Multidisciplinary Social Science

It is Yale’s responsibility to share light and truth—to increase knowledge and understanding of pressing domestic and international challenges. This university initiative recognizes the crucial role multidisciplinary social science research plays in addressing the great issues of the day and in searching for new insights into human relationships and society.

By convening world leaders and working collaboratively across fields, Yale sets the agenda in studying and providing solutions in areas such as global health, political instability, and cyberwarfare; in conducting evidence-based research that informs domestic public policy, it answers a call for non-partisan, policy-relevant research.

Highlighting Progress

Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs

This new school—the first at Yale since 1976—brings together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners working on critical issues that span borders, giving a new generation of leaders the tools to find evidence-based solutions to complex global problems.

Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs

Tobin Center for Economic Policy

The Tobin Center’s evidence-based research offers data-informed solutions on issues like healthcare, education, tax reform, and environmental economics, and other concerns that affect the daily lives and well-being of millions of people.

Tobin Center for Economic Policy

Data Intensive Social Science Center (DISSC)

This new center will serve as a campus hub for social science research that uses advanced computing to analyze large and complex datasets. It will support a wide range of research topics, including high-level statistical and computational consulting, data-use agreements, and secure computing environments.

DISSC

Institute for Foundations of Data Science

This new institute advances research in the mathematical, algorithmic, and statistical foundations of data science and their application to other disciplines, helps scholars apply new methods of data science, and inspires advances in foundational research.

Institute for Foundations of Data Science

87 Trumbull Street

A new research and teaching facility, opening in 2023, connects two neighboring buildings, creating space to house both the Economics Department and the Tobin Center for Economic Policy.

87 Trumbull Street

Department of Statistics and Data Science

With the transformation of its Department of Statistics to the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale became one of the first institutions of higher learning with a department of this kind, encompassing the study of the entire lifecycle of data—from its specification and generation, gathering, and cleaning, through its management and analysis, to its use in making decisions and setting policy.

Department of Statistics and Data Science

New pre-doctoral fellowship program

Offered in partnership with the Tobin Center and the Institution for Social and Policy Study’s Center for the Study of American Politics (CSAP), this program provides a high-quality education and training experience for individuals interested in quantitative political science research in American politics.

New pre-doctoral fellowship program

Data Science Strategy Symposium

Held in November 2022, this gathering of faculty across the university showcased the ways in which recent data science initiatives are already transforming work within and across disciplines at Yale. Attendees also took part in discussions about how to shape the university’s data science strategy and further investments.

Faculty expansion

New faculty members across social science departments, including political science, statistics and data science, economics, and sociology, build upon Yale’s expertise in these fields.