Quarterly Highlights from the Humanities and Social Sciences Communities
Published in Social Sciences, Behavioural Sciences & Psychology, and Education
As we look back at the final quarter of 2025, members of the Humanities and Social Sciences Communities shared posts that connects research to real-world questions, from women’s health and post-war recovery to the psychology behind our choices, what students reward in the classroom, and how research can influence policy.
When Literature Meets Women’s Health
@Virginia Mercer
In this Q&A, Dr. April Patrick explains how her work in narrative medicine grew from witnessing whose stories were excluded from care and how literature can help us listen better. She draws striking parallels between past and present debates around pregnancy and childbirth, showing how fear, risk, and disbelief of women’s concerns still shape care today. She also shares her current project indexing women’s magazines to track how 'wellness' advice has influenced women’s bodies and health choices over time.
Read the full interview post to see how humanities methods, especially narrative medicine and close reading, can strengthen listening, trust, and advocacy in women’s healthcare.
Who Gets Left Behind After War?
@Hafte Gebreselassie Gebrihet @Yibrah Hagos Gebresilassie
After war disrupts markets and livelihoods, who goes hungry first and why do female-headed households carry the heaviest burden in cities? This Behind the Paper post examines post-war urban hunger in Tigray and shows that when banks, roads, and markets break down, cash-based city life makes food insecurity spread fast. Drawing on a mid-2024 survey of 740 households across six urban centers, the authors find that female-headed households are significantly more likely to face hunger, with only a small minority of households fully food secure. The post also reflects on what the survey can’t fully show – how care burdens, unequal decision-making power and aid access shape women’s experiences of recovery.
Read the full post to see how the study connects gender, conflict recovery, and policy solutions, including improving women’s access to employment, microfinance, and education to rebuild equality.
Your Face Reveals What You Like
@Liron Amihai @Yael Hanein @Hila Man
Can your face reveal what you like before you’ve made up your mind? In this Behind the Paper post, the authors test a simple idea: during conversation, does facial mimicry predict what we end up choosing? Using small wearable sensors that measure subtle facial muscle activity during paired interactions, the authors find that positive mimicry predicts listeners’ choices better than listeners’ facial expressions alone. The effect even holds when people only hear an unfamiliar actress, so even without seeing someone, we can still detect emotion from their voice alone.
Read the full post to find out how the team links mimicry to embodied decision-making, and why 'mirroring a smile’ might be more than social politeness.
Does Empathy Matter in Teaching Evaluations?
@Loreto Barrios
In this Behind the Paper story, Loreto Barrios traces a deeply personal, cross-disciplinary route, from architecture and teaching to psychology to explore teachers’ emotional competencies. While analysing survey data from schools in Spain, she uncovered a paradox: lower-empathy attitudes in teachers appeared linked to more favourable student evaluations, which became the starting point for what she calls the ‘Stela Effect’. The post also highlights the long road to publication, years of learning statistics, and multiple journal rejections before the paper was finally accepted.
Read the full post for the human story behind the research and how one unexpected finding became a stronger, validated research direction.
Turning Research Into Impact
@Nicola Jones
This post introduces a new Springer Nature and Overton report mapping how research is used in real-world policymaking, with a focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It finds that SDG-linked policy documents are more likely to cite scholarly research than non-SDG policy, and highlights the role of think tanks, NGOs, and IGOs as key ‘knowledge brokers’ connecting evidence to decision-making. The analysis also shows that open access articles are cited more often and sooner in SDG policy, while journal selectivity doesn’t significantly change policy citation rates and that accessible formats like reviews, letters, and news are highly cited in policy.
Read the full post and report for key ways to boost policy reach. For even more hands-on guidance, don’t miss the post 'Ten practical tips to get your research in front of policymakers'.
Together, these posts capture some of the ideas that shaped the final months of 2025 across the HSS Communities. Read the full posts, and if one sparks a question or connection, like or leave a comment for the authors. More highlights from across 2025 are coming soon!
Further readings:
Quarterly Highlights from Humanities and Social Sciences Communities
Quarterly Highlights from Medicine and Life Sciences Communities
Quarterly Highlights from Mathematics, Physical & Applied Sciences Communities
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