell Ruth-Ella Humphrey, Stephen J. Neville , Summer Sullivan , and Ashleigh Washington —will each receive up to $15,000 in grants to pursue research projects on information, data, and technology.

The five winning projects all support the SSRC Data Fluencies Project’s goal of envisioning more just and equitable futures through the responsible use of data and technology. 

These awards, made in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Digital Democracies Institute , are enabled by generous support from the Mellon Foundation . 

The following are recipients of the 2024 Data Fluencies Dissertation Research Grants:

Yeonhee Cho

Yeonhee Cho’s project will explore human-computer interaction, game-based learning, and the transformative role of technology in education.

Jewell Ruth-Ella Humphrey

Jewell Ruth-Ella Humphrey’s project will explore the potential to digitally archive the records of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

Stephen J. Neville

Stephen J. Neville’s project will examine cultural and technological aspects of Indigenous Métis musical traditions.

Summer Sullivan

Summer Sullivan’s project will explore implications of automation in the Salinas Valley lettuce industry.

Ashleigh Washington

Ashleigh Washington’s project will explore the uses of data and technology in the US child welfare system.

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• Russell Sage Foundation Dissertation Research Grants

The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) has established a dissertation research grants (DRG) program to support innovative and high-quality dissertation research projects that address questions relevant to RSF’s priority areas:  Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context ;  Future of Work ;  Race, Ethnicity and Immigration ;  Immigration and Immigrant Integration ; and  Social, Political, and Economic Inequality . Proposed projects must be closely aligned with the funding priorities listed on the RSF website for any of these areas, contribute to RSF’s mission to improve social and living conditions in the U.S., and demonstrate appropriate use of relevant theory, innovative data, rigorous research methods, and measures.

In partnership, RSF and the  W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research  will support dissertation research on employment-related topics in any discipline, with particular interest in policy-relevant research pertaining to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.

Click here to read about our June 2022 Dissertation Research Grantees. Click here to read about our May 2023 Dissertation Research Grantees.

Application Information •  Upcoming deadlines •  Eligibility and Guidelines •  Submit a proposal •  Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about applying for a Dissertation Research Grant •  DRG Budget Template •  Examples of Successful LOIs and Proposals

Current and Recent Dissertation Research Grantees : Mari Sanchez, "Non-White Meta-Categories in the United States and United Kingdom: Unpacking the Language of Racial Difference and Justice," May 2024 Saúl Ramírez, "Assimilation Pathways, Deportation Effects, and American Identity," May 2023 Victoria Asbury-Kimmel, "Assessing the Effects of Immigration Discourse on Subjective Evaluations of Americanness and Resource Allocation," July 2022

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• Lloyd & Susanne Rudolph Field Research Grants

The CISSR Dissertation Completion Grant provides funding and office space for doctoral students in the final year of the dissertation. CISSR supports doctoral research on international, transnational, and global questions. Dissertation fellows are expected to engage with others at CISSR and contribute to intellectual life of the Center. Fellows are asked to acknowledge CISSR support in all related publications and submit an end-of-year report.

• Eligibility: University of Chicago doctoral candidates in the Division of Social Sciences who plan to defend the dissertation in the coming academic year are eligible.
• Support: the award is a residential fellowship, in which fellows are provided shared office space in Pick Hall 102 and a $5,000 research allowance that can be used for travel, computing, books, or conference costs.

The application portal will open  February 6, 2024  and close on  March 31, 2024 . 

Requirements

• Candidate’s CV
• Cover Letter (maximum of 1000 words)
• Dissertation Précis (maximum 2000 words)

Applications

Apply for the CISSR Dissertation Fellowship

Deadline to submit applications:  March 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM (CT)

For questions, please contact CISSR at [email protected] .

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Social Sciences – Dissertation Research Improvement Grant

Application deadline:.

• Proposals are due by 11:45pm, Sunday, March 28, 2021
• Estimated Number of Awards: 5
• Anticipated Funding Amount per Award: $5,000

Information:

The Social Sciences Research Institute awards Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (DRIG) of up to $5,000 support or partially support dissertation research projects proposed by graduate students in the School of Social Sciences who have completed their coursework and who have advanced to candidacy or will advance to candidacy by the time the DRIG awards are made. All subject areas and methodologies within the School will be considered equally. For more detailed information, please visit the grant's homepage .

Please contact Chris Rodriguez .

