Alumni | Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences

About Our Students

Since its pilot in 2018, SISRM has grown from just one course and a handful of students to a robust program of 8 courses, daily workshops, and 125+ student participants.

Our students come from diverse backgrounds and possess a variety of academic and professional skills and goals. In our most recent cohort the student body included UChicago undergraduates participating in the RA fellows program, visiting undergraduate students in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Summer Research Training Program (MMUF SRTP), and pre-college students from the Laboratory Schools and the Center for Data and Computing (CDAC) Summer Lab program.

SISRM fellows complete the program well-positioned for future academic and research pursuits. Throughout the program, fellows are exposed to programming and career resources that focus on thinking critically and creatively about skills and their applications.

SISRM fellows posing in front of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

2023 SISRM Cohort at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

SISRM RA Fellows

A core component of the Summer Institute is the Research Assistant program. The fellows who participate in this program work as part-time assistants on ongoing faculty projects throughout the University. For many students, this experience is the first introduction to a large academic research project.

Our alumni build on the skills gained during the RA program to pursue additional research opportunities, both on and off campus. Many view the RA program as a building block for their own academic pursuits and use the skills developed and relationships made to complete a BA thesis.

79 undergraduates and 54 faculty members participated in the RA fellows program in Summer 2023.

2023 Alumni Spotlight: Luisa Carneiro

In summer 2023, SISRM welcomed its inaugural cohort of visiting students from the Insper Institute of Education and Research in São Paulo, Brazil. Each of these students chose a methods course to take, participated in our workshops and excursions, and worked as an RA for the summer. Among these students was law major Luisa Carneiro, who spent part of her summer with SISRM taking Archival Research Methods.

Luisa worked on a project with Professor Patricia Posey on the costs of birth and dying in America. Luisa explained this fascinating topic as investigating what it costs, monetarily, to come into life — costs like hospital stays during childbirth — as well as death, including funeral costs, cremation, and even dealing with death. Reflecting on her time as an RA, Luisa says that getting to experience research with another professor and speak with others doing research in different disciplines "helped [her] realize how many perspectives one can take in the research process, and the vastness of research potential if one has the resources". SISRM’s workshops and excursions also helped to give her perspective; through her experiences this summer, Luisa has realized that she is passionate about research and could envision herself pursuing a future in it, an idea she had never explored before but one she seems very excited about.

Aside from her research, Luisa says that she’s learned a lot from her experience at UChicago. She enjoyed the classes and workshops, but most of all appreciated "forming relationships with the students here and being in an environment where everyone was just as excited about academics as [she is]". She also enjoyed the city itself and the amount of things it has to offer, in particular learning about Chicago’s history in fashion, music, and architecture. In her free time, Luisa loves to read, especially about theology, and has a talent for geography trivia.