Learning for Life
April 8, 2008

Research in the Liberal Arts
Notes submitted by Susan Shadle

Faculty in the humanities have a sense that we’re losing a struggle for resources and support in comparison to departments who can do a lot of external fundraising.

When these conversations were focused on the CORE, people sometimes expressed that they might be losing the commitment to teaching as we moved toward more research.

However, it doesn’t seem like there are few resources there for faculty in the liberal arts. In fact, what resources have been available seem to have disappeared or dwindled. For example, the FRAC grants are gone for many faculty ($5000; anyone could apply). Now the program is explicitly for pre-tenure faculty. Research fellow – course release – is also gone (at least in some colleges). SBOE grant used to fund larger amounts ($30K). No longer there.

Seems like the emphasis is on getting external funding, and as that has happened, it seems the internal funding has decreased. It is cheap to do humanities, etc. Small grants/”seed” money could fund the whole research project.

How does our doing research serve the university and our students?
What can be done about it?

The ISLA from Notre Dame is a model. It must be very well-endowed and it may not be possible to replicate it here, but it would be useful to have a source of internal funding and other programs
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I don’t know how many people realize how difficult it is to get external funding in the humanities. There are travel costs to go to sources/archives, but doesn’t cover other costs (hotel, copy costs, etc.). In arts and humanities it is hard to get funding to cover financial costs or to release faculty from time constraints (e.g, course buy-out).

Regardless, our research enhances our teaching, in that it moves the field forward
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Does this raise the question of which departments are in the liberal arts? Which need support?
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Yes, many of the people who originally got interested in this initiative were from disciplines in which this part of supporting scholarship is difficult. It is hard to articulate without sounding like you’re whining. The easy thing for the university to do is to pursue the external funding b/c it takes care of real costs.
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Also, sometimes it is people within a department whose field is less well supported than others.

In other cases, having money is crucial to being a scholar. For example, one colleague (philosopher) of mine tells me that they have only $100/faculty for travel in their budget. However, going to a conference and talking with other philosophers is what philosophers do to move their field forward. Part of the philosopher’s mission is to work scholarly issues out in active discussion.
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Departments with external funding end up having flexibility w/ respect to faculty workloads, shifting money around to support all faculty, etc.
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There is also the issue of being able to do research here at home. For example, resources in the library. Databases have improved and other resources. There is also a difference in the cost of resources for different disciplines.
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Sciences are forced to go after money. It seems more available. It seems the approach has become: the university will not be supporting anyone. If you want funding, you’ll have to go after it yourself.
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However, some departments get matching and other supplemental funding and there isn’t necessarily an effort to be sure all departments get what they need to be successful.
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Social scientists can get grant money.
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You can’t always remake oneself to address local issues, for example, to go after sources of funding.
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Do you not feel like what you are doing is appreciated – by the administration?
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People tell us what we do is neat and cool, but there isn’t really support.
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Is there more competition than there is colleagiality and support?
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History is the “odd” discipline in SSPA. It isn’t really a public policy department. However, we’re high functioning . There hasn’t been competition. Intellectually we are appreciated, but the sources for funding are less available.
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“Area studies” – sources of funding for some historians- is very competitive – shifts with the politics.
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It used to be in SSPA, could get $500 to travel for research. However, most of that got pooled into a “seed money” section to support development work to prepare to apply for larger grants. Well meaning people didn’t realize how $500 could matter in the arts/humanities.
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How do other universities support this? In many places it is supported by large endowments (e.g., the Notre Dame center). In other schools, liberal arts departments are just teaching/support departments. At KU, there is the Hall Center for the Humanities. It supports endowed professorships, set of seminars, grants, and a dedicated staff person to search for funding sources; helped to write grants. That would be great to have here.

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When Mark Rudin was being hired, it was his goal to have embedded people in each college. It would mean a huge growth in his office. I wonder what the chances are of having this happen now and have a person who could support arts/humanities faculty - someone for the Liberal Arts. Perhaps we could advocate for it.
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The university tells the stories of people in the sciences and engineering. It seems to tell the stories of humanities and arts scholarship less often.
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Overhead/indirect costs from big federal grants matter, because they help fund the costs of running the university.
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Scholarship is important – it helps us to be more relevant for teaching. Anectodally, there seems to be a direct correllation between active researchers who are engaged in the discipline and course evals. Staying engaged matters.