UChicago Social Sciences

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UChicago Social Sciences

Consistently ranked among the top ten social science research universities, the Division of the Soci

The Division of Social Sciences is at the vanguard of inquiry and impact. Whether through the field-defining scholarship of the Chicago Schools in Sociology, Political Science, and Economics, the path-breaking impact of the first graduate international affairs program in the U.S., the creation of interdisciplinary programs in the Department of Comparative Human Development and the John U. Nef Comm

ittee on Social Thought, or many other pivotal milestones, the Division has repeatedly transformed the social sciences since its founding in 1930.

09/08/2026

In a new op-ed for The New York Times, co-authored with Henry Farell at Johns Hopkins and Alison Gopnik at UC Berkeley, Prof. James Evans argues that the social sciences are uniquely important to understand and regulate AI, but must be re-oriented to the public's interest in order to do so.

Read more here:

Just as A.I. is poised to change the world, we’re losing our best ways of studying what that change will look like.

09/04/2026

Week two check-in! The September The University of Chicago College study-abroad course 'Sydney: Colonization, Health, and the Environment' is taking place right now – here's an update from the second week of the class, on 'Urban Development, Rural Expansion, & Environmental Change'.

Learn more about the course: https://study-abroad.uchicago.edu/sydney-colonization-health-and-environment-september-course

09/01/2026

Congratulations to the recipients of our 2026 Excellence in MA Teaching and Advising Awards, recognizing outstanding mentorship to students!

This year's recipients are:

Adom Getachew, Professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity and the Department of Political Science

David A. Peterson, Asst. Instructional Professor in the Masters in Computational Social Science (MACSS) program

Kara Ann Hooser, Asst. Instructional Professor in the Committee on International Relations (CIR)

Learn more about the award and this year's recipients:
https://socialsciences.uchicago.edu/news/congratulating-2026-ssd-recipients-excellence-ma-advising-and-mentoring

08/28/2026

The September UChicago College course 'Sydney: Colonization, Health, and the Environment' is taking place right now, taught by Christopher Kindell of the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU). We'll share updates after each week, starting with Week One: Aboriginal Histories, Colonial Encounters, & British Convicts.

Learn more about the course:https://ow.ly/hjzn50ZGGyH

Learn more about Assoc. Instructional Prof. Christopher Kindell and CEGU: https://ow.ly/433x50ZGGyF

08/25/2026

The new Laura Berk Faculty Award is shaped by alumna Laura E. Berk's lifelong commitment to research and practice in child development and education scholarship, supporting faculty in these fields in the Division of the Social Sciences.

The inaugural recipient is Assoc. Prof. Lin Bian, whose work explores young children’s stereotypes and sociomoral expectations.

Learn more about Berk, Bian, and the new faculty award:
https://socialsciences.uchicago.edu/news/new-faculty-scholar-award-invests-child-development-and-education-scholarship

08/19/2026

What if AI isn't just replicating human hiring biases, but making them worse? Asst. Prof. Xuechunzi Bai comments in a new article for The Guardian, discussing her research on AI models and hiring discrimination.

Learn more:

A rise in lawsuits over AI use in employment decisions is raising questions about how companies hire and fire

08/07/2026

Congratulations to Asst. Prof. Zhaotian Luo and PhD Candidate Shuyi Yu for winning the Best APSA Paper award in the 2026 APSA Formal Theory Section awards for "A Relational Theory of Power Alternation," (Presented at the 2025 APSA meeting) along with co-authors Zanhui Liu and Yucheng Qui!

Learn more:
https://apsanet.org/membership/organized-sections/organized-section-awards/past-awards/section-52/ %20paper

07/28/2026

Asst. Prof. Jeremy Simmons' new book 'Sea of Treasures' goes beyond the mechanics of long-distance travel or the economics of trade to offer a new perspective on Indian Ocean commerce, refocusing a historical lens on the commodities involved and the resulting patterns of their consumption.

Learn more in our latest faculty book profile!
https://ow.ly/bNgL50ZtYcs

06/22/2026

A new study from Asst. Prof. Akram Bakkour in The 'Journal of Neuroscience' finds that while the cognitive machinery individuals with anorexia nervosa use to make decisions about what to eat are remarkably similar to that of healthy eaters, there are differences in the regions of the brain utilized during those decision-making processes.

Learn more in our latest research profile:
https://socialsciences.uchicago.edu/news/research-points-potential-new-focus-treating-eating-disorders

06/08/2026

Congratulations to our new social sciences grads and the entire class of 2026!

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