Travel for Undergraduate Research in the Humanities and Arts

Help support undergraduate researchers in the Humanities and Arts! This new grant program will allow undergraduates in the arts and humanities to travel to present their research at national conferences or to conduct original research at museums, libraries, and other archives. Our goal is to fund the travel of 3 to 5 undergraduate researchers each spring, increasing their ability to take advantage of such opportunities. This program will improve the visibility of research in the humanities and arts both on campus and nationally, and ensure greater involvement by undergraduate researchers from these vital and important disciplines.

The benefits of such participation are significant, for both OSU and the students themselves. Students benefit from participating in such undergraduate research programs, building confidence and developing many skills that contribute to career readiness. They also raise the profile of OSU creative research when they attend such conferences.

Unfortunately, the humanities and arts are underrepresented in campus-wide research programs for undergraduates such as the Freshmen Research Scholars and Wentz Research Scholars programs, which tend to be dominated by STEM fields. This new funding program would encourage more students in these less visible fields to participate in undergraduate research.

While there are some small awards at OSU that cover conference fees and other expenses, those funds do not fully cover such trips, requiring students to seek out multiple sources of funding or pay out of pocket. We want to prevent a situation in which a student cannot take advantage of an opportunity due to lack of funds. OSU strongly encourages student researchers to participate in conferences at the national level; we believe that if this is truly a priority, such travel must be better supported. We want to celebrate the amazing contributions the humanities and arts make to improving the world, and to involve eager undergraduates in that important endeavor!