Grant funding is available to Syracuse University Ph.D. (or equivalent) scholars who have compelling projects that examine the issue of the racial wealth gap in the United States.

The awards are part of a new social justice initiative and one of the projects funded by a $2.7 million MetLife Foundation grant presented to the University’s Lender Center for Social Justice last fall. That work is being conducted in collaboration with the University’s Social Differences, Social Justice research cluster faculty and in concert with the Academic Affairs Office of Strategic Initiatives.

Deadline April 3

The deadline for applications is April 3. The opportunity applies to projects over the period of July 2023 to June 2024.

Total funding of approximately $300,000 will be awarded to multiple projects depending on the needs, scope, and anticipated impact of the project. The funds are meant to provide support to scholars with new or ongoing research projects that relate to the causes, consequences, and solutions to the racial wealth gap.

Kira Reed, associate professor of management and a co-lead for the Social Differences, Social Justice research cluster at the University, describes the racial wealth gap as a continuous issue that undermines potential economic and social progress and opportunities able to be pursued by members of underserved and underrepresented communities in the United States.

The grant funding provides welcome new opportunities to center attention on the problem of ever-expanding economic and social inequality and to find ways to work toward solutions that address it, says Gretchen Purser, interim director of the Lender Center for Social Justice and associate professor of sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

How to Apply

All submissions should be submitted to the Office of Research at Syracuse University at the submission link.

The Lender Center for Social Justice welcomes applications from those with scholarly projects that address subjects along one or more of these tracks:

• structural and systemic factors positively or negatively impacting the building of generational wealth like slavery, settler colonialism, and historic legacies of racialized violence, racial capitalism, mass incarceration and inheritance laws;
• policies and practices that generate or minimize racial wealth disparities such as redlining, urban renewal schemes, tax policy, predatory financing, healthcare burdens and racially disparate housing appraisals;
• individual and organizational-level factors influencing educational attainment, skills acquisition, and career development, such as educational inequities, hiring queues and corporate programs.

More details about the specific orientations and the kinds of research being sought and the requirements of the submission process are available on the grant application information site.