NSF Funding for Cultural Anthropology in Fiscal Year 2003

The National Science Foundation (NSF) allocated $2.6 million dollars in fiscal year (FY) 2003 to the Cultural Anthropology program to advance science in the discipline (cultural anthropologists also received funding from other programs at NSF, but this article is limited to awards from the Cultural Anthropology program). This amount has been flat for the past four years, while NSF’s total budget has increased, the new funds going to special emphasis areas that will be discussed below. During FY 2003 the program received 81 “senior” proposals (from principal investigators–PIs–with PhDs) and made 18 awards.  The average total grant was $160,500; the average first-year award was about $107,000 including indirect costs; five of the 18 awards were also funded for a second year (average $68,700) and three for a third year (average $119,700). The largest grants made by the program were two five-year CAREER awards: $420,000 to Joseph Henrich (Emory) for work in culture and cognition, beliefs and behavior in Fiji, and $411,100 to Shankar Aswani (U. Cal Santa Barbara) for cultural ecological research on marine resource use in the Solomon Islands. The next largest program grants were $380,500 over three years to Frank Marlowe (Harvard) for research on food sharing and family life among the Hadza of Tanzania; $275,000 over two years to Rebecca Bird (Maine) for research on production, reproduction and cooperation among the Mardu of Australia; and $256,600 over two years to Bettina Shell-Duncan (U. Washington) for studies of female genital cutting in The Gambia and Senegal. Several of these PIs are junior scholars, as the program is making a special effort to support outstanding young researchers.

The program reviewed three Ethnographic Research Training (ERT) proposals for graduate departments and made one $50,000 award to Southern Methodist University. After that award was made the program reviewed the entire history of the ERT grant program.  Since 1991 NSF has made 16 ERT awards to 13 institutions. We compared the submissions and success rates of dissertation research proposals from ERT and non-ERT institutions, and found no meaningful differences. Grantees have argued that the ERT grants effectively advance scientific training in the recipient program. This may be true, but absent any significant evidence that this is generally the case, the program has decided to cancel this funding opportunity. The funds will be used in other ways to promote training in scientific anthropology.  A number of current grantees responded to the program’s offer to consider funding supplements for “Research Experience for Undergraduates” ($4,000) and “Research Experience for Graduates” ($5,000). Eleven requests to support students’ participation in collaborative research activities with their advisors could be supported.

The program also reviewed 124 dissertation research proposals and made 22 awards. The maximum dissertation award is normally $12,000 (with no indirect costs), unless the student has official international affiliations, in which case NSF’s International Office can contribute more funds. In FY 2003 one student received $17,820. The other awards ranged from $4,259 to $12,000. It is common for students to receive grants from other sources, like the Fulbright programs, which then reduces the amount they request from NSF.  In spring of 2003 the NSF returned without review 31 dissertation proposals that did not comply with the new NSF regulation to discuss the broader impacts of the research in a separate statement in the project summary. We assume this was a one-time aberration and that universities now advise applicants appropriately.

Dissertation proposals are reviewed by a panel of anthropologists which ranks the proposals by their excellence in advancing theory, the strength of the research design and methodology and the qualifications of the researcher as well as the broader impacts of the project. The quality of the average proposal could be improved by attention to some basics of scientific research. The most typical problems are that the “theory” is more a statement of a topic instead of an explanatory framework, that the research design is not explicitly focused on answering the theoretical questions, and that the methods are not justified in terms of the theory and research design (see the advice to students at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/bcs/anthro/cultdadv.htm). 

The program is constantly searching for ways to improve science training in the discipline, and welcomes new ideas for funding opportunities in addition to the summer institute (http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/bcs/anthro/cultwksh.htm) and the Scholars Award in Methodological Training (http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/bcs/anthro/cultscho.htm). In May 2003 a workshop was held at the historic Belmont conference center, where a dozen anthropologists brainstormed for two days about ways to strengthen scientific training. As a result the program expects to offer new opportunities in the near future. We solicit new ideas and proposals in this area.

NSF is increasing its funding of social science research, through a new special competition labeled Human and Social Dynamics (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf03552/nsf03552.htm). In the next few years relatively large sums of money will be available for new research in several areas: Enhancing human performance, Decision making, Agents of change, Modeling human and social dynamics, Spatial social science, and Instrumentation and data resource development. Large-scale research of multidisciplinary teams will be favored. For years the base budgets of the disciplinary programs have been flat, and this situation shows no signs of improving. Prospective PIs are encouraged to pay close attention to the web site for new competitions, and to develop research interests with colleagues in other disciplines for maximum funding opportunities.

The National Science Foundation thanks the following persons for serving on review panels in the past three fiscal years: H. Russell Bernard, Ben Blount, Garry Chick, David Cleveland, William Dressler, Kathryn Dudley, Kathleen Galvin, Nia Georges, Ricardo Godoy, Judith Goode, David Guillet, Robert Hefner, Marida Hollos, Eugene Hunn, Judith Irvine, Irma McClaurin, Janet McGrath, John Moore, Pauline Peters, Virginia Nazarea, Carolyn Sargent, George Saunders, Joel Sherzer, Lynn Sikkink, Eric Smith, Bradley Stoner, Claudia Strauss, Rubie Watson, Robert Welsch, Richard Wilk, Linda Whiteford, Bruce Winterhalder.  

Information on all Cultural Anthropology Programs, including High Risk Exploratory Research in Anthropology, Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER), and Scholars Awards for Methodological Training can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/bcs/anthro. Please don’t hesitate to contact the program officer with questions at splattne@nsf.gov or (703 292-7315).

The following tables list FY 2003 new grants made by the program, omitting supplements.  The “Total $” column in the Senior Research table contains the total size of the grant for all years from all funding sources at NSF, the FY 2003, 2004 and 2005 columns contain only the program contribution to the grants for these years (data for the CAREER grants are not shown for their fourth and fifth years). Grant abstracts are available through the award search function in Fastlane, http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.htm.