Initiative will increase funding, engagement and support for social science scholars
Provost Ben Vinson III announced today that Case Western Reserve has joined a consortium of leading research universities as part of the Social Science Research Council’s College and University Fund for the Social Sciences.
The 40-member group includes several Ivy League institutions, prominent private campuses such as Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and major state land-grant universities. Fund membership provides faculty from those institutions exclusive opportunities for fund grants and fellowships—as well as select events and seminars for faculty and students. Among the fund’s goals are to provide mentoring, workshops and financial assistance to junior scholars just beginning their careers.
“The many challenges of the past two years—in our nation and around the world—have highlighted the increasingly vital need for rigorous, interdisciplinary efforts among social sciences scholars,” Provost Vinson said. “Our participation in this fund provides new ways for our faculty and students in these areas to secure support and engage meaningfully with colleagues beyond our own campus.”
In a statement announcing CWRU’s membership, Social Science Research Council President Anna Harvey added that the fund “is a key mechanism for leveraging the capacity of the international research community and also for generating the funding necessary to do research at scale–the scale that is needed to address these challenges. We are thrilled to welcome Case Western Reserve to this growing group.”
Although faculty among several schools conduct research within and across the social sciences, the university’s social sciences departments reside primarily in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“Our social science departments are truly exceptional,” Joy K. Ward, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “Our faculty and students will benefit greatly from the resources and connections the College and University Fund for Social Sciences offers. I look forward to the success that inevitably develops from this partnership.”
And, as its name conveys, the teaching and research of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences centers entirely on these issues.
“We are delighted to join so many esteemed institutions in a collective effort to expand and enhance our understanding of some of the most difficult questions of our times,” said Mandel School Dean Dexter Voisin. “By combining our strengths with those of colleagues around the country, we will be able to draw on a far broader range of unique expertise and insight in exploring these issues—and recommending how best to address them.”