Professional Development Proseminar: Funding (Fall 2021)

Professional Development Seminar: Funding for Teaching and Research (COM 594 A)

Instructor: Benjamin Mako Hill / makohill@uw.edu (or many other ways to contact me)

Office Hours: By appointment (I'm usually available via chat during "business hours.") You can view out my calendar and/or put yourself on it. If you schedule a meeting, we'll meet in the Jitsi room (makooffice) you'll get a link to through the scheduling app.

Meeting Times: Tuesdays 4:30-6:2pm

Important Links:

Announcements (in Canvas)
Chat (in Canvas)
Assignments (in Canvas)

Course Overview

General description of series

COM 594 is a series of five professional seminars designed to help students develop a range of professional competencies. Communication Ph.D. students are required to take three of these courses as part of their programs of study, and M.A. students are welcome to enroll. In these proseminars, faculty and other guests share their experiences as teachers, researchers, and public intellectuals. As a faculty, we view this series as an important, thought-provoking, and fun part of your graduate education, and we are excited to incorporate these seminars into our program.

Specific course description

This proseminar on research funding introduces students to the resources available to help scholars fund their research, both at the graduate level and beyond. Specifically, the course is designed to orient you to the identification of funding sources, introduce you to the grant-writing process, and provide you with an opportunity to begin obtaining funding for your own work. Because participants in this course are at various stages in their academic career and have a wide range of research interests, it is virtually impossible to speak to specific funding sources or requirements. Rather, we will discuss commonalities that transcend research interests. Also given the lack of common research-based foci, your work for this class will be geared toward individualized course goals.

Note About This Syllabus

You should expect this syllabus to be a dynamic document. Although the core expectations for this class are fixed, the details of readings and assignments will shift based on how the class goes, guest speakers that I arrange, my own readings in this area, etc. As a result, there are three important things to keep in mind:

Although details on this syllabus will change, I will try to ensure that I never change readings more than six days before they are due. I will send an announcement no later than before each Wednesday evening that fixes the schedule for the next week. This means that if I don't fill in a reading marked "[To Be Decided]" six days before it's due, it is dropped. If we don't change something marked "[Tentative]" before the deadline, then it is assigned. This means that if you plan to read more than six days ahead, contact the teaching team first.
Because this syllabus a wiki, you will be able to track every change by clicking the history button on this page when I make changes. I will summarize these changes in the weekly an announcement on Canvas sent that will be emailed to everybody in the class. Closely monitor your email or the announcements section on the course website on Canvas to make sure you don't miss these!
I really value feedback — especially in the first few weeks. Please let me know what is working and what can be improved. In the past, I have made many adjustments to courses that I teach while the quarter progressed based on feedback.

Assignments

Participation

The course relies heavily on participation and discussion. It is important to realize that we will not summarize reading in class and I will not cover it in lecture. I expect you all to have read it and we will jump in and start discussing it. The "Participation Rubric" section of my detailed page on assessment gives the rubric I will use in evaluating participation.

Assessment

I have put together a very detailed page that describes the way I approach assessment and grading—both in general and in this course. Please read it carefully I will assign grades for each of following items on the UW 4.0 grade scale according to the weights below:

Participation: 30%
Weekly Reflection: 15%
Proposal identification: 5%
Final paper outline: 5%
Final Presentation: 10%
Final Paper: 35%

-- Evaluative criteria

Students’ final grade for this proseminar will hinge on their performance on various evaluative criteria:

1. (10%) articulation of proseminar goals (written form, presentation); 2. (50%) engagement with course content, via response papers and seminar discussions; and 3. (40%) submission of funding proposals and review of peer proposals. Readings

The core readings for this proseminar come from a special issue of Journal of Applied Communication Research. We also will be tapping into and applying information found on a number of websites.

Schedule

This is a one-credit course which typically maps to about 10 hours of classroom time. Because we booked into a two hour slot, we have some flexibility in terms of how we organize things this quarter. My proposal is to use the first seven weeks of the quarter and then end before the thanksgiving break.

Session 1: October 5

Topic: Laying the Groundwork: Course Overview/Expectations

Assignment

Due: Wed, 15 January (8:30a; online in Canvas)

Based on the resources found in these websites (https://guides.lib.uw.edu/hsl/grants; https://guides.lib.uw.edu/friendly.php?s=research/gfis; https://www.grantforward.com/index), articulate three goals for this proseminar, each of which involves actual writing and budget planning related to research funding. The funding sources for these “goals” must span include at least one internal source (department or university) and one external source (grant or fellowship). For each goal articulated, be sure to: (1) explain why and how your research falls within the purview of the funding source; and (2) identify the challenges you anticipate in applying for funding.

