Spring 2026 Small Grant Awardees

Congratulations to our Spring 2026 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 up to $15,000.  Awards are given for research that focuses on social science and/or public policy. These awards support collaborative research efforts, projects with a high likelihood of prominent publication, and research that leads to external grant applications. 

Below we list our Spring 2026 Small Grant awardees. To see a list of our past awardees, click here. 

Deniz Aksoy and Ted Enamorado, both with the Department of Political Science and Tony Yang, Emory University, Violations of International Law and Global Militarization

Matthew Gabel and Ruilin Lai, both with the Department of Political Science and Hsu Yumin Wang, National Tsing Hua University, Public Support for Judicial Resistance under Democratic Backsliding

Martín García-Vázquez, Department of Economics and Matt Wiswall, New York University, Trends in Female Labor Supply and the Childcare Market

James Gibson, Department of Political Science and Amanda Gouws, Stellenbosch University (South Africa), White Victims of Discrimination in South Africa? Victimization and Its Political Consequences

Zakiya Luna,  Department of Sociology, Paying Our Debt: Reproductive Policy and Social Responsibility

Jacob Montgomery, Christopher Lucas, and Cecilia Y. Sui,  all with the Department of Political Science, Building a Multimodal Archive of Political Communication on TikTok and Instagram

Lucia Motolinia and Keith Schnakenberg,  both with the Department of Political Science, Unequal Access: How Legislator Wealth Shapes Lobbying

Peng Peng, Department of Political Science and Eddy Yeung, University of Oxford, Founding Myths Reimagined: The Rationalist Microfoundation of National Narratives

Xiaoyan Qiu, Department of Political Science, After the Scramble: State Formation in Colonial Africa

Shiran Victoria Shen, Department of Political Science, Cities as Test Tubes: Experimenting the Net Zero and Climate Resilience in China

Margit Tavits and Sein Park, both with the Department of Political Science, Violence, Inequality, and Social Trust

Margarita Tsoutsoura, Olin Business School, Ted Enamorado, Department of Political Science, and John Barrios, Yale University, Political Ideology and Tax-Induced Migration: Do Republicans and Democrats Respond Differently to State Tax Changes?

Guanyi Wang and Ismael Mourifié, both with the Department of Economics and Mengsi Gao, University of Southern California, Potential Outcomes with General Equilibrium Effects in Labor Markets

Ping Wang and Rudolph Chan, both with the Department of Economics, Young Firm Dynamics and the Mechanics of Churning in Intermediate Inputs vs. Products