UW-Madison sociology professor John DeLamater, along with professors at the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota, has requested a grant from the National Institutes of Health to improve human sexuality research.
DeLameter, who wrote the grant proposal, said the project he envisions will encourage a group of graduate students to get Ph.Ds in either sociology or psychology with intentions of entering the field of human sexuality.
\There were no obvious places where people could get training to do research in human sexuality from a social sciences perspective,"" DeLamater said. ""No school in the United States has a half-dozen sex researchers. Two or three aren't enough to produce Ph.Ds.""
For this reason, DeLameter recruited four professors from the U of C and three from the UM to join his quest to train others in the field of human sexuality.
""The surgeon general issued a report on sexual health and responsible sexual behavior that called for expanded research,"" said Edward Laumann, a sociology professor at the U of C.
If the professors receive the training grant they requested, they will be able to fund three or four graduate students a year. At its peak, there will be 20 students at a time, according to DeLamater.
""This is a training program, so there's a committee of faculty here at Chicago and at Madison. We would take a look at the pool of applicants and pick three or four to be funded,"" Laumann said.
The students will enroll at UW-Madison or the U of C to receive a Ph.D. Each student will be required to spend at least a year doing research at the other school. The main focus of the program is the hands-on research according to DeLamater.
""It's an open program and we're not training counselors or therapists, but are really intending to train people who would be using up-to-date quantitative data and field work applied to sexuality research areas,"" Laumann said.
The program will be flexible and customized to fit the needs of the student, according to Laumann.
DeLameter said he hopes they will be able to encourage these students to become faculty members, someday replacing current educators and researchers when they retire.
""If we get funded we'll start recruiting people to enroll next September. ,"" DeLameter said.
