The Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium, inaugurated in 2020, is an annual symposium hosted by Johns Hopkins University to provide a national platform for undergraduates in the humanities to share their work.

Johns Hopkins University has long been a hub of humanities research and innovation. We are proud to welcome students from across the country to become a part of this rich history.

The 2026 Macksey Symposium will be held from March 19-21, 2025, on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus in Baltimore, Maryland.

How to apply

We welcome submissions of humanities-based research from undergraduates currently enrolled at any two- or four-year college or university. To apply, submit an abstract of your presentation to the application portal by December 1, 2025.

Conference presentations will be a maximum of ten minutes long and will consist of presenting a slide deck. Posters are not accepted.

Research subjects

• Classics
• English
• History 
• History of Art 
• History of Science, Technology, or Medicine 
• Modern Languages and Literatures (French, German, Japanese, Spanish, etc.) 
• Media Studies 
• Philosophy 
• Religious Studies 
• Humanities topics within interdisciplinary fields (e.g., East Asian Studies, American Studies, Gender Studies, etc.) 

Application

The application portal will be open from September 2 through December 1, 2025. Submissions are due by 11:59 pm on Monday, December 1, 2025.

Notification of acceptance will be made on December 23, 2025.

Abstract-writing tips 

The purpose of the abstract is to give the symposium organizers a clear and concise understanding of your project, so that they can judge whether your presentation is a good fit for the conference and, if so, how you should be grouped with other presenters. 

As the brief guide below indicates, there is a general pattern that is often very effective for establishing why your audience should care about your paper. First, you establish what the conventional wisdom is about your subject—what they say—and then you contrast it with what you say that moves the field forward. 

What to cover

• Start with the current state of knowledge. What do we know about your topic? 
• State the problem you will address or the question you intend to answer with your research. Show how your paper is going to change or expand our understanding of your topic, perhaps by pointing out a gap in the existing research.
• Explain your methodology — what you did, how, and why — to show that your conclusions are rigorous.
• End with a conclusion on what your research has found/demonstrated, and a statement of the larger implications of your project. (This latter part should answer the question, “So what?”)

Writing an abstract can feel intimidating, but remember that the Macksey Symposium welcomes participants with little previous conference experience. As long as you do good work and describe it clearly, you will receive full and careful consideration for your project.