Philanthropic Foundation Commits $18 Million over Three Years to
Help Find Solutions to a National Problem
Carnegie Corporation of New York announced today the 2024 Class
of Andrew Carnegie Fellows. Twenty-eight exceptional fellows will
receive stipends of $200,000 each for research that seeks to
understand how and why our society has become so polarized and how
we can strengthen the forces of cohesion to fortify our
democracy.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240507331875/en/
Philanthropic Foundation Commits $18
Million over Three Years to Help Find Solutions to a National
Problem (Photo: Business Wire)
With this focus, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program marks the
start of an effort to develop a body of research around today’s
growing political polarization. Under the direction of Dame Louise
Richardson, the Corporation will commit up to $6 million annually
to the program for at least the next three years.
The winning proposals include a wide range of research projects
that include using the largest dataset ever obtained from Meta to
understand social media’s impact on polarization; developing civic
education to decrease partisan prejudice among high school
students; identifying conspiracy theories that lead to
radicalization; and learning about democracy from the Asian
American perspective.
“The foundation’s support of these fascinating projects is a
considered effort to mine scholarship for insights into the
underlying causes of the political polarization that is damaging
our democracy,” said Richardson. “We also hope to gain insights
into the means by which collectively we can mitigate the negative
effects of this polarization on our society.”
The focus on political polarization attracted more than 360
applications, a record high for the program. Selection criteria
prioritized the originality and promise of the research, its
potential impact on the field, and the applicant’s plans for
communicating the findings to a broad audience. A distinguished
panel of jurors comprised of current and former leaders from some
of the nation’s preeminent institutions made the final
selections.
“This year marks the first time the jury was asked to assess
proposals addressing a single topic — the pervasive issue of
political polarization as characterized by threats to free speech,
the decline of civil discourse, disagreement over basic facts, and
a lack of mutual understanding and collaboration,” said John J.
DeGioia, chair of the jury and president of Georgetown University.
He noted with gratitude the contributions of long-standing juror
Jared L. Cohon, president emeritus of Carnegie Mellon
University, who died unexpectedly in March. The 2024 selections
reflected his highly regarded evaluations. “We were especially
gratified,” DeGioia added, “by the rigor of the submissions, the
wide range of perspectives, and the potential for lasting
impact.”
Of the 28 fellows selected, 12 are junior scholars, 15 are
senior scholars, 11 are employed by state universities, 16 are
employed by private universities, and one is a journalist.
Among the research topics:
- Challenging the assumption that politicians are becoming more
extreme, while voters are becoming more moderate
- Investigating the impact of polarization on the public’s trust
in government and medicine while finding ways to improve health
care overall
- Understanding how and why diverging conceptions of womanhood
have become a factor in the polarization of white women, especially
in the South
- Exploring algorithms that would expose individuals to diverse
political opinions and finding low-cost ways to limit the
monetization of misinformation
- Evaluating the effectiveness of redistricting reforms to
increase electoral competition and decrease geographic partisanship
ahead of the 2031 redistricting cycle
- Understanding how election denialism is affecting the work of
state and local election workers and how to rebuild trust in the
voting process
- Exploring “party misfits,” the 50 percent of Americans who do
not sort easily into Republican or Democratic camps, and the
growing gap between voters and political elites
- Examining how attitudes toward the credibility of science shape
polarized responses to policies that affect the environment
As part of a competitive nomination process, more than 650
individuals — including the heads of universities, independent
research institutes, professional societies, think tanks, major
university presses, and leading publications — were invited to
recommend a junior and a senior scholar for consideration. All
applications underwent a preliminary anonymous evaluation by
leading authorities in the relevant fields of study. The highest
scoring proposals were then forwarded to the jury.
Founded in 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program provides
the most generous stipend of its kind for research in the
humanities and social sciences. To date, the Corporation has named
more than 270 fellows, representing a philanthropic investment of
more than $54 million. The award is for a period of up to two years
and the anticipated result is generally a book or major study.
Congressional testimony by past fellows has addressed topics such
as social media and privacy protections, transnational crime,
governmental responses to pandemics, and college affordability.
Fellows have received honors including a Nobel Prize and a National
Book Award.
The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is a continuation of the
mission of Carnegie Corporation of New York, as founded by Andrew
Carnegie in 1911, to promote the advancement and diffusion of
knowledge and understanding. Read more about 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.
The public may follow the conversation at #CarnegieFellows via
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter).