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Senem Aydın-Düzgit

Senem Aydın-Düzgit is an associate professor of international relations at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Sabancı University and a senior scholar and the research and academic affairs coordinator at the Istanbul Policy Center. She was previously a Jean Monnet Chair in the Department of International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University. Her main research interests include EU enlargement, EU-Turkey relations, discourse studies, politics of identity, and democratization. She was awarded the 2014 Young Scientist Award by the Turkish Science Academy. She earned her PhD at Vrije Universiteit Brussels and her articles have been published in West European Politics , Cooperation and Conflict , South European Society and Politics , Alternatives , International Relations , and Politique Européenne . She is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), and a board member of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM).

Featured Publications

• Senem Aydın-Düzgit and Alper Kaliber (eds.), Is Turkey De-Europeanising? Encounters with Europe in a Candidate Country (Routledge, 2017).
• Senem Aydın-Düzgit and Nathalie Tocci, Turkey and the European Union (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
• Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Constructions of European Identity: Debates and Discourses on Turkey and the EU (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

I Ketut Putra Erawan

I Ketut Putra Erawan is an active scholar and researcher working on democracy issues in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. He is the executive director of Institute for Peace and Democracy, an Indonesian think-tank and the implementing agency of the Bali Democracy Forum. In 2005-2009, Dr. Erawan served as director of the Graduate Program in Political Science at Gadjah Mada University. He was a special advisor for the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, an expert for the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Indonesia, a member of the Steering Committee for the Australia and Indonesia Governance Research Partnership, a member of the Academic Committee of the Rotary Peace Center at the Chulalongkorn University in Thailand,, and a consultant for the World Bank, World Bank Institute, UNDP, and various Indonesian agencies.

• I Ketut Putra Erawan, “Tracing the Progress of Local Governments since Decentralisation,” in Indonesia: Democracy and the Promise of Good Governance , ed. Ross H McLeod and Andrew MacIntyre (ISEAS, 2007).
• I Ketut Putra Erawan, “ Political Reform and Regional Politics in Indonesia ,” Asian Survey 39, no. 4 (1999): 588–612.

Andreas E. Feldmann

Andreas E. Feldmann is an associate professor in the departments of Latin American and Latino Studies and Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research specializes in international relations with a focus on Latin America. Among the topics he investigates are human rights, population uprooting, political violence and terrorism, and international cooperation and development. His work has appeared in Latin American Politics and Society , Terrorism and Political Violence , Beyond Law , Revista de Ciencia Política and Migración y Desarrollo . Feldmann has worked as a consultant for the International Development Research Centre and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and served as assistant to the Special Rapporteur on Migrant Workers and Their Families at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2000-2006). He earned a PhD in political science at the University of Notre Dame.

• Andreas E. Feldmann, Stephen Baranyi, and Lydia Bernier, “ Solidarity Forever? ABC, ALBA and South-South Cooperation in Haiti ,” Third World Quarterly 36/1 (2015): 162-178.
• Andreas E. Feldmann, “Measuring the Colombian Success Story: The Limits of Democratic Security Policy,” Revista de Ciencia Politica 32/2 (2012): 739-752.
• Andreas E. Feldmann, Miguel Lengyel, Bernabé Malacalza, and Antonio Ramahlo, “ Lost In Translation: The ABC Cooperation Efforts for the Reconstruction of Haiti ,” Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 6/3 (2011): 45–62.
• Andreas E. Feldmann and Víctor Hinojosa, “ Terrorism in Colombia: Logic and Sources of a Multidimensional and Ubiquitous Political Phenomenon ,” Terrorism and Political Violence 21, no. 1 (2009): 42–1.

Tjiurimo Alfredo Hengari

Tjiurimo Alfredo Hengari is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the South African Institute for International Affairs and lectures part-time at the University of the Witwatersrand. Hengari holds a PhD and a master’s degree in political science from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, a master’s in international studies from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and a bachelor of arts in Politics and Sociology from the University of Namibia. He taught international relations at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and at the Rouen Business School in France. He has previously served as chef de cabinet and senior special assistant to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Namibia and worked as a consultant to the United Nations in Burundi.

• Tjiurimo Alfredo Hengari, “ The European Union and Global Emerging Powers in Africa: Containment, Competition or Cooperation? ” South African Journal of International Affairs 19, no. 1 (2012): 1–24.
• Tjiurimo Alfredo Hengari, “ EU-UN Partnership in Military Conflict Management: Whither the African Union Security Infrastructure? ” African Journal on Conflict Resolution 11, no. 1 (2011): 153–172.

