"GradSense is a website to help you plan financially for graduate school – whether you’re already enrolled or just considering your options. Learn what funding options are available for which degrees, plan your future with our debt to earnings calculator, and create a budget that will see you through your program. Then, go deeper with interactive quizzes, inspiring stories from recent graduates, and links to additional financial planning resources. GradSense is an initiative of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) generously supported by TIAA."

From the Social Science Research Council

"Pilot Pitchfest aims to connect local researchers with city agencies and employees, in order to accelerate public sector innovation in cities. Eight out of ten top research universities are in US cities, yet local experts are under-utilized in accelerating public sector innovation. Pitchfest aims to bolster government innovation capacity, modernize city procurement processes, and coordinate startup support infrastructure."

The first Pilot Pitchfest is in New York City. If you are interested in bringing the program to your city, click the link at the bottom of that page.

Update from Democracy Forward:

"Harmful Attacks on Educational Programs Paused by Court in Case Brought By Educators" (Press Release April 24, 2025)

"Federal Court Issues Nationwide Order Pausing Unprecedented Assault on Public Schools, Teachers and Students. Court Blocks 'Dear Colleague Letter' Purporting to Prosecute or Cut Funding Based on Teaching History, Sociology, Or Other Lessons That Reference Race or Racism."

Original item 2/26/25 "ASA Joins Lawsuit against the Department of Education"
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 DC Sociological Society has signed on in support of two recent statements supporting academic freedom in the face of ongoing attacks against education and science by the current Trump Administration.

The first, organized by the American Sociological Association, is an “Open Letter in Support of Academia: How Sociology Benefits Universities and Society.” The 14 organizational signatories “stand firmly in opposition to recent federal policy that seeks to stifle universities and academic inquiry.” The letter states further that “[t]hese attempts to silence and discredit [social institutions] do a massive disservice to society at large that will have far-reaching, adverse impacts.” It concludes by calling on “university leaders to resist efforts to stifle scientific discovery and to challenge the attempts to silence academics working in universities and other settings. We call on universities to support sociology departments, students, and faculty and reject efforts to restrict the teaching of sociology at their institutions. Now more than ever, it is critical that leaders—at universities, in private industry, and in the public sector—state plainly that academia benefits society and that sociology is an essential way that it does so.”

The “Declaration To Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship,” which has been signed by more than 4,400 individuals and organizations as of this date, is a call for “members of the worldwide scholarly communication community … to publicly condemn and resist the censorship of academic research.” The Declaration argues that “[s]cholarly/scientific research generates globally shared knowledge that serves humanity. The integrity and advancement of this knowledge requires that scholars can freely conduct, collaborate on, and share their research, and are freely able to examine and discuss the work of their peers. Government censorship and restrictions on terminology, research topics, or methods fundamentally compromise these scholarly endeavors and their integrity.”

Signatories to the Declaration commit to at least one of four recommended actions: “(1) Support instances of resistance to U.S. government censorship. (2) Promote venues for scholars to share, safeguard, and preserve their work, beyond the reach of censorship. (3) Participate in efforts to track and record instances of U.S. government censorship. (4) Share this Declaration broadly and encourage individuals and organizations in your communities to sign and support it.”

In addition to these two statements, our page on “Resources for Tracking Trump Administration Actions” includes numerous statements responding to specific prior actions, and has been reorganized to include a new section on “Statements and Calls for Collective Action.”

[Update, Apr. 11] A group of faculty members at universities on the March 10 list have issued a call to action, "We Must Leverage the Strength of Our Institutions and Stand Together." (New URL) It states in part, "These measures are not principally about protecting students and combating discrimination; they are about political control. ... the federal government is using the language of civil rights enforcement as a cover for authoritarian overreach and encroachment, dictating what can be said, studied, and debated in our institutions. These measures represent a direct assault on the mission of the university as a space for independent thought, free speech, and democratic engagement. ... We ask all sixty institutions under government threat to unite in a coordinated, proactive defense." More than 4,500 faculty members at these 60 institutions and others have signed the call to action, which remains open for signature as of this date.

[Original, Mar. 15] 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.

From RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

"Inequality in America: Beliefs, Attitudes, and Actions"

Societal inequality refers to the unequal distribution of economic resources, political power, social identities, and legal status. A widely shared value holds that inequality is undesirable, yet researchers continue to debate exactly how inequality-related beliefs are affected by inequalities of various kinds, as well as by changes in inequality across space and time. An important area of research also considers how inequality itself partially reflects what people believe about social groups, the economy, and political institutions, and how they process cognate information. The connection between inequality and behavioral outcomes therefore often depends on people's beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, values, motivations, emotions, and other measurable mental processes. In short, there are fundamental and multi-faceted relationships between inequality and psychology.

In this issue, we invite original research contributions pertaining to the relationships between societal inequalities and individuals' psychology in the United States. Proposals should include a clearly stated research question, details on data and some initial analysis, and a timeline that describes how and when the project will be completed by. While proposals should engage with some aspect of psychology, we welcome proposals from any and all social science disciplines.

Read the full call on the RSF website.

Prospective contributors should submit a CV and an abstract (up to two pages in length, single or double spaced) of their study along with up to two pages of supporting material (e.g., tables, figures, pictures, etc.) no later than 5 PM ET on June 4, 2025.

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 deadline to submit graduate student papers for consideration is March 31.

See complete details and a link to past award recipients on the Awards 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.

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.