Universities sometimes can find it hard to break out of the insular thinking that keeps professors and students within their own walls.
That’s why those involved thought the collaborative project begun five years ago by the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Evanston, “was such a really creative idea.”
The program has brought the schools together to train roughly 100 graduate and doctoral students-about 20 each year-in poverty research. Students received fellowships of varying lengths and attended classes and workshops at both schools while doing research with the nationally respected scholars directing the program.
“One of the best things about the program is the community of scholars you work with and the caliber of students they attract,” said Jolyon Wurr, a U. of C. student who’s working towards a doctoral degree.
“Also, for me, working with (U. of C. sociologist) William Wilson was a privilege. He’s a big-name scholar, and you hear horror stories of people who go to work with other big-name scholars” and find that those scholars are not ideal mentors. “Wilson was a supportive, creative, good person to work with.
“It also feels good to be working where what you do is in some way informing the policy debate at a high level. That’s very satisfying,” added Wurr, who is in his third and final year of the program, working toward a doctorate in sociology.
He is among the last group of students to benefit from the $1.43 million grant given to the schools in 1990 by the National Science Foundation. The program is being funded this year by carry-over money from the grant and a patchwork of additional funding.
Because the foundation is not renewing the grant, the schools have applied for funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They won’t know until next year if they will receive a new grant.
Wilson directs the program at the U. of C., at the Center for the Study of Urban Inequality. At NU, the Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, which is on the Evanston campus, is directed by Christopher Jencks, a sociology professor, and Rebecca Blank, an associate professor of economics. Both centers administer the program.
Jencks, whose area of expertise is poverty research, said the field underwent some change around 1980.
In the 1960s, poverty research consisted of studying what it meant to be poor and looking at poverty’s effects. Post-1980 research has focused on factors that cause poverty, such as teenage childbearing and low academic test scores. The problems that people used to blame on poverty are now being treated more as causes than as effects, he said.
There has been an increase in the last 10 years or so in the focus on children and families in poverty, added Blank, who specializes in public policy and poverty research. That interest has drawn more sociologists and psychologists into a debate that had been dominated by economists.
There were many more applicants for the fellowships than spaces available each year, said Jim Quane, associate director of the U. of C.’s center.
The program’s interdisciplinary approach is part of its popularity. At the U. of C., for example, members of the psychology, economics and sociology departments have attended workshops.
“And we brought in scholars from around the country to expose students to some of the cutting-edge research being done,” he said. “And the cross-fertilization between the two universities (has given) students access to great resources.”
The students also have brought different backgrounds and interests to the group, as they are working toward doctorates in several fields, including sociology, history and economics.
Students were expected to take a set of core courses in different disciplines, all exposing them to issues of poverty.
For example, Leslie Moscow, who is working toward a doctorate in economics at NU, took courses in sociology and public policy at the U. of C. last year.
Moscow, whose interest is labor economics, said her field “is very related to poverty issues,” so the program is “in keeping with what I want to explore. And having people in other disciplines you can talk to is a useful tool. When I have a question, I can ask a sociologist or someone in human development who might be sitting right next to me what their literature looks like.”
During the fellowship, students are paired with a professor, and they must spend some time each week helping him with research. In return, the professor advises the student on his research project.
For the last two years, for example, the U. of C.’s Wurr has been one of several fellows helping Wilson with a comparative study of neighborhoods. The project is examining four Chicago neighborhoods in terms of what makes a neighborhood work and how it remains stable.
The fellows go into a community and observe people in public settings and attend meetings, taking notes on what they see and hear.
“Then you go through a period of analyzing the notes and looking for themes,” Wurr said. “You try to build theories that will explain what you’re seeing.”
The program’s third component is workshops, several of which are held at the schools each quarter. This year’s topics will include America’s inner cities, reassessing the poverty line, single mothers in poverty and minimum wage.
In addition to the input from the visiting experts, “We like to have students present papers, and then get feedback and comments,” Quane said.
Postdoctoral participants also have used the program to refine research they’ve already begun.
Jose Soltero, who spent last year in the program at the U. of C., has a doctorate in sociology from another institution. He applied to the training program, he said, “because I felt it was a great environment for studying the causes and consequences of urban poverty.
“I had my own research agenda I brought with me,” which was studying underemployment in the U.S. among several ethnic groups, he said. “I did a couple of presentations, participated in conferences and sat in on a couple of courses. I presented articles I was working on and got suggestions. It was an excellent year for me.”
This year, Soltero is an assistant professor of sociology specializing in underemployment issues at DePaul University, Chicago. He is finishing a book on underemployment in the U.S.
Collaborative grants such as this are uncommon because funders are wary of the potential for success, NU’s Jencks said. They worry about “who will be in charge,” he said.
One of the keys to success is having good personal relationships among the key participants, he said. “I knew Bill Wilson long before the project started, and that made it possible to get it launched.”
Now that this project is reaching its conclusion, Jencks looked back and observed, “It was terrific.”
“There’s more awareness among the faculty of what other people are doing at the other end of Lake Shore Drive (at the U. of C.),” he said. “Relationships always existed in closely related matters, but this broadens the range of people you know. It makes both institutions a little more interdisciplinary.”
