For graduate students doing research in a single subject area, funding is often easy to obtain. But for those like third-year Penn Law student Matthew Erie, whose work spans multiple disciplines, support is much harder to secure.
"As a student of legal anthropology, I am often applying for funding that is mainly anthropological, and I must 'argue' the importance of law," Erie, who is concurrently studying at Cornell and Tsinghua University Law School in Beijing, wrote in an e-mail.
But this summer, Erie will have $6,000 to help him conduct surveys and interviews for his self-designed project, "The Professionalization of Chinese Attorneys," which is an on-the-ground look at the rise of critical reasoning in law education.
Erie is one of six winners of the 2008 Graduate and Professional Student Assembly-Provost Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation, which provides individuals or groups with $6,000 over three months for projects that integrate different disciplines to explore societal issues. The award is jointly funded by GAPSA and the Office of the Provost.
"While many universities give lip service to interdisciplinarism, Penn is actively creating interdisciplinary scholarship," Erie wrote.
GAPSA chairman Dan Grabell said GAPSA and the Office of the Provost collaborated in 2005 to address the deficit in funding and support for interdisciplinary projects.
Now in its fourth year, Grabell said the program's success is reflected by an increase in applications and newly secured permanent funding from the Provost.
"Penn students continue to consistently produce outstanding and innovative proposals for interdisciplinary work, and we look forward to seeing the fruit of their projects at the poster session in the fall," said Associate Provost Andy Binns.
Another 2008 winner, Kristie Thomas, a third-year student in the School of Social Policy and Practice, said the award's interdisciplinary focus is unique and she would like to see even more support for this type of research.
"It's really hard to get through a doctoral program when you're constantly worried about making ends meet," she said.
Thomas and her research partner will use the award money as summer salaries to continue their work: determining risk factors that predict repeat shelter stays to inform service delivery for victims of domestic violence.
"[The project] is not the type of thing you can just do in your free time," she said. This money will allow me to devote all my time and energy to research."
Grabell said he looks forward to the accomplishments of the winners.
"This year's projects will continue the tradition of having global impact and demonstrating Penn's intellectual strength," he said.
