University of Illinois
ANTH 511
Research Proposal Seminar
Spring 2006
Instructor: Alma Gottlieb
Introduction to the Course: Designing a doctoral research project--and writing a grant
proposal to secure funds that will enable you to carry out that project--can be an
exhilarating/terrifying experience. This seminar aims to help you through this rite-of-passage
stage in your graduate training by providing you with a variety of conceptual and technical as
well as practical tools that will guide you in this critical component of your graduate training.
This course can also be considered as an opportunity for professionalization. Although
we’ll focus on the conceptualization and writing of research projects and proposals, toward the
end of the semester we’ll also begin planning your professional life beyond the crafting of your
doctoral research proposal.
Goals for the Course: By the end of the semester, you should feel that this course has helped
you . . .
 define and sharpen the conceptual focus of your planned research project
 clearly articulate the general theoretical foundations and relevant bodies of
theoretical literature underlying your project
 identify the specific theoretical hypotheses you’ll test/specific theoretical questions
you‘ll ask/specific theoretical issues you’ll explore in your planned research
 outline feasible methods you’ll deploy in carrying out your research
 identify and discuss relevant bodies of scholarly literature (ethnographic, historical,
theoretical, methodological)
 communicate your ideas engagingly and effectively to your readers
 clearly outline the significance of your research so that educated readers other than
specialists in your sub-field might care about your research
 create the basics of a professional C.V. that you can continually update during the
many decades of your professional career
 list future conference talks from your planned doctoral research
 draft a list of future journal articles that may result from your planned doctoral
research
 tentatively sketch a chapter outline of your dissertation
 develop a realistic list of book publishers to which you will submit a book proposal for a
book to develop from your dissertation
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develop skills to read carefully and critically your peers’ proposal drafts, and
articulate questions and suggestions to your peers concerning their proposal drafts
and planned research in a challenging but constructive manner
learn to revise your own written work to incorporate multiple sources of feedback
from others—learn which suggestions to take as the most helpful, and how to catalog
un-used suggestions for the future
learn how to think productively about critiques of your work, especially critiques that
seem the most challenging, misguided or irrelevant
do all the above without having a heart/panic/anxiety attack!
To help you accomplish these ambitious goals, the course will make abundant resources
available to you. These will include: written and internet-based guides to grant-writing; texts
on, and tips for, clear writing; samples of grant proposals submitted by graduate students in
cultural anthropology that have received funding from a variety of funding agencies; examples
of recent scholarly works written by junior cultural anthropologists on the basis of
successfully funded doctoral research; C.V. templates; and the process of receiving active,
helpful feedback from your peers.
How the Course Will Be Run: To get a sense of how well-planned projects are conceived,
organized, and described, we’ll read a selection of successful doctoral grant proposals covering
a wide variety of topics and approaches. During our class time, we’ll spend most of our time
"workshopping" grant proposals produced by each of you. As a participant in this workshopstyle seminar, I expect you to commit yourself to working actively to hone your own rhetorical
skills in suggesting productive, challenging, and gentle feedback to your peers whose proposals
we’ll discuss in class. On the days on which your proposal will be discussed, you should expect
to feel challenged but grateful—and NOT attacked. If you emerge from a session feeling
utterly deflated, please let me know, and we will discuss what went wrong in the next class
session.
You should expect to consult closely with your advisor throughout the semester about issues
and strategies raised in the class concerning your own research project. Feel free to invite
your advisor into our class session on the days when we’ll be discussing your developing
proposal.
Writing: This is a writing-intensive workshop. You’ll be working on your own proposals
continually throughout the semester. You should expect to produce:
 two possible abstracts and titles for your doctoral research/grant proposal
 two possible outlines of your doctoral research/grant proposal
 a statement concerning ethical issues that you anticipate might arise during your
doctoral research
 a statement of how you will compensate your consultants during your fieldwork
 at least two versions of your proposal intended for two different funding agencies
(e.g., Wenner-Gren, NSF, SSRC, Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, NIH, UIUC Graduate
College, UIUC Dept. of Anthropology Summer Fund, etc.)
