In a new study by the Center for a Public Anthropology, the University ranked 13th among large research institutions nationwide in impacting the public with social science research.
The study attempted to judge universities by comparing the number of times social science research professors are cited by news organizations with the amount of public funding they receive for research.
College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Gaines Foster said although the college encourages professors to undertake research that engages the public, the credit for the University’s high ranking must go to the professors.
Foster said the strength of the humanities program lies in professors who research questions including those that affect current issues and more universal questions.
Foster cited the case of a former humanities professor who researched the behavior of 19th-century Russian entrepreneurs during the Cold War.
“While they were a communist country, no one thought what he was doing was important,” Foster said. “But after the Soviet Union fell and they started to allow a little more free enterprise, his work suddenly became relevant. He was getting flown out to Russia all the time to talk to people.”
LSU was ranked second-highest out of Southeastern Conference schools, with only the University of Arkansas ahead, in fifth place. The University of Missouri was the nearest SEC school, in 27th place.
According to the study, the Humanities Department receives only .38 percent of the total funding the University receives for research from the National Science Foundation. This small percentage contributed to the University’s ranking.
Foster said the Humanities Department’s efficient use of funds can be partially credited to Ann Whitmer, assistant dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Whitmer said part of her duties include keeping track of potential sources for funding of faculty research and passing that information along to professors. She said this allows faculty to worry less about the bureaucratic side and focus on their research.
“Faculty members aren’t trained to be accountants,” Whitmer said. “Except maybe those in the accounting department.”
The University’s highest-ranked department was sociology, while the most-cited professor was anthropology professor Mary Manhein.
As director of the LSU FACES Lab, Manhein has come to some fame as “The Bone Lady,” even publishing a book of the same title through LSU Press in 1999.