Maiko Ichihara

Maiko Ichihara is an associate professor at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. She earned her PhD in political science from George Washington University and a Master’s degree in political science from Columbia University. Her research focuses on international democracy assistance and civil society. She is currently working on a comparative study of democracy assistance provided by different developed democracies.

• Maiko Ichihara, “ Japan’s Strategic Approach to Democracy Support ,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2014.
• Maiko Ichihara, “ Understanding Japanese Democracy Assistance ,” Carnegie Paper, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2013.

Gilbert M. Khadiagala

Gilbert M. Khadiagala is the Jan Smuts professor of International Relations and head of the department of International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. His research focuses on politics, security, foreign policy, and conflict resolution in Africa. Professor Khadiagala is currently doing research on South Africa’s democracy promotion efforts, leadership in post-conflict transitions, and mediation of electoral conflicts in Africa.

• Gilbert M. Khadiagala, Meddlers or Mediators? African Interveners in Civil Conflicts in Eastern Africa , E.J. Brill, 2007.
• Gilbert M. Khadiagala and Terrence Lyons (eds.), Conflict Management and African Politics: Ripeness, Bargaining, and Mediation , Routledge Studies in Security and Conflict Management series, 2008.
• Gilbert M. Khadiagala and Fritz Nganje, “The Evolution of South Africa’s Democracy Promotion in Africa: From Idealism to Pragmatism,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs , 2015.

Sook Jong Lee

Sook Jong Lee is professor of public administration at Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul, South Korea. Since 2008, she has also served as president of the East Asia Institute, a Seoul-based independent think-tank. Her research focuses on civil society, political economy and democracy in Korea and Japan. Her previous positions include Senior Research Fellow at the Sejong Institute, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Professorial Lecturer at the SAIS of Johns Hopkins University. Professor Lee received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University.

• Sook Jong Lee, “ South Korea as New Middle Power Seeking Complex Diplomacy ,” EAI Asia Security Initiative Working Paper No. 25 (East Asia Institute, 2012).
• Sook Jong Lee, “ South Korea's Soft Power Diplomacy ,” EAI Issue Briefing No. MASI 2009-01 (East Asia Institute, 2009).

Federico Merke

Federico Merke is professor of international relations and director of undergraduate studies in political science and international relations at San Andrés University, Argentina. He is also a researcher for the National Council for Scientific Research and an associate in the Latin American Program at the IDEAS research center at the London School of Economics. His main research interests include international relations theory, human rights, international security, and Latin American international politics. Merke holds a master of arts in international studies from Warwick University and a PhD from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Buenos Aires.

• Federico Merke, “English School and Constructivism in Latin American Security Studies,” in Routledge Handbook of Latin American Security , ed. Arie Kacowicz and David Mares (forthcoming).
• Federico Merke, “Neither balance nor bandwagon: South American international society meets Brazil’s rising power,” International Politics 52, no. 2 (2015): 178–192.
• Federico Merke, “Foreign Policy and Human Rights Advocacy: An Exercise in Measurement and Explanation,” Human Rights Review 14, no. 2 (2015): 131–155.

Tsveta Petrova

Tsveta Petrova is an Associate Research Scholar at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. She received her Ph.D. in political science from Cornell University in 2011 and then accepted post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard University’s Davis Center and then at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. Petrova’s work focuses on the study of democracy, democratization, and democracy promotion. She is the recipient of several research and teaching awards as well as many fellowships and grants, including the SSRC Dissertation Completion fellowship, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars research grant, the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research fellowship, a Smith Richardson Foundation grant, and a Council for European Studies Pre-dissertation fellowship. Her book on democracy export by new democracies is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

• Tsveta Petrova, “ How Poland Promotes Democracy ,” Journal of Democracy 23, no. 2 (2012): 133.
• Tsveta Petrova, “ Solidarity’s Promise ,” Foreign Policy , June 26, 2013.

Niranjan Sahoo

Niranjan Sahoo is Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi since 2004. He has published extensively on issues of democracy, human rights, decentralized governance, constitutionalism, and nation-building in South Asia. His current research focuses on the domestic drivers of India’s foreign policy objectives with regard to democracy and human rights in South Asia as well as new social movements and the changing nature of democracy in India. A recipient of 2010 ASIA Fellow Award (funded by The Ford Foundation), Dr. Sahoo recently was a Visiting Asia Fellow at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.

