New University of Tennessee center focuses on social justice issues

To help meet the growing need for interdisciplinary social science research and shed light on some of society's most pressing issues, the University of Tennessee has created the Center for the Study of Social Justice.

The center creates a framework for scholars from different disciplines to collaborate and provide the results of unbiased research and analyses to benefit policy-makers, decision-makers and those who create programs to address society's needs.

"We wanted to create a place on campus where we could bring together scholars from all disciplines who are doing work to make the world a better place, frankly," said Stephanie Bohon, center co-director and associate professor of sociology. "What we do provides science-based solutions for a whole host of social problems, and we want that information available to policy-makers and decision-makers who can actually take our information and put into place real solutions."

Housed in UT's Department of Sociology, the center is an organized interdisciplinary research unit with 23 divisions, which includes 64 fellows from seven colleges. Areas of research include globalization, environmental justice and human rights, among others.

Those numbers keep growing, Bohon said.

"We have a hard time keeping up with the demand for collaboration - and I think that underscores the great need for this center on campus," she said.

For example, Gregory Button, assistant professor of anthropology and a fellow with the center, studies disasters.

"But there are also people in sociology who do work in disasters, and there are people in social work who also do work in disasters, so we wanted to create a single place where it was easy for these scholars to come together and attract funding from federal agencies and state contracts to create a holistic solution to social problems," said Bohon, whose work focuses largely on immigrant housing.

The center also enhances the university's ability to compete for social science research funding.

It allows more interdisciplinary collaboration, which is "really the key these days to getting large grants," she said.

"It also creates a better capacity for awareness, because there are a lot of grant opportunities out there that we don't necessarily know about because we're not being informed," Bohon said, noting that the center will have a staff person whose job will include notifying fellows about grant opportunities.

Scott Frey, co-director and sociology department head, stressed that the center is interested in studying social justice issues from an objective point of view using "science-based scholarly activity."

"We are not advocates or activists," said Frey, whose research centers on globalization and environmental justice. "We're interested in doing local, state, national and international research. We think we have a lot to offer to the state of Tennessee, and we're hopeful that we'll be able to establish some strong ties with the state government in terms of collecting data and helping them make decisions based on data as opposed to their feelings or politics."

The center's research and public policy work will primarily engage faculty and graduate students, but those involved hope the community at large also will benefit from the center's work.

"I think we're in a sense trying to be more engaged in the world beyond the campus itself," Button said.

Chloe White Kennedy may be reached at 865-342-6341.

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Comments » 6

rictor writes:

When ever I hear the words "social justice" I know it is not long before common sense is out the window in favor of some perverse lifestyle that is looking for justification.

rictor writes:

How bout we instead focus on graduating students in 4 years. Most students I know can't get the classes they need because the teachers are all off doing research for some pet project instead of actually teaching classes.

readwriteteach writes:

-- UT students are indeed having a hard time getting classes, but it has nothing to do with the research activities of faculty; it has to do with the number of faculty on campus. UT faculty members teach more students per capita than do most faculty as flagship research 1 state universities. And they've just been asked to teach more still -- 15% more -- to help soften the blow to students resulting from faculty loss caused by budget cuts.

-- the Center for the Study of Social Justice is perhaps not well-named and the marketing here perhaps needs some work. But the reality is that the Center is simply an institutional clearing house to facilitate grant writing and research activities across a range of disciplines focused to varying degrees on social issues. No matter what one thinks of immigration policy, the fact is that immigration policy ought to reflect the facts about immigration trends, etc. No matter what one thinks about tax policy, the fact is that it ought to reflect facts about in impacts of various tax laws, the financial needs of state agencies, and so on. Much of this work is already being done at UT and other universities around the country and the CSSJ will only help UT faculty to coordinate their efforts.

