Research at Catholic schools: risky vs. academic freedom.

If tenure is the academy's way to protect scholars from fallout over researching an unpopular subject, what are the implications for those without tenure? Does their research topic impact their chances for earning it? Do religious schools control what research is conducted?

Dr. Deborah Stearns discussed the risks in conducting unpopular research at the National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education (NAWCHE) conference held at Santa Clara University CA in July. Stearns is an associate professor of psychology at Montgomery College MD, visiting scholar at George Washington University DC and adjunct assistant professor in women's studies at Georgetown University DC.

Her appointment at Georgetown in fall 1998 brought her some concerns about teaching at a Catholic school. Georgetown's hanging crucifixes in each classroom a year earlier reminded her where she was teaching.

Because her appointment was in the women's studies department, she was also concerned about discussing topics or perspectives in the classroom that ran counter to the Catholic doctrine. But she never considered problems over her research: "The vast majority was non-controversial."

An exercise in academic freedom

Despite her initial trepidation, Steams said Georgetown never told her to avoid teaching topics that challenged Catholic doctrine, such as birth control, abortion and homosexuality. But a research project caused controversy.

One of her undergraduate students asked Stearns about studying sexual desire across sexual orientation. Since the research involved human subjects, she needed approval from the school's Institutional Review Board (IRB) before giving the student the OK.