Themes for 2009-2010

A broad category of special interest is any research (basic or policy-oriented) that addresses the critical issues of our time. The majority of the Center's fellowship awards are uncategorized by specific research topic; however for the academic year 2009-2010, there will be two general themes.

 

Please note that while scholars from any discipline or interdisciplinary area may indicate interest in these themes, theme interest is not used as a selection criterion.

 

Longevity

In the United States, we have seen a near doubling of life expectancy in the past century; the same phenomenon is even stronger in other countries. Such a dramatic increase in life expectancy has implications for everything from timing of work life to brain development with increased years of accumulating knowledge and experience, to evolution with the emergence of multiple living generations. The dramatic extension of life will also affect expectations for all earlier periods of life. Scientists and scholars are just beginning to consider all the implications.
 
Scientists/scholars with an interest in this area, and who prefer to participate in a fellowship class in which there are scholars with similar interests, might have questions that include any of the following (and surely others):

• What are the personal, institutional, and national implications of increased life expectancy, on decision making at each of these levels?
• What are the political implications of more voters of older age?
• Given that many biographies are written later in life, what effect might increased life expectancy have on biographies, and literature more generally?
• What are the legal implications for ageism, inheritance, estate law, and related legal issues?
• What is the evolutionary significance of multiple living generations?
  
• What effects on brain development might emerge with a doubling of life span?
• What can historical research tell us about societies or times of longer versus shorter life span?
• What implications might there be for childhood and youth, with longer life expectancies? How might parent behavior change in their role of preparing their young for very long adult lives?
• What possibilities exist for changing work patterns for those entering the workforce as well as for those leaving it, given longer anticipated productive work years?
• Given that the reproductive years have not expanded to the same extent as the productive work life, what opportunities exist for changing expectations about support for young families relative to timing of launching work careers? Currently young couples are often starting families and career simultaneously; might there be more opportunity to reduce stress by shifting later the career launch of the young, with older adults picking up increased work responsibilities?
• What implications exist for aesthetics and images of health with longer life spans? What effects will these have on the arts, sports, and other activities?
• What are some likely economic implications of longer life span? Effects on Social Security and health care are already in the news; what other effects have not yet been considered?
• Dramatic increases in longevity in some countries with continued high infant mortality, war, and resulting shorter lifespans in other countries would likely exacerbate increasing differences among countries of the world. What implications would likely result from this additional “divide” among nations?

• What have studies of literature, history, and religion concluded about important human invisible forces? What have been the beliefs about these? What evidence exists?
  
• What has neuroscience discovered about hope? About love? About compassion? About communal activities compared with individual activities?
• What is known about the health and wellbeing implications of practice related to important human invisible forces? Which practices are more healthy versus stressful to humans?
• What role might important invisible forces play in economic behavior, for example, in motivating philanthropic contributions? It has long been the case that individual philanthropy in the US has constituted the majority of philanthropic gifts, and the majority of these have been directed to religious groups. What other areas of economic behavior might be related to important invisible forces?
• Political behavior is also likely influenced by important invisible forces. Sociopolitical movements throughout history have been motivated by beliefs in invisible forces. Fear has long been believed to be the prime motivator for political movements, but one presidential candidate in the US election is motivating voters with hope. What are the implications of recent scientific advances in invisible forces for understanding of political behavior?