Center for Undergraduate Research and Intellectual Opportunities (CURIO)

About CURIO

The office for CAH Undergraduate Research and Intellectual Opportunities was established in 2008 to expand the opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research and mentored scholarship at Georgia Southern University and offer undergraduate students the opportunity to work directly with faculty on projects that involve research, scholarship, and creativity. These projects are designed and implemented by students with the support and guidance of faculty.

CURIO offers itself as a valuable tool for students in the College of Arts and Humanities who have a passion for their discipline and an interest in getting involved with research. The center promotes and recognizes undergraduate research in the college.

Georgia Southern University and the College of Arts and Humanities encourages undergraduate research because research benefits the student, faculty, college, and university. CURIO is committed to facilitating undergraduate research and helping students with their research needs in any way possible.

By engaging in undergraduate research, students will learn to apply what they already know in ways that interest them and allow them to influence others. Along the way, students will develop new skills, meet others with similar interests, gain confidence in themselves and their scholarship, define their own style, and deepen their connections to Georgia Southern and the academic community. Through undergraduate research symposia and academic conferences, students will have the opportunity to share their work as they experience the fulfillment of scholarship and creative activity.

Students who have experienced scholarship in meaningful ways offered through undergraduate research experiences are better prepared to address future problems and to assume important rules as enlightened citizens and leaders. To that end, students’ undergraduate research experiences will begin their professional lives. To help them reap the full benefits of participating in undergraduate research, CURIO offers a variety of resources to help undergraduate research become a distinctive feature of students’ undergraduate experiences.

CURIO is strongly committed to the wide and inclusive expression of all forms and topics of undergraduate research and creative activity. CURIO invites contributions from all members of the undergraduate community of innovators, creