Identified as a high-impact practice by the American Association of Colleges and Universities in 2008, undergraduate research, scholarship, or creative activity is known to be especially transformative for underrepresented students, who are likely to face more barriers to participation. While most scholarship and funding of undergraduate research experiences is centered on the sciences, universities are making efforts to provide equivalent experiences for undergraduates in the arts, humanities, and social sciences—especially in the first two years of undergraduate study, when these opportunities are the most impactful. Creating fulfilling experiences for all undergraduates, and navigating differing definitions of “research” across disciplinary contexts, presents a challenge for Offices of Undergraduate Research as they seek to ensure that undergraduate participation in research, scholarship, or creative activity remains a priority.

This topic was an important one for attendees of ConnectUR, the annual meeting of the Council of Undergraduate Research that took place this year from June 20-26, 2024, online and onsite at the University of Maryland, College Park. In several panels and presentations, speakers worked to describe and define research in their disciplines in terms that an interdisciplinary audience could understand.

Defining research

Jesse Guessford, a music faculty member at George Mason University, spoke about the difficulty of translating the creative process into the vocabulary of research methodology. He made a case for equating practicing in the arts (e.g., of a musical instrument, dance, painting technique, etc.) with data collection in the sciences. While practicing, the performer is essentially conducting a series of experiments with technique and observing the results; the resulting creative work or performance, then, is a dissemination of research results. Guessford also identified that excessive focus on traditional “research” aspects in the arts can impede the creative process and creative expression—he gave the example of a student who planned a creative work on deforestation in Iceland, but became stuck during the preliminary literature review.

Scholars in the humanities considered how to implement undergraduate research activities in disciplines where producing original intellectual or creative contributions typically requires more experience than undergraduates have. Elizabeth Franklin Lewis, a Spanish faculty member at the University of Mary Washington, noted the challenge of designing research experiences for undergraduates in lower-division courses whose language skills were still developing. Given these limitations, she led student teams to write Wikipedia articles about women’s civic organizations in Spain, and to create a map of locations visited by Don Quixote.

Amy Ferrer, executive director of the American Philosophical Association, explained how undergraduates could undertake philosophy research. Ferrer defined research in philosophy as the Socratic method—the discussion, exchange, and refinement of ideas that occurs between the teacher and student is research, which is then disseminated when the student replicates the exchange of ideas with someone else. In the humanities, then, students’ creative engagement with the materials plays an important role in the research process.

For social scientists, the challenge is not necessarily in defining research, but in creating contexts or experiences  for undergraduates. Alissa Ruth, an anthropologist at Arizona State University, presented on the Culture, Health, and Environment Lab she developed with three other faculty members who use similar methodologies in their work. The lab provides training in qualitative research methodologies, as well as opportunities for undergraduates to participate in data collection and analysis for campus researchers’ projects. Similarly, recipients of the Pathways to the Education Sciences Research Training program grants (Guadalupe Carmona, University of Texas at San Antonio; Wynetta Lee, North Carolina Central University; Jacqueline Brooks, California State University, Sacramento; and Alysia Roehrig, Florida State University) described how they trained and placed advanced undergraduates in summer research internships with internal and external partners like Cal State Sacramento’s Institute for Social Research and FSU-affiliated Freedom Schools. These experiences allowed undergraduates to connect undergraduate research with real-life applications.

Looking ahead

The release of the second edition of the Council of Undergraduate Research’s Characteristics of Excellence in Undergraduate Research, planned for August 2024, and the publication of the findings of the Council’s Transformations Project earlier this year, demonstrate its members’ growing interest in implementing undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activities throughout the curriculum of every associate’s and bachelor’s program. It seems likely this trend will present new opportunities for faculty and administrators as they consider how these activities are defined in each discipline and how undergraduates can take part.