What do faculty members do during the summer? While students may envision their professors sitting by the pool or sightseeing in Europe, summer can be a time to get work done without the constraints of teaching and departmental service.

“One big reason that faculty look forward to the summer months is the extended time available for focused research, thinking, and writing,” said Alice Tseng, Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Humanities and Professor of Japanese Art and Architecture in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Boston University, who traveled to Japan in June to study a set of architectural photos and drawings archived at the Kyoto Institute of Technology.

For faculty members in the humanities and social sciences who need to travel long distances to do research in archives and libraries, interview subjects, visit sites, collaborate with colleagues, or be in residence in specialized academic centers and institutes.

“For most faculty, summer is when they accomplish the bulk of their research — professors finally have the time to visit archives, conduct field research, prepare talks, and write articles and books,” said Arianne Chernock, Professor of History and Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Social Sciences, who spent her summer writing a book proposal about Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and launching an edited collection on Queen Victoria, to be published with Cambridge University Press.

In the natural sciences, and mathematical and computational sciences, many faculty members spend the summer working closely with graduate and undergraduate students in their labs, preparing articles for publication, traveling to visit collaborators, and engaging in sponsored research. Funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide awards that directly fund faculty and student effort during the summer.

“Summer is a great time for faculty to engage in research projects that require sustained effort, with many fewer interruptions than during the regular academic year,” said John Byers, Professor of Computer Science and Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Mathematical & Computational Sciences.

arts&sciences asked several faculty members how they spent their summer. Here’s what they said:

This summer has been busy. From June through August, as co-editor of a special issue on the Mauritian writer Ananda Devi, I have been reading different drafts of articles. July has meant some traveling tied to a new research project and taking part in the annual literary festival, “Altaleghje/Lire le monde” in Corsica, France. The theme of this edition was “La tête dans les étoiles [head in the clouds or daydreaming].” I moderated a round table with astrophysicists and writers. This, too, was an exciting experience, discussing the intersections of space and time from the perspectives of both science and literature. —Odile Cazenave, Professor of French Studies in the Department of Romance Studies, the African Studies Center and the Center for the Study of Europe

I went to Istanbul, Turkey in May. My research is focused on the week Empress Eugenie of France spent in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, in 1869, while on her way to the opening of the Suez Canal. The first European female head of state to visit alone, she was wined and dined by Sultan Abdulaziz. A very famous incident that took place during this visit was narrated to Queen Victoria by Empress Eugenie. Queen Victoria immortalized it by recording it in her diary. I am examining the trip itself, and how it was narrated by different authors at the time and how and why it continued to be narrated up to the present. Being in Istanbul, visiting the sites the Empress visited and the palaces where she was hosted is an incomparable experience. More importantly, visiting bookstores and libraries gave me access to newspapers that are difficult to find elsewhere. —Roberta Micallef, Associate Professor of the Practice in Middle Eastern Literatures

I spent my summer in Europe, where I was based at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University. I also traveled to Prague, Vienna, Ljubljana, and Belgrade to give lectures based on my research. In addition, I lectured at several places in Germany as well, including Munich, Tuebingen, and Heidelberg. My research at the moment is focused on a particular Sufi shrine in Sri Lanka that has recently been forcefully taken over by Buddhist nationalists who have destroyed much of the shrine’s infrastructure. Now, they wish to convert it into a Buddhist place of pilgrimage based on very questionable archaeological data to claim that Muslims appropriated it from them centuries ago. So, the Buddhist nationalists now argue that they are only taking back what already was theirs in the first place. —Frank Korom, Professor of Religion and Anthropology

Summer is busy. I’m typically collecting data with telescopes, writing papers, mentoring graduate students, organizing conferences, managing projects and meeting with my collaborations. Oh, and writing proposals! I like to go to at least one scientific conference and present our team’s results. This summer my research group will be using telescopes in Arizona and Hawaii, and we have several papers we are preparing for submission to peer-reviewed journals. I’m also stepping into a new role on July 1 as the Director of the Perkins Telescope Observatory, a telescope in Arizona that BU owns and operates for research and education. Arizona has the “monsoon season” in late summer, which means we can’t use the telescope for science (too many clouds), so it’s our chance to do maintenance upgrades. We are currently replacing the dome skin on the telescope enclosure, and we are upgrading the electronics and software to enable remote operation of the telescope. It sounds exhausting, but it’s actually really fun. Summer is also when many of our PhD students defend their dissertations, and we mark each with a department celebration. And I do make time for some summer vacation. I’ll be going to Turkey and Italy this summer for 10 days, to recharge and reset. —Philip Muirhead, Associate Professor, Department of Astronomy, and Director, Perkins Telescope Observatory

Do you have a summer story to share? Email us.