Letter from the Director: Bearman Passes Off the Baton
As I am writing my first letter as Acting Director of ISERP, the U.S. Olympic trials are just ending and plans are being readied for the Summer Olympics in Beijing. As I reread Peter Bearman's last newsletter as Director of ISERP, the metaphor that immediately came to mind was the passing of the baton to the next runner in a track and field relay event. One runner has given her or his all and the next takes over, trying to keep any lead the team has or to catch the leader. As Peter summarized in the Spring 2008 Newsletter, ISERP has come an enormous distance since its founding in 2000, for which Peter deserves enormous credit. I will not embarrass him any further here with praise other than to say thanks for the swift pass of the baton - and for strongly bringing ISERP to where it should be: a worthy successor to its original predecessor, Columbia's Bureau of Applied Social Research (BASR).
Because of this connection to the Bureau (as it was also called), I am especially pleased to serve as acting director as the School of Arts and Sciences conducts a search for the next permanent director beginning in the fall. The Bureau had its beginnings in 1937 as sociologist Paul F. Lazarsfeld's Office of Radio Research. The Office of Radio Research officially became the Bureau in 1944 as Lazarsfeld and his colleagues published what was then the first major survey research-based study of voters and a presidential election campaign. Their book, The People's Choice, was, even by present-day standards, a methodologically sophisticated study of the 1940 presidential campaign and voters in Elmira, New York. This along with subsequent books, Voting (on the 1948 election) and Personal Influence, helped launch public opinion research and voting studies in the United States. As a political scientist specializing in public opinion and survey research, it is an honor to be leading the Bureau's successor - especially during this presidential election year. ISERP and its centers and workshops are planning a number of events leading up to the election, as well as after it, covering the dynamics of vote choice, the campaign, the role of journalists and the mass media, and the policy issues and future politics that are at stake for the country. In addition, many ISERP researchers will be involved in election-related projects and analyses.
Moving onward, we want ISERP's current centers, projects, and supported workshops to thrive. We are delighted that Peter Bearman will now be able to devote more time here at ISERP to his new research on autism. While our undergraduate and high school summer internship program has been a success this year, it is widely acknowledged that Columbia needs to make undergraduate research and mentorship a priority. We at ISERP are looking to expand opportunities for undergraduates by providing financial support for our interns. We look forward to seeding new studies in social science and especially public policy, working with the new leadership in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and the International Council, of which ISERP is a part, will begin work in the fall to coordinate and enhance regional studies and social science research. We are working with other units at the University to improve social science computing. I am looking forward as the new academic year begins to encourage new interdisciplinary workshops on ethnography, mass communication, and economic-sociology. These are some of my ideas. I would be interested in hearing yours as I unpack, baton in hand, in my new office on the 8th floor.
Robert Shapiro, Director
Institute of Social and Economic
Research and Policy
