More than 350 students will present research and creative projects at 31st annual School of Arts & Sciences Symposium

The University of Richmond’s School of Arts and Sciences will host its 31st annual Student Symposium, April 15 from 1-6 p.m. in the Modlin Center for the Arts and Gottwald Center for the Sciences. This event is free and open to the public.

The Student Symposium features hundreds of student research projects in the form of oral presentations, poster sessions, performances and art exhibits. The symposium provides students an opportunity to present their work in a professional setting, comparable to an international conference or discipline-specific symposium.

“Faculty-mentored research opportunities play a signature role in our students’ liberal education,” Dean Kathleen Skerrett said. “The Student Symposium showcases the breadth and depth of undergraduate research achievements across the School of Arts & Sciences.”

“It is my favorite day of the academic year,” Skerrett added.

More than 350 students from varying disciplines across the arts, social sciences, humanities, leadership, business and sciences, will share their faculty-mentored, independent research.

Student research that will be highlighted includes:

Ken Anderson, ’17, an American Studies and Leadership Studies double major, was inspired by his grandmother’s stories to trace his family history and, at the same time, study what it meant to be African American in Richmond in the early 19th century.

Kylie McCormick, ’17, a dance and business major, choreographed a dance piece entitled “10, 2 and 4” that explores work/life balance in human society using feathers to emulate a study that used chickens to investigate the same concept.

Melanie Cooke, ’16, a psychology and rhetoric double major, researched humans’ ability to recognize fleeting facial expressions of emotion and how the Other-Race Effect affects recognition time.

Senior Praavas Gurung’s project integrates the philosophy of the mind and the philosophy of time to argue that time does not pass at all, despite human perception that it does.

Recipient of the Department of Defense SMART scholarship, Christina Annas,’16, a math and physics major, has spent the past few years working to design her own molecules.

For more information and a detailed list of presenters and topics, visit the University of Richmond website.

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