CURO Awards :: Beyond the Pages

Enriching Undergraduate Research at the UGA Libraries

By Caroline Barratt

Senior division:

First prize:
Karen Usselman
Music and Identity among Mexican Immigrants to Atlanta, 1985-2005

Runners-up:
Betsy Beasley
Fighting for a Radical City: Student Protesters, Cultural Radicals and the Politics of Space in 1960s & 1970s Lower Manhattan

Erica Hall
Intracellular Gene Transfer from the Mitochondrion to the Nucleus in Toxoplasma gondii

First through Third Year student division:

First prize:
Richard Pierre
The Creative Moment: The Ethics of Understanding in Virginia Woolf and Hermann Broch

Runners-up:
Daniel Weitz
The Legacy of AQ Khan: An Analysis of Nuclear Dual-use Illicit Trade Patterns in the Pre-Enlargement European Union

Karen Wong
Political and Social Foundations for Environmental Sustainability

Andrew Durso
Onotogenetic and Environmental Shifts in Detection Probability of Pond-breeding Amphibians in the Georgia Piedmont

This spring, the University of Georgia Libraries awarded seven cash prizes totaling $1000 as part of the new UGA Libraries Undergraduate Research Awards program. The awards were given for CURO students who demonstrated distinction in research and academic inquiry in essays describing their use of Libraries' research sources and services. UGA Librarians and Faculty judged the essays and selected the winners based on students' demonstration of sophistication in the use of library collections, ability to synthesize library resources into an original project, and evidence of significant personal learning and development.

Richard Pierre, 2007 award winner and Comparative Literature student, says:
"I feel fortunate to have had access to the University of Georgia Libraries during the course of my research and the writing of the thesis. One of the most important realizations I have gained from my research experience is the importance of a library as a scholarly tool. The experiences I have had in using the library in my research will serve me well as I continue my career."

This year's winning essays spanned a variety of disciplines -- from history to political science to ecology -- and made wide use of the Libraries' collections and the expertise provided by UGA librarians. The judges were impressed with the creativity, tenacity in research, and scholastic sophistication the applicants expressed in their essays. 2007 winners included:

Librarians, faculty and students agreed that this new program makes a positive impact on student academic work while promoting the Libraries' resources.

The awards also garnered local and national press attention with articles published in the student paper, the Red and Black, and in the nationally circulated Library Journal Academic Newswire. Awards were given as part of the CURO Symposium on April 9, 2007. Winning essays are posted at the UGA Libraries Undergraduate Research Award web site and will be added to the Libraries' archive.

With the successful completion of this pilot project, the UGA Libraries would like to extend this opportunity to the rest of UGA's burgeoning scholars. Additional funding would allow us to reach a significantly wider breadth of undergraduate students and will continue to raise the UGA Libraries' profile on campus as a collaborative partner in research and scholarship. Until then, we look forward to working with the rising scholars of the CURO program and anticipate enjoying another year of collaboration in promoting excellence in research and scholarship at UGA.

Related links:

UGA Libraries Undergraduate Research Award
http://www.libs.uga.edu/researchaward/

Honors CURO Program
http://www.uga.edu/honors/curo/

Awards Ceremony Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/ugaref/2007ResearchAwardWinners?pli=1