• Jason Miklian and Niranjan Sahoo, “ Supporting a More Inclusive and Responsive Urban India ,” Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2016.
• Niranjan Sahoo, “Beyond Security and Development: Exploring links between Governance and Maoist Insurgency,” in India's Human Security: Lost Debates, Forgotten People, Intractable Challenges , ed. Jason Miklian et al (London: Routledge, 2013).

Oliver della Costa Stuenkel

Oliver della Costa Stuenkel is an assistant professor of International Relations at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo, where he coordinates the São Paulo branch of the School of History and Social Science and the executive program in International Relations. Oliver holds a BA from the Universidad de Valencia in Spain, a Master in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was a McCloy Scholar, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

• Oliver della Costa Stuenkel, The BRICS and the Future of Global Order , Lexington Press, 2015.
• Oliver della Costa Stuenkel, editor, Brazil on the Global Stage: Power, Ideas and the Liberal International Order , Palgrave, 2015.
• Oliver della Costa Stuenkel, India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA): The Rise of the Global South? , Routledge Global Institutions, 2014.

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Nasa awards expand research capabilities at institutions nationwide.

Tiernan P. Doyle

Nasa headquarters.

NASA is awarding approximately $45 million to 21 higher-education institutions to help build capacity for research. The awards were made possible through the Minority University Research and Education Project Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO) and Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grants, which are funded by the agency’s Office of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Engagement.

“NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project Institutional Research Opportunity and Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research awards help institutions raise their technological bar,” said Torry Johnson, deputy associate administrator of STEM Engagement Programs at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “When institutions enhance their capabilities and infrastructure, they become more competitive in their research, which opens doors to valuable experience and opportunities.”

Minority University Research and Education Project Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO) Awards

Seven minority-serving institutions will receive approximately $5 million each over a five-year period of performance for projects that span a variety of research topics. The institutions and their proposed projects are:

• Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage – Alaska Pacific University Microplastics Research and Education Center
• California State University in Fullerton – SpaceIgnite Center for Advanced Research-Education in Combustion
• City University of New York, Hunter College in New York – NASA-Hunter College Center for Advanced Energy Storage for Space
• Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee – Integrative Space Additive Manufacturing: Opportunities for Workforce-Development in NASA Related Materials Research and Education
• New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark – AI Powered Solar Eruption Center of Excellence in Research and Education
• University of Houston in Houston – NASA MIRO Inflatable Deployable Environment and Adaptive Space Systems Center
• University of Illinois in Chicago – Center for In-Space Manufacturing: Recycling and Regolith Processing

NASA’s MIRO award was established to strengthen and develop research capacity and infrastructure of minority serving institutions in areas of strategic importance and value to NASA missions and national priorities.

Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Award

NASA establishes partnerships with government, higher education, and industry to create lasting improvements in research infrastructure and capacity for specific states or regions, while enhancing its national research and development competitiveness. The program is directed at those jurisdictions that have traditionally not participated in competitive aerospace and aerospace-related research activities.

NASA will award 14 institutions up to $750,000 each over the course of a three-year period of performance. The awarded institutions and their projects are:

