“Education Secretary Linda McMahon and her legal team have dropped their appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked the department from requiring colleges to eradicate all race-based curriculum, financial aid and student services or lose federal funding.” Inside Higher Ed 1/22/26

A coalition of advocacy groups, including the American Sociological Association, had filed suit against the Department of Education’s February 2025 guidance. On behalf of the coalition, Democracy Forward announced, “Major Victory for Public Education Comes As Trump-Vance Administration Abandons Appeal on ‘Dear Colleague Letter’” (1/21/26) “Today marks a final defeat in the Trump-Vance administration’s attempt to require school districts throughout the nation to censor lessons, abandon student support programs, and certify their compliance with the administration’s unlawful interpretation of civil rights. In 2025, the U.S. District Court for Maryland ruled in favor of a coalition of nationwide associations of educators and a public school district, represented by Democracy Forward, that had challenged the administration actions in American Federation of Teachers et al v. U.S. Department of Education et al. The government filed a notice today withdrawing its appeal of the district court’s final judgment, finalizing the invalidation of the government’s actions.”

In a message to members, ASA Executive Director Heather Washington said, “This victory reaffirms the essential work sociologists and educators do every day—building classrooms and communities where every student feels supported, motivated to learn, and encouraged to explore complex social realities with honesty, curiosity, and intellectual rigor. The ruling enables educators in our discipline and beyond to continue providing accurate instruction that fosters students’ academic and personal growth, helping them become thoughtful, informed community members.”

For context on actions affecting ED during 2025, see our 2025 resources page, which has now been archived.

Several news items released this week signal potentially significant changes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities:

“Limit on multiyear funding of NIH grants is a sticking point in Senate budget talks” STAT News 1/16/26 (subscription) In 2025, NIH “funded fewer research projects than in years past because of a budgeting strategy mandated by the White House Office of Management and Budget. Called multiyear funding, it allocates funds for a grant in full during the year the grant is awarded, rather than on a yearly basis.” Shifting to this funding model means that fewer projects are funded, even while spending remains stable or even increases. This could be especially challenging for early-career researchers.

“Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026” Nature 1/22/26 (subscription) “Crucial grant-review panels for more than half of the institutes that make up the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are on track to lose all their voting members within the year. Federal law requires these panels to review applications for all but the smallest grants before funding can be awarded, meaning that the ability of those institutes to issue new grants could soon be frozen. … At the advisory council for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the final voting members’ terms end next month. Without extraordinary action, the council will have no members by its May meeting, when it is scheduled to review grant applications submitted as early as last September — meaning those applications would be effectively frozen.” (Also covered in STAT News)

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO, who is the Ranking Member of the US House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, “introduced the Follow the Science Act to shield the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from political interference and protect the integrity of America's biomedical research.” (“DeGette Introduces Bill to Protect NIH From Political Interference” 1/21/26)

“Again Defying Trump, Congress Proposes Increasing NIH Budget, Maintaining ED” Inside Higher Ed 1/20/26 “The House and Senate appropriations committees have jointly proposed legislation that would generally maintain the Education Department’s funding levels, plus increase the National Institutes of Health’s budget by more than $400 million this fiscal year. It’s the latest in a trend of bipartisan congressional rebukes of President Trump’s call to slash agencies that support higher ed.”

For context on actions affecting NIH during 2025, see our 2025 resources page, which has now been archived.

Please consider nominating a colleague or yourself for one of the following DCSS 2026 awards. Nominations will close on March 2. Complete descriptions and nominating information are on the Awards page of the website, where you will also find links to lists of previous winners.

Graduate Student Paper Awards: Separate awards are made for one M.A. student paper and one Ph.D. student paper; each winning author will receive a $200 cash award and will be recognized at the annual DCSS awards event. Graduate students enrolled in colleges and universities in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia are encouraged to submit; you need not be a member of DCSS to submit a paper for consideration. See complete details on the Awards page.

The Stuart A. Rice Merit Award for Career Achievement is presented to a distinguished senior member of the Society who has made a significant contribution to the discipline. Nominees will be judged on their collective accomplishments over a professional career of at least 25 years.

