Center for Undergraduate Research
The Center for Undergraduate Research sponsors and assists students developing original research and scholarship across the University. Research means systematic inquiry.
The Center is interdisciplinary. Students learn qualitative and scientific methods along the entire spectrum, from conception to measurement to analysis. Their work is driven by their own ideas and passions, and held up for public inspection. All research at Mount Saint Vincent conforms to national standards of ethics. It allows students to develop methodological skills, and encourages them to develop an expertise in a given area of research. Students do well in this environment, and have been invited to present their work at national and international conferences. The University holds an annual research symposium featuring original student scholarship in which more than 80 students have presented their research.
The Center has a record of sponsoring students engaged in overseas research. For example, a nursing major embarks on a qualitative interviewing project in Vietnam to study alternative medicine. A dual English and Teacher Education Major travels to the Thai-Burmese border to conduct participant observation research while teaching and assisting in a system of border schools that serves children who are Burmese migrants and refugees. Other students have conducted a field survey of Day Laborers in a nearby urban environment on behalf of Catholic Charities, and has performed the data analysis for a national quantitative survey for the National Association of Ethnic Studies.
The Center is pioneering advocacy research focused on studying vulnerable populations and the environment. In conjunction with partners, the Mount is initiating the Listening Project in social development research. Social development policy is too often characterized by more powerful actors dictating to those in need. The Listening Project is predicated on the idea that in order to develop sound social policy, it is essential to listen to vulnerable populations and those who serve them on the ground level.
Students interested in conducting scholarly research should consult with their faculty and/or professional advisors.
Contact
718.405.3272
undergraduateresearch@umsv.edu