Undergraduate Research
Many courses in the English Department offer students the chance to conduct independent research projects that are designed to enhance the skills needed to conduct primary research. In many cases these may result in an Honors thesis, a conference presentation, or publication. Students should feel free to approach any English Department faculty member about the possibility of conducting research in an area of mutual interest.
Also, many of our faculty have students take part in archival research of some kind, providing them with a fuller context for the period they are studying. They can visit local archives, use Internet materials, or explore the Special Collections in the UofL library. For example, students in Dr. Susan Ryan's class on the history of reading have used the university archives to examine nineteenth-century magazines and the way they addressed an imagined readership. Similarly, students in Dr. Mark Mattes' class on the history of the book have used our library's collection of artists' books to explore connections between text technologies and literary forms. Additional examples of faculty-mentored student research include preparing an annotated edition (either print or web-based) of a literary work, learning web-authoring in a number of English Department courses, and supporting grant-based initiatives involving community engagement.
Conducting research is also a key part of many of our students' internship placements. Research is an essential component of the writing and publishing projects that interns purse under the mentorship of community and institutional partners like the Louisville Story Program, the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage, the UofL Archives & Special Collections, and others. To learn more about research opportunities through the English department's internship program, please check out our internship program page.
Click here to learn about grants available through the College of Arts & Sciences that supports faculty-, graduate student-, and staff-mentored student research.
Click here to learn about funding for undergraduate summer research opportunities available through UofL's Office of the Provost.
Click here for additional undergraduate research opportunities available at the University of Louisville.
Undergraduate Conference and Journals
Students have a range of opportunities to share their work with peers, faculty, and the larger public. The Undergraduate Arts & Research Showcase provides a forum for undergraduates to share their expertise with the larger university community. This showcase will show the variety of academic work that our undergraduate students are doing across the university.
Students also may wish to know of several journals that publish work by undergraduate students. The Cardinal Edge is UofL's only faculty-reviewed and peer-reviewed multidisciplinary undergraduate research journal aimed to showcase and celebrate the novel student research conducted at UofL. TCE aims to prepare undergraduate students for future publishing endeavors by allowing students to participate as both authors and editors.
The journal Young Scholars in Writing seeks theory-driven and/or research-based submissions from undergraduates on the following topics: writing, rhetoric, composition, professional writing, technical writing, business writing, discourse analysis, writing technologies, peer tutoring in writing, writing process, writing in the disciplines, and related topics.
