Institute for Social Science Research

08/18/2026

Congratulations to Lucinda Canty (Nursing), Jessica Boakye (Engineering), Cherise Hamblin (UMass Chan Medical School) and Jessica Pearlman (ISSR) on receiving funding to advance women’s health research, strengthen scientific collaboration, and expand shared biomedical resources across Massachusetts!

Since 2019, the MLSC has invested more than $22 million in Women’s Health research and innovation, helping generate more than $70 million in follow-on grant funding. Today’s awards of $8 million to 20 projects at 12 institutions build on that momentum by advancing projects focused on diseases and conditions that uniquely, disproportionately, or differently affect women, reinforcing Massachusetts’ commitment to improving health outcomes for every patient population.

Through today’s announcement, the MLSC is also investing $2 million through the Biobank program to support 13 projects at 11 academic medical centers and research institutions, expanding access to patient biospecimens and associated clinical data. Additionally, MSLC is also enabling the development of core infrastructure, support ethics & regulatory oversight, secure data systems, privacy, and biospecimen management for the program. Working across the Commonwealth, these partners will help establish disease-specific biobanks sourced from diverse patient populations, providing researchers and life sciences companies with the resources needed to accelerate biomedical discovery.

"Massachusetts is leading the way in discovering the next generation of treatments and cures, and we're making sure women's health is part of that future,” said Office of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. “For too long, conditions that affect women have been underfunded and understudied. These investments will help researchers close those gaps, improve care for patients, and strengthen our life sciences leadership while creating economic opportunity across Massachusetts.”

https://www.masslifesciences.com/healey-driscoll-administration-awards-more-than-10-million-to-advance-womens-health-research-and-strengthen-life-sciences-leadership/

06/16/2026

There's still time to enroll for our last set of methodology training workshops in July!

Get more information and enroll now: https://www.umass.edu/social-science-research/events

06/04/2026

The Institute for Social Science Research is offering methodology training workshops throughout the Summer of 2026. Courses will be taught by specialists in their fields as part of ISSR's mission to promote excellence in social science research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and beyond.

These short courses are designed to support the methods and training needs of students, academics, and professionals to enhance their education and research success.

Head over to the ISSR website and check out the roster of methodology workshops offered this summer: https://www.umass.edu/social-science-research/events

02/24/2026

Join us on Thursday on preparing for sabbaticals. Faculty from the humanities and social sciences will share how they planned to get the most out of their time away. Attendees will be equipped with tools to plan purposeful, well-resourced sabbaticals that position them for their next career chapter.

This session is co-sponsored by UMass Office of Faculty Development.

Get more information and RSVP https://www.umass.edu/social-science-research/events/funding-fridays-thursdays-session-6-planning-sabbaticals-fellowships-funding-and-future

02/02/2026

ICYMI: We had much to celebrate last semester with former and current ISSR Scholars making the news.

01/30/2026

Happy first week of classes! ISSR is here to assist you on research and funding journey. Our first Funding Thursday session of the semester is one week from today on Data Management Plans, an important aspect of grant writing.

Get more information and RSVP: https://www.umass.edu/social-science-research/events/funding-fridays-thursdays-session-5-data-management-plans

Join us for the first Funding Thursday workshop of the spring semester!

This session will provide models and help you complete the data management plan for a proposal submission. Our guest speaker this week Jennifer Chaput, Data Services Librarian, will help you create a plan to keep your project data safe, secure, and well-organized.

Thursday, February 5
12:00-1:15
E20 Machmer Hall

Register now: https://www.umass.edu/social-science-research/events/funding-fridays-thursdays-session-5-data-management-plans

01/20/2026

Join us for the first Funding Thursday workshop of the spring semester!

This session will provide models and help you complete the data management plan for a proposal submission. Our guest speaker this week Jennifer Chaput, Data Services Librarian, will help you create a plan to keep your project data safe, secure, and well-organized.

Thursday, February 5
12:00-1:15
E20 Machmer Hall

Register now: https://www.umass.edu/social-science-research/events/funding-fridays-thursdays-session-5-data-management-plans

06/04/2025

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) is a nonprofit advocacy organization working to promote and advance the social and behavioral sciences in federal policymaking.

In May 2025, the Trump Administration began releasing details of its budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2026, which begins on October 1. [Note: The FY 2026 budget request is different from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that is working its way through Congress]. As details continue to emerge, we are witnessing a proposed slashing of federal science agency budgets and major reorganizations of agencies and programs.

So far, the President’s budget request includes:

A 56% cut to the National Science Foundation (NSF), including a dismantling of NSF’s STEM education training and research programs.
A more than 40% cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as a consolidation of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers into 8, without consultation with the research or stakeholder communities.
A 67% cut to the Institute of Education Sciences within the Department of Education.
A zeroing out of the Department of Education’s International Education and Foreign Language Studies programs, known as Title VI and Fulbright-Hays.
An overhaul of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the consolidation of several agencies and crucial funding cuts across agencies.

Contact your House and Senate representatives today and urge them to REJECT the President’s FY 2026 budget request for federal science funding.

A consortium of Social Science Associations works to communicate the importance of social & behavioral science research to policymakers. The powerful stories come from people who express how it is like to apply for a federal grant, research, or watch as the findings reach audiences. Learn more.

04/29/2025

Next week: Engaged Audiovisual Ethnography and Ecological Crisis

Ecological Crisis & Autonomist Politics
Public Lecture
Wed. May 7 , 3:30-5pm
Rm 420 Thompson Hall

This talk unpacks efforts of social movements and indigenous communities to seek autonomy from political and economic systems driving the destruction of the planet as ecological crisis deepens across the globe.

Engaged Audiovisual Ethnography: A Visual Anthropology Practicum
Thursday & Friday May 8 & 9, 3:00-6:00pm
Location TBA, Space Limited, Register below

Combining art, media and ethnography produces unique practical and academic considerations. This 2-day practicum will explore the practice and function of multi-media ethnography for students of the social sciences. Participants will explore the complexities of representation across social boundaries, and the negative and positive social impacts audiovisual representation may engender. By the end of the workshop, participants will produce and share short videos conveying social phenomena through human experience. Spaces Limited. Register now! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhoqiwH0x4YwCaNdfOpbGZBvzltFWRx-OLdb_P-40Uf_5NOA/viewform

Dr. Joshua Holst has devised advocacy programs addressing human rights, environmental and social justice issues in the United States, the West African Sahara, the jungles of southeast Asia, and the highlands and lowlands of the Andes-Amazon region in Latin America. His work has focused on environmental justice, human rights reporting and advocacy, microfinance reform, emergency relief, youth homelessness, and human trafficking. He is an applied visual anthropologist, consulting for nonprofits and government agencies, directing documentaries, and publishing articles on humanitarian issues.

04/10/2025

Join us for the 2025 James Baldwin Lecture! Organized by UMass Amherst AfroAm and UMass Department of History, the lecture will be delivered by Steven Salaita.

Drawing on his memoir, An Honest Living, Salaita will explore questions of honesty and dishonesty on campus through an analysis of labor, inequality, alienation, and political violence on and off campus.

4/16, 6pm on campus at the Old Chapel and by Zoom. See link for details and to register:
https://websites.umass.edu/feinberg/the-meaning-of-honesty/

Offered every other year, the James Baldwin Lecture honors the late James Baldwin, who taught at UMass for several years. Each lecture addresses issues connected to social, economic, and political justice. This year's lecture is co-sponsored by Josephine White Eagle Cultural Center, and it is presented as the capstone event of this year's Feinberg Series.