Minerva awards announced – no anthropologists funded
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has just announced the winners of the first round of research funded under the Minerva Initiative. This was a joint process whereby the National Science Foundation (NSF) and DoD determined funding for research on “Social and Behavioral Dimensions of National Security, Conflict and Cooperation” — i.e. social science research deemed of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. You can go to the DoD media release for more details, but in case you’re wondering if David Vine’s proposed Minerva research got funded, the answer is no.
There were four topic areas for the NSF solicitation: authoritarian regimes, the strategic impact of religious and cultural change, terrorist organizations and ideologies, and new dimensions in national security. 17 men were funded, compared to 6 women (1 man and 1 woman were both funded for more than one project). I did a quick search on the departmental affiliations of each grantee to try to determine disciplinary background, and as far as I can tell, no anthropologists were funded. The disciplinary breakdown is: 14 political scientists, 6 economists, 3 sociologists, 2 psychologists, 1 linguist, 1 communications studies researcher, and 1 computer scientist were funded.
Of course, what we don’t know is what proposed research projects and disciplines were not funded.
alfonsvanmarrewijk
gregdowney
Jaap Timmer
joanab
Jovan Maud
Lisa Wynn
Paul Mason
stephencox
stockeybridge
Third Tone Devil
Culture Matters 
So, is this good or bad?
Depends on how you feel about anthropological knowledge being used to shape US foreign policy, TTD! Good or bad, I don’t know, but either way, I don’t think that this really tells us much at all, because we don’t know who applied for the funding, only who got funded. Did no anthropologists apply? Then that tells us about anthropologists’ lack of interest in engaging with foreign policy makers and/or unwillingness to receive military funding for their research. Or did several anthropologists apply, but none get funded? Then that tells us more about the U.S. government’s interest in anthropological knowledge. Maybe when I get some spare time I’ll try to track down how many people applied and didn’t get funded, and what disciplines the rejected applicants represent.
Nicely put, Lisa! I’d be really interested to hear what you find out (in that copious spare time of yours –LOL) 🙂
OK Liam, the pressure (from you and from me!) is on, so I just wrote to the NSF requesting a list of the unsuccessful projects and the disciplinary affiliations of unsuccessful applicants. I’ll post to Culture Matters any response I get from them.
I think they’re scared of us.
Hi,
I’m just referring to a post of Max Forte that claims:
“(2) While some are saying that no anthropologist has been awarded a Minerva grant, that is not correct. Mark Woodward, of Arizona State University (…) is in fact a cultural anthropologist who teaches in the Department of Religious Studies”
See the blog: ” http://zeroanthropology.net/2009/10/14/news-from-the-military-academic-complex-mcfates-phd-hts-contracts-minerva-grants-afghanistan/ “.
best,
Ben
Thanks, Ben, for pointing out Max’s correction. Meanwhile, an update for Liam: NSF refuses to provide any info (even disciplinary affiliations) of unsuccessful applicants. I presume I’d have to file a FOIA request to find that out. I wrote to David Vine to ask him if he ever applied for the Minerva funding to research “how overseas military bases affect relations with other nations, how they’ve damaged our international reputation and how they’ve damaged the lives of people around the world” (see https://culturematters.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/engaged-skepticism-about-minerva/ for where he suggested this as a Minerva project), and he said that no, in the end he didn’t apply to Minerva for funding, but he has started research on that project.