The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy awards small grants to promote scholarship with a social policy application on a global or local level. They encourage projects that address contemporary issues in the social sciences. PhD candidates from any country and any university in the world who have defended their dissertation proposal or had their topic approved by their department are eligible. U.S. citizenship or residency is not required.
Each grant is worth a total of $7,500; $5,000 is awarded initially and $2,500 upon completion of the project.
Special Award recipients receive an additional $1,500, unless otherwise noted:
Donald R. Cressey Award: Criminal Justice and Penology Practices
Eli Ginzberg Award: Health and Welfare, particularly in urban settings
Harold D. Lasswell Award: International Relations and Foreign Affairs
Irving Louis Horowitz Award: Overall most outstanding project. This award carries with it an additional $5,000.
John L. Stanley Award: History and Ethics
Joshua Feigenbaum Award: Arts, Popular Culture, and Mass Communication
Martinus Nijhoff Award: Science, Technology, and Medicine
Robert K. Merton Award: Addresses the relationship between Social Theory and Public Policy
Trustees' Award: For the most innovative approach in theory and/or methodology. This award carries with it an additional $3,000.
More information on Special Awards is available here.
Applications are evaluated based on the Trustees’ assessment of criteria such as: feasibility, applicability, originality, methodology, theoretically informed or empirically rich research, and letters of recommendation. No specific weight is given to any one area. Proposals are evaluated based on overall merit of all aspects of the application. The application deadline is December 1st of each year. Awards are announced in June. Applications open on or about July 1 of each year. If you sign up for the mailing list, you will automatically be notified when applications open.
Former Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy Grantees:
2021: Victoria Asbury-Kimmel, "Assessing the Effects of Immigration Discourse on Subjective Evaluations of Americanness and Resource Allocation," Joshua Feigenbaum Award
2010: Eva Rosen, “The End of Poverty, or the Rise of the Vertical Ghetto? Post-public housing spatial concentration and youth in Baltimore”
2009: Ann Owens, “Hidden Costs: The Plight of Urban Neighborhoods in the Face of Housing Policy Changes,” Eli Ginzberg Award
2008: Van Tran, “Why Inequality Persists: Race, Class and Assimilation in Multi-Ethnic America”
2007: Christopher Bail, “Terrified: Counter-Terrorism Policy and Collective Memory in the United States and Great Britain”
2005: Patrick Sharkey, “Social Isolation and Neighborhood Mobility over Childhood,” Robert K. Merton Award