The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences is committed to
enhancing and enriching the academic quality of its students, and to
help them to achieve the highest academic and career goals they are
capable of achieving. To that end, the college encourages and supports
undergraduate students to become actively engaged in creating research,
scholarship and creative work.
The college's lead program in support of undergraduate student research is the Summer Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG). This
program supports independent student research under the supervision of a
faculty mentor. While students work with their faculty sponsor to
develop their proposals, their projects are their own. The application
cycle for this program is open annually from March 15th to April 15th.
More information and instructions on how to apply are found on the SURG
page.
Students interested in pursuing research or creative work have other
opportunities as well. Students may seek financial assistance via the Undergraduate Research Fund (URF) for participation in scholarly meetings to which they have been invited to share their research or creative work. Students may also assist a faculty member in his or
her scholarship via the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP), or they may work with a faculty member to develop an independent study course. A list of faculty and their scholarship interests is found under the Research Resources page.
The college also publishes Creating Knowledge,
an annual journal of undergraduate scholarship and creative activity. The submission process for this journal begins in the departments and
programs of the college. In addition, many of our departments and
programs sponsor their own discipline specific research conferences,
essay contests, and other related activities. Further information about
these department and program activities may be found on their
respective home pages.
In addition to these college supported initiatives, many of the LAS departments and programs offer undergraduate research activities including annual student conferences in which students share the results of their work. Students are encouraged to explore these opportunities at the department level.