Fall 2025 Small Grant Awardees

Congratulations to our Fall 2025 Weidenbaum Center Small Grant Awardees! 

The Weidenbaum Center provides research funding to WashU tenure-track faculty Small Grant Proposals. Generally, this funding is provided to faculty in the Departments of Economics, Political Science, and Sociology. 

Small grants awards are typically under $15,000 and funding is provided for up to one year. Awards are given for research that focuses on social science and/or public policy. These awards fund research supporting collaborative efforts, research with a high probability of prominent publication, and research leading to an application for external funding. 

Below we list our Fall 2025 Small Grant awardees. To see a list of our past awardees, click here. 

Deniz Askoy, Leo Tien, and Zeynep Ceren Topac, all with the Department of Political Science, Disarmament and Reconciliation in Ethnic Conflicts 

David Carter and Alma Velazquez, both with the Department of Political Science, How Local Communities in the Global South Evaluate Controversial Corporate Behavior when Firms Adopt Costly Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Measures 

Liz Chiarello, Department of Sociology, How Law Enforcement Pursues Cases Against Doctors 

Caitlyn Collins, Department of Sociology, Does it Matter Where Parents Work from Remotely? Worker Evaluation by Remote Work Location and Gender 

George-Levi Gayle, Martín García-Vázquez, and Limor Golan, all with the Department of Economics, Place-Based Policies, Family Structure, and the Geography of the American Dream

Martín García-Vázquez, Department of Economics, Filip Babalievsky, National Bureau of Economic Research, and Su Hwan Chung and Juyong Yang, both with Korea Development Institute, Understanding Local Variation in the Effectiveness of Pro-Natal Policies in Korea  

Jacob Montgomery, Department of Political Science, A Practical Solution for Missing Data in Social Science Experiments 

Julie Holland Mortimer, Department of Economics, How the Introduction of Ad-Supported Subscription Plans by Video-Streaming Platforms Affects Subscription Pricing, Platform Competition, Demand, and Consumer Well-Being 

Lucia Motolinia and Diana O'Brien, both with the Department of Political Science, Gender Effects on Candidate Platforms: When Nominating Women Matters for Policy

Peng Peng, Department of Political Science, Haohan Chen, The University of Hong Kong, and Yingtian He, Tsinghua University, Aspirational Nationalism: Enmity, Emulation, and Making of Chinese Identity (1840-1949) 

Werner Ploberger, Department of Economics, Cointegration, Treatment Effects and The German Reunification 

Shiran Victoria Shen, Department of Political Science, Climate Disasters and the Formation of Citizen Demand for Government-Led Climate Adaptation in China 

Yongseok Shin, Department of Economics, AI Usage and Human Capital Development in the Modern Workplace: A Nationwide Survey Study 

Betsy Sinclair, Department of Political Science, The Efficacy of Conversations with a Chatbot to "Prebunk" Against Election Misinformation 

Michael Strawbridge, Department of Political Science, In the Thick of It: Operationalizing the Relationship Between Black People, Black Spaces, and Black Political Unity 

Margit Tavits and Matthew Ribar, both with the Department of Political Science, Social Cohesion, Violent Conflict, and Customary Institutions in Liberia 

Mira Vale, Department of Sociology, How Digital Health Researchers Frame Moral Questions and Enact Moral Values as they Innovate Beyond the Horizon of Regulation 

Guanyi Wang, Department of Economics, Toru Kitagawa (Brown University), and Mengsi Gao (USC), Individualized Treatment Alloction with Endogenous Network Formation 

Carly Wayne and Margit Tavits, both with the Department of Political Science, Wartime Violence Exposure, Social Cohesion, and Resilience in Israel-Palestine