SSRC and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences renew agreement.

PETLab at Parsons: The New School for Design and the SSRC-led New Youth City Learning Network have released the prototype for Mannahatta: The Game – an iPhone game that teaches systems thinking, ecology, spatial navigation and social collaboration.

The Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) provides workshops and up to $5000 in summer research funding to PhD students to help them strengthen their dissertation proposals. Application deadline: January 29, 2010.

The Media, Technology and Culture Program has a new blog called Data Drip, which is a collective conversation about data, data policy, and research on media, information, and communication policy.

The Transformations of the Public Sphere essay forum is marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with contributions by Andrew Arato, Konrad H. Jarausch, and other key observers of contemporary Europe.

The deadline for grant applications for the Islam and Muslims in World Contexts grants program is January 18, 2010.

The Religion Program recently convened the first meeting of its Spirituality, Political Engagement, and Public Life Working Group, which will lead a Ford Foundation sponsored project studying the impact of "spiritual" actors and institutions on American civic life.

Eligible Mellon-Mays Fellows are invited to apply for the Proposal Writing and Dissertation Development Seminar. Competition opens: December 14, 2009. Ends: January 15, 2010.