Letter from the Director: Transitions and New Initiatives
This has been a busy fall for ISERP. We have long felt that our mission is to contribute to building both disciplinary and interdisciplinary strength in the social sciences at Columbia. At the same time, we have also long felt that we need to support work that is more of a sure bet and support work that is highly risky. The disciplinary/interdisciplinary teeter-totter is not unrelated to the sure-bet/risky teeter-totter of course. It is easier to get funded for straight disciplinary work since the typical review panel is disciplinary. Much more difficult are the large interdisciplinary projects that, if funded, can really change the research and intellectual context in which we are embedded.
New interdisciplinary initiatives mentioned in the last newsletter are coming to fruition, including a population center, a new institute integrating studies of gender, ethnicity, race, and culture, the newly formed Center on Social Justice, the Global Health Research Center in Central Asia, and a new international council designed to stimulate collaboration and inter-regional research projects. These projects link various departments, schools, institutes, centers, and other units at Columbia, including the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWAG), the Schools of Arts and Sciences, Law, Social Work, and Public Health, and a host of other collaborators. Our investments in these projects are substantial, with ISERP committing roughly $650,000 over the next five years. At the same time, we continue to support a wide array of faculty through our seed grant and workshop programs, and we anticipate that these more routine, but critically important, efforts to catalyze important social science will continue to play an important role in defining the social science signature at ISERP, and thus, Columbia.
The fall has also been a period of transition. A number of long-term staff have moved on to new positions. We have said goodbye to Rachel Young, our Financial Assistant extraordinaire, and Chad Borkenhagen, at the front desk. In their stead, we are fortunate to have found Carmen Morillo and Jenny Tromski. Greg Lyle, who ran our computational systems for many years, is also stepping down, and Andrew Richey has driven up from Florida State University to replace him. We are fortunate as well that Meredith Canada has assumed some of the core financial grant responsibilities since the departure of our Grants Assistant. We recognize the outstanding contributions of these ISERP staff members. ISERP has been a special place because of the special people who work here.
This issue features articles on issues around labor markets, specifically, the consequences of job displacement. As we approach the winter, we will kick off our election series. Our hope is that all of the leading Democratic and Republican candidates take a close look at the ISERP newsletters, now, in the past, and as the campaign unfolds. We suspect that W did not read our work and want to change that.
Peter Bearman, Director
Institute of Social and Economic
Research and Policy
