The Russell Sage Foundation is pleased to announce fifteen awards to nineteen emerging scholars in the Sheldon Danziger Pipeline Grants Competition's seventh round. The Sheldon Danziger Pipeline Grants seek to cultivate an academic pipeline of researchers from a board range of backgrounds, experiences, and institutions. Two of the projects are co-funded with J-PAL North America.

Following is a list of grantees with links to brief descriptions of their research projects.

Marta Ascherio (Illinois State University) and Ashley Muchow (University of Illinois, Chicago) will investigate the effects of the 50,000 Venezuelan asylum seekers bused to Chicago by Texas governor Greg Abbott on public safety and perceptions of disorder in Chicago neighborhoods.

Paula Calvo and Long Hong (Arizona State University) will investigate how grandparents' role as informal childcare providers affects their adult children's fertility and labor market outcomes and how the birth of grandchildren influences grandparents' retirement decisions.

Geneva Cole (University of Arizona) and Genevieve Bates (University of Wisconsin-Madison) will examine the impact of exposure to interactive memorials of past atrocities on support for contemporary efforts to redress those atrocities. J-PAL North America is providing co-funding for this project.

Regine Debrosse (McGill University) will investigate whether historically accurate counterstories that challenge negative stereotypes often encountered by Black youth and other young people of color might help transform how they view their ethnic/racial identities.

Maraam Dwidar (Georgetown University) will investigate the effect of educational programs that seek to increase the diversity of public participants in federal rulemaking proceedings.
 

Esra Gules Guctas (Ohio State University) will test whether A.I.-generated fraud flags in unemployment insurance (U.I.) increase administrative burdens for U.I. applicants and whether the effects are larger for applicants who signal Black or Latino identity.

Samantha Guz (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa) will examine how administrative burdens shape caregivers’ experiences with school-administered safety net programs and whether those burdens disproportionately affect Black and Latino families.

Morgan Jerald (University of Wisconsin, Madison) will examine how racial and gender stereotypes in media portrayals of Kamala Harris during the 2024 election influenced Black women’s political participation and whether these effects persist into the Trump administration.

Sofia Locklear (University of Toronto, Mississauga) will study experiences of race and colorism among American Indian and Alaska Native individuals using a mixed methods study design including qualitative interviews and the creation of a new Indigenous Colorism Survey.

Melanie Nadon (Wayne State University) and Margaret Thomas (University of Chicago) will explore how frontline child welfare workers’ decision-making shapes parents’ economic experiences during Child Protective Services involvement.

Martin Naunov (Northwestern University) will test a new framework for understanding prejudice by distinguishing between category-level bias (e.g., Black, gay, or immigrant) and cue-level bias, which targets the visible and audible markers (e.g., accents or tone of voice) that make those identities perceptible.

Chika Okafor (Northwestern University) will investigate whether prosecutorial decisions not to charge specific low-level offenses improve employment outcomes for individuals diverted from the criminal justice system.

Mariana Oseguera (Georgetown University) will explore how degree-based hiring shapes who applies, employers’ evaluation of those who do, and whether degree requirements expand or constrain labor market opportunities for qualified non-degree holders. J-PAL North America is providing co-funding for this project.

Fern Ramoutar (University of Toronto) will examine the dynamics of unsafe and deteriorating living conditions for low-income renters in North America.
 

Laura Weiwu (University of California, Berkeley) will analyze administrative tax records for children born between 1964 and 1979 to measure how large-scale infrastructure investments like the construction of the Interstate Highway System influenced intergenerational income mobility across neighborhoods.