Taxpayers' group lambastes SSHRC grants
Scholars defend social science and humanities research after Citizen article derides "exotic" projects funded by SSHRC
by Peggy Berkowitz
Social science and humanities researchers were disappointed and angry but not surprised after a Sept. 24 article in the Ottawa Citizen reported that the federal government "handed out $86 million yesterday for a host of exotic university research projects" and singled out six for special attention based on odd-sounding titles.
Studies on hockey violence, the sex trade, cottage living, leisure walking, retail purchases, and, incorrectly, "British carnal relations in the 18th century" that received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council were mentioned by Citizen reporter Tim Naumetz.
The article, reprinted by at least a dozen other CanWest newspapers and cited on television newscasts, quoted the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation calling "many" of the 947 funded projects "wonky" and a "misuse of tax dollars."
In a letter sent to the editor of the Citizen, Doug Owram, president of the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences, suggested that Canadians "care deeply" about hockey violence, sex workers and their clients, and the contexts of retail purchases, based on the prominent media coverage given to Todd Bertuzzi's assault on another National Hockey League player, the murders of prostitutes in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and Canadians' soaring debt loads. Research into these issues will contribute to our overall knowledge, he wrote. "Investing in research and building our understanding of complex social issues is an act of commendable foresight."
Dominique Lacasse, SSHRC's director of public affairs, said the announcement of the SSHRC grants was issued by Industry Canada and that SSHRC wasn't able to control the timing, the distribution or any elements of the release. "When we do these things, we work with our university partners," he said. SSHRC had wanted to release the list of grants in the spring, as it usually does, at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
"We're very disappointed" with the media coverage, said Mr. Lacasse. "I don't think it would have happened had we been able to follow the process that we think is appropriate and effective."
At the University of Calgary, dean of social sciences Stephen Randall noted that "any organization can pull titles out of things and make them look ridiculous." He said, "Unless you really look at what lies behind the titles, it's not particularly helpful to pillory them in this way."
So just what are these pilloried researchers studying?
U of C researcher Kevin Young got a $78,190 grant to study "Violence in Canadian ice hockey: an examination of social tolerance toward a culturally protected phenomenon."
Dr. Young said that the work on hockey violence is "vital, especially in these days of injuries and concern over the safety aspects of the game, as well as increasing public awareness of the litigious outcomes of violence and aggression in the game."
Raj Manchanda, a University of Manitoba business professor who received $89,253 for a study entitled "Understanding feelings of guilt in a retail purchase context," said his research will be important to consumers and could have important public policy implications on the retail store environment and practices. "We hope to better understand what causes consumers to feel guilty . . . and what the outcomes of these feelings are," said Dr. Manchanda.
Katherine Binhammer, a University of Alberta English professor specializing in women's literary history and 18th- century cultural studies, was annoyed that the article misstated her research as being about "carnal relations in 18th-century Britain . . . which, though a valid area, is not my area." Rather, Dr. Binhammer studies "stories about seduction which were tremendously popular in the period and which inform our contemporary ways of understanding and representing contemporary culture."
For example, she says, in forming an opinion of whether NBA Lakers' star Kobe Bryant was guilty of sexual assault, "we make sense of the competing stories of victim and accused, in large part, by how they cohere with the stories we are already familiar with, and the dominant story to this day involves past female promiscuity as proof of her consent. My research program looks at how women's consent was framed in the late 18th century and how the story of the 'fallen woman' gained prominence."
"By the way," added Dr. Binhammer, "I've decided to use my anger at the article to fuel the research, as their attempt to tar and feather a project on representations of rape and seduction only proves the necessity of the project."
