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  • Ask the Administrator: The Book or the Grant?

    By Dean Dad January 8, 2009 9:17 pm

    A new correspondent in a humanistic discipline writes:

    I'm now three semesters into a permanent position at a lower-mid-range research institution with aspirations to become something better. Said institution has no strength in my specialty, but gives me an absurdly low teaching load (2-1), generously supports research travel, and is even located in a nice town. One can always find something to kvetch about, but I'm basically delighted.

    That said, I'm curious about hear your take on my present emotions filling out a grant application. The powers that be are very anxious for faculty to apply for large, government-funded research grants (say $80,000), because they bring money into the university. There's a full time staff member whose only responsibility is to help faculty fill out the applications. My department has some dead wood in it, and as the bright young thing with a shiny "recently on the job market" publication record, I'm under a lot of pressure to fill out an application.

    Well, I have a lot of trouble thinking of something to spend this kind of money on! My research is not collaborative, and anyway requires knowledge of languages that aren't widely spoken in my institution: I can't really hire research assistants. I don't want to buy out my teaching: I worked hard to this job, take an interest in pedagogy, and, if anything, would like to teach a bit more. I can think of some pluses to winning a grant, of course. I'd enjoy the prestige, it would help my promotion prospects, I could hire a grad student to grade my first year papers, and I could buy plane tickets for summer research trips (though this could also be done through less-competitive university travel grants). Yet there are opportunity costs to filling out the grant: new paperwork conventions to master, electronic forms to fill out, and the applications, I'm told, are only successful 5% of the time. All in all, I think I would rather be finishing my book.

    What's your take on this? Am I being a lazy faculty member, grumbling about pulling his weight for the team, or am I a greenhorn sucker with no backbone who should learn to stand up for his own research priorities?

    (In a subsequent email, he noted that his is a humanistic discipline.)

    My first thought is, this is a good problem to have. I know people who would kill to have this problem.

    Having said that, though, your reference to opportunity cost is spot-on. Time spent on halfhearted grant applications is time not spent doing other things, like finishing your book. So there is a choice to be made.

    Given that you're in a humanistic discipline, successful large-scale grantsmanship is relatively rare. Yes, it would impress everybody if you were to pull in some major cash, but the reason it would impress them is that it rarely happens, especially in the early years of a career. It would be great, but it isn't necessary or expected.

    (In the social sciences, I've noticed a distinct trend among granting agencies to favor quantitative approaches over qualitative ones. Over the decades, this has led to a catastrophic distortion of scholarship in untold ways. But that's somebody else's fight. And I'm told that in the natural sciences, books count for almost nothing and grantsmanship is far more important. Context matters.)

    A book, on the other hand, is probably both necessary and expected. Teaching loads as light as yours almost always come with publication requirements, whether formal or informal, and you ignore those at your peril. Taking care of first things first – doing the necessary before the nice-to-have – will give you the freedom later to take those 5% shots. Missing the longshot now could put you in a badly disadvantaged position at your job, and there's no need for that.

    Better, a book under your belt will likely make you a stronger candidate for whatever grants you do eventually pursue, if any. The rich tend to get richer, so getting your hand stamped as a Recognized Scholar can only help. First things first.

    Good luck!

    Wise and worldly readers – how would you read this one?

    Have a question? Ask the Administrator at deandad (at) gmail (dot) com.

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Comments on Ask the Administrator: The Book or the Grant?

  • Posted by Historian on January 9, 2009 at 8:20am EST

  • Considering that there are many institutions where a junior faculty member would be expected to publish on a 3-3 or even 4-4 load, this smacks to me of excessive whining.

    Work on both. With a 2-1 load, there is no real reason not to do so, especially since there is a staff member tasked to help you write grant proposals. Use the resources the institution has given you. Even if the grant fails, you now have the requisite toolset to prepare future grants. With publications under your belt, such grants should be easier to get in the future. And since the institution seems to be pushing the notion that faculty should be winning grants, this is going to be a necessary skill for you down the road.

    As the spouse of a professional grant administrator, let me tell you: you can always find something to spend the money on. Release time may well be a boon to your department's budget. The purchase of equipment for a grant (even in the humanities) that can be used down the road by others will also be looked upon favorably by colleagues and your chair.

