Social Science Research Council

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
DISSERTATION PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT FELLOWSHIP

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF REDISTRIBUTION
FALL 2007 WORKSHOP AGENDA

Research Director: Jonathan Rodden
Research Director: Erik Wibbels

Crowne Plaza St. Louis Downtown, Saint Louis, MO
Thursday, September 6 – Sunday, September 9

This is the second of two workshops designed to help students prepare cogent and fundable dissertation proposals in their chosen field.  The first workshop aimed to map the research field with respect to contributing disciplines, methods, sources, and area knowledge, and to help prepare fellows for their pre-dissertation summer research.  The goal of this second workshop is to focus on the mechanics and methods of writing a dissertation proposal.  Toward that end, we have two specific goals: first, discussing the practical challenges of conducting dissertation research, ranging from field work to survey design to simply surviving the dissertation-writing process; second, building excellent, fundable proposals through a sustained and structured discussion of each proposal. Though this workshop is largely focused on the details of the students’ individual projects, we will continue to develop the ways in which the projects contribute to the broader research field of the political economy of redistribution.

Our first goal will be addressed both in a general way and more specifically as we work through individual proposals. We will deal with some of the common research challenges, including data collection, field research, and the difficulty of sustaining momentum through the entire dissertation writing process in a general session. As we move into the discussion of proposals, we will address the challenges of research design and implementation specific to each proposal. The discussion of each proposal will follow a common format. Each student will present their proposal in 20 minutes. Each presentation will be assigned a student discussant who is responsible for addressing a series of specific issues over the course of 5 minutes. Thereafter, we will have 35 minutes of discussion with the entire group about the proposal. Each presenter will be assigned a note taker who will present a summary of the issues raised during these sessions. Ultimately, this detailed discussion of each proposal is aimed at helping students produce better proposals and dissertations.

Workshop Readings and Resources:
Research Field resources have been placed on the secure DPDF web portal. 

Workshop Assignments

1. Rewrite the original two page proposal in light of the comments received at the Denver workshop. Due Friday, June 1.
2. A short, two page field report sketching out what students learned and how what they learned impacts the conceptualization of their project. Due one week after return from the field. This document should answer the following questions:
    a. What did you learn in the field?
    b. What were the most significant challenges you foresee in future field work?
    c. How did your research experience change your understanding of your project?
    d. How can your integrate your field research experience into your dissertation proposal?
3. A 6-8 page dissertation proposal due 10 days in advance of the St. Louis workshop. These proposals should begin to look like full-fledged funding proposals. To that end, each proposal should have several common elements, including:
    a. A clear and compelling statement of the research question that articulates why it is interesting.
    b. A literature review that places the project in the broader context of existing research in relevant fields. We encourage students to think broadly across disciplinary and sub-disciplinary boundaries when thinking about their projects.
    c. A discussion of the hypotheses that will be examined in the research. This is the portion of the proposal in which students will forward their argument.
    d. A clear research design that lays out the methods through which the student plans to empirically assess the hypotheses.
4. Prepare a 20 minute presentation of your proposal using PowerPoint. We recommend that each presentation explicitly address the four main sections of a proposal as outlined above.
5. Read all the proposals of your fellow students in advance of the workshop. As you read, please keep each of the individual elements of a proposal in mind. Discussants should prepare five minutes of discussion using PowerPoint that directly addresses each element of the proposal. As you read your fellow students’ proposals, you should be thinking:
    a. Has the researcher motivated the project in a compelling way? Is there a better way to frame the research question?
    b. Has the researcher identified all of the relevant literature? Are there unusual or unexpected links that might be drawn with other literatures? Are the theoretical connections among the relevant literatures clear?
    c. Has the author made their argument clearly? Is the argument coherent?
    d. Is the research design feasible? Are there alternative or additional research strategies that would complement the proposed design?

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF REDISTRIBUTION: WORKSHOP SCHEDULE 

Session 1: The Dissertation Proposal: Strategies and Funding Sources
(Thursday, 9 AM – 12:00 PM)

- Welcome and Introductions (DPDF Program Director Peter Sahlins)
- Dissertation Funder Presentations

Dr. Leslie C. Aiello, President, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
Mr. Tony Claudino, Director, Fulbright IIE
Mr. William Hahn, Program Director, Division of Graduate Education National Science Foundation (NSF)
Dr. Nicole Stahlmann, Associate Director, SSRC International Dissertation Research Fellowships (IDRF)

Session 2:  General thematic session
(Thursday, 2:00 PM – 5 PM) 

•   We will start with very brief, cocktail party statements of projects that include a description of your experience in the field and its impact on the projects. The chief goal is to encourage students to describe their projects in a very clear and concise way. The description of the field experience will serve as an introduction to the following discussion of dissertation research strategies.
•   We will discuss some of the most common practical challenges of collecting data (in the field and otherwise) for approximately 1.5 hours. Likely topics include pointers for conducting successful field research, how to design field and phone surveys, and other data collection challenges.  It is possible we will have an outside speaker for this session.
•   The final portion of this session will focus on the challenges of finishing the dissertation. Likely topics will include how to sustain ones focus during the dissertation writing process, the challenge of integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence convincingly, how to deal with the inevitable evolution of dissertations as they move from proposals to final products, and how to negotiate differences with advisors.

9 PM: Visual Culture movie screening, “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944), directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Judy Garland.

Session 3: Student presentations, discussants and proposal discussion
(Friday, 9 AM – 12:00 PM)

These will include 20 minute presentations, followed by 5 minutes of formal discussion by the discussant and then 35 minutes of general discussion. 

- Rachel Meltzer (Becky Tippet, discussant)
- Miguel de Figuerido (Chris Marcum, discussant)
- Becky Tippet (Rachel Meltzer, discussant)

Session 4: Student presentations, discussants and proposal discussion
(Friday, 2:00 PM – 5 PM) 

- Chris Marcum (Miguel de Figuerido, discussant)
- Tod van Gunten (Heather Bergman, discussant)
- Luis Camacho-Solis (Yuki Shimabukuro, discussant)

Session 5:  Student presentations, discussants and proposal discussion
(Saturday, 9 AM – 12:00 PM) 

- Heather Bergman (Tod ban Gunten, discussant)
- Yuki Shimabukuro (Luis Camacho-Solis, discussant)
- Michael Ewers (Guy Grossman, discussant)

Session 6: Student presentations, discussants and proposal discussion
(Saturday, 2:00 PM – 5 PM) 

- Sade Owolabi (Derek Liu, discussant)
- Guy Grossman (Michael Ewers, discussant)
- Derek Liu (Sade Owolabi)

Session 7:  Plenary Session – Student Mini-Conference: Mapping Research Fields
(Sunday, 9 AM – 12:00 PM)

The last session of the second DPDF workshop is devoted to student presentations of their research field.  Students in each field are responsible for organizing their group presentations in the mode of a mini-conference.   Each field will be given a total of 25 minutes, and projects should be presented in an order and grouping that gives the field coherence.  Students are invited to use images and other media as appropriate, but should structure their very short presentations around the following:  1) a research question; 2) a working hypothesis; 3) the research site(s) and sources; 4) the methodological approach; and 5) contributions to the field.   These interventions, in short, represent the “cocktail party” version of the answer to the question, “what are you working on?”  The exercise is intended to give fellows the opportunity to develop a summary version of their research project while locating their work in a collectively-defined research field.