Session 2: October 12

Topic:Research and Funding: Which Comes First? Three-minute presentations of external funding plans. Guest: Readings: Drs. Kirsten Foot and Benjamin Mako Hill, UW Communication

Applegate, J. L., Skating to where the puck will be: Engaged research as a funding

strategy

Session 3: October 19

Starting at Home, Identifying Relevance Guest: Readings: Assignment: Dr. Kathleen Beckers, University of Antwerp

Hecht and Parrott, Creating a departmental culture for communication grants.
Harrington, Funded research in communication: A chairperson’s perspective.
Brown, Doing relevant, funded mass media research.

(due Tuesday, 28 January, noon in Canvas) Five questions based on the readings

Session 4: October 26

Session 4 Topic: General Guidelines and Nuances to Grant-Writing Reading: * Snyder and Le Poire, Writing your first successful grant application to conduct communication research.

Paced%20Learning

https://education.uw.edu/faculty-and-research/ors/grant-proposal-guide-

grantwriting-resources-0

https://www.nsf.gov/funding/preparing/

(due Tuesday, 4 February, noon in Canvas) Five questions based on the readings

Session 5: November 2

Assignment:Session 5

Topic: Funding Sources and Considerations Guest:

Readings: Assignment: Dr. Richard Kielbowicz, UW Communication

Dearing and Larson, Private foundation funding of applied communication

research.

Kreps, Viswanath, and Harris, Advancing communication as a science: Research

opportunities from the federal sector. (due Tuesday, 18 February, noon in Canvas) Five questions based on the readings Session 6

Session 6: November 16

Topic: Building Intellectual and Geographical Bridges

Readings:

Biocca and Biocca: Building bridges across fields, universities, and countries:

Successfully funding communication research through interdisciplinary collaboration.

Rogers, Funding international communication research.

(due Tuesday, 25 February, noon on Canvas) Draft of external-funding proposals and five questions based on the readings Assignment

Session 7: November 23

Session 7 Topic: 4 March Final presentations and feedback Assignment (due 8:30a on Canvas) Written feedback on peers’ research funding proposals

Administrative Notes

Teaching and learning in a pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic will impact this course in various ways, some of them obvious and tangible and others harder to pin down. On the obvious and tangible front, we have things like a mix of remote, synchronous, and asynchronous instruction. These will reshape our collective "classroom" experience in major ways.

On the "harder to pin down" side, many of us may experience elevated levels of exhaustion, stress, uncertainty and distraction. We may need to provide unexpected support to family, friends, or others in our communities. I have personally experienced all of these things at various times over the pandemic and I expect that some of you have too. It is a difficult time.

I believe it is important to acknowledge these realities of the situation and create the space to discuss and process them in the context of our class throughout the quarter. As your instructor and colleague, I commit to do my best to approach the course in an adaptive, generous, and empathetic way. I will try to be transparent and direct with you throughout—both with respect to the course material as well as the pandemic and the university's evolving response to it. I ask that you try to extend a similar attitude towards everyone in the course. When you have questions, feedback, or concerns, please try to share them in an appropriate way. If you require accommodations of any kind at any time (directly related to the pandemic or not), please contact the teaching team.

This text is borrowed and adapted from Aaron Shaw's statistics course.

Your Presence in Class

As detailed in my detailed page on assessment, your participation in discussion is an important way that I will assess learning. Obviously, you must be in class in order to participate. In the event of an absence, you are responsible for obtaining notes, handouts, assignments, etc.

Religious Accommodations

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.

Student Conduct

The University of Washington Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-121) defines prohibited academic and behavioral conduct and describes how the University holds students accountable as they pursue their academic goals. Allegations of misconduct by students may be referred to the appropriate campus office for investigation and resolution. More information can be found online at https://www.washington.edu/studentconduct/ Safety

Call SafeCampus at 206-685-7233 anytime–no matter where you work or study–to anonymously discuss safety and well-being concerns for yourself or others. SafeCampus’s team of caring professionals will provide individualized support, while discussing short- and long-term solutions and connecting you with additional resources when requested.

Academic Dishonesty

This includes: cheating on assignments, plagiarizing (misrepresenting work by another author as your own, paraphrasing or quoting sources without acknowledging the original author, or using information from the internet without proper citation), and submitting the same or similar paper to meet the requirements of more than one course without instructor approval. Academic dishonesty in any part of this course is grounds for failure and further disciplinary action. The first incident of plagiarism will result in the student’s receiving a zero on the plagiarized assignment. The second incident of plagiarism will result in the student’s receiving a zero in the class.

Disability Resources

If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to uw at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.

If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.

Other Student Support

Any student who has difficulty affording groceries or accessing sufficient food to eat every day, or who lacks a safe and stable place to live, and believes this may affect their performance in the course, is urged to contact the graduate program advisor for support. Furthermore, please notify the professors if you are comfortable in doing so. This will enable us to provide any resources that we may possess (adapted from Sara Goldrick-Rab). Please also note the student food pantry, Any Hungry Husky at the ECC.