BU Scholars Participate in COSSA 2026 Social Science Advocacy Day
On March 24, 2026 CISS affiliates advocated for the critical role of federal support for social science research. Max Palmer, Associate Professor of Political Science, Thomas Larsen (CAS ’26, Political Science, Public Policy and Data Science) and Jessica Wong, BU director for federal relations, joined together in Washington, DC to participate in Social Science Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill, hosted by COSSA (Consortium of Social Science Organizations).
Social Science Advocacy Day is an annual event that brings together social and behavioral scientists from across the country to meet directly with members of Congress and their staff. At a moment when evidence-based policy is more important than ever, participants advocated for robust federal support for social science research–including social science grant funding and maintaining federal data infrastructure. This annual event includes a full day of orientation followed by a day of in-person meetings on Capitol Hill, where attendees share their work, highlight its real-world impact, and make the case for why continued investment in our fields matters. This year, more than 85 researchers and advocates from 24 states took part. Boston University serves as one of the event’s co-sponsors.
The BU team met with congressional staff in the offices of Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Jim McGovern (D-MA).
At these meetings, the BU team described their research and underscored the importance of federal data for a variety of social science research projects from voting rights and gerrymandering to housing and local politics. They also shared advances of BU social scientists’ research on timely topics including misinformation and homelessness.
Thomas Larsen, who is writing a senior thesis on “Understanding how Misinformation has Changed Political Parties,” found the day highly informative and inspiring. He shared with CISS “COSSSA Day was an incredible experience. The training on Monday was both interesting and extremely useful for preparing for the next day’s meetings. It was also interesting to see how these meetings work; it is something we learn about in political science, but actually interacting with the government added important perspective. I also think we effectively conveyed the importance of social science research and highlighted some issues that might otherwise have gone overlooked.” Max Palmer echoed these sentiments, reporting that “COSSA Day was a great experience. I really enjoyed the opportunity to go. I also found the COSSA training on Monday to be really interesting and effective.”
Wong, who is based in DC and whose day-to-day job is to advocate for BU’s legislative priorities, commented on the unique importance of BU researchers speaking up for own their work and its impact. The BU delegation also learned that BU alumni are playing important roles in policy, thanks to their rigorous education. While the delegation was waiting to meet with Rep. Pressley’s team, they met another staffer who graduated from BU and took Professor Palmer’s Game Theory course!
BU faculty in the social sciences who would like to attend a future COSSA Advocacy Day or nominate a student or postdoctoral scholar participant should contact CISS director Deborah Carr (carrds@bu.edu).