Concordia Journal Home > Archives > April 23, 2009 issue >

Undergraduate researchers aim high 

By Karen Herland

For the first time, faculty, staff and students squeezed past each other in the halls of the Loyola Science Pavilion craning for a glimpse at the posters and media presented during the Arts and Science Faculty’s Undergraduate Research Day.

This third edition was held at Loyola. “From now on, we’ll alternate back and forth between Sir George and Loyola,” said Michele Kaplan, Research Facilitator for the Faculty, and co-organizer of the event with her colleague, Mona Hamzeh.

The event provides one of the rare opportunities for undergraduate students across the Faculty to showcase their research.

Although the natural and health sciences have a more established tradition of presenting research in poster format, the event encourages all students to participate. Most of the students are upper level undergraduates, many doing honours programs.

Initially students were divided into humanities, natural and health sciences, and social sciences. In each field, judges were recruited from corresponding departments to adjudicate the students’ work, and to name the best oral and best poster presentation in their category.

This year, the Faculty introduced a fourth category for adjudication: Research-Creation, including video and creative writing projects.

“The quantity and quality of research students at the undergraduate level are producing is nothing short of breathtaking,” said Vice President Research and Graduate Studies Louise Dandurand just before the winners were announced. “This confirms the link between research and teaching.”

Graham Carr, Faculty of Arts and Science Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, acknowledged the commitment of professors who “participate very conscientiously to help prepare posters and listen to dry runs of oral presentations.”

Carr also acknowledged the role of SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR. All three funding bodies support the event. When the results were tallied, Marlene Maguire, of the Loyola International College and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Jesse Lawrence of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics earned top honours in humanities for oral and poster presentations respectively. The Science College’s Sebastian Murphy took first prize for his oral presentation in natural and health sciences, while biology student Lauren Narcross earned the top spot for her poster. Eli Friedland, of the Department of Political Science, offered the top oral presentation for the social sciences and psychology student Amelie Beland took the poster category. Finally, Communication Studies student Saulo Madrid led a team including Amy Ball, Myriam Des Cormiers, and Saba Shahsiah in producing the Research-Creation award winning video, Fragments.

The winners received a monetary award and certificate from interim Arts and Science Dean Joanne Locke.

Kaplan is impressed by the range of work presented at the event. “Our intention from the beginning was to showcase the exceptional, high-quality research being conducted by the Faculty’s undergraduate students, as well as to demonstrate how diverse research is, even within a single department.”