Undergraduate researcher Dorian Fougères, an anthroplogy major, studies the political ecology of environmental groups. Frank DiMeo/University Photography
The Undergraduate Research Program held its 12th annual summer forum July 29-Aug. 6. Students from Cornell and other colleges and universities met and presented their work to fellow researchers and others.
"I believe that students should be able to talk about their research ideas to more than just the small handful of people working on the same topic," said Marilyn Williams, director of undergraduate research and assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
In a Research Program brochure Williams writes, "You owe it to yourself to find a research opportunity that is so interesting that the distinction between play and work is lost."
The Adelphic Cornell Educational Fund (ACEF) provided $3,000 to the Undergraduate Research Program to enable Dorian Fougères, an anthropology major, "to study the political ecology of environmental coalitions, to analyze their causal connections and find out what works and doesn't work in coalition building."
Other organizations that contributed to Fougères' work were the Cornell Program on Environmental Conflict Management, the Cornell Institute for Conflict Resolution, the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, and the Cornell Participatory Action Research Network.
Fougères' efforts will culminate in two workshops which he will help facilitate with the Cornell Program on Environmental Conflict: the first on Aug. 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Center for the Environment in 301 Rice Hall; the second on Oct. 2 in Burlington, Vt. The workshops will focus on the issue of watershed protection, the group of coalitions Fougères has been interviewing.
In the sciences, most of the students making presentations at the forum in math, astronomy, nuclear studies and materials science are supported by grants from various foundations and federal programs, from the National Science Foundation to NASA, which support faculty research and encourage the engagement of undergraduate students in those research projects.
"Such funding," said Williams, "ultimately depends on the will of Congress, so it is essential that Congress learn how these research opportunities enrich the education of some of our brightest and best students, not only at Cornell but from a wide variety of institutions across the country."
But, Williams explained, while research opportunities abound for students in the sciences, students in the humanities and social sciences have few such opportunities. Budget reductions at the National Endowment for the Humanities have eliminated federal support for undergraduate researchers in the humanities.
The support from the ACEF jump-started a new pilot program to provide summer support for a few undergraduate researchers in the social sciences or the humanities each year. The program is competitive, and formulated along the lines of established federal programs in the sciences and the now-defunct program in the humanities. Summer support awards are determined by a faculty committee and are based on the merit of the student's project and plan of research, the written statement from the faculty mentor and the student's academic record. A gift account has been established to provide such summer support for undergraduate researchers in the social sciences and the humanities. The cost of supporting a student for the summer is $3,000.
For information contact Marilyn Williams at 255-5004 or mew4@cornell.edu.
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