CU scholar wins support for research on political polarization

Carnegie Corporation of New York commits $18 million over three years to help 28 scholars find solutions to a national problem

Seema Sohi, associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, is one of 28 Andrew Carnegie Fellows who 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, the Carnegie Foundation announced today.

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.

Sohi's winning project is titled "We Are Each Other's Magnitude and Bond: A History of Climate Justice from Warren County to the Sunrise Movement." She will investigate the intersection of the climate crisis, democracy and political polarization.

Sohi will undertake the first comprehensive history of the climate justice movement in the United States, centering the work of Black, Indigenous, Latina and Asian American women who have been unrecognized in environmental history and yet who have played a leading role in the struggle to advance climate justice and, with it, the struggle to realize the promises of a multiracial and sustainable American democracy.

"In doing so, I tell the story of the climate crisis not as one of impending disaster or resignation, but one of transformative possibility," Sohi said. "At a time when we so many of us feel hopelessly divided and bitterly polarized, these climate activists and leaders do much more than reproduce grim scientific preconditions and fatalistic narratives. Instead, they show us that we are capable of collective action and of coming together to build a more just, equitable, and sustainable world."

Sohi said she was "thrilled and honored" to have won a Carnegie Fellowship, adding: "What a gift to be able to spend the next two years working on a research project that means so much to me."

Sohi is the author of Echoes of Mutiny: Race, Surveillance, and Indian Anticolonialism in North America, which examines the anticolonial politics of South Asian intellectuals and migrant workers in North America during the early 20th century. She has published essays and articles in the Journal of American History, Sikh Formations, Amerasia and the Journal of Modern European History, as well as in the anthologies The Sun Never Sets: South Asian Migrants in an Age of U.S. Power and Asian American Literature in Transition.

"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 panel of jurors composed 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 one of the most generous stipends 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.

Did you enjoy this article? Subcribe to our newsletter. Passionate about ethnic studies? Show your support.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.