28 Scholars to Research Political Polarization with Support from Carnegie Corporation of New York

Philanthropic Foundation Commits $18 Million over Three Years to Help Find Solutions to a National Problem

Carnegie Corporation of New York announced today the 2024 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows. Twenty-eight exceptional fellows will receive stipends of $200,000 each for research that seeks to understand how and why our society has become so polarized and how we can strengthen the forces of cohesion to fortify our democracy.

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With this focus, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program marks the start of an effort to develop a body of research around today’s growing political polarization. Under the direction of Dame Louise Richardson, the Corporation will commit up to $6 million annually to the program for at least the next three years.

The winning proposals include a wide range of research projects that include using the largest dataset ever obtained from Meta to understand social media’s impact on polarization; developing civic education to decrease partisan prejudice among high school students; identifying conspiracy theories that lead to radicalization; and learning about democracy from the Asian American perspective.

“The foundation’s support of these fascinating projects is a considered effort to mine scholarship for insights into the underlying causes of the political polarization that is damaging our democracy,” said Richardson. “We also hope to gain insights into the means by which collectively we can mitigate the negative effects of this polarization on our society.”

The focus on political polarization attracted more than 360 applications, a record high for the program. Selection criteria prioritized the originality and promise of the research, its potential impact on the field, and the applicant’s plans for communicating the findings to a broad audience. A distinguished panel of jurors comprised of current and former leaders from some of the nation’s preeminent institutions made the final selections.

“This year marks the first time the jury was asked to assess proposals addressing a single topic — the pervasive issue of political polarization as characterized by threats to free speech, the decline of civil discourse, disagreement over basic facts, and a lack of mutual understanding and collaboration,” said John J. DeGioia, chair of the jury and president of Georgetown University. He noted with gratitude the contributions of long-standing juror Jared L. Cohon, president emeritus of Carnegie Mellon University, who died unexpectedly in March. The 2024 selections reflected his highly regarded evaluations. “We were especially gratified,” DeGioia added, “by the rigor of the submissions, the wide range of perspectives, and the potential for lasting impact.”

Of the 28 fellows selected, 12 are junior scholars, 15 are senior scholars, 11 are employed by state universities, 16 are employed by private universities, and one is a journalist.

Among the research topics:

• Challenging the assumption that politicians are becoming more extreme, while voters are becoming more moderate
• Investigating the impact of polarization on the public’s trust in government and medicine while finding ways to improve health care overall
• Understanding how and why diverging conceptions of womanhood have become a factor in the polarization of white women, especially in the South
• Exploring algorithms that would expose individuals to diverse political opinions and finding low-cost ways to limit the monetization of misinformation
• Evaluating the effectiveness of redistricting reforms to increase electoral competition and decrease geographic partisanship ahead of the 2031 redistricting cycle
• Understanding how election denialism is affecting the work of state and local election workers and how to rebuild trust in the voting process
• Exploring “party misfits,” the 50 percent of Americans who do not sort easily into Republican or Democratic camps, and the growing gap between voters and political elites
• Examining how attitudes toward the credibility of science shape polarized responses to policies that affect the environment

As part of a competitive nomination process, more than 650 individuals — including the heads of universities, independent research institutes, professional societies, think tanks, major university presses, and leading publications — were invited to recommend a junior and a senior scholar for consideration. All applications underwent a preliminary anonymous evaluation by leading authorities in the relevant fields of study. The highest scoring proposals were then forwarded to the jury.

Founded in 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program provides the most generous stipend of its kind for research in the humanities and social sciences. To date, the Corporation has named more than 270 fellows, representing a philanthropic investment of more than $54 million. The award is for a period of up to two years and the anticipated result is generally a book or major study. Congressional testimony by past fellows has addressed topics such as social media and privacy protections, transnational crime, governmental responses to pandemics, and college affordability. Fellows have received honors including a Nobel Prize and a National Book Award.

The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is a continuation of the mission of Carnegie Corporation of New York, as founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911, to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Read more about the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, the work of past honorees, the criteria for proposals, and a historical timeline of scholarly research supported by the Corporation.

The public may follow the conversation at #CarnegieFellows via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter).

