Connecting Social Scientists
We have great resources at Cornell in terms of faculty, great intellectual capital, but it's dispersed. Even faculty who are in the same field can have a hard time finding one another. Working together in the same suite of offices and having contact with one another go a long way to creating a stimulating intellectual environment.
Because every problem that involves people involves the social sciences, Cornell social scientists contribute a crucial perspective to instruction and research across the university. The Institute for the Social Sciences (ISS) was created in 2004 to promote interaction among social scientists and engage the Cornell community in discussions of cutting-edge topics.
Working with more than 80 units and departments, ISS strengthens the social sciences at Cornell by promoting collaborative research and interdepartmental cooperation.
ISS provides centralized resources and varied opportunities for faculty and students from different disciplines to come together to pursue questions that cannot be adequately addressed by any single discipline. It also assists departments and programs in attracting and retaining top social sciences faculty.
Through its three-year Theme Projects, its in-residence Faculty Fellows program, and the dispersement of small grants for innovative research, the institute brings great minds together to find better solutions to persistent problems.
It is the cornerstone of the Social Sciences Initiative.