• University of Mississippi in University – Development of a Lagrangian Stability Analysis Framework for High-Speed Boundary Layers
• University of Alabama in Huntsville – Testing the functionality and performance of a large area detector for STROBE-X
• Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge – Colloidal Assembly: Understanding the Electric Field Driven Assembly of Colloids and its Applications (Science Mission Directorate)
• West Virginia University in Morgantown – Science Mission Directorate: Bringing Gravitational-Wave Astronomy into the Space Age: Next-Generation Waveform Modeling of Black-Hole Binary Coalescences for Laser Intererometer Space Antenna Data Analysis
• University of Puerto Rico in San Juan – NASA EPSCoR: Space Technology Mission Directorate/Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Advancing High-Energy, Cycle-Stable Sulfur-Based Batteries for NASA Space Missions: An Integrated Framework of Density Functional Theory, Machine Learning, and Materials Innovation
• Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada – NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California: Prospecting and Pre-Colonization of the Moon and Mars using Autonomous Robots with Human-In-The-Loop
• Oklahoma State University in Stillwater – A.7.4.2 Biosignature Detection of Solar System Ocean Worlds using Science-Guided Machine Learning
• Iowa State University in Ames – Johnson Space Center, Ames Research Center: Non-GPS Navigation System Using Dual Star/Planetary Cameras for Lunar and Deep-Space CubeSat Missions
• University of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks – NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland: The Alaska – Venus analog: synthesizing seismic ground motion and wind noise in extreme environments
• University of the Virgin Islands in Charlotte Amalie – University of the Virgin Islands Etelman Observatory in the Era of Time Domain and MultiMessenger Astronomy: Preparing for a New Era of Science Productivity
• University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu – Cubesats for Climate Change Detection of Transient Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• University of Idaho in Moscow – Science Mission Directorate and Goddard Space Flight Center: Improving Global Dryland Streamflow Modeling by Better Characterizing Vegetation Use of Deep-Water Resources Using NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment/Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On, SWOT, and Land Information System
• University of Arkansas in Little Rock – AR- III-Nitride Ultraviolet Laser Diodes for Harsh Environments, Space Based Communications, and Remote Sensing (Space Technology Mission Directorate)
• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City – Science Mission Directorate: High Spatial-Temporal Resolution Soil Moisture Retrieval using Deep Learning Fusion of Multimodal Satellite Datastreams

Both awards were made through NASA’s Office of STEM engagement solicitations. They promote STEM literacy to enhance and sustain the capability of institutions to perform NASA-related research and education, which directly supports the agency’s mission directorates.

For more information about NASA STEM, visit:

https://stem.nasa.gov

Gerelle Dodson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4637 [email protected]

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Graduate College

Science of language.

Ashby Martin, a third-year doctoral student in the neuroscience program, didn’t always want to study the brain. Initially, he wanted to be a librarian. At a young age, he memorized his library card number and looked up to the librarians. “My favorite place to go was the library,” he said. “Librarians get to give people knowledge and resources all for free. They give everyone the same access.”  

Buried in books, Martin found himself wanting to investigate things that were unknown; things that hadn’t been written down yet or even discovered, especially about the brain.   

This inclination led Martin to pursue neuroscience. Martin received his bachelor’s in neuroscience and behavior at the University of Notre Dame before joining Iowa’s doctoral program. The faculty, the connection to the hospital, and the foundational research that originated on campus were driving factors in his decision to come here. Martin specifically recalled Iowa’s psychological studies on patient S.M. (“The Woman with No Fear”) and meeting program director Dr. Dan Tranel.  

“That’s the past. [Tranel] is part of the present, and I could be part of the future. My research could be part of that future,” he says.  

Third-year doctoral student Ashby Martin. Photo provided by Ashby Martin.

Connecting through language  

At Iowa, Martin studies developmental neurolinguistics, particularly in young children who are bilingual in Spanish and English. His focus is on “numbers as language”, and he examines the neurological impact and visual representation of shifting between the individual’s multiple linguistic repertories through neurological imaging.   

One in three children under the age of eight speaks two languages. In Iowa, there are robust multilingual communities including West Liberty, Columbus Junction, and Amish populations who speak Pennsylvanian Dutch. As part of his studies, Martin has been able to connect with some of these multilingual communities in addition to participants in the Iowa City area.   

“Visually you can see the learning happening,” he says. “You can connect with people and share something local Iowans actually have . You can share effects that you see in their brains.”   

As someone who grew up speaking two languages, Martin has been able to use his Spanish to further connect with children who are involved in his studies and their parents. He noted that language barriers can impact a parent's involvement with their children’s activities , but being able to listen and respond to their questions in Spanish has bridged that gap.   

Martin notes that connecting with the parents has been a positive byproduct of this research. “Now there’s a parent who is not only engaged in research but is engaged with their kid in a new way that they maybe didn’t have access to before,” he describes. 

Martin leads a psychology and neuroscience station at a STEM event with students from West Liberty High School. Photo provided by Ashby Martin.

Expanding access to science  

One of the largest components of Martin’s research is the community impact. He recalls a story from Tranel, who also graduated from Notre Dame, about the implications of a university-required swim test. Despite its positive intentions, the test drew lines between students who had financial access to a pool and those who didn’t, emphasizing several considerations for research.   

“What is a good purpose? What is good execution? What is the back end of something that you are doing now, and how does it affect the local community?” Martin asks.

  Martin hopes that his work will shift people’s perspectives on language learning, especially modifying the mindset that one needs to achieve proficiency at an early age to learn a new language. Instead, Martin’s research emphasizes that developing a dual representation in the brain requires practice.   