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a realistic budget for your planned project
a completely filled-out IRB form (if relevant) for your planned project
a professional C.V.
a list of conference papers intended for particular conferences that you might attend,
based on your anticipated dissertation research
a list of journals to which future dissertation chapters might be submitted as articles
a list of book publishers (some of which may have relevant book series) to which your
future dissertation might eventually be submitted.
Required Texts:
Lawrence Locke, Waneen Wyrick Spirduso and Stephen Silverman, Proposals that Work: A
Guide for Planning Dissertations and Grant Proposals (3rd ed.)
William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th edition (Longman, 2000).
In addition, I’ve placed quite a few additional proposal-writing books on reserve in the
Undergraduate Library. They offer different sorts of resources, from lists of funding
sources to samples of particular kinds of proposals. I recommend that you browse through at
least several of these as your interests and needs dictate.
I’ve also put a selection of general writing guides on reserve. We’ll all be working with the
gold standard of good English writing, Strunk and White, but once you’ve made it through this
treasure, there are plenty of other great guides to help you strengthen your writing. If you
think good writing is just important for novelists, think again! Remember, no matter how
brilliant your idea for your research is, if your grant panel reviewer doesn’t make it past the
first paragraph of your proposal because of jargon-laden, obscure, confusing, inadvertently
offensive or just plain boring language, you haven’t done your job. While serving as members
of grant judging panels, my colleagues and I have all turned down dozens of perhaps-brilliantbut-definitely-unreadable proposals. You don’t want to become a member of this select group!
No matter what your writing style and no matter what your research topic, the books I’ve
placed on reserve for your browsing pleasure can make you a stronger writer—I offer you a
money-back guarantee!
I’ve also put some shorter items on e-reserve through the main library’s e-reserve system.
This includes some hotlinked items that are available on the internet. Two that are superhelpful are:
Adam Przeworski and Frank Salomon, “On the Art of Writing Research Proposals” (1988)
[written for the Social Science Research Council]. Available at: www.ssrc.org/
http://www.ssrc.org/publications/pagemaker.cgi?997974506.
Institute of International Studies, University of California-Berkeley, “Dissertation
Proposal Workshop”. Available at:
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/DissPropWorkshop/resources/
This site is a great resource that includes lots of information, including a list of funding
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sources, discussion of research ethics, stages of proposal development and a recommended
timeline, tips on defining research questions, proposal writing style tips, and components of
a successful proposal (theory, research question, research design, budgets, concepts and
terminology). It also includes samples of proposals funded by NSF and Fulbright, George
Orwell’s 1945 essay on “Politics and the English Language,” Michael Watts’ “The Holy Grail:
In Pursuit of the Dissertation Proposal,” and a list of recommended readings on research
methods prepared by a group of scholars who developed it for the Social Science
Research Council.
But perhaps the most important resource for you is elsewhere: there are several successful
grant proposals from some current and former UIUC students available for your browsing.
Some are available through the files that Andy Orta has assembled in the department’s
Computer Room; the rest are from my own files (from students I’ve worked with) and will be
available in the Oscar Lewis Reading Room in the department. Study these, then study them
again. There’s nothing like reading successful models of proposals—especially, proposals that
were actually funded by the very agencies you’re hoping will give you funding--to give you a
sense of what will work.
Prerequisites: All students should consult with their advisors in making the decision to take
this workshop. I’ve designed this seminar primarily for graduate students in cultural
anthropology who are in their third or fourth year of graduate study. If you’re in your second
year of graduate study, you may be able to get what you need out of this seminar if you’ve
already formulated a fairly firm plan for your doctoral research. It’s also possible that you
may get what you need from this seminar if you’re a graduate student in archaeology or
biological anthropology, or if you’re enrolled in a doctoral program in another department on
campus—in this case, please discuss your situation with me and your advisor before enrolling.
Expectations:
Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great
make you feel that you, too, can become great.
--Mark Twain
Since this is a workshop, I expect that each one of you will contribute actively and continually.
