Nominations for 2025 DCSS awards are now open! The deadline for award nominations is March 17, and for graduate student papers March 31.

The Irene B. Taeuber Graduate Student Paper Awards competition is open to all graduate students enrolled in Virginia, Maryland, and District of Columbia colleges and universities. The winning authors each receive a $200 cash award and will be recognized at the annual DCSS award event.

The Morris Rosenberg Award for Outstanding Sociological Achievement

The Stuart A. Rice Merit Award for Career Achievement

The Anna Julia Cooper Award for Public Sociology by a Community Organization

See complete details and a link to past award recipients on the Awards page. We are currently planning an awards event for late April.

The US Department of Education announced March 10 that it "sent letters to 60 institutions of higher education warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus...." (See also the report from Inside Higher Ed on March 11.)

The list includes American University, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Virginia.

At the same time, the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University released an action-resource guide: Student Speech, Education Policy, and College Campuses Today. (PDF) "This guide provides an accessible introduction to historical and ongoing policy debates on students’ freedom of expression around Palestine, Gaza, Israel, and anti-Zionism. It is intended to inform and empower students, faculty, administrators, and free speech advocates working in this area."

Johns Hopkins University also "is planning for staff layoffs after the Trump administration canceled $800 million in U.S. Agency for International Development grants...."

See additional news and resources related to the actions of the Trump Administration on our "Resources" page.

Call for Papers for "The Demographic Transition: Policy Implications of Fertility and Aging Trends" conference in Vilnius, 23-24 May, 2025.

The conference is organized by the International Network for Social Policy Teaching and Research; the University of California Berkeley Center for Comparative Welfare State Research; the University of Maryland School of Public Policy; and the Social Policy Department at Vilnius University, Faculty of Philosophy.

See complete details and a link to submit an abstract in this PDF

The District of Columbia Office of Revenue Analysis in the Office of Chief Financial Officer publishes monthly Economic and Revenue Trends reports. The reports "help track DC and national economic indicators that have a bearing on the tax base of the District of Columbia. [They] include analysis of revenues and of economic forecasts for the current and upcoming fiscal years. Each month, a brief note is included which takes a special look at one or more topics of current interest." The January 2025 report includes data on housing, employment, wages and income, and population.

From Democracy Forward:

"The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFT-MD, and the American Sociological Association have filed a lawsuit challenging the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague Letter,” which is a new policy that threatens to withhold federal funding for any education institutions that do not comply by February 28 with its unprecedented weaponization and undermining of civil rights laws. In addition to withholding funds, the letter also threatens educators and schools with potential investigations and prosecutions.

"The suit, filed in federal court in Maryland, is brought by the AFT, AFT-MD, and the American Sociological Association. The complaint challenges a “Dear Colleague Letter” published by the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights on February 14, 2025, which threatened that federal funding would be withheld from education institutions that teach accurate history and lessons about slavery, diversity and inclusion, among other efforts. The complaint argues that the “Dear Colleague Letter” will do a disservice to students and ultimately the nation by weakening schools as portals to opportunity and incubators for creative, innovative, and critical thinking."

See the press release and full complaint on the Democracy Forward website.

See additional context on the "Dear Colleague" letter on our "Resources for Tracking Trump Administration Actions" page

The Social Science Research Council announces:

"The Policy Impacts team at MIT has developed a standardized metric, the Marginal Value of Public Funds (MVPF), that reports the net social benefit produced by each additional dollar of public funds spent on a given policy. Yet we currently lack MVPF estimates for many policy alternatives, including most criminal justice policies.

"The Policy ROI Project, made possible by the support of Arnold Ventures, aims to close this knowledge gap for criminal justice policies. The Policy ROI Project will produce MVPF estimates of the net social returns to alternative criminal justice investments, including summer youth employment and cognitive behavioral therapy programs. The project team will work closely with practitioners to ensure that these estimates help policymakers make better informed decisions about how to achieve more public safety with fewer taxpayer dollars."

See also a related postdoctoral fellowship.

Changes are being proposed to multiple federal data collections “to comply with E.O. 14168, ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.’” The changes are essentially to limit data collection on gender to a binary “sex” item. There are four examples listed here; if you know of others, please send information to the DCSS Gmail address. See suggestions about commenting below.

Application for a [new] U.S. Passport (March 17)

U.S. Passport Renewal Application for Eligible Individuals (March 20)

Correction, Name Change to Passport Issued 1 Year Ago or Less, and Limited Passport Replacement (March 20)

Changes to the 2026-2027 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) (April 7) [Docket No.: ED-2025-SCC-0011] Note: The actual changes proposed are available as supplementary materials; check out the “data elements” or the “summary of enhancements”.

Some suggestions on commenting (admittedly without an authoritative citation):

• DO state your concerns with the form changes clearly, professionally, and without panic or hyperbole.
• DO back them up with either personal stories/experiences or media articles. Links are fine but you can also attach a PDF of the media articles to your comment, which makes the article part of the regulatory record.
• DON’T copy and paste someone else’s comment and just change one or two things; it will be treated as the same comment.
• DON’T submit any information within the comment itself that you don’t want to be searchable (e.g., full legal name and work e-mail address) Comments are open to the public.
• DO consider reaching out to your senators/representatives and ask them to submit a comment as well. Maybe send them a copy of your comment for reference.
• DO submit comments even though the change is likely to occur, because it can help litigators. There is an Administrative Procedures Act (APA), and these comments and the government’s (non) response may provide a basis for a case under the APA.

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) is calling for action to protect government data. "As part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to make quick progress on the President’s policy priorities, the last several weeks saw the removal of government data sources from many federal agencies, including at the National Science Foundation, U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Justice, among others. While some data have since been restored, many have not and the Administration’s plans regarding the availability of government data and statistics remain unclear."

Use the COSSA Action Center tool to write to your representatives today.

PSID Data User Workshop
Ann Arbor, MI
June 16-20th, 2025

** Application Deadline April 21st**

This five-day workshop will orient participants to the content and structure of the core PSID interview, its special topics modules, and its supplemental studies, including the Child Development Supplement (CDS), the Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS), and the 2013 Rosters and Transfers Module. In addition we will discuss topics including the genomics data collected from children and adults as well as new data files which explain family relationships and demographic characteristics over time.

Eligibility: The workshop is designed for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, and research professionals.

Software: Participants should be familiar with Stata, SAS or R, but all examples used in the workshop will be in Stata. R code will be available for each lab as well.

Applications from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows must include a letter of recommendation from a faculty advisor, project manager, or department chair.

Fee: $100 for those accepted into the workshop. Travel stipends will be available for those who need financial assistance.

See the full list of workshops on the ICPSR website or use this link to go directly to the PSID workshop registration.

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) Social Science Advocacy Day will be March 24-25, 2025 in Washington, DC.

***The early bird registration rate has been extended until February 14***

"Advocacy Day brings together social and behavioral scientists and science advocates from across the  country to engage with policymakers. The stakes for research funding have never been higher as we enter a particularly challenging political and budgetary environment. Social Science Advocacy Day is a must for all stakeholders who care about the fate of federal funding for social and behavioral science research and who believe this research should be used to inform sound public policy."

See more information on the COSSA events page.