News

Northwestern and Sciences Po Win Grant for Comparative Study of Inequality in France and the United States

by Michael Loriaux, French Interdisciplinary Group Director

4/28/2011

Northwestern's French Interdisciplinary Group, the Institute for Policy Research, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Sociology of Sciences Po, Paris, and the International Affairs Division of Sciences Po have together been awarded a three-year $300,000 grant to undertake the comparative study of inequality in France and the United States.

The project will examine conditions, causes, discursive frames, and methodologies from a comparative perspective. Lincoln Quillian of Sociology and IPR is the project leader on the Northwestern side. His French counterpart is Marco Oberti, chair of the Sociology Department at Sciences Po and frequent Northwestern visitor. The grant provides for colloquia, faculty and graduate student visits, and graduate student exchanges, some of which will support dual PhD research.

The grant was awarded by the Partner University Fund, which supports Franco-American research and educational partnerships. The proposal was one of twelve projects selected from 89 proposals. This is the third such award for Northwestern. Previous awards have supported African studies (Nasrin Qader) and Molecular biology (Rick Morimoto).