Although he is only in his third year of his PhD, Martin hopes to eventually also publish in Spanish. One of his favorite parts of his work is addressing the lack of Spanish language representation in science by providing something that is normally only in English in Spanish. For Martin, this allows more people to be involved.  

With such a large emphasis on community engagement in his work, it’s no surprise that Martin can strike up a conversation with anyone over something as simple as the colors on a booth. For him, language is a common ground for developing connections with complete strangers.   

In the long-term, Martin hopes to bring his work to other countries outside of the United States to see if this dual representation presents in the same way across international multilingual populations. He describes this as seeing if it’s not just an “Iowa effect, but a human effect.”  

 For now, his team is focusing on bringing their technology out of the lab and into homes where language flows freely.  

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Cyber policy and ethics students shine in global competition

Meet the team:

Wilhelmina Cuono, Hannah Illingworth and Tammy Nguyen

A team of University of South Carolina students had to solve an international crisis: technology used to monitor the southern American border had been compromised. 

The situation was fictional — part of a competition called   Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge   — but their solution to the problem had to be based on real-world policy dealing with technology that crosses borders. 

Hannah Illingworth, a major in cyber policy and ethics at USC, says the challenge gave her a new-found respect for policy makers and the cyber community. 

“There are so many external factors my team had to consider that go beyond governance and policy,” Illingworth says. 

“We were given an intelligence report in which the simulated event was tracked through news and social media, the dark web, confidential government communications and more. Then, we worked together to produce policy recommendations that we presented to the judges.” 

The team made it through two rounds of the competition, which upped the stakes with each stage. As semi-finalists, they had only 12 hours to propose their solutions and worked overnight before presenting to the judges in the morning. 

Wilhelmina Cuono, who is also a cyber policy and ethics major, says the experience gave her a better idea of what her future career might be like. 

“My dream job would be to work for the FBI in a counterterrorism unit,” she says. “So, the challenge was extremely relevant.” 

Cuono initially planned to enroll in a computer science program, but when she learned about USC’s cyber policy and ethics degree, she decided to come to South Carolina. 

“The degree was an option that I didn’t see in any other schools I applied to,” she says. “I’m less interested in software development, but more with keeping computer systems safe. I also wanted to focus on the human aspect and keeping people safe.” 

As a relatively new degree program in the College of Arts and Sciences, the cyber policy and ethics degree program allows students to combine their interest in technology with the social sciences and liberal arts. 

Carl Dahlman, director of the Walker Institute for International and Area Studies, says the name of the program is broad to reflect the global applications of the degree. 

“‘Cyber Policy and Ethics’ was a way of doing something really new, teaching students to understand the way in which our online interactions are fundamentally a question of human behavior,” he says. “It can’t be studied in a localized context. It has to be made relevant to broader world affairs.” 

The degree offers a range of math and technical courses, interdisciplinary courses in areas like sociology, criminal justice and international policy, plus flexible electives and a foreign language requirement. 

In addition, the program offers experiential learning opportunities for students, such as internships for course credit and the Cyber 9/12 Strategy competition. 

Chris Becht, a USC alumnus and veteran who worked with the intelligence community for many years, was one of the program’s earliest supporters. 

“As a member of the college’s Board of Visitors, this degree caught my attention because these kinds of concerns have been around for decades,” he says. “In the intelligence community, the cyber threat became a prominent concern right after 9/11, when folks in leadership recognized how destructive a cyberattack could be.” 

Becht was cheering on USC’s cyber challenge team as they made it to the semi-finals of the competition. This year, the team had to compete virtually, but Becht and his wife, Elizabeth, hope to make it possible for the team to attend in-person next time. 

“Traveling to these kinds of events is so important for students because they meet their peers and professionals in the field, and they can learn so much by asking questions about what they do for their careers,” he says. 

Both Illingworth and Cuono are planning to compete again next spring. Their goal is to make it all the way to the finals, where they'll have only 15 minutes for the challenge. 

“This is very realistic to what they’ll see in their careers,” Becht says. “In a cyberattack, the responding agencies might only have minutes to act.” 

No matter how they place, the students say that participating in itself is a big win. 

“Learning to face real-world challenges and knowing how to navigate government systems to be heard is such an important part of our degree,” Illingworth says. “The policy side is just as important as our technical skills.” 

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.