Tatiana Pashkova-Balkenhol was a recipient of an ACRL DVC’s travel grant. She attended the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Biennial Conference in Arlington, VA. Below are a few words from Tatiana about the conference and what she learned:
“This international conference attracts faculty, administrators, and many others who are interested in implementing undergraduate research initiatives at their institutions. The conference theme, “Creating Collaborative Connections in and through Undergraduate Research,” permeated through presentations, panel discussions, workshops, poster sessions, and keynotes.”
“I attended the session that featured a partnership between a librarian and a faculty member who worked together on engaging undergraduate students in writing and publishing book reviews. In addition to identifying opportunities and challenges for working with undergraduates on composing, editing, and publishing book reviews, the presenters also discussed the process of guiding students on how to enter scholarly conversations around books they were reviewing. At the end of their presentation, the speakers posed a number of questions for attendees to ponder while adopting the book review project at their own institutions.”
“The session that I co-presented with an English faculty member also highlighted an interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at capturing and showcasing undergraduate research. Particularly, we discussed why and how we developed a conference proceedings student journal with a team of students.”
“As a result of participating at the CUR conference, I am taking away a much broader definition of undergraduate research as an accessible, diverse, and inclusive initiative that can take many forms at different institutions and can be enhanced by interdisciplinary partnerships.”
Read Tatiana’s full report here: CUR conference report
Stay tuned for more travel grant reports from the recipients!