October 22-November 4, 2024 | |
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Faculty Research Fellowship – due on December 5, 2024
CISSR provides up to $25,000 for faculty research projects at any stage of development. Funds may be used for a wide range of research-related activities, including field and archival research, purchasing data, research assistance, hosting a visiting collaborator on a short-term basis, or organizing a conference for publishing a special issue or edited volume.
ELIGIBILITY: University of Chicago faculty in any discipline or unit are welcome to apply. Priority will be given to projects led by faculty in the Division of the Social Sciences.
REQUIREMENTS: CISSR provides faculty fellows with administrative and outreach support. Outreach support includes the production of multimedia content that can be used to promote sponsored projects through various platforms. CISSR support cannot be used for course releases, academic leave, or summer salary. Faculty are encouraged to seek alternative funding sources for hiring undergraduate research assistants. More information can be found on our website with applications coming soon.
Chosen fellows will be announced in January 2025.
Questions? Please reach out to CISSR Assistant Director, Dorothy Parsons, at dparsons@uchicago.edu.
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October 23
International House
6pm — 8pm
International House Assembly Hall
414 East 59th St.
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October 24
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
12pm — 1pm
Virtual
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International House
1:30pm — 2:45pm
Virtual
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Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity
4pm — 5:30pm
Kelly Hall 108
5848 S. University Avenue
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Center for Democracy
Chicago Center On Democracy Graduate Student Affiliates Mixer
5pm — 6pm
Pick Hall Lounge
5828 S. University Ave.
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October 26
International House
International Korean Traditional Performing Arts Competition
3pm — 7pm
International House Assembly Hall
414 East 59th St.
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Arts + Public Life
Chigeria
6:00 pm
Green Line Performing Arts Center
329 E. Garfield Blvd
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October 29
Center for East Asian Studies
Nicolas Idier Workshop
12pm
Center for East Asian Studies Conference Room, Room 319
1155 E 60th St.
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Chicago Center on Democracy
After The Fraud: Repression, Exile, And The Future Of Venezuela Post-2024 Elections
2pm — 3:15pm
Social Science Research Building, Room 201
1126 E. 59th St.
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University of Chicago
Climate Frontiers: Energy and Climate at UChicago
12pm — 6pm
David Rubenstein Forum
1201 E. 60th St.
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October 30
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Ostap Slyvynsky: A Ukrainian Dictionary Of War
4:30pm
Social Science Research Building, Tea Room
1126 E. 59th St.
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Department of Comparative Literature and Center For Middle Eastern Studies
Genocide, Ecocide And The Palestinian Native American In Mahmoud Darwish’s Poetry
5pm
Saieh Hall for Economics, Room 203
5757 S. University Ave.
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October 31
Center for Latin American Studies
CLAS Autumn 2024 CLAS Tinker Lecture - Blame The Fossil Fuel Industry
12:30pm — 2pm
Pick Hall, Room 118
5828 S. University Ave.
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November 1
The Chicago Forum
How Did Free Speech Die In Hong Kong?
12:30pm — 1:30pm
5737 S. University
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Around Town and Down the Road | |
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Early Modern Mediterranean World Worksop
Various Tuesdays 12:00pm — 1:30pm in Pick Hall
October 22:
Paolo Cherchi, Emeritus Professor, University of Chicago, Italian and Spanish
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Gender and Sexuality Studies Workshop
Alternate Tuesdays 5:00pm — 6:20pm at The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, Room 103
October 22:
Malavika Parthasarathy, CSGS Residential Fellow, PhD Candidate in Law
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Demography Workshop
Thursdays 12:30pm — 1:50pm in NORC Room 232, 1155 E. 60th St.
October 24:
Vitaliia Eliseeva, Paris School of Economics
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East Asia: Transregional Histories Workshop
Thursdays 3:30pm — 5:00pm in John Hope Franklin Room (SSRB 224)
October 24:
Xavier Ante, PhD candidate in History at University of Chicago
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African Studies Workshop
Various Tuesdays 5:30 – 7:00PM in Foster Hall Room 107
October 22:
Welcome meeting!
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Development Lunch Workshop
Fridays 10:30am — 2pm in Saieh Hall 021
October 25:
Sasha Petrov, PhD Student, University of Chicago
Nathan Barker, Postdoctoral Scholar, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago
November 1:
Ari Anisfeld, PhD Student, University of Chicago
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Political Theory Workshop
Various Mondays 12:00pm —1:20pm in Pick 506
October 28:
Niklas Plaetzer, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago
November 4:
Chiara Cordelli, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago
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Immigration Workshop
Various Mondays 12:30pm — 1:45 pm in Pick 105
November 4:
Marta Ascherio, Illinois State University, Department of Criminal Justice Sciences
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Empires Workshop
Various Mondays 12:30pm — 2:00pm in Pick 105
October 28:
Maureen McCord, University of Chicago, Department of History
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Workshop on Latin America and the Caribbean
Alternate Thursdays 5:00pm — 6:30pm in Pick 118 and SSRB Tea Room
October 24:
Nancy Van Deusen, Department of History, Queens University
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Intersubject correlations in reward and mentalizing brain circuits separately predict persuasiveness of two types of ISIS video propaganda |  | |
Jean Decety, professor of psychology and 22-23 CISSR faculty fellow, recently published an article in Springer Nature exploring the neural mechanisms underlying the persuasiveness of ISIS propaganda videos. His study focused on how ISIS recruits Westerners by employing two distinct narrative strategies: Heroic, emphasizing individual glory, and Social, which highlights oppression against Muslim communities. For Heroic narratives, increased synchronization in the ventral striatum, a region associated with reward processing, predicted how persuasive the videos were perceived to be. These narratives resonated more with individuals seeking personal recognition. In contrast, Social narratives, which emphasize collective suffering and community identity, activated mentalizing and default mode networks, particularly the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), which are linked to empathy and understanding others’ intentions. This pattern was associated with persuasiveness among those with stronger ties to the Muslim community. The study provides evidence that these distinct psychological and neural pathways play a critical role in ISIS's ability to appeal to diverse audiences. Professor Decety’s findings highlight how propaganda taps into different motivations—whether personal or communal—and suggest that counter-propaganda strategies need to be multifaceted to effectively disrupt extremist recruitment efforts.
