SSRC Update - June 2012

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Ira Katznelson Named Next SSRC President

Following a comprehensive search, Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at Columbia University, has been selected as the next president of the Social Science Research Council and will take up the post on September 1, 2012. President Craig Calhoun said of his successor: “Ira Katznelson is one of the foremost social scientists in the world today and a wonderful choice to lead the SSRC. His work has been influential across many disciplines, reshaping research agendas both in the United States and throughout the world. Through a career of intellectual productivity and distinction, he has also been an institutional leader, not least at the SSRC itself.”

The International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) program has announced its 2012 cohort. Seventy-seven Fellows were selected across thirteen disciplines.

The SSRC-funded Project on Middle East Political Science has released Arab Uprisings: New Opportunities for Political Science, a set of essays reflecting on theoretical and methodological assumptions in light of the Arab Spring.

Migration program director Josh DeWind discussed US immigration policy on China Radio International's news magazine Today [MP3].

The Nation drew on Measure of America findings for a story on the Paycheck Fairness Act.

SSRC Fellows appeared in a range of publications and media outlets: Daniel P. Aldrich (Abe 2006) wrote "Hard Lessons for U.S. Nuclear Safety from Fukushima Meltdown" for CNN, Adam Baird (DSD 2011) published work on gangs and violence in Medellín [PDF] in the Journal of Conflictology, Jennifer Robertson (Abe 2010) contributed "From Uniqlo to NGOs: The Problematic ‘Culture of Giving’ in Inter-Disaster Japan" to the Asia Pacific Journal, and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera (DSD 2011) was featured by KRGV in Rio Grande, Texas, in a radio story titled "Recent Indictments Won't Have Big Impact on Zetas."

New Possible Futures essays: on African Futures, “The Coming Elections in Zimbabwe: Hysterical Headlines and Happy Losers,” by Andrew Iliff, and on the Occupy Movement, “Rediscovering Politics,” by Jedediah Purdy.

A number of SSRC fellowship and grant competitions are now open: the China Environment and Health Initiative's Grants for Collaborative Research (deadline: August 28), the Abe Fellowship (September 1) and the Abe Fellowship for Journalists (September 15), and the Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship’s Faculty Field Competition (October 3).