2021 – 2022 W. Allison Davis Research Awards for Doctoral Students Announced

The Division of the Social Sciences and the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice have announced the 2021-2022 recipients of the W. Allison Davis Research Awards. The awards, made possible by support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will be made to eight doctoral students who are conducting research on issues related to those Davis studied throughout his life.

These awards are part of an initiative that honors the life and work of Professor Davis, a faculty member at the University of Chicago from 1942 to 1983. Davis studied systems of stratification and segregation between and within racial and ethnic groups in the United States. He was committed to documenting the effects of social stratification and segregation on family life, language use, educational attainment, and the development of personality and character of children and adolescents in American minority groups. He aimed at discovering social policies and practices that promised to promote the healthy development of all children and youth.

The 2021-2022 awardees are:

Uma Blanchard and Alexander Koenig, Department of Comparative Human Development
Proposal: Planning for Practice: Tracking CPS High Schools as They Build Toward Comprehensive School Safety

Arvind Ilamaran, Department of Comparative Human Development and Jose Eos Trinidad, Departments of Sociology and Comparative Human Development
Proposal: Student-Parent Future Planning and Postsecondary Trajectories: Whether and Why It Matters for Minorities, First-Gen, and Low SES

Kaila Scott-Charles and Isobel Heck, Department of Psychology
Proposal: Investigating the Influence of Authoritarian Values on the Development of Racial Ideologies Across Contexts

Simon Schachter, Department of Sociology
Proposal: Benevolent Associations: Chinese Immigrant Associational Life in West Coast Cities, 1850-1882

Ángela Zorro-Medina, Department of Sociology
Proposal: Who Let You Out? Reproduction of Racial Inequality in Diversion Programs in the U.S.

Applications for the awards were reviewed by a faculty committee:

• Eman Adbelhadi, Provost Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Comparative Human Development, Division of the Social Sciences
• Yoonsun Choi, Professor, The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
• Julia Henly, Professor, The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
• Katherine D. Kinzler, Professor, Department of Psychology, Division of the Social Sciences

The Division of the Social Sciences and the Crown Family School are co-organizing a symposium to honor Davis’ legacy. Originally planned for May 2020, it has been postponed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. An announcement of the new date and the program for the event will be made as soon as circumstances allow.