Earlier this week the Carnegie Corporation of New York named the 2020 class of 27 Andrew Carnegie Fellows. Each fellow will receive $200,000 to go toward scholarly research over the next two years in the humanities and social sciences that addresses important and enduring issues confronting our society. The anticipated result of each award is a book or major study.
“As we respond to the many disruptions caused by COVID-19, we must not lose sight of the necessity of solving both today’s and the world’s persistent challenges,” said Susan Hockfield, chair of the Carnegie fellows program jury since the program debut in 2015. “The complex solutions required for these difficult problems require more than the best of science and engineering; they must also incorporate perspectives and insights from the humanities and social sciences.” Hockfield, a former member of the Carnegie Corporation of New York board of trustees, is president emerita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A panel of 17 scholars and academic and intellectual leaders The 27 fellows — 15 women and 12 men — from a pool of 322 nominations. The criteria prioritize the originality and potential impact of a proposal, as well as a scholar’s capacity to communicate the findings with a broad audience. The program seeks to include emerging and established scholars from across the country. In this year’s class, 14 are from public institutions of higher education, 12 are from private colleges or universities, and one is a journalist working with a think tank.
Among this year’s winning research topics were how disinformation spreads online, how online town halls with members of Congress can shape policy, and how role of religion and theology can help bring faith and science together to improve climate change policy.
Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation and president emeritus of Brown University, noted how social and humanities research can pay unexpected dividends during crises like the current pandemic. “Fellows from earlier classes are actively addressing the coronavirus through their research on topics such as its impact on rural America, government authority during a pandemic, and ways in which different countries address infectious diseases. The work of this exemplary Class of 2020 will also be of service across a range of other crucial issues.”
The 2020 fellows, their home discipline and current institutional affiliation are listed below:
Emily Bernard | English, University of Vermont
Cathy J. Cohen | Political science, University of Chicago
Rohit De | History, Yale University
Sarah Deer | Gender studies, University of Kansas
Bathsheba Demuth | History, Brown University
Susan M. Dynarski | Public policy, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Jack A. Goldstone | Public policy, George Mason University
Paul Gronke | Political science, Reed College
Meghan C. L. Howey | Anthropology, University of New Hampshire–Main Campus
Solomon Hsiang | Public policy, University of California, Berkeley
Sarah J. Jackson | Communication, University of Pennsylvania
Paulina Jaramillo | Public policy, Carnegie Mellon University
Azmat Khan | Journalist, New America
Jason Lyall | Government, Dartmouth College
Alice E. Marwick | Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ana Raquel Minian | History, Stanford University
Yonatan L. Morse | Political science, University of Connecticut
Megan Mullin | Environmental politics, Duke University
Michael A. Neblo | Political science, The Ohio State University
Aaron Panofsky | Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
David A. Pietz | History, University of Arizona
Andrés Reséndez | History, University of California, Davis
Jennifer Anne Richeson | Psychology, Yale University
Thea Riofrancos | Political science, Providence College
H. Luke Shaefer | Social policy, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Amy Erica Smith | Political science, Iowa State University
Duncan J. Watts | Knowledge integration, University of Pennsylvania