This is not a class for the shy student to sit back and listen to others speak! You’ll be reading
one another's proposal drafts a week ahead of time and will be offering constructive
suggestions during class. Take the workshop as an opportunity to re-imagine one another's
research proposals--and your own--from a variety of perspectives that you might ordinarily
never consider relevant.
I expect that you’ll be as challenging, tough, AND respectful as you can of each other's work.
Before offering suggestions, please imagine how YOU would like to hear such suggestions
phrased if you were on the receiving end. Attending to the emotional aspect of our
discussions is probably more important for this course than it is for many others. No matter
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how brilliant your critique of a peer’s proposal, if it’s offered in a hostile fashion (whether
deliberately or unintentionally), the intended recipient will not hear it in any emotionally
meaningful way—the take-home message for the intended recipient will be “They were mean to
me” or “They didn’t spend enough time reading my proposal” or “They can’t understand my
proposal because they’re not trained in the theoretical literature of my specialty” or “They
don’t see the significance of my proposal because they work in another area of the world.”
None of these reactions will be helpful to the proposal writer. Take our classroom discourse
as a fieldwork exercise: imagine your fellow students as your research community. If you try
to anticipate your peers’ reactions to your comments on their proposals and frame your
comments accordingly, your message will probbly be “heard” in a meaningful way. And as a
bonus to you, this will be good training for your fieldwork, when you will be trying to see the
world through the eyes of an “other.”
Schedules, Schedules, Schedules: Because each of us will be commenting on the week's
proposals during class, and because your proposal drafts constitute the core of our class
reading and class discussion, we’ll all need a full week to read your proposals carefully before
class. Therefore, you‘ll need to complete--and pass out--your proposals one week before
they’ll be considered in class, according to a schedule we will set early in the semester.
There is NO FLEXIBILITY BUILT INTO THE DUE DATES for each assignment. This draconian
practice will train you for real-life grant submissions. Deadlines for actual grant proposal
competitions aren't negotiable, and these aren't either! A proposal that isn’t turned in on
time can’t be considered in class the next week and will be given a 0. I hope that I won’t have
to take this drastic measure for anyone We’ll determine what method we’ll use that will be
easiest for all of you in disseminating your proposals.
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Weekly Schedule
(Tentative)
January 17
“Each one of us has a question that we carry within
ourself, and it never changes whether you’re 15 or 15.”
-- Pico Iyer
IN CLASS: Write 3+ possible research questions/issues/hypotheses, and 3+ possible
dissertation titles.
January 24
The cow that has not explored the pastures
does not find the fat grass.
--Ugandan proverb
WRITE/BRING: XX copies of two alternative research proposal titles and XX copies of two
proposal abstracts
READ: Locke et al., Chs. 1 and 5
IN CLASS: Writer's Workshop presentation (5 min.) (tentative). Discuss your possible titles
and abstracts.
January 31
WRITE/BRING: Eight copies of two possible outlines of your proposal
READ: Locke et al., Chs. 3-4.
IN CLASS: Discuss proposal outlines.
February 7
No passion in the world is equal to the passion
to alter someone else’s draft.
-- H. G. Wells
WRITE/BRING: Some students bring eight copies of 1-2 page (typed double-spaced) Ethics
Statement outlining anticipated ethical issues that you will face during your research, and how
you intend to deal with them. Include a statement on how you plan to compensate informants.
IN CLASS: Guest speakers-- Sue Keehn (director) and Ron Banks (specialist), UIUC campus IRB/
READ: Locke et al., Ch. 2 and Appendix B
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Vinay Sristava, “Should Anthropologists Pay Their Respondents?” Anthropology Today 8
(6)(1992). (Oscar Lewis Reading Room)
American Anthropological Association. “Code of Ethics” (1998), available online at:
http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm
Joe Watkins, AAA Committee on Ethics, “Briefing Paper for Consideration of the Ethical
Implications of Sexual Relationships between Anthropologists and Members of a Study
Population,” available online at: http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/bp6.htm
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Institutional Review Board, Handbook for
Investigators: For the Protection of Human Subjects in Research. Available online at:
http://www.irb.uiuc.edu/hbcontents.html. Focus on: Part I: "Fundamental Principles
for the Use of Human Subjects in Research" and Part III: Review Procedures, B:
"Categories of Exempt Human Subject Research."