-- Obviously no social science is value neutral. Indeed, no science at all is value neutral. The very act of description requires one to select some facts as relevant and to ignore others as irrelevant. And the only criterion deployed for relevance are those given by the interests or values driving one's inquiry. (Ask any lawyer who writes a 'statement of facts' for a brief how 'value neutral' that exercise is!) If description is already value-laden, then surely explanation is too. And obviously, the evaluation of that which is described and explained is driven by values, as it must be. The tough bit for the CSSJ is explaining to a broader public audience how it is that these various activities -- description of social phenomena, explanation of social phenomena, and evaluation of social phenomena are pursued by researchers in higher education and how they interpenetrate one another and are each value-laden. Hoi polloi clamoring for 'value neutral' science demand something that doesn't, couldn't, and shouldn't exist. But since hoi polloi clamor for it, CSSJ directors seem keen to deploy rhetoric that will satisfy them.

readwriteteach writes:

in response to gsmnpmtguyot#570674:

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

And you make my point -- if you can't follow or extract the meaning from my post, then you're likely a member of hoi polloi. Why UT faculty feel the need to justify themselves to hoi polloi I don't know -- especially when state dollars continue to constitute an ever shrinking percentage of UT's budget. In any case, it forces UT into a tough position -- either pander and offer nonsense or talk over the heads of their "local" audience. (By the way, the problem isn't much relieved if one imagines the audience as the state legislature; I believe only about 30% of state legislators have a college degree. To be sure, it doesn't follow that that 30% is bright, or that the other 70% isn't -- but it is suggestive of overall levels of knowledge, literacy, and so on in Tennessee state government. And it leaves UT in a tough position when it comes to communicating what it does -- either it panders nonsense or it talks over the heads of much of its audience.)

readwriteteach writes:

in response to gsmnpmtguyot#570674:

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

That's a pile of nonsense that has nothing to do with what I said. Let's see: What evidence have you or anyone provided with respect to the CSSJ (which is really little more than a paper tiger -- an institutional vehicle for coordinating activities already central to university life) having a 'liberal' agenda or serving the cause of 'Marxist' indoctrination'? What evidence have you provided that those who complain about such research centers for being 'biased' are not themselves supposing without any good ground that it's possible to do social science or any science in a fully value neutral way? Indeed, what have you said here other than to call me an elitist? (I suppose I am in some sense -- I'm very highly educated, spend my work days studying hard to learn more, do not hold the view that all opinions are equally sound or well-informed, and generally distrust the alleged "wisdom" of the masses. But then I suspect that you're probably 'elitist' too on some of these metrics.) The fact is that as usual on the KNS comments page, a story that is really not a story at all -- the announcement of the CSSJ -- draws crackpot comments from knee-jerk know-nothings who seem to find cause for being angry at virtually any and every aspect of the world we live in (not that there isn't plenty to be angry about -- but really, it'd be nice to see some informed selection criteria deployed when it comes to picking targets of one's anger).

readwriteteach writes:

in response to gsmnpmtguyot#570674:

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

The cost is minimal, really not more than a half time secretary and a few dollars to coordinate and generate additional interest in grant writing activity and so forth. And yes, the investment is clearly intended to pay for itself and more. UT cannot make any other sort of investment these days, at least not with research dollars. This is exactly the sort of investment that the Office of Research favors and that UT needs. UT needs to continue to generate larger and larger amounts of fellowship and grant dollars if it is to maintain itself as a credible research 1 university. It cannot rely on funding from the state. Both resources and political will are in short supply when it comes to higher ed funding in Tennessee. So, if UT can invest 40k to generate 200k over the next two years or so, that's a good investment. Finally, it's worth noting that the funding for CSSJ most likely comes from sources other than the state of Tennessee; indeed, it's likely the reinvestment of some of the 'administrative overhead' UT collected on other grants and fellowships in previous years. Why people think that the financial allocation UT receives from the state funds everything or even very much at UT is a mystery. (The biggest favor the state could do for UT would be to let UT set tuition are market rates for comparable state schools instead of forcing it to keep its tuition artificially low. It would be fine to force it to keep its tuition artificially low if the state was prepared to do its share to fund the university. But it's not prepared to do that. It's also worth noting that with tuition kept artificially low, the effect of the lottery scholarship has largely been to transfer wealth to middle and upper income Tennesseeans who can now and do send their children to UT at extremely low cost. The median family income for a UT student is now roughly 100k per annum. In any event, with tuitions kept artificially low and little prospect for adequate funding from the state coffers, UT has no options but to try to build that portion of its funding derived from grants, fellowships and contracts, and that means making smart investments with seed monies -- hence the CSSJ.)