Read the article here.
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Dictatorship, Higher Education, and Social Mobility |  | |
2017-2018 CISSR fellows and assistant professors at the Harris School of Public Policy, Maria Angélica Bautista and Luis Martinez examine the impact of Chile's military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet on higher education and its consequences for social mobility. Their research reveals that following the 1973 coup, the Pinochet regime significantly reduced government funding for higher education. The study provides evidence on the negative impact of a right-wing, technocratic dictatorship on access to higher education and social mobility. It shows how the regime's reduction of public funding for universities, combined with the centralized admissions system, meant that applicants with lower test scores (often from less affluent backgrounds) were most affected. Professors Bautista and Martinez conclude that this educational policy change under the dictatorship had lasting effects on inequality and social mobility in Chile, contributing to the broader literature on the relationship between political regimes and redistribution. While not negating other factors, the research suggests that the contraction of higher education under Pinochet plausibly contributed to increased inequality during this period via lower incomes for the affected individuals.
Read the article here.
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China’s COVID-19 Missteps: Political Delays and Transparency Failures Impact Global Health Response |  | |
Dali Yang, CISSR 24-25 Faculty Research Fellow and William Claude Reavis Professor of Political Science, analyzes the Chinese government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, contrasting its claims of a rapid response with the accusations of concealment and silencing of whistleblowers like Dr. Li Wenliang. Professor Yang argues that neither of these arguments sufficiently address the handling of the outbreak, and that understanding the true details of the outbreak are key to the world’s future health and safety. Despite prior investments in a national notifiable disease surveillance system (NNDSS) post-SARS, local authorities in Wuhan failed to report initial COVID cases until national experts stepped in. Although genomic sequences of the virus were quickly identified, decision-makers prioritized political stability over transparency, resulting in a flawed emergency response. Misconceptions about the outbreak's severity and spread led to delayed action in late January 2020. Yang highlights key lessons from Wuhan, stressing the need for transparency, early intervention, and global collaboration in managing infectious diseases. Despite some reforms, significant political barriers prevail, underscoring the need for both domestic public health capabilities and a robust global health infrastructure.
Read the op-ed here.
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Colonial Legacies in India: Tracing the Evolution of Freedom of Expression Through Landmark Legal Cases |  | |
Zak Leonard, a 2017-18 Dissertation Fellow, explores the development of "freedom of expression" in colonial and postcolonial India through important legal cases involving libel, rioting, and press act violations. His research highlights the lasting impact of eighteenth-century common law, particularly through the advocacy of lawyer Thomas Erskine during seditious libel trials and Lord Mansfield’s key commentary in the Shipley case, which shaped legal discussions until the 1950s. As India's political landscape evolved, so did interpretations of these legal principles; pre-1910, Erskine’s arguments were referenced to clarify authorial intent and the role of juries; post-1910, attention shifted to Mansfield’s ruling, popularized by A. V. Dicey, which linked freedom of speech to the absence of publication licenses—an argument used by critics to challenge colonial authority. By the 1950s, debates among judges and lawmakers revealed different interpretations of Dicey’s ideas around the government’s continued use of censorship laws, underscoring the relevance of these historical legal frameworks.
Read the full article here.
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ICYMI: Histories of Culture in Disastrous Times
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Alice Goff, a 24-25 CISSR fellow and assistant professor of history, and Jennifer Allen, an associate professor of history, are leading a project that explores the relationship between cultural practices and disasters in modern history. The first workshop in this series, Culture and Catastrophe in Modern Europe, took place on March 1-2, 2024, laying the foundation for future discussions and collaboration.
The project poses critical questions about the role of culture during times of crisis: Is culture useful in disastrous times? How and why? How have cultural practices contributed to or prevented disasters? Professors Goff and Allen aim to address these questions from both historical and historiographical perspectives, bringing together scholars from various fields to examine historic episodes of cultural production during crises. Their interdisciplinary research investigates how communities use art-making, storytelling, memorializing, and collecting to comprehend, document, and recover from catastrophic events.
This project seeks to develop robust frameworks for articulating the significance of cultural life in contexts where it is often overlooked. This research not only contributes to our understanding of past disasters but also aims to inform strategies for cultural historians navigating the challenges of our rapidly changing world.
This research project is supported by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. The next workshop will continue this exploration of cultural history in the context of disaster, with more details to come soon.
Learn more about the project here.
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