Letter from the Director: Thanksgiving Break
Thanksgiving Break: Over the break, my wife and I went to Budapest, Hungary. The manifest purpose for my trip was to talk with faculty at the Central European University about writing successful research grants. Those who know my track record will quickly understand that my main message beyond the usual injunctions to focus on the Â"ABCDEÂ" of applications—the abstract, background and significance, competence, design, and execution—had to be something along the lines of Â"apply, apply, apply, apply.Â" In the world of external funding, the toughest thing to avoid is frustration from repeated rejection. This is especially true when it seems as if work is rejected on non-scientific grounds. Since many NSF and NIH deadlines are drawing near, it is worth remembering the simple rule that the first step towards a successful application often involves establishing that the work one intends to conduct is feasible. ISERP seed grants are designed to help researchers establish feasibility. We are anxious to help faculty obtain external funding and were disappointed that this fall, we only received a handful of applications. Our next deadline is in March, and we encourage you to talk to us about how to use the collective resources at ISERP to advance your research agenda.
Besides the thermal baths, museums, architecture, and paprika, Budapest is famous for the opera. We went one night. When my understanding of Italian failed (just about the whole time), I found myself looking up at the supra-titles in Hungarian. This was not at all helpful, since the Hungarian language is one of the Finno-Ugric languages, and only a very small percentage (2.5%) of the words have Latin roots. These languages have about 24 million speakers (5 million Finns, and 10 million Hungarians who are the main speakers) distributed in isolated enclaves scattered from Norway to Siberia.
Spending a week in a country where the language was completely foreign (to me) convinced me that we need to think more aggressively about how to develop programs at Columbia that link what for a lack of a better word I will call Â"deep languageÂ" training with our interests and growing expertise in development in the context of globalization. First, of course, is the obvious point that understanding culture requires an understanding of language and that serious development initiatives and engagement with the larger world has to be enhanced by deeper understanding of the culture, literature, and languages of those with whom we interact. Second is a reasonable concern that the smaller and less commonly taught languages are, in the context of globalization, at risk of extinction—if not in the immediate future surely at some point. This must in some way lead to a loss of value for humans, although impossible to quantify.
Against this background, ISERP is interested in trying to think through—we hope with other units on campus—mechanisms to work with the fantastic resources in language training reflected in part by the Language Resource Center (our neighbor in the basement of IAB) and ways to create a demonstration project that link deep language and culture training with programs in sustainable development, environmental protection, and public health. Whether this demonstration project focuses on Africa (thereby connecting with what we hope is a major University initiative in African studies), Latin America, the Indian sub-continent, or all three is of course a major strategic decision. But for now, just thinking about how to connect the various elements of our internationally focused programs in sustainable development, policy, and the environment to the deep resources around us seems a fruitful direction to take.
Those with interest in developing this initiative further should feel welcome to discuss their ideas, in the form of seed proposals or simply as suggestions, with me or other ISERP staff. In the meantime, we all wish for you a wonderful New Year and a productive start to the new semester.
Peter Bearman, Director
Institute of Social and Economic
Research and Policy
