For the past five years, professors at UCLA said they have seen
demand for research relating to Sept. 11 dramatically increase, and
some have changed their focus accordingly.
Federal funding through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
and the U.S. Department of Human and Health Services has increased
for research related to Sept. 11, and private funding has increased
as well. Private publishers have also proactively requested that
professors write books about Sept. 11.
This month the California Office of Homeland Security,
California’s liaison to the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, awarded the UCLA School of Public Health a $9 million
grant for the development of a laboratory that can rapidly process
large numbers of biological samples at a time.
In the case of a bioterror emergency, this facility would allow
many biological samples to be analyzed quickly. This would enable
the government to make critical decisions as soon as possible,
according to a UCLA press release.
“State funding will allow UCLA’s School of Public
Health to get our lab up and running more quickly and expand our
reach,” said Linda Rosenstock, dean of UCLA’s School of
Public Health, in a press release.
While federal funding for biodefense research has increased,
private funding has also increased.
“I spend much more of my time on biological weapons and
disaster preparedness than I did before Sept. 11,” said Peter
Katona, associate professor of clinical medicine at the David
Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Katona, along with economics and political science professor
emeritus Michael Intriligator, is currently working on a study
looking at whether the government is spending its money wisely in
the fight against terrorism. The study is funded by the Milken
Institute, an independent economic think tank.
As a result of the events of Sept. 11, Katona, Intriligator and
John Sullivan, a lieutenant for the L.A. County Sheriff’s
Department, have been working on a book about countering terrorism
and weapons of mass destruction with a network of global
preparedness.
Routledge will publish the book this month in England and has
already pitched ideas for two more books dealing with the same
topic, Katona said.
While funding has increased for biodefense research, many
humanities professors said they have also seen funding increase for
research related to Sept. 11 and the Iraq war in their field as
well.
“(Sept. 11) has significantly increased the availability
of both public and private funds for research,” said Leonard
Binder, acting interim director of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern
Studies and a political science professor, in an e-mail.
Other UCLA professors echoed Binder’s thoughts and also
said this is a trend at many other U.S. institutions.
James Gelvin, a history professor, said his area of expertise is
late 19th and early 20th century Near Eastern studies, but Sept. 11
redirected his research more specifically to politics in the modern
Middle East.
“(Sept. 11) hasn’t had an impacted on my basic
research focus … (but) it has turned my attention to other
projects,” Gelvin said.
Since Sept. 11, both Oxford University Press and Cambridge
University Press approached Gelvin to write books about modern
Middle Eastern history.
Gelvin said he believes their interest is a direct result of
Sept. 11 and the continuing war in Iraq.
Currently Gelvin is conducting research for a book about
American policy in the Middle East through a fellowship with the
Center for American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA.
Gelvin said the Center for American Politics and Public Policy
is being very generous by paying for a research assistant and
buying out one of his courses.
“(This fellowship) was particularly a result of the
interest in 9/11 and the Iraq war,” he said.
Publishers’ demand for material relating to Sept. 11 has
also increased, said Gelvin.
For example, Oxford University Press has requested that Gelvin
work on a second edition of one of his books, “The Modern
Middle East: A History,” which was published in 2003.
Gelvin said that before Sept. 11 he had no intention of writing
books on any of these topics.
David Halle, a sociology professor, said Sept. 11 has directly
affected a study he is conducting on the Far West Side of Manhattan
in New York.
Halle said he incorporated the site of the World Trade Center
into the study because it is part of the Far West Side’s
urban politics.
“I doubt that publishers would have been as interested in
my study if I had looked at another urban area,” he said.