Three faculty-student research teams completed ten days of intensive research at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on July 17, 2019. The teams participating in this program are selected on the basis of proposals submitted by faculty members of GLCA colleges and the extended international institutions of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance (GLAA).
The topics of this year’s research teams, their faculty leaders, and institutions are:
“White Supremacist Thought and the Struggle for Union in the Civil War Era.” Marcy Sacks, Professor of History, Albion College, Albion, Michigan, USA.
“Coming to America: The Early Arab-American Generations.” David Tresilian, Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature, American University of Paris, Paris, France.
“Poetic Modernisms, Gender, and Sexuality in Four Indian Languages.” Kedar Kulkarni, Assistant Professor in Literary and Cultural Studies, FLAME University, Pune, India.
The program makes it possible for a faculty member to work collaboratively with a team of two or three undergraduates to research a subject in a humanities or social science discipline. Jurretta Heckscher, a Reference Specialist at the Library of Congress who is also the project director of this GLCA partnership observes, “In this program we have created a model of service that is fairly unique – that of the research liaison for a faculty-student team. As liaisons, we at the Library don’t have expertise in all research topics, but we know who does and can bring our teams to the door of a reading room specialist. We position the teams to walk through those doors.”
On the final day of the program each student and faculty member described their research to all other participants in the program. Following those presentations, which demonstrated the range and depth of the students’ thinking, Gregory Wegner of the GLCA said, “Being taken seriously by their Library liaisons and other staff helps our students develop confidence in their own abilities as researchers. I know that the students will carry what they have learned – about their topics, and about themselves – through their lives.”
For questions about this program contact Gregory Wegner at the GLCA: [email protected].