CISS Hosts Panel Discussion “Strategies for Successful and Ethical Collaborations” on April 16
Collaboration is at the core of research – especially “convergent” research that brings together scholars from scholars from multiple disciplines. Yet collaboration on books, edited volumes, journal articles, and grant proposals can pose challenges. How are tasks divided up fairly? How is authorship assigned? How are creative differences resolved? What should graduate students know when starting a new collaborative project, whether with a faculty member or fellow graduate students? At this panel, seasoned scholars and collaborators will share best practices for successful, fair, and collegial research and writing collaborations.
The event will be held on Thursday April 16, 2026, noon-1:30 in the CISS Conference Room (5th floor, 704 Commonwealth Ave).
Panelists include:
Joanna Davidson, Associate Professor, CAS/Anthropology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Professor Davidson has collaborated on two co-edited volumes: Opting Out: Women Messing with Marriage around the World (Rutgers University Press 2022), and Pathos and Power: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Widowhood in Africa, Past and Present (Ohio University Press, 2025), co-edited with Benjamin Lawrance,
Neha Gondal, Associate Professor, CAS/Sociology and CDS. Professor Gondal has collaborated on interdisciplinary NIH grants, and frequently co-authors journal articles with faculty and graduate student colleagues, most recently with Alison Wigen (GRS/Sociology) on “Professor-writers and machinist-painter-photographers: Investigating the duality between occupational categories and artistic hobbies” in Poetics.
Loretta Lees, Professor of CAS/Sociology and Director, Initiative on Cities. Dr. Lees has collaborated extensively on co-authored monographs, textbooks, and peer reviewed journal articles, and co-edited volumes including the 2022 book Defensible Space on the Move (Routledge) with Elana Warwick, and under contract book manuscript Fighting to Stay Put: Learning from the Global Struggle Against Gentrification and Displacement (UCL Press) with Japonica Brown-Saracino (CAS/Sociology) and others.
Johannes Schmieder, Professor and Associate Chair of CAS/Economics. Professor Schmieder has an extensive global network of research collaborators, and has co-authored peer-review journal articles, conference presentations, and working papers. Recent publications include “The Gender Gap in Earnings Losses after Job Displacement” in Journal of the European Economic Association (with H. Illing and S. Trenkle).
Organizers/Moderators
Deborah Carr, Distinguished Professor of Sociology (CAS) and Director, Center for Innovation in Social Science. Professor Carr has collaborated on federal and foundation grants, and has co-authored monographs and textbooks, co-edited volumes, and co-authored peer review journal articles with faculty, postdoctoral, and graduate student collaborators, including the recent paper “Do Social Security benefits rules perpetuate marital status and gender inequalities?” in The Gerontologist with Leping Wang (GRS ’25).
Arianne Chernock, History and Associate Dean for the Faculty of Social Sciences. Professor Chernock has edited one volume, and authored two books and more than a dozen articles and chapters, including the award-winning book Men and the Making of Modern British Feminism (Stanford University Press). In her capacity as Dean, she shares insights into ways that early-stage scholars can effectively communicate their contributions to collaborative projects.