NEW YORK, NY, May 12, 2020 — Carnegie Corporation of New York congratulates the 2020 class of 27 Andrew Carnegie Fellows who were announced today. Each will receive $200,000 in philanthropic support for high-caliber scholarly research in the humanities and social sciences that addresses important and enduring issues confronting our society.
Providing one of the most generous research stipends of its kind, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program was established in 2015. The program represents an overall investment of $38 million in some 200 recipients whose scholarly research spans such subjects as U.S. democracy, the environment, technological and cultural evolution, and international relations. 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.
Among this year’s winning research topics:
• Civic engagement: examining how online town halls with members of Congress can help shape public policy
• Factors driving economic disparities: combining big data as well as in-depth field research that analyzes six vulnerable communities
• Strengthening democratic societies: exploring how women in native communities in the United States conceive of and work toward democratic ideals
• Online radicalization: countering extremism and the spread of disinformation via social media platforms
• Environmentalism: exploring a framework of inherent rights, akin to human rights, that governments could grant to land and natural area
• Climate change: examining the role of religion and theology as a means of bringing faith and science together in mobilizing public support for environmental policies
• America’s precision airstrikes: investigating their impact, including the long-term consequences of collateral damage on civilians
• Humanitarian aid inthe Middle East: understanding when and how programs are effective in ending conflicts or when they unintentionally prolong them
“The pursuit of knowledge and the generation of ideas were critically important to the Corporation’s founder, Andrew Carnegie, whose mission is especially relevant today as our society confronts problems that have been greatly exacerbated by COVID-19,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York and president emeritus of Brown University. “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.”
President Gregorian noted that this year’s 27 fellowships were selected from 322 nominations. The class is made up of 15 women and 12 men. 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.
The latest class of fellows was selected by a distinguished panel of 17 jurors comprised of scholars and academic and intellectual leaders from some of the nation’s most prominent educational institutions, foundations, and scholarly societies. Seven of the jurors are either current or former university presidents.
“I am greatly impressed by the breadth and depth of the proposals from this year’s nominees and their potential for progress. For the jury and for me, the selection process was deeply gratifying and inspiring,” said Susan Hockfield, chair of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program jury since 2015, president emerita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former member of the Carnegie Corporation of New York board of trustees. “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. 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.”
Every year, more than 600 nominators, including heads of independent research institutes and societies, university presidents, leaders of some of the nation’s preeminent think tanks, directors of major university presses, as well as editors of leading newspapers and magazines, are invited to recommend up to two individuals for the fellowships. All proposals undergo a preliminary, anonymous evaluation by leading authorities in the relevant fields. The top proposals are then forwarded to the members of the jury for a final review and selection.
The award is for a period of up to two years and its anticipated result is a book or major study. Read more about the Class of 2020, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, the work of past honorees, the criteria for proposals, and a historical timeline of scholarly research supported by the Corporation. Celebrate the Class of 2020 with our social media and press kit and join the conversation online at #CarnegieFellows and via Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellows
Emily Bernard University of Vermont
Cathy J. Cohen University of Chicago
Rohit De Yale University
Sarah Deer University of Kansas
Bathsheba Demuth Brown University
Susan M. Dynarski University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Jack A. Goldstone George Mason University
Paul Gronke Reed College
Meghan C. L. Howey University of New Hampshire–Main Campus
Solomon Hsiang University of California, Berkeley
Sarah J. Jackson University of Pennsylvania
Paulina Jaramillo Carnegie Mellon University
Azmat Khan New America
Jason Lyall Dartmouth College
Alice E. Marwick University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ana Raquel Minian Stanford University
Yonatan L. Morse University of Connecticut
Megan Mullin Duke University
Michael A. Neblo The Ohio State University
Aaron Panofsky University of California, Los Angeles
David A. Pietz University of Arizona
Andrés Reséndez University of California, Davis
Jennifer Anne Richeson Yale University
Thea Riofrancos Providence College
H. Luke Shaefer University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Amy Erica Smith Iowa State University
Duncan J. Watts University of Pennsylvania
Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Jurors
CHAIR:Susan Hockfield President Emerita and Professor of Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Joseph E. Aoun President, Northeastern University
Jared L. Cohon President Emeritus and University Professor of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
John J. DeGioia President, Georgetown University
Robbert Dijkgraaf Director and Leon Levy Professor, Institute for Advanced Study
Jonathan F. Fanton President Emeritus, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Amy Gutmann President, University of Pennsylvania
Rush D. Holt CEO Emeritus, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Alberto Ibargüen President and CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Ira Katznelson Interim Provost and Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University
Arthur Levine President Emeritus, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Earl Lewis Founding Director, Center for Social Solutions, University of Michigan; Immediate Past President, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Marcia McNutt President, National Academy of Sciences
Alondra Nelson President, Social Science Research Council
Don M. Randel President Emeritus, The University of Chicago; President Emeritus, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Louise Richardson Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford
Pauline Yu President Emerita, American Council of Learned Societies
About Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York was established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation's work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: education, international peace and security, and the strengthening of our democracy.
