One of my favorite parts of my research projects is when I get to actually go out and look at the land or get to talk to the people who are living and working with the issues I am writing about. Let's face it: I could do my job without ever leaving O'Brian Hall – the building that houses the New York's State Law School. Heck when it comes to research, I rarely even need to walk across the hall to enter the library. There is so much we can do these days from sitting behind our computer. Maybe we pick up the phone every now and then. Frankly, much of my research and writing occurs in just this manner. I can point you to several articles that I have written without doing more than consulting statutes, case law, and secondary sources: here and here for example.
But I often find it more rewarding to actually leave the building to see what people are doing and to see what the land actually looks like. I feel quite fortunate to be at SUNY Buffalo where we have a few different on campus funding sources that let me do just that.
For example, last week was my second trip to California for research I am doing into the conversion of agricultural land into renewable energy facilities (currently thinking about solar). I guess I didn't technically need to go out to look at solar panels or talk to farmers to write about this, but it was important to me to do so. I also find that when I interview people (several government employees at the state and county level as well as various lobbyists, developers, and conservation organization staff) in person, I have richer longer conversations when I talked to them on the phone. My average phone interview is 20 minutes while it is rare for an in person interview to be less than an hour. I really value people who take the time to talk to us researchers about what they do, what their concerns are, and how research projects might actually help them. I am sure I will end up writing more about my actual research project, but for now I would love to hear about people's experience doing research or working with researchers. Is field work (as we called it in grad school) a component of your work? One of the obstacles often seems to be funding. At my school we have some small grant opportunities that help cover costs of flights, rental cars, and audio recorders. I hope other schools recognize the value of such work and create similar opportunities.