As part of a pioneering effort to systematically use privacy-protected Facebook data to study the platform’s impact on democracy, the Social Science Research Council and its partner Social Science One have named the inaugural recipients of the Social Media and Democracy Research Grants.

Sociologist Lauren O’Connell, a postgraduate research student at the University of Essex, holds a scholarship from the Economic and Social Research Council for her doctoral research exploring how clinical diagnosis and treatment shapes the experience of anorexia nervosa. In this shortlisted essay from the ESRC Better Lives Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives, she details how her own experiences influenced her work.

Ranging from jurisprudence to autism, the loss of a baby to the growth of equality in science education, the work of the finalists in the seventh annual Celebrating Impact Prize competition—announced today — represent a broad cross-section of meaningful work from Britain’s social and behavioral researchers.

Niall McLoughlin is a PhD candidate in psychology and arts scholar at the University of Bath, as well as an associate with Climate Outreach. In this shortlisted essay from the ESRC Better Lives Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives, McLoughlin discusses the psychological catastrophe that accompanied the natural disaster of the 2015 Cumbrian floods and what that might teach us for addressing climate change.

The American Council of Learned Societies has named its 2019 ACLS Fellows and the inaugural recipients of the Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society Fellowship.

Alessandro Massazza, a PhD student in the Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, at University College London has received money from the Economic and Social Research Council to research the psychiatric consequences of complex emergencies. In this shortlisted essay from the ESRC Better Lives Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives, he explores how the double-edged sword of memory affects us after a traumatic event.

Psychologist Abby Dunn is a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex whose work has focused on parenting, and in particular parenting for those with complex needs. In this shortlisted essay from the ESRC Better Lives Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives, she examines how mental health practitioners interact with patients who are also parents.

In this shortlisted essay from the ESRC Better Lives Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives, new mother Rosa Daiger von Gleichen describes the exertions required to both work and be a parent. The PhD candidate in social policy at the University of Oxford studies employer-based and public family policies, primarily in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, to understand how employers, families and individuals will manage both work and care in the future.

Before she studied psychology and mental care services, Elyse Couch worked as care worker for people with dementia — experiences which serve her well as she now investigates the use of health services following a diagnosis of dementia or mild cognitive impairment. In this shortlisted essay from the ESRC Better Lives Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives, the King’s College London student describes one particular person with dementia she worked with and how that experience highlights many aspects that follow a dementia diagnosis.

In this shortlisted essay from the ESRC Better Lives Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives, anthropologist Holly Chalcraft from Durham University discusses how the ethnic swap between Greece and Turkey after World War I affects self-identity today.

On April 4 winners were announced in the year’s ESRC Writing Competition, in which PhD students who have received money from the ESRC write short essays about how their research leads too better lives. Today we posting the shortlisted and winning essays with Bobby Beaumont, a PhD research at the University of Birmingham, and his essay titled “Playtime in the camps.” Beaumont, whose research focuses on how circus, play and arts-based interventions play out in refugee camps and temporary settlements.

Margaret Levi, the director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, today received one of the most prestigious awards in the social sciences, the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science.