Kate Cagney’s research team focuses on the social and spatial environments in which older adults spend their time, and the extent to which this activity space influences health trajectories. In a multi-wave study of 600 Chicagoans aged 65 and older, using GPS and ecological momentary assessment methodologies to track older adults’ movements-in, out of, and across their communities, together with frequent multi-dimensional health assessments, the research team will examine the mechanisms through which social context affects health across time.
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The research team led by Dr. Guanglei Hong develops and applies causal inference theories and methods for evaluating educational and social policies and programs in multilevel, longitudinal settings. A project funded by the National Science Foundation currently focuses on developing concepts and methods for analyzing causal mediation mechanisms in multisite trials.
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Ben Lessing

Assistant Professor, Political Science

The Armed Orders in South Asia (AOSA) project examines variation across space and time in armed group-government relationships in South Asia. It combines rich, detailed qualitative case studies with unique quantitative data that facilitates new forms of theorizing and empirical comparison.

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Elisabeth Clemens’ research explores the role of social movements and organizational innovation in political change with a focus on organizational sociology and political sociology. She is currently working on a project titled, “The Make or Buy State: A Political Economy of Federal Contracting.” Clemens is the author of The People’s Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890-1925 (Chicago, 1997), and co-editor of Private Action and the Public Good (Yale, 1998), Remaking Modernity: Politics, History and Sociology (Duke, 2005), Politics and Partnerships: Voluntary Associations in America’s Past and Present (Chicago, 2010), and the journal Studies in American Political Development.
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In a NSF sponsored project in conjunction with Boaz Keysar, James Evans, and John Oliver, Dr. Hortaçsu studies how people make decisions in strategic situations, such as auctions. The study focuses on how and why experiment participants’ behavior departs from predictions of game theory, and whether operating in a foreign language affects observed behavior. They have conducted a number of studies in Chicago and Beijing and are currently analyzing the data.
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Team members of the Tsogolo La Thanzi project are advancing research on global health, fertility, and young adulthood in sub-Saharan Africa by preparing data from a longitudinal study spanning a 6-year period for public use.  Tsogolo la Thanzi means “Healthy Futures” in Chichewa, Malawi’s most widely spoken language.
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The Knowledge Lab seeks to leverage insights into the dynamics of knowledge creation and advances in large-scale computation to reimagine the scientific process of the future by identifying gaps in the global knowledge landscape, areas of rich potential for breakthroughs, and automating discovery through the generation of novel, potentially high impact hypotheses.

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Micere Keels’ research centers on understanding children’s development in context. Her CPS-TREP Collaboration Project works to develop the individual and organizational capacity of educators and schools serving children growing up in neighborhoods that have high levels of toxic stress, such as violent crime, concentrated poverty, concentrated foster care involvement, and housing instability.

The Violence, Law, and Politics Lab is a research group is devoted to studying how local, national, and global politics affect cities and neighborhoods. Both interdisciplinary and multi-method in nature, the team is currently conducting a multi-city project of geographic homicide patterns from 1870-Present to examine whether violence in American cities can be reduced via increased government accountability, transparency, and the provision of humanitarian or economic assistance.
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A joint initiative of the Division of Social Sciences and the Computation Institute, the Center for Spatial Data Science (CSDS) develops state-of-the-art methods for geospatial analysis, spatial econometrics, and geo-visualization; implements them through open source software tools; applies them to policy-relevant research in the social sciences; and disseminates them through training and support to a growing worldwide community of over 200,000 spatial analysts.
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Street Life investigates the design impacts and economic differences between small independent retailers vs. small and large format corporately owned retailers, including their varying ability to promote successful neighborhoods and active streets. The project involves a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the factors that impede small business success, including the impact of market forces, financial barriers, crime, population density, street design, local networks, and government regulations. It also investigates publicly financed incentives, entrepreneurial development in underserved neighborhoods, the “experience economy” and “creative class” concepts in localized economic development, and the mechanisms that have successfully supported place-based enterprise.
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As part of the Open Fields Project, Justin Richland’s researcher will be working on analyzing 70 hours of ethnographic data gathered at the Field Museum over a twelve-month period. Additionally, he will be researching contemporary Native American artistic practices both in North America and throughout Western Europe.
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The team of researchers working with Alessandra Voena, Manasi Deshpande, Magne Mogstad, and Thibaut Lamadon will be studying various aspects of the labor market, focusing on three overarching areas: understanding changes in labor demand, understanding changes in labor supply, and understanding labor market policies. Specific research topics will include immigration policy, welfare programs and social insurance programs (unemployment insurance and disability insurance), skill acquisition, tax policy.
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Funded by IES and the Spencer Foundation, The Learning Lab examines an understudied aspect of the increasing performance pressure placed on U.S. school children: the potential for pressure to increase students’ cognitive load, decreasing cognitive resources available for complex reasoning. This research seeks to understand how such pressures can impact everyday knowledge development in mathematics.
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