  • Tears are Flowing
  • Posted by Skipper on January 9, 2009 at 8:46am EST

  • This may be harsh, but want do you want a career coach? At some point we all have to make difficult decisions. The challenge is to figure out who you are serving first and why your employer wants you there. We all have to find the balance point and with tougher economic conditions we may find ourselves more of everything with less. The book sounds delightful if it will benefit the institution, the grant sounds appealing to administration, and teaching sounds appealing to students. All can be accomplished, and incorporating students into the research regardless of how obsure is your duty.

  • I'm Tempted to Say Suck It Up But Won't
  • Posted by Grants Director on January 9, 2009 at 9:25am EST

  • I agree with Historian. Learn the ropes of grants. For a little over a year now, I've been at an institution that historically has had no grant culture. The U wants to change that so I arrived and have slowly been making inroads. The problem is opposite that of the young humanist. Faculty here have heavy course loads and admin duties. If I had faculty like Humanist around, I'd be cornering she/he to start submitting grants. Not only do you become aware of the process, you establish relationships with grantmakers, and you are available to help your colleagues with their future proposals.

    Note to Humanist: If you're going to publish a book, start by proofreading your emails.

  • Posted by Jim Meek on January 9, 2009 at 9:50am EST

  • I agree that it sounds like the book may be the higher priority right now. But need these be seen as mutually exclusive? The "opportunity cost" is diminished by the availability of staff to help complete the grant application. If there's a lot of pressure, I'd put a little time into trying to come up with something. Propose a schedule as far into the future as possible to allow time for the book now. Like anything else, you learn by doing. Submitting a proposal will teach you about how to prepare proposals and might get you some suggestions about how to make a better one. Then you'll be better positioned a year or two from now, once the book is done and you're ready for another project. Plus, the fact that you are applying will at least look like you're trying to do what they want.

    Once that's the goal, how do we address "I have a lot of trouble thinking of something." OK, I'm also in the humanities, so I can identify. Some thoughts:
    * Is there nothing, even a smaller grant that would help with the present book? (Think of this as a warmup; you're getting a small grant to put on your resume for applying for the next grant.)
    * Brainstorm with mentors or peers in the discipline at other schools.
    * Does the grant have to come to your school alone? Could it be shared with a colleague elsewhere who might have more linguistic resources?
    * Think about gathering material for the next book.
    * Could the project involve extensive travel over several summers (and winter breaks)? Support for a semester sabbatical?
    * Could you hire (one year) someone who could work in these languages (like a postdoc)? Is there another university in reasonable distance that might have grad students interested in this area of research whom you could hire/support?
    * Is there a way to make the project interdisciplinary with expertise complementing your own that could be found in your institution?
    * Could you hire someone with technology skills to digitize materials relevant to your work and create an online archive?
    * Or, given your interest in pedagogy, could you develop a project in teaching in your specialty, or with colleagues in your discipline? This could relate to best practices in teaching in the field or in developing materials to use in teaching. But that might be seen as moving your emphasis from your specialty to pedagogy.
    * Another way to spend money on technology would be developing online resources to support teaching and learning. I think of those 3-D ancient cities you can walk (virutally) through, or the Perseus digital library of texts and other resources devoted to ancient Greece and Rome.

    Finally, I think of the quote I ran across from a successful entrepreneur: "I lie awake at night and try to think of things that suck." Surely there is something wrong or tragid somewhere in your specialty -- some materials not being preserved, some native lore dying out, some historical memory passing away. What annoys, worries, or upsets you professional? Find a problem and try to think of a way to fix it. That will almost always require at least some money.

    I hope some of this helps.

  • Small grants first
  • Posted by Diane on January 12, 2009 at 1:50pm EST

  • Think of grants as a way to help you and your department get somewhere you wanted to go anyway, but couldn't without extra support. In the arts and humanities, there are too few out-of-the-ballpark $80K grants available, but there are small grants ($5K-$20K) that can benefit you. NEH has wonderful summer seminars for scholars, for example, and there are always Fulbrights and several non-federal opportunities. These might support travel to a library or site, assistantships for graduate students, contracts with translators and editors, acquisitions for the institution's library, undergraduate student support, even a visiting lectureship or course release for a colleague or two.

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