CSSI’s Researcher-in-Residence Program is a summer program that provides faculty and scientific staff the time, space, and resources needed to research topics of significant public interest. Project work may involve grant development, data collection or curation, manuscript writing and dissemination, or other phases of the research process.
RiR participants work in residence at our center and attend weekly accountability meetings and workshops throughout the run of the program. Workshops are designed to provide RiR participants with additional information from CSSI staff and leaders from across the university on how to effectively fund, support, and share their work.
Featured RiR News
CSSI Invites Applications for Researcher-in-Residence Summer Program
Program Features & Benefits
Dedicated Workspace
Work within quiet assigned offices to support focused writing and research. Receive full access to the center's meeting rooms, printing stations, and break areas.
Supportive Community
Collaborative Learning
Research Funding
Receive up to $1,500 in funding for pilot data, transcription services, software, or other related research expenses.
“I love the structure of weekly check-ins for accountability. I think external accountability is always super helpful for faculty, and the structure that’s been created here in the program is fabulous for really making sure that we get the work done that we’re trying to do.”
How to Apply
Dates & Deadlines
Applications open: Winter 2025
Application deadline: Friday, March 28th. Applicants are notified of application status within two weeks from application deadline.
Program dates: Monday, June 16th - Friday, July 18th
Eligibility
Faculty members across all ranks and tracks, as well as scientific staff, are eligible. All applicants must be affiliated with the University of Iowa.
Instructions
Submit the following information to CSSI through the Apply Today button below.
COVER LETTER
- Name
- Project Title
- Project Abstract (50-100 words)
PROJECT INFORMATION
- Project Overview (300-500 words): Briefly introduce the project, its significance and potential impact, and its relevance to the research program. Clearly state the objectives of the research.
- Project Methodology (300-500 words): Describe the methods that will be used to achieve the project's objectives. This includes research design, data collection methods, and analysis techniques.
- Project Plan and Timeline (300-500 words): Describe the current status and goals of the project (e.g., anticipated outcomes and deliverables) and timeline of participation in the program.
ADDITIONAL ATTACHMENTS
- Curriculum Vitae or Biographical Sketch
Expectations
Applicants are expected to work in residence at the Social Sciences Research Building (minimum of twelve hours per week) and to attend weekly accountability meetings and workshops (approximately two hours per week).
Applicants are asked to acknowledge the Center for Social Science Innovation in all publications and presentations supported by participation in this program, and to notify the CSSI communications team of all publications, presentations, and grants related to program work.
Program Participants
2024
Megan Gilster, Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Megan Gilster, associate professor in the School of Social Work, worked to develop her project, "Social Work graduate Student Economic Hardship: The Role of Debt and Unpaid Practicum in Food and Housing Insecurity," during this year's Researcher-in-Residence program. By the end of the five-week Researcher-in-Residence Program, Gilster's goals during the program included completing a grant proposal to support a mixed methods study of student debt load, hardship, and mental health across multiple schools of social work in the Midwest. In addition, she aimed to write a conference abstract specific to the data analysis portion of her research.
Read the full article to learn more about Gilster's research and preliminary findings.
Amber Joy Powell, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology
Amber Joy Powell, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, examined the sexual victimization of incarcerated people during the 2024 Researcher-in-Residence program. Her work, titled “At the Intersection of Carceral & Sexual Citizenship: How Incarcerated Communities Mobilize Prison Rape Law,” seeks to understand sexual violence within detention, how carceral institutions, such as local jails and state and federal prisons, are responding to it, and—more broadly—the possibility for sexual safety and accountability in prison.
An extension of her dissertation work, Powell's research has roots in her background as a sexual assault victim advocate. Read the full article to learn more about Powell's project and the motivations behind her work.
2023
Yuan Lu, Coordinator, Chinese Program
Yuan Lu, coordinator of the university's Chinese Program and lecturer in the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures, conducted the first ever systematic review assessing the development and acquisition of Chinese as a second language during the 2023 Researcher-in-Residence program. A systematic review is a detailed and reproducible method of identifying all relevant studies on a specific topic. For his project, Lu collected studies from a wide variety of research databases (e.g. LLBA, ProQuest, PsycInfo, and Web of Science) that discuss the learning difficulties associated with Chinese grammar.
To learn more about Lu's project, read the full article.
Meghan Rogers, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology
Meghan Rogers, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, utilized interrupted time series analyses and synthetic control models to better understand homicide trends during her time in the 2023 Researcher-in-Residence program.
In order to address the challenge of finding reliable measures of international crime rates, Rogers relied on WHO's homicide database, focusing specifically on homicide rates in Chile. Read the full article to learn more about Rogers' work and the inspirations behind the project.
Yongren Shi, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology
Yongren Shi, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, turned to today's meca of internet conversation--Reddit--during the 2023 Researcher-in-Residence program to better understand online radicalization.
Shi’s study utilized computational approaches to analyze a now-shutdown digital community on Reddit that propagated extremist misogynist ideology. To learn more about Shi's research and findings, read the full article.
