Faculty and staff can support student research and URSCA in multiple ways.
Serve as a reviewer for undergraduate research grant applications
We rely on the expertise of Krieger faculty to assess applications to our undergraduate research grants. Faculty reviewers will be asked to evaluate up to 10 applications in their field, broadly defined – humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, etc. URSCA will provide an evaluation rubric and thorough instructions for reviewing the applications, which comprise a personal statement, an abstract, a full project proposal and budget, a CV, and a letter of recommendation.
If you would like to serve as a reviewer, please complete the faculty review panel interest form.
Mentor an undergraduate researcher
Our undergraduate research award grantees are provided the unique opportunity to work one-on-one with Hopkins’s greatest asset – its faculty. Faculty mentors work directly with grantees to ensure that they are aware of the current scholarship on their topic and that their work is making a unique contribution to the field. For most awards, faculty mentorship is a one-year commitment; for the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, faculty mentors supervise the undergraduate researcher for three years. Read the faculty mentor agreement for Wilson Fellows.
Mentors have a great deal of discretion in approving or disapproving projects proposed by undergraduate researcher. If a mentor believes the proposed project is not worthy of support, or that the researcher should first take classes or do background reading before embarking on the project, it is the mentor’s role to notify the director of URSCA.
Accessing Funds
- Mentors assist researchers in budgeting their funds.
- Students must present the details of their anticipated expenses to their mentor for approval.
- Mentors must make sure a student’s expenses are directly related to their independent research.
- If there are any expenditures that a mentor believes are not appropriate, it is the mentor’s role to withhold approval of these expenditures. We rely on the judgment of mentors to determine which expenses are justified.
Advice and Counseling
- Mentors should provide the first source of problem resolution for their student researcher. Mentors unable to maintain a close and open connection with the student they’re advising should contact the Director of URSCA.
- Mentors must meet with their researcher on a monthly basis.
- Mentors and researchers must maintain communication during Intersession, summer, sabbaticals, and research trips.
- Mentors should give careful guidance and support in the context of their student’s relative inexperience as a researcher.
- Mentors should also be prepared to support their student’s pursuit of graduate education or related professional endeavors.
IRB Participation
If a student is conducting research with human subjects, IRB approval may be required. A mentor must serve as the principal investigator on the IRB application. Visit the Homewood IRB website for more information.
Moderate a session at the Macksey Symposium
We welcome Hopkins faculty, staff, and students to serve as moderators at our annual Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium. Moderators introduce the speakers (typically four per session), keep track of time during presentations and Q&A, ensure the smooth transition of slide presentations between speakers, and lead the panel-style Q&A session after all speakers have presented. Sessions are typically 75 minutes long. Detailed instructions and tips for successful moderation, including sample questions, will be provided to all moderators.
If you are interested in participating in the Macksey Symposium, please contact Dr. Jennifer Wester, Director of URSCA, at jwester@jhu.edu.
Participate in the PATHS Faculty Collaborative
The new Ph.D. Pathway for Advancement in the Humanities and Social Sciences (PATHS) program aims to recruit and prepare students from backgrounds underrepresented in academia to pursue PhDs in the humanities and social sciences.
PATHS scholars are matched with a Hopkins faculty mentor in their field for additional support as they prepare both their research project and their portfolio of materials for applying to graduate school. The PATHS Faculty Collaborative is a group of Krieger faculty members, each representing different humanities and social sciences disciplines, who commit to mentoring one or more PATHS students over the course of the summer. This mentorship involves a minimum commitment of three in-person meetings with their mentee(s), the reading of their research paper, and attendance at the on-campus dress rehearsal for their symposium presentation. Members of the PATHS Faculty Collaborative are also invited to review applications for the program and help select the participants.
If you are interested in learning more about the PATHS Faculty Collaborative, please contact Dr. Samanda Robinson, Director of the PATHS program, at srobin88@jhu.edu.
Request a presentation by URSCA
A representative of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity can visit your class, group, or event to talk about research opportunities for undergraduates and mentoring opportunities for graduate students and faculty. To request a visit, please complete the presentation request form.