The Russell Sage Foundation recently approved 26 research grants in its programs on Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context; Future of Work; Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration; and Social, Political, and Economic Inequality and in the special initiatives on Immigration and Immigrant Integration and Promoting Educational Attainment and Economic Mobility among Racially, Ethnically, and Economically Diverse Groups after the 2023 Supreme Court Decision to Ban-Race Conscious Admissions at Colleges and Universities. Two grants were co-funded with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and one grant was co-funded with the Hewlett Foundation and W.T. Grant Foundation. One supplemental grant was also approved to Annette Lareau (University of Pennsylvania) for the project “How Economic Elites Transmit Wealth Across Generations.”
The research projects approved include studies on the roles of class and educational attainment in responses to calls to address climate change; unionization efforts for janitors and healthcare workers; how workers providing in-person services use and experience digital marketplace platforms; the incorporation of Puerto Rican climate migrants in Florida; how transfer students affect racial and ethnic diversity at selective colleges and universities; the development of racial and ethnic identities among multiracial Americans over time; the impacts of non-shooting gun incidents on educational outcomes; and how legal representation impacts eviction case outcomes for tenants.
Following is a list of the recent research grants. Please click on each one for a brief description of the research project.
Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context
Rachel Wetts (Brown University) will examine the roles of social class and education level in how people respond to calls to address climate change.
Future of Work
Jesse Bruhn (Brown University), Matthew Gudgeon (Tufts University), Adam Isen (Johns Hopkins University), Aaron Phillips (West Point), and Luke Gallagher (West Point) will examine how early-career jobs shape long-term economic outcomes of young adults without a college degree.
Erica Dobbs (Pomona College) will examine unionization efforts in the South focusing on the Justice for Janitors campaigns.
Jamie McCallum (Middlebury College), Adam Dean (George Washington University), Atheendar Venkataramani (University of Pennsylvania), and Paula Chatterjee (University of Pennsylvania) will examine the effects of unionization on workplace conditions for healthcare workers.
Simon Quach (University of Southern California) will examine how signaling a preference for remote work affects the number of interview invitations a job candidate receives.
Benjamin Shestakofsky (University of Pennsylvania) will examine how workers providing in-person services use and experience digital marketplace platforms.
Immigration and Immigrant Integration
Elizabeth Aranda (University of South Florida) will examine the incorporation of Puerto Rican climate migrants in Florida. – This grant is co-funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York
Anthony Fontes (American University) will examine how different forms of criminal governance—including corrupt law enforcement and criminal organizations—shapes migration experiences. – This grant is co-funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York
Promoting Educational Attainment and Economic Mobility among Racially, Ethnically, and Economically Diverse Groups after the 2023 Supreme Court Decision to Ban-Race Conscious Admissions at Colleges and Universities
Sarah Reber (The Brookings Institution) will examine how transfer students affect racial and ethnic diversity at selective colleges and universities. – This grant is co-funded by the Hewlett and W.T. Grant Foundations
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
Joanna Dreby (State University of New York, Albany) will investigate how working conditions in Chinese-owned restaurants and grocery stores have changed over the past five years.
Matthew Hall (Cornell University) and Jiwon Lee (Cornell University) will examine the development of racial and ethnic identities among multiracial Americans from infancy to young adulthood.
Susan B. Long (Syracuse University), Austin Kocher (Syracuse University), and Laila Hlaas (Tulane University) will examine the impact of “juvenile dockets” on the experiences of unaccompanied minor children facing deportation in immigration court.
Social, Political, and Economic Inequality
Robin Bartram (University of Chicago) and Japonica Brown-Saracino (Boston University) investigate how gender influences the ways individuals become homeowners and their experiences of homeownership.
Asia Bento (University of California, Irvine) and Vellore Arthi (University of California, Irvine) will examine how access to creditworthy cosigners and the impact of cosigning differs by race and class.
Lindsey Bullinger (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Felipe Lozano-Rojas (University of Georgia) will examine how changes in the sales tax rate on diapers affects maternal employment.
Jennifer Carlson (Arizona State University) will examine how experiences with guns are related to political attitudes, identities, and relationships across people’s lives.
Obie Clayton (Clark Atlanta University) and Earl Wright, II (Rhodes College) will organize a two-day symposium examining the works of W.E.B. Du Bois and other early Black scholars.
Ingrid Ellen (New York University), Martha Galvez (New York University), and James Reisinger, (New York University) will examine the experiences of families receiving unconditional direct cash payments in addition to rapid rehousing services.
Yana Gallen (University of Chicago) and Dmitri Koustas (University of Chicago) will examine the impact of childcare subsidies on maternal employment, childcare spending, wages, and job retention.
David Grusky (Stanford University), Christopher Bail (Duke University), Corey Fields (Georgetown University), and Kathryn Edin (Princeton University) will lead a project enhancing the infrastructure of the American Voices Project, an experimental public-use platform for collecting qualitative data.
Sarah Komisarow (Duke University) will investigate the impacts of non-shooting gun incidents in high school on educational outcomes.
Marta Lachowska (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research) and Stephen A. Woodbury (Michigan State University) will examine the extent to which the gender earnings gap is explained by differences in work hour policies by employers.
Stephanie Pierce (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Solange Muñoz (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), and Wendy Bach (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) will investigate how legal representation impacts eviction case outcomes for tenants.
Heather Schoenfeld (Boston University) and Michael Campbell (University of Denver) will investigate what factors influence states’ adoption of decarcerative policies.
Tate Twinam (College of William and Mary), Ryan Gallagher (Northeastern Illinois University), and Allison Shertzer (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) will examine the impact of zoning on housing development, housing stock, and housing affordability.
Maureen Waller (Cornell University) and Peter Rich (Cornell University) will examine the impact of legislation designed to reduce race and class disparities in driver’s license suspensions.