The Russell Sage Foundation is pleased to announce forty awards made in the second round of its Dissertation Research Grants program. Six grants are co-funded with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and four grants are co-funded with The Policy Academies. This initiative supports innovative and high-quality dissertation research projects that address questions relevant to RSF’s priority areas. Applicants can request up to $10,000 in funding. Following is a list of the grant recipients. Please click on each one for a brief description of the research project.
Alaa Abdelfattah (University of California, Davis) will investigate the impacts of opening million-dollar plants on local labor markets. – This grant is co-funded with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Layne Amerikaner (University of Maryland, College Park) will investigate the experiences of LGBTQ+ workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sakaria Auelua-Toomey (Stanford University) will investigate how a lack of racial diversity among journal editors obstructs the advancement of scholarship on race.
Trevor Auldridge-Reveles (University of California, Santa Barbara) will examine the experiences of adolescents living in Dixon, California, one of the most upwardly mobile, racially diverse rural communities in America. – This grant is co-funded with The Policy Academies.
Faith Bailey (University of Michigan) will investigate how present-day labor organizers use social memory regarding past labor struggles to enhance labor organizing and solidarity.
Daphne Blakey (Cornell University) will examine how police unions impact officer behavior and the ability of department management to address officer misconduct.
Amanda Bonheur (University of California, San Diego) will investigate whether changes in qualification requirements in job ads can help diversify applicant pools. – This grant is co-funded with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Rachel Brown-Weinstock (Princeton University) will examine how Baptist congregations and residents of Richmond County, North Carolina, experienced racialized political polarization during the summer of 2020.
Naoka Carey (Boston College) will investigate how family members’ criminal justice system contact contributes to intergenerational transmission of social and economic inequality.
Jaylexia Clark (University of Notre Dame) will investigate how racial and gendered occupational segregation shape labor participation in the on-demand gig economy. – This grant is co-funded with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Oscar Cornejo (Northwestern University) will investigate the long-term impacts of undocumented legal status for undocumented immigrants and formerly undocumented immigrants.
Sadie Dempsey (University of Wisconsin, Madison) will investigate why many politically engaged citizens hold low levels of trust in the government.
Kevin Dwyre (University of Delaware) will examine how unions have historically negotiated automation and technological change in the workplace. – This grant is co-funded with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Brandon Enriquez (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) will investigate whether the rise in Japanese import competition in the 1970s affected manufacturing employment and how the impact varied by race. – This grant is co-funded with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Samuel Frederick (Columbia University) will examine affective polarization -- the love of one’s own party and hatred of the opposing party – among American politicians.
Daniel Gomez-Vasquez (Texas A&M University) will examine how factors such as hiring constraints and past hiring experiences affect hiring discrimination of Black and Hispanic workers.
Andre'nay Harris (Texas A&M University) will examine the experiences of residents forced to relocate due to the creation of “drowned towns” – towns that were intentionally flooded when dams were built. – This grant is co-funded with The Policy Academies.
Katharine Harwood (New York University) will examine the impact of Hurricane Sandy on rents for New Yorkers who receive housing choice vouchers.
Ethan Jenkins (University of Notre Dame) will investigate the effect of unemployment insurance on extreme outcomes such as eviction, homelessness, and criminal involvement. – This grant is co-funded with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Minhye Joo (University of California, Riverside) will explore how immigrants’ experiences with street-level bureaucrats shape their political attitudes and political participation.
Felipe Juan (Howard University) will examine the role of state eligibility requirements on equitable access to unemployment insurance benefits.– This grant is co-funded with The Policy Academies.
Cristine Khan (Graduate Center, City University of New York) will examine how anti-Blackness and racial hierarchies affect identity and community formation among second-generation Indo-Caribbeans in New York City and Toronto.
Reilly Kincaid (Purdue University) will examine how factors such as gender, social class, and perceived job options affect perceptions of employed parents.
Jonathan Kowarski (University of California, Los Angeles) will investigate how regulations placing a disproportionate share of compliance costs on new or small firms impact local labor markets and worker outcomes.
Angela LaScala-Gruenewald (Graduate Center, City University of New York) will investigate the political origins of legal financial obligations in two New York suburbs and how these origins influence their enforcement.
Farah Mallah (Harvard University) will examine how the addition of advanced courses to a school’s curriculum impacts low-income students’ long-term educational and employment outcomes.
Leann McLaren (Duke University) will investigate how candidates employ aspects of their personal identities that might otherwise be invisible, such as immigrant status, to garner political support. – This grant is co-funded with The Policy Academies.
Demetrius Murphy (University of Southern California) will examine how the experiences of Black people living in Los Angeles County differ by socioeconomic status.
Alexander Ramiller (University of California, Berkeley) will explore how factors such as race, class, and changes in local housing supply shape housing accessibility for households with low credit scores.
Saúl Ramírez (Harvard University) will explore how deportation is experienced by Mexican deportees.
Rebecca Royer (University of California, San Diego) will explore the differences in Democrats' and Republicans' beliefs about race and gender wage gaps.
Devin Rutan (Princeton University) will investigate the role of mass incarceration and deindustrialization in the increase in the number of older Americans who are ineligible to receive social security.
Isaac Sederbaum (University of Washington, Seattle) will examine the impact of administrative burdens on trans people.
Thalia Tom (University of Southern California) will examine the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on school readiness and how it varies by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
Victoria Tran (University of California, Los Angeles) will examine how community groups in Los Angeles’ Chinatown engaged with government officials, residents, and small business owners on redevelopment projects from 1978-2000.
Britte van Tiem (University of Pennsylvania) will explore whether vocational training helps formerly incarcerated people to obtain employment in their field of training.
Karyn Vilbig (New York University) will examine the roles of the Great Recession, greater public focus on the top 1%, increased affective polarization, and the Black Lives Matter Movement on rising support for redistributive policies among high-income voters.
Marshall White (Georgia State University) will investigate the role legal debt plays in perceived fairness and legitimacy of misdemeanor probation.
Hoyoung Yoo (University of Wisconsin, Madison) will investigate the impact of newly moved-in remote workers on the employment of local residents.
Chenoa Yorgason (Stanford University) will investigate inequality in campaign finance participation in American cities.