UC Berkeley is a global leader in the Social Sciences, pioneering new conceptual and methodological approaches that transform our understanding of the social world and human existence. This includes Berkeley’s Sociology Department, recognized as one of the world’s top programs, whose faculty and graduate students produce agenda-setting research. Now, Berkeley Discovery is proud to partner with Berkeley Social Sciences and the Sociology Department to support and cultivate the next generation of critical student leaders through research.
Launched in Fall 2025, the Discovery Social Sciences Hub is a program designed to provide research leadership experience to graduate students at Berkeley whose studies lie in the field of Social Sciences. Participation in the Hub allows Graduate Fellows to expand and refine their leadership and mentorship skills while encouraging Undergraduate Scholars to explore and reimagine their futures as critical thinkers and professionals, whether within or outside the academy.
Graduate Fellows who are PhD students in the Department of Sociology at Berkeley assemble clusters of 2-4 Undergraduate Scholars who assist them in some aspect of their dissertation research. The Discovery Fellows design a research agenda for their clusters and work with Undergraduate Scholars throughout the academic year to hone methods, concepts, and skills related to the field(s) of their specific project. The program offers Undergraduate Scholars a chance to experience the pursuit of independent research questions within a select community of interdisciplinary students. At the end of the academic year, the Fellows and Scholars participate in a research symposium to share their cluster’s work.
Leadership and Mentorship Development
The Discovery Research Hub supports the development of graduate students' dissertations while developing their leadership and mentorship skills. The Graduate Fellows attend monthly workshops to learn skills for creating productive mentoring relationships, applying for professional and academic opportunities, developing coherent pitches and presentations, and other aspects of leadership development that will serve them in future career pathways. These sessions incorporate guest speakers, structured workshop time, peer reflection, and networking, and conclude in a symposium. Some workshops also include Undergraduate Scholars. This workshop series, facilitated by Berkeley Discovery, fosters community among the participants which in turn has the potential to lead to further collaboration among them and their home departments.
Research Clusters & Funding
Research clusters receive funding for a whole academic year to ensure ample time for the development of their ideas and the community of student researchers. Each cluster is composed of 2-4 Undergraduate Scholars who come with, and may even be recruited for, their own interests in some part of the Graduate Fellow’s doctoral research.
Graduate Fellows manage and lead their research clusters’ activities. The aim of the research cluster is not only to develop each Fellow’s dissertation work through the act of teaching and dissemination, but also to actively involve undergraduates in the work of the dissertation research process. Therefore, a helpful organizational framework for many groups is to model the research cluster on a writing group or a graduate seminar, with a focus on helping students learn about and practice the discipline and academic work itself.
Possible activities that develop the dissertation research and related skills include collaboratively engaging with a shared reading list on topics of mutual interest, analysis of quantitative data, authoring and providing mutual feedback on written work, preparing for and attending conferences or seminars, building parts of a critical methodology, developing a proof of concept for theoretical claims, supporting a literature review or developing close readings, designing and conducting interview-based research, and carrying out archival research.
Regardless of how their research clusters are configured, Graduate Fellows are provided with stipends of $1,000 per Undergraduate Scholar per semester. Graduate Fellows will also be able to apply for a modest pool of research funds (up to $500) to support their project.
Research cluster examples:
Examples of current research are available on the Social Sciences Discovery Fellows website. Fellows in the current cohort represent the Department of Sociology, with interdisciplinary affiliations including Demography and the Management of Organizations group at the Haas School of Business. Their research encompasses topics as varied as: the rise of “doomsday” prepping across the American political spectrum; how competing organizational frames of “merit” shape inequality in job hiring at elite firms; the labor processes of voice actors navigating the threat of displacement by artificial intelligence; and the symbolic politics of belonging among Central American and Mexican immigrants in the U.S. South.
In Partnership With...