U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office for Human Research Protections, "Code
of Federal Regulations,” Title 45—Public Welfare—Dept. of Health and Human
Services, Nat’l Institutes of Health, Office for Protection from Human Subjects,
Subpart A: "Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (Basic DHHS Policy
for Protection of Human Research Subjects)," Revised Nov. 13, 2001, Eff. Dec. 13,
2001
§46.101 “To what does this policy apply?” Available online at:
http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.htm#46.101
§46.110 "Expedited review procedures for certain kinds of research involving no
more than minimal risk, and for minor changes in approved research." Available
online at: http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.htm#46.110
"Categories of Research That May Be Reviewed by the Institutional Review Board
(IRB) through an Expedited Review Procedure1." Available online at:
http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/humansubjects/guidance/expedited98.htm
IN CLASS: Guest speakers from IRB: Ms. Sue Keehn (IRB Director) and Mr. Ronald Banks (Human
Subjects Research Specialist, IRB) (tentative)
February 14
I go to my studio every day, because one day I may go
and the angel will be there. What if I don’t go
and the angel came?
-- Philip Guston
WRITE/BRING: Fill out a draft of a Human Subjects Form and bring eight copies (download
from: http://www.irb.uiuc.edu/irb-1_instructions.html). To discuss next week.
READ: Locke et al., Chs. 8-10; and start looking at our former students' proposals (Reading
Room).
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IN CLASS: discuss Ethics Statements passed out last week.
February 21
The secret of being tiresome is to tell everything.
–- Voltaire
WRITE/BRING: Two students pass out first proposals:
READ: Locke, Part III, Proposal 2; and our former students' proposals.
IN CLASS: Discuss Ethics Statements (etc.) handed out last week.
February 28
One learns by doing the thing; for though you think you
know it, you have no certainty until you try.
Sophocles
WRITE/BRING: Two students pass out first proposals:
IN CLASS: Discuss two proposals handed out last week.
March 7
Readers are persuaded by stories. . . . Dickens used this
secret to dazzling advantage. He portrayed the sufferings of
Victorian
London’s poor and awoke a generation of reformers.
-- Susan Shaughnessy
WRITE/BRING: Two students pass out first proposals:
IN CLASS: Discuss three proposals handed out last week.
March 14
Writing is harder than anything else; at least starting to
write is. It’s much easier to wash dishes. . . . But once I get
flowing with it,
I wonder what took me so long.
-- Kristin Hunter
WRITE/BRING: Two students pass out second proposals:
IN CLASS: Discuss three proposals handed out last week.
(March 21 NO CLASS: Spring break!)
March 28
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One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion
is worth half a hundred half-finished tasks.
-- B. C. Forbes
WRITE/BRING: Two students pass out second proposals:
IN CLASS: Discuss two proposals handed out last week.
April 4
WRITE/BRING: Two students pass out second proposals:
IN CLASS: Discuss two proposals handed out last week.
April 11
Writing is essentially a conversation.
-- Pico IyeR
WRITE/BRING: Three students pass out a list of conference papers to write intended for
particular conferences that you might attend, based on your anticipated dissertation research.
IN CLASS:. Discuss two proposals handed out last week.
April 18
WRITE/BRING: Three students pass out a list of conference papers to write intended for
particular conferences that you might attend, based on your anticipated dissertation research.
IN CLASS: Discuss three lists of conference papers handed out last week.
April 25
WRITE/BRING: ALL students pass out list of journals to which you will likely submit articles
based on your eventual dissertation chapters; AND, list of publishers to which you might
submit your eventual dissertation, for publication as a book.
IN CLASS: Discuss three lists of conference papers handed out last week.
May 2
IN CLASS: Discuss journal and publisher lists handed out last week.
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