Fewer research grants are available for professors of qualitative studies, such as the humanities or the arts, than for those in the sciences, but that doesn’t exempt these faculty members from having to do research.
Even though studies such as humanities and the arts have fewer foundations set up for them, they rarely have to worry about rejection on the grounds of asking for too much money, said English professor Vincent Cheng, who researches 20th-century English, British and Irish literature.
“Research grants we need tend to be smaller,” Cheng said. “The (science) grants are much larger sums.”.
For the 2005-2006 fiscal year, the College of Fine Arts’ research grants budget was only $76,455 compared to the College of Engineering’s $31 million. In the same year, the College of Humanities’ budget received $147,996 compared to the College of Pharmacy’s $23 million.
Research grants for the arts and humanities are smaller because the funding covers entirely different costs. When faculty members apply for grants, there isn’t stress or concern their work won’t fit the definitions of “research.”
“I have not yet had to justify my work as research,” said Eric Handman, a modern dance professor who researches choreography and how it translates to film.
When humanities or fine arts faculty apply for research grants, instead of paying for labs, materials or extra labor, the grant typically allows them time off from work to focus on their research, which the U is very accommodating for, Cheng said.
Since the U is a research campus, all professors are expected to conduct research within their field, which is monitored by an annual review. Regular professors aren’t necessarily expected to publish research every year, but a certain amount of publication is required for any who want a promotion to tenure.
Although the sciences’ subject matter is more conventionally defined as research and easier to receive grants for, some professors like Cheng are grateful for the kind of freedom the U grants them with defining their work as research.
“I don’t feel pigeonholed as far as what shape my research takes as long as I’m actively pursuing it,” Handman said.
Writing articles, researching history, presenting work at conferences and dance criticism all count as research. The College of Fine Arts considers all forms of art-making as “creative research.”
Henry Harpending, an anthropology professor who researches human history and social evolution, said he doesn’t feel any pressure from the U about what form his or his colleague’s research takes or how much grant money they bring in to produce research results.
The U also allows professors from different departments or colleges to collaborate on research.
Cynthia Furse, an engineering professor, has her graduate students help her with the research she hopes to get funded through grants. Students also help her write the grants. This is not common, even in engineering, she said, but it’s an indispensable learning opportunity for them because one day they’ll have to apply for research grants themselves.
That kind of freedom and the collaborative, stress-free environment the U offers its professors in their research is part of why the Nobel Prize winning professor Mario Capecchi was able to do so much in his own work, Harpending said.
Robert Newman, the dean of the College of Humanities, said his college looks for quality over quantity when it comes to research. Even if professors aren’t bringing in much research grants or funding, it’s important that they’re working on research that’s going to be influential and cited in other work, he said.
Neal Patwari, an engineering professor who researches wireless networks, has applied for 10 research grants in the past year and a half. Only two of them have been approved, but he isn’t worried about his job security, even if he doesn’t receive enough funding for his research right away. The expectation in his college is basically the same for all of them, he said: quality over quantity.
“There’s no minimum I should be (producing),” he said. “You don’t have to bring in a lot of research money from the federal government…as long as you’re contributing to the field.”