The Center for Social Science Scholarship

CS3 Summer Faculty Writing Group - Collaboration and Innovation

Join us throughout the summer months for a faculty writing group. Faculty from all disciplines are welcome! Our theme this summer is collaboration and innovation, emphasizing our shared commitment to fostering a community of friendship, the pursuit of new research agendas, and ways to move forward our important work.

At the start of each writing session we will share our session goals, provide updates on work in progress, and then write in silence for the remainder of our time. Upon completion of the session we will share our successes, challenges, and detours from the session, and then set our agenda for the upcoming week.

To join, please RSVP here:

CS3 Summer Faculty Writing Group Join us throughout the summer months for a faculty writing group. Faculty from all disciplines are welcome! Our theme this summer is collaboration and innovation, emphasizing our shared commitment...

Next Thursday, May 7, the last Spring 2026 Social Science Forum:

The Lipitz Lecture

Thursday, May 7, 2026
4pm - UMBC's AOK Library Gallery

Featuring Erle Ellis, PhD.

Professor, UMBC Department of Geography and Environmental Systems

How People Make Nature Better: Measuring Progress Toward a World Where People and Nature Thrive Together using the Nature Relationship Index (NRI)

The endless drumbeat of planetary doom isn’t working – it’s even getting in the way. We can indeed make a better future for all life on this planet, but only by more effectively engaging our growing capabilities to shape and sustain nature for the better, from nature kinship to environmental protection, nature conservation, clean energy, and so much more. Erle Ellis will present his work contributing to the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report for 2026 that is building an aspirational approach to motivate progress towards a world where people and nature thrive together through a new measure of progress that includes nature – the Nature Relationship Index (NRI).

View the full SSF series here: https://socialscience.umbc.edu/spring-2026-ssfs/

This Friday, May 1:
University of Maryland Baltimore County hosts its annual
CoEIT Research Day event

9am-4pm, University Center 3rd Floor

Including:
- two AI-related talk sessions
- keynote by former UMBC Prof. Susan Gregurick, Director of the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy.

See the full agenda for details:

COEIT Research Day 2026 – Agenda The COEIT Research Day 2026 agenda is also available as a printable PDF. COEIT Research Day 2026 — Agenda Schedule at a glance Friday, May 1, 2026 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Parallel Session Program Organized by Time (Schedule version)   Panel Session Program Organized by Time (Text Version) COEIT R...

Congratulations to the EIGHT (!!) UMBC alumni and students who received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship this year!

This includes Peter Allen Wilschke '24, economics and political science, representing the Social Sciences!

"Peter is heading to graduate school after completing a two-year research assistant position at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, DC. His research at UMBC on the complex relationships between political factors and fiscal policy garnered national attention."

Eight Retrievers Awarded Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Eight Retrievers awarded prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Coming up Wednesday on Webex:

Evaluating LLMs for Credible and Rigorous Social Science Research

Led by: Dr. Michael Overton, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Idaho

Social scientists are using large language models (LLMs) to classify documents, extract data from records, and analyze texts at scales that were once impossible. However, the methods for evaluating these tools haven’t caught up as findings routinely rest on a single run of a single prompt, with no way to tell whether the same analysis would return the same answers tomorrow. There is a way forward by treating LLMs as measurement instruments, which are subject to the same standards of validity and reliability that social scientists already apply to surveys, coding schemes, and experimental protocols. This presentation covers the theoretical foundations, evaluation criteria, and methods for establishing rigorous and credible social science using LLMs.

To register: https://socialscience.umbc.edu/computational-social-science-series/

2026 Bernard L. Berkowitz Memorial Award Congratulations to Erika Bucciantini, the 2026 recipient of the Bernard L. Berkowitz Memorial award. Erika is a doctoral student in The School of Public Policy at UMBC with a specialization in Urban Policy. She holds a Bachelors in Humanities & Social Sciences from Western Washington University and....

Next in the Social Science Forum:

The Eckert Lecture on Health & Inequality

Monday, April 20, 2026, 4pm
AOK Library Gallery

Food Justice Undone: Lessons for Building a Better Movement

Featuring Hanna Garth, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University

Hosted by Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Public Health at UMBC

Learn more and preorder the book: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/csss/events/149587

Next in the Social Science Forum series: The CS3 Distinguished Lecture

“The Technological Future: Shifting the focus from what we build to who we build it for.”

Featuring Amber Spry, Ph.D.
Brandeis University

Wednesday, April 8, 2026
4pm, AOK Library Gallery

Learn more: https://socialscience.umbc.edu/spring-2026-ssfs/

Wednesday, from the Department of Education - UMBC:

Cultivating a Rightful Presence: Inclusive Early Childhood STEM
Department of Education Research Seminar Series

Wednesday, April 1, 2026 · 12 - 1 PM
Sherman Hall : 445

Featuring Michele Stites and Jonathan Singer
UMBC, Department of Education

Learn more and register:

Cultivating a Rightful Presence: Inclusive Early Childhood STEM UMBC Department of Education Research Seminar Series Cultivating a Rightful Presence: Inclusive Early Childhood STEM Michele Stites and Jonathan Singer UMBC, Department of Education...

Celebrating Krishna Chaitanya, who also works with CS3 Director Eric Stokan as a Graduate Research Assistant on data science training!

https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/careers/posts/157634