Class of 2024

Delia S. Baldassarri New York University

Party Misfits: The Social Bases of Partisanship in an Era of Polarized Politics

David Broockman University of California, Berkeley

The Nature and Origins of Political Polarization in America

Lisa A. Bryant California State University, Fresno

Polarizing the Process: Partisan Effects on Election Officials and Trust in Elections

Joshua D. Clinton Vanderbilt University

Divided We Vote: Exploring the Crisis of Election Legitimacy in a Polarized America

Johanna Dunaway Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship

Nationalized News Increases Polarization and Weakens Democratic Norms

Bernard L. Fraga Emory University

Why We Won’t Vote: Polarization, Non-Voting, and the Future of American Democracy

D. Sunshine Hillygus Duke University

Redesigning Social Media to Reduce Partisan Animosity

Taeku Lee Harvard University

Reimagining America: What the Asian American Experience Can Tell Us about the Health of Democracy in the United States

Brett L. M. Levy University at Albany, State University of New York

How Can Education Bridge Political Divides?: Reducing Political Polarization through the Youth Civic Connections Project

Neil Malhotra Stanford Graduate School of Business

Does Social Media Increase Political Polarization?

Lilliana Mason Johns Hopkins University

Addressing Polarization by Prioritizing Pluralistic Democracy

Angie Maxwell University of Arkansas

The Polarization of White Women in American Politics

Jennifer McCoy Georgia State University

Mitigating Pernicious Polarization through Innovative Civic Educational Interventions

Elizabeth McKenna Harvard Kennedy School

Grassroots Organizing to Strengthen Multiracial Democracy

Neil A. O’Brian University of Oregon

Partisan Prescriptions: The Polarization of Health Outcomes

Molly Offer-Westort University of Chicago

Digital Dialogues: Understanding Political Polarization through Online Discourse

Julianna Pacheco University of Iowa

The Deadly Effects of Partisanship

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela The New School

A Thinking American’s Guide to the Classroom Culture Wars

Markus Prior Princeton University

What Do They Want and When Do They Want It? Political Patience and Its Role in Partisan Polarization

Brian F. Schaffner Tufts University

American Mosaic: The Social Identities That Define Our Politics and a Path to Bridge the Divide

Ananya Sen Carnegie Mellon University

Automation Technologies, Online Misinformation, and Echo Chambers

Seema Sohi University of Colorado Boulder

We Are Each Other’s Magnitude and Bond: A History of Climate Justice from Warren County to the Sunrise Movement

Mara Suttmann-Lea Connecticut College

Are You There, Voter? It’s Me, Your Election Official: Depolarizing Attitudes Toward Election Administration in the United States

Chris Tausanovitch University of California, Los Angeles

Why Do Moderate Voters Elect Polarized Candidates?

Dara M. Wald Texas A&M University

The Polarization of Science, Source Credibility, and the Public Good

Elise Wang California State University, Fullerton

That’s What They Want You to Think: Identifying Dangerous Conspiracy Theories

David N. Wasserman The Cook Political Report

Road Map to the Middle Ground: Restoring Competitiveness in Congressional Elections

Hajar Yazdiha University of Southern California

Reconciliation through Reckoning: Bridging Divides through Grassroots Memory Work

Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Jurors

John J. DeGioia, Chair President, Georgetown University

Joseph E. Aoun President, Northeastern University

The late Jared L. Cohon (1947–2024) President Emeritus and University Professor of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Jonathan F. Fanton President Emeritus, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Rush D. Holt CEO Emeritus, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Alberto Ibargüen Former President, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Ira I. Katznelson Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History and Deputy Director, Columbia World Projects, Columbia University

Arthur Levine President Emeritus, Teachers College, Columbia University, and President Emeritus, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation

Marcia McNutt President, National Academy of Sciences

Martha Minow 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University

Alondra Nelson Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study

Dame Louise Richardson President, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Pauline Yu President Emeritus, American Council of Learned Societies

About Carnegie Corporation of New York

Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace. @CarnegieCorp

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How has the U.S. become so polarized? The 2024 class of #CarnegieFellows will explore how we got here and what we can do about it. Get to know the fellows and their projects!