The Russell Sage Foundation is pleased to welcome the class of 2026-27 visiting scholars (listed below), along with Margaret Olivia Sage scholars Mae M. Ngai and Robert J. Sampson and visiting researchers Jason Brent, Rogers Brubaker, Zoltan Hajnal, Hilary Hoynes, Daniel Nagin, Jon Tebes, and Jane Waldfogel.

While in residence at RSF in New York City, the 19 scholars will pursue research and writing projects that reflect the foundation’s commitment to strengthening the social sciences and conducting research for the “improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” Among the research topics of the multi-disciplinary group of scholars are projects exploring how the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration mortgage programs shaped residential segregation and racial inequality in the United States during the mid-twentieth century; how elite wealth is infused into American policing; why DEI initiatives fail despite explicit commitments to their successful implementation; the operation and impact of programs that promise alternatives to criminal prosecution and punishment; the physical and economic transformations of neighborhoods caused by extreme climate events; the growing role of disability benefits within the social safety net in rural regions experiencing long-term economic decline; how ordinary Americans define discrimination and why those definitions matter; and how U.S. middle-class families organize their financial lives across generations.

The 19 visiting scholars for 2026-27 are:

Gregory Acs (Urban Institute)
Omer Ali (University of Pittsburgh)
Tony Cheng (Duke University)
Bo Cowgill (University of Toronto)
Peter Hepburn (Rutgers University, Newark)
Jelani Ince (University of Washington, Seattle)
Elizabeth Jacobs (University of Connecticut)
Christine Jang-Trettien (Queens College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York)
Gabriela Kirk-Werner (Syracuse University)
Lisa Levenstein (University of North Carolina, Greensboro)
Rachel Meltzer (Harvard University)
Tali Mendelberg (Princeton University)
Suzanne Mettler (Cornell University)
Ryan Parsons (University of Mississippi)
Samuel Perry (University of Oklahoma)
Laurel Smith-Doerr (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Mary Ellen Stitt (Rutgers University, New Brunswick)
Lauren Valentino (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Caitlin Zaloom (New York University)