May 13, 2025 - May 26, 2025 | | Announcing the 2025-26 Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph Field Research Grant Fellows | | |
These fifteen students and their projects continue the legacy of fieldwork research pioneered by Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph, exemplifying the variety of geographic, disciplinary, and methodological strengths from across the Social Sciences Division.
Their projects examine a wide range of topics, including educational inequality in China; informal labor markets and economic reform; kinship and language development; historical and contemporary state-building; climate adaptation and environmental politics; and urban planning, migration, and religious nationalism, among others.
These awards cover expenses associated with original fieldwork, archival research, and more, deepening understanding and improving research. CISSR is proud to support the future of social scientific research at the University of Chicago and beyond.
Read the full announcement on our website.
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Prachi Bhagwat
Making of the ‘Informal City’: Economies of Land Labour and Aspiration in colonial and postcolonial Bombay
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Ryan Dai
China’s Rural-Urban Educational Divide: Disparities in Family, School, and Peer Environments
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Matteo Giordano
The Agrarian Roots of the Neoliberal Project German Interwar Agronomy, the Problem of a Free Peasant
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Yuchen Jin
Cultural Scripting of Kinship Term Acquisition: A Field Study of Mandarin Speaking Children in Urban China
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Moksha Sharma
Imperial Bases of State-Building: How Britain was Shaped by its Empire
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Maya Nandakumar
Hindutva in the Indian Gurusphere: Embodied Nationalism in Ritual Practice
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Wei Zhou
Energy Transition in Colonial Manchuria, 1934 -1944
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Lilly Massoud-Judge
Invest in Egypt: International Finance, Business Networks, and the State
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Ryan Gibbons
Urgency Across Geographies: Supporting Localized Investments in Irish Climate Adaptation
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Daniel Quintanilla Castro
Meanings of U.S.-Mexico Extradition in National History
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Zachary Kuloszewski
Financial Constraints and Network Hiring in Urban Uganda
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Alaina Wibberly
The Hills Have Eyes: Surveillance and Vigilance in the U.S./Mexico Borderlands
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Ruiling Xue
Vernacular Culture and Social Formation of Value in the Late Imperial China Materi
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Katarzyna Kaczowka
The Science and Technology of Maroon History in Colombia Western Lowlands
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Kaya Colakoglu
Henri Prost and Istanbul's Urban Modernization
| | Around Town and Down the Road | | |
Gender and Sexuality Studies Workshop
Alternate Tuesdays 5:00pm — 6:20pm at The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, Room 103
May 13:
Nikhita Obeegadoo, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies, RLL
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African Studies Workshop
Various Tuesdays, 5:30pm – 7 pm in Foster 107
May 13:
Dan Magaziner, Yale University, History
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Demography Workshop
Thursdays 12:30pm — 1:50pm in the NORC Conference, Room 232, 1155 E. 60th St.
May 15:
Gracie Venechuk & Yiang Li
May 22:
Victoria Williams, University of Wisconsin–Madison
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Workshop on Latin America and the Caribbean
Alternate Thursdays, 5:00pm – 6:30pm in Pick 118
May 15:
Natalia Mendoza Rockwell
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Political Theory Workshop
Various Mondays 12:00pm —1:20pm in Pick 506
May 19:
Niklas Plaetzer, PhD candidate, Political Science University of Chicago
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Early Modern Mediterranean World Workshop
Various Tuesdays 12:00pm — 1:30pm in Pick Hall
May 16:
Hannah Marcus, Professor, Harvard University
| | “Trash-Talking Democracy”: A Pathway to Democratic Backsliding | |
In their article "Building Tolerance for Backsliding by Trash-Talking Democracy: Theory and Evidence From Mexico”, Lautaro Cella (2024-25 Lloyd & Susanne Rudolph Field Research Fellow) and Susan Stokes (2025-26 Faculty Fellow and Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor), explore how political leaders can slowly weaken democratic support through rhetoric that discredits democratic institutions. The authors focus on Mexico and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, introducing the concept of "trash-talking democracy"—when leaders frame democratic institutions as corrupt, biased, or ineffective to reduce their legitimacy in the public eye. Through survey experiments, the study finds that when the public hears this rhetoric, especially if it already supports the leader, it becomes more open to actions that go against democratic principles. The findings show that negative language about democracy can post a great threat to it, allowing for increased public tolerance for backsliding.
Learn more about the article here.
| | | From Ideal to Acceptable: Rethinking Parenthood Age Norms | |
A new study from Ester Lazzari, CISSR visiting scholar, explores how societal attitudes about the ideal and acceptable ages for parenthood have shifted in 21 European countries between 2006–07 and 2018–19. Her work finds that while most people still believe there is an ideal age for becoming a parent, that ideal has shifted to a later age—by about a year and a half for women and about one year for men. People have begun to shift their beliefs on how old is “too old” to bear children, and are now taking male fertility constraints into consideration, especially in the older age ranges. Still, the link between these shifting attitudes and actual fertility behavior isn’t strong. In some countries, such as Spain and Portugal, late-age births increased even though opinions about the ideal age haven’t become more accepting. In other countries however, like Hungary and Bulgaria, both behaviors and beliefs are changing together. Overall, the study demonstrates that while society is slowly becoming more open to late-age parenthood, many traditional ideas about the ideal age continue to prevail across Europe.
Read more about her work here.
| | | "Forever Has Fallen": The End of Syria's Assad | |
Lisa Wedeen, CISSR 2023–24 Book Workshop & Monograph Enhancement Fellow and the Mary R. Morton Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science and the College, recently had an article published in the Journal of Democracy that explores the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and the challenges the new government faces. Wedeen shows how, after rebel forces seized Damascus on December 8, 2024, Syrians celebrated the end of a 54-year family dictatorship and discovered prisoners who had been locked away for decades and children who were born in the prisons. She argues that the regime finally collapsed because its key backers, Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah, withdrew their support and Assad’s army disintegrated, allowing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to fill the void. Early hopes of a peaceful new beginning have been tempered by crushing Western sanctions, ongoing Israeli military attacks, and ruined infrastructure from the civil war. Civil-society groups are racing to document abuses, recover the disappeared, and preserve archives for future accountability. Wedeen concludes that Syria’s future hangs on whether its new leaders can rebuild basic services, hold perpetrators to account, and resist both external meddling and internal divisions.
Read the article here.
| | | James A. Robinson Delivers the 2025 Ryerson Lecture | | |
James A. Robinson, 2024-25 & 2018-19 CISSR Faculty Fellow and the Reverend Dr. Richard L. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies and University Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy and the Department of Political Science, gave the annual Ryerson Lecture where he talked about the determinants of institutions, and the consequences of institutions for prosperity. Robinson argues that while material interests and institutions are often seen as the primary forces shaping historical and political change, ideas also play a significant and sometimes overlooked role. Focusing on 17th-century England, he examines famous political events such as the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution, and highlights the clash between two dominant ideas of the era: the divine right of kings and the principle of popular sovereignty. Though material interests clearly shaped outcomes, Robinson shows that debates over how to legitimately organize the state were equally influential. He concludes by calling for greater attention to ideas in social science research and highlights how new tools like AI and text analysis are making it possible to measure their impact.
Watch the lecture here.
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