Social Science Research Council

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a headquarters in Brooklyn Heights with a staff of approximately 70, and small regional offices in other parts of the world on an as-needed basis.

Under the leadership of President Craig Calhoun, the SSRC has focused on the public sphere, migration, global security and cooperation, and knowledge institutions as its four thematic areas, with close to twenty active programs within these areas. Topics include the privatization of risk, international migration, media reform, religion and international affairs, and the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS in Russia, Africa and around the world.

The SSRC offers several fellowships to young researchers in the social sciences and related disciplines, mostly for overseas fieldwork.

History

Early history

The SSRC came into being in 1923 as a result of the initiative of the American Political Science Association's committee on research, headed by the association's president, Charles E. Merriam (1874–1953), who was political science chair at the University of Chicago and an early champion of behaviorally oriented social science.Kenton W. Worcester, Social Science Research Council 1923-1998 (SSRC, 2001), pp. 15-16.

Representatives of the American Economic Association, the American Sociological......
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