From the Director
- Beth A. Simmons
"Is there anything the Weatherhead Center can do about it?"
This is the most common question I’ve received during my first two years as Center Director. As the largest social-science research center on campus, the Weatherhead Center is looked upon by both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as by faculty, as a primary resource to support their research in issues related to international, transnational, or comparative topics. The Center is proud to disburse annually nearly $1 million in grants and other support to students and faculty across the University. These funds are channeled to the most promising individuals and innovative projects we can identify. Of course, we would like to be able to do much more, but with available funds we have been able to sponsor research ranging from a conference on global history organized by Sven Beckert (Professor of American History, Department of History), to the 2008 Weatherhead Initiative, "Empirical Studies on the Economics of Urban Poverty Reduction," by Rohini Pande (Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) and Erica Field (Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics), to a conference on religion and politics sponsored by David Little (T.J. Dermont Dunphy Visiting Professor of the Practice in Religion, Ethnicity, and International Conflict, Harvard Divinity School) and Monica Duffy Toft (Associate Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University).
Which brings me back to the barrage of queries about what the WCFIA could "do about it." The "It" in question was funding language training for Harvard graduate students in the social sciences who required such training to make progress on their dissertations. Now, traditionally the Weatherhead Center has not funded language study. The reason is the Center’s long-term policy to direct its limited funds squarely toward research. Language study is not research, strictly speaking. Yet all of us can see the connection: some kinds of research—interviewing local officials or household members; reading foreign archives; composing, administering, and interpreting surveys in other countries—necessitate a deep understanding of a language or two beyond English. But how do our students get there from here, without intensive language instruction, preferably in the location of the research itself?
The answer has always been to apply for FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Study) fellowships offered by the U.S. Department of Education. Although this is still the first and best opportunity for our students, we have instituted a new funding opportunity at the Weatherhead Center for graduate students needing language training to advance their research. Drawing on the wisdom of the Center’s Executive Committee (for whose insights I am truly grateful), we have decided to inaugurate this year a competition for summer funding for intensive language training. In summer 2008 the Weatherhead Center will offer four to six grants ($25,000 total) for intensive study abroad of foreign languages to graduate students who have completed their first, second, or third years of graduate studies. These awards will be announced in April 2008 and will be awarded to qualified applicants who were either ineligible or were not awarded a FLAS grant. This program is a backstop, not a replacement, for the federal awards that used to be available in greater numbers to our students.
What more can the Center do to further the research agenda of its affiliates? This past year we inaugurated a new research award exclusively for our junior Faculty Associates. Recognizing that time is the most precious commodity of any scholar working against the tenure clock, the Weatherhead Center has initiated a new "Synergy Semester" that addresses both the research needs of junior faculty members and the learning needs of our undergraduate students. The idea behind this award is for a junior faculty member to propose a research project to be pursued while on a WCFIA-funded semester leave. The "synergy" lies in integrating this research into the undergraduate seminar setting. The successful applicant will also propose a new research-oriented class that will bring the excitement of his or her fieldwork or archival exploration to the undergraduate classroom. This will enable our Faculty Associates to ignite undergraduate interest in research and stimulate collaboration in the semesters to come. New courses, richer research opportunities for faculty and students, and better-prepared undergraduate research assistance are the goals of this new initiative. The response from our faculty has been phenomenal, indicative of the real need the Synergy Semester program addresses.
The Weatherhead Center has a significant capacity to advance the opportunities of our students and the scholarly agenda of our faculty. It is hard to imagine studying a world in which we cannot effectively communicate. Language study support is the right response. It is difficult for junior faculty to meet the simultaneous demands of both excellent teaching and research and preparing their portfolios for tenure. The Synergy Semester is a creative attempt to address this issue. These are fine examples of what the Weatherhead Center "can do about it."
Beth A. Simmons,
Center Director