The Morris Rosenberg Award is presented for outstanding sociological achievement during the past three years by any member of DCSS. Achievements may include—but are not limited to—scholarship, teaching and mentoring, use of sociology in public policy analysis, contributions to professional organizations, advancement of public awareness of sociological practice, or leadership in the use of sociological knowledge in non-traditional settings.

The Anna Julia Cooper Award for Public Sociology by a Community Organization is given to a community group using the methods and insights of sociology in its work to improve life in the DCSS service area.

The Executive Committee is currently making plans for an awards event to be held in late spring. Watch this space for more information coming soon!

"COSSA's Social Science Advocacy Day is back! Join COSSA on March 23-24, 2026 in Washington, DC! Advocacy Day brings together social and behavioral scientists and science advocates from across the country to engage with policymakers.

"This opportunity is available to individuals affiliated with a COSSA member organization. If you are a member of or employed by one of COSSA’s member organizations, you are eligible to participate." (Note that DCSS is not a COSSA member organization, but ASA is and some area universities are.)

For more information and to register, see the COSSA website.

Call for Papers 
Global South Hub, Center for Social Science Research, George Mason University 
 
FIFTH GLOBAL SOUTH GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE (Hybrid) 
April 16-17, 2026 

Conference Theme: Unsettled Lives: Making and Unmaking of Worlds in the Global South  
 
Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 30, 2026    
Deadline for submission of full papers for the best student paper award: March 20, 2026

"The conference will be hybrid. This year, we will provide travel assistance and lodging to a limited number of participants traveling from within the United States. 
 
"Please submit a 250-word abstract with your name and academic affiliation by the deadline of 11:59 p.m. ET on January 30, 2026. We will notify you about acceptance by February 15, 2026. Submissions and Presentations should be in English. Additionally, we invite draft papers from students with accepted abstracts to be submitted for consideration for the best student paper awards competition by 11.59 pm ET on March 20, 2026. The award will carry a cash prize of $300 for the winner and $200 for the runner-up, along with a certificate. Paper submission is only for the award. All students with accepted abstracts will be invited to make conference presentations."

Read the complete call on the GMU website. 

From the American Statistical Association (ASA)

"With the support of Lumina Foundation and William T. Grant Foundation, the ASA is launching a project to define a revitalized National Center for Education Statistics that is more efficient and agile. While our primary audience is policymakers in the administration and Congress, we want broad input and discussion for what could be a once-in-a-lifetime discussion. Our goal is to publish recommendations in spring 2026 for discussion and consideration. To inform those recommendations, we are hosting small roundtables with key audiences this fall and winter."

Read "NCES: Perspectives, Insights, and Recommendations from Former Leaders" on the ASA website.

Read the complete announcement and sign up for updates on the ASA website.

On February 1, 2025, a Saturday, as the first flurry of actions by the second Trump Administration foreshadowed the year’s dramatic impacts on science and education, I compiled a list of a few related news items that I thought might be of interest for our DMV sociology readership. As a scholar of higher education, it had occurred to me that I might be picking up on details and sources that would not be as immediately apparent to other researchers and educators, but that could have important consequences for sociology and beyond.

I created a separate page on the DCSS website entitled, “Resources for Tracking Trump Administration Actions,” and started it with notes about dramatic changes at NSF, the resignation of Census Bureau Director Robert Santos, and links to several sources for tracking actions at the federal level. I had no idea at the time that I would end up adding to that list more than once a week throughout the rest of the year.

I’ve restructured the page numerous times and added major sections tracking actions at NIH and the hollowing out of the US Department of Education. Later in the year, I was able to add sections on calls for collective action and resources providing help for federal workers and assistance in locating federal data. The final two posts brought the page full circle with major updates about changes at NSF, published in two parts in Science: “Five things to know about NSF’s new rules on merit review” (12/24) Major changes that apparently conflict with recommendations in a recent major report from the National Science Board. “The National Science Foundation just had a big reorganization. Here are five things to know” (12/29) Provides information on the restructuring of directorates and employment at NSF.

Although the consequences of Administration actions continue to reverberate as we move into a new year, I’ve decided to archive the 2025 page and not continue with a separate page of updates in 2026. As relevant news items emerge, I’ll post them to the News section of the website; please feel free to send suggestions to dcsociologicalsociety@gmail.com.

I wanted to highlight three resources that I’ve found particularly useful as we continue to make our way through this changing landscape:

Unbreaking is “a community-powered knowledge-making project, made by a growing collective of volunteers with experience in journalism, tech, mutual aid, government, research, and organizing.” It’s organized by issues, and I have found the weekly newsletters very thorough and informative.

For those of us who use federal data, 2025 has created a great deal of uncertainty. There are several different efforts under way to preserve federal data resources, some of which are listed on the 2025 resource page. To keep up with ongoing changes, I signed up for the Federal Data Forum established by the Population Reference Bureau. You can sign up for a daily digest e-mail, and perhaps contribute information yourself. The forum covers a wide variety of topics and agencies.

Finally, for those of us working in or interested in education, The Hechinger Report’s Jill Barshay provided a helpful—and sobering—overview of the year, “How Trump 2.0 upended education research and statistics in one year.” I’ve found Hechinger to be a valuable resource for education news over the years, and would encourage you to sign up for one of their relevant newsletters.

In closing, I want to note that I posted this item under my own byline to make to make it clear that these recommendations represent my personal opinions and not an organizational statement from DCSS. I’m posting on a weekend when the Trump Administration has engaged in further illegal and unconstitutional actions that only compound the damage partially chronicled on the 2025 resource page. That page was never intended to cover everything the Administration has done, but I hope it serves to remind us of some of the work that lies ahead. And I hope you will join with other DMV sociologists to support DCSS in 2026 in connecting our work across many different situations and the whole spectrum of topics. The Executive Committee is working to organize events in the coming months, new issues of The Sociologist: Sociology From & About The DMV are in the works, and we will continue to update this website, with your support. Thank you.

"The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Summer Conference will be held from June 26-28, 2026, in New Orleans! Join us for thought-provoking presentations, dynamic discussions, and opportunities to connect with others who share a commitment to addressing important social issues. This year's conference theme is “Lespwa fe viv” (Hope Makes Us Live): Using Research and Action to Cultivate Joy, Resilience, and Liberation.

"As SPSSI celebrates its 90th anniversary, we look to New Orleans, a place where joy itself can be a form of resistance and where communities have rebuilt again and again in the face of structural neglect, racism, and displacement. The conference theme, drawn from the Haitian Creole expression lespwa fè viv (“hope makes us live”), honors SPSSI’s historical commitment to confronting injustice while inviting us to imagine the futures we must build together. Across nine decades, SPSSI scholars have challenged systems of oppression, defended human rights, and advanced psychological science that speaks truth to power. Yet today’s current landscape demands renewed courage, creativity, and hope."

The submission deadline is February 15, 2026.

Read the complete announcement on the SPSSI website.

The Census Bureau is seeking public comments on proposed revisions to the National Survey of Children's Health before it goes to the Office of Management and Budget. These data help shape policies and programs that support children's health and well-being across the U.S.

The U.S. Census Bureau is requesting public comment on the utility of data collected through the NSCH and ways the survey can be enhanced in the future. Specific plans for 2026 include increasing the survey sample so that reliable state-level estimates can be produced with fewer years of pooled data and continuing to oversample specific populations in California and eight other states.

Read the complete Federal Register notice online.

Deadline to comment: February 3, 2026.

By Stephanie Richards, Kari Williams, and Sarah Flood

"The Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey is the official source of information about poverty in the United States. Since 1968, the ASEC has been used to create the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) and has included the variables needed to create that measure. The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) and the variables needed to create it were first released by the Census Bureau in 2010, reporting the SPM for 20091. In contrast to the OPM, the SPM provides a more complete picture of the economic wellbeing of American households.

"The value of the SPM is apparent – it is a comprehensive and nuanced measure that accounts for the diversity of living arrangements, variability in cost of living, and a wider array of available financial resources and demands. However, the temporal coverage of SPM is limited; the Census Bureau only has data back to 2010. Over the last ten years, researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy (CPSP) have eliminated this constraint by compiling the data necessary to create SPM and make it available back to 1968, and have shared the data with the research community via the CPSP Historical SPM Data Portal.

"...In this blog post, we briefly describe differences between the components – family, resources, and needs – used to create OPM and (historical) SPM, preview CPSP’s “anchored” poverty variables that facilitate comparisons over time that reference a set cost-of-living standard, and share suggestions for further reading (because we know you are going to want to learn even more about this!)."

Read the complete blog post online