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Research Fields

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Clarissa

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As I mentioned before, I’m on the committee that distributes research grants to faculty members. This year I have observed a disturbing trend. The number of research projects in the Humanities has dropped off a cliff. We received almost 3 times (!) fewer research projects in the Humanities this year than we had back in 2012. (I wasn’t on the committee in the Fall of 2013, for obvious reasons.)

There is one field of knowledge, however, where the number of research projects has soared. This is the field that has the greatest number of projects than any other. Can you guess what this field is?

23 responses to “Research Fields”

  1. el Avatar
    el

    \\ There is one field of knowledge, however, where the number of research projects has soared.

    Is this field in Humanities? Wild guess – Economy? Multiculturalism studies? 🙂

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I don’t know if it’s Humanities. It isn’t part of our college of Arts & Sciences.

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  2. el Avatar
    el

    Something connected to politics? Regarding potential threats from Russia, China, etc.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      You think SO well of us. Thank you for that.

      But sadly, no.

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  3. Luna Avatar
    Luna

    Some sort of engineering?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I wish. At least, engineering is a real discipline.

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  4. Thoreau Avatar
    Thoreau

    Some sort of educational research?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Things are not that bad (yet). But they are still kind of sad.

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  5. el Avatar
    el

    Psychology / sociology?

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  6. Z Avatar
    Z

    I was going to guess digital humanities. But note, here a reviewing committee told me the number of humanities applications had plummeted as well. This is at state level. I wonder what is going on.

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  7. Thoreau Avatar
    Thoreau

    So, this field isn’t in the college of Arts and Sciences, but Clarissa isn’t sure if it should be counted as humanities. So it is probably at least related to humanities or social science, if there’s some ambiguity in the classification.

    Social work? Law? Film?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      And we have our winner! 🙂 It’s the school of social work. I am very sad to say that it feels like only the light-weight fields are booming.

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  8. Luna Avatar
    Luna

    Ok, Business/Management?

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    1. Luna Avatar
      Luna

      Oops, too late! Just saw the previous comment. 🙂

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    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Even business is less obnoxious than social work. I have seen these proposals in the past and they are all “Let’s conduct surveys and make wide-reaching conclusions on the basic of the surveys.” Conducting opinion polls should be left to Cosmo end Vogue! They are not scholarship! This upsets me!

      OK, back to my own grant proposal now. I started writing it as a response to the sad numbers I heard at this committee.

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  9. Alexandra Avatar
    Alexandra

    My guess is either math or physics. Or genetics.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      In all fairness, biomedical science proposals do constitute the second largest group of proposals.

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  10. valter07 Avatar
    valter07

    I’d say women studies, but I doubt you would complain about too much women studies…

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    1. el Avatar
      el

      // I’d say women studies, but I doubt you would complain about too much women studies…

      It depends. Had they been about the liberatory potential of burqa. 🙂

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  11. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Social sciences!

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  12. ladyleahjane Avatar
    ladyleahjane

    Social Work. Because that’s the same at my university too. I did a couple of guest lectures at BSW classes here, and my impression is that it’s Diet Women’s Studies, and that the graduates are groomed to think that the only thing that matters in their work is how good their intentions are.

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  13. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “my impression is that it’s Diet Women’s Studies”

    Brilliant!

    “and that the graduates are groomed to think that the only thing that matters in their work is how good their intentions are”.

    That’s pretty much the prevailing ethos in the west today If you believe in the right things (multiculturalism, femininism* etc) and have good intentions, then it doesn’t really matter how things work out in the real world. It seems remarkably similar in structure (if not form) to western marxists in the 20th century.

    *I thought it was my own little neologism for the feministing, shakesville brand of feminism but it turns out it’s already taken, grrrrrrr

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  14. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    My guess, without looking at any of the other comments: military stuff.

    As the old song goes

    The sun that bids us live is waking
    behind the cloud that bids us die
    and in the murk fresh minds are making
    nwe plans to blow us all sky-high.

    Now I’ll go and peep at what others have said.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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