Class of 2024
Delia S. Baldassarri New York University Party Misfits:
The Social Bases of Partisanship in an Era of Polarized
Politics
David Broockman University of California, Berkeley The
Nature and Origins of Political Polarization in America
Lisa A. Bryant California State University, Fresno
Polarizing the Process: Partisan Effects on Election Officials and
Trust in Elections
Joshua D. Clinton Vanderbilt University Divided We Vote:
Exploring the Crisis of Election Legitimacy in a Polarized
America
Johanna Dunaway Syracuse University Institute for
Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship Nationalized News Increases
Polarization and Weakens Democratic Norms
Bernard L. Fraga Emory University Why We Won’t Vote:
Polarization, Non-Voting, and the Future of American Democracy
D. Sunshine Hillygus Duke University Redesigning Social
Media to Reduce Partisan Animosity
Taeku Lee Harvard University Reimagining America: What
the Asian American Experience Can Tell Us about the Health of
Democracy in the United States
Brett L. M. Levy University at Albany, State University
of New York How Can Education Bridge Political Divides?: Reducing
Political Polarization through the Youth Civic Connections
Project
Neil Malhotra Stanford Graduate School of Business Does
Social Media Increase Political Polarization?
Lilliana Mason Johns Hopkins University Addressing
Polarization by Prioritizing Pluralistic Democracy
Angie Maxwell University of Arkansas The Polarization of
White Women in American Politics
Jennifer McCoy Georgia State University Mitigating
Pernicious Polarization through Innovative Civic Educational
Interventions
Elizabeth McKenna Harvard Kennedy School Grassroots
Organizing to Strengthen Multiracial Democracy
Neil A. O’Brian University of Oregon Partisan
Prescriptions: The Polarization of Health Outcomes
Molly Offer-Westort University of Chicago Digital
Dialogues: Understanding Political Polarization through Online
Discourse
Julianna Pacheco University of Iowa The Deadly Effects of
Partisanship
Natalia Mehlman Petrzela The New School A Thinking
American’s Guide to the Classroom Culture Wars
Markus Prior Princeton University What Do They Want and
When Do They Want It? Political Patience and Its Role in Partisan
Polarization
Brian F. Schaffner Tufts University American Mosaic: The
Social Identities That Define Our Politics and a Path to Bridge the
Divide
Ananya Sen Carnegie Mellon University Automation
Technologies, Online Misinformation, and Echo Chambers
Seema Sohi University of Colorado Boulder We Are Each
Other’s Magnitude and Bond: A History of Climate Justice from
Warren County to the Sunrise Movement
Mara Suttmann-Lea Connecticut College Are You There,
Voter? It’s Me, Your Election Official: Depolarizing Attitudes
Toward Election Administration in the United States
Chris Tausanovitch University of California, Los Angeles
Why Do Moderate Voters Elect Polarized Candidates?
Dara M. Wald Texas A&M University The Polarization of
Science, Source Credibility, and the Public Good
Elise Wang California State University, Fullerton That’s
What They Want You to Think: Identifying Dangerous Conspiracy
Theories
David N. Wasserman The Cook Political Report Road Map to
the Middle Ground: Restoring Competitiveness in Congressional
Elections
Hajar Yazdiha University of Southern California
Reconciliation through Reckoning: Bridging Divides through
Grassroots Memory Work
Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Jurors
John J. DeGioia, Chair President, Georgetown
University
Joseph E. Aoun President, Northeastern University
The late Jared L. Cohon (1947–2024) President
Emeritus and University Professor of Engineering and Public Policy,
Carnegie Mellon University
Jonathan F. Fanton President Emeritus, American Academy
of Arts and Sciences
Rush D. Holt CEO Emeritus, American Association for the
Advancement of Science
Alberto Ibargüen Former President, John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation
Ira I. Katznelson Ruggles Professor of Political Science
and History and Deputy Director, Columbia World Projects, Columbia
University
Arthur Levine President Emeritus, Teachers College,
Columbia University, and President Emeritus, The Woodrow Wilson
National Fellowship Foundation
Marcia McNutt President, National Academy of Sciences
Martha Minow 300th Anniversary University Professor,
Harvard University
Alondra Nelson Harold F. Linder Professor of Social
Science, Institute for Advanced Study
Dame Louise Richardson President, Carnegie Corporation of
New York
Pauline Yu President Emeritus, American Council of
Learned Societies
About Carnegie Corporation of New York Carnegie
Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911
to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and
understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political
polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that
Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and
peace. @CarnegieCorp
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240507331875/en/
Media Contacts:
- Celeste Ford, Carnegie Corporation of New York:
CFC@carnegie.org
- Anne Edgar or Betsy Ennis at Ennis O’Brien, LLC:
info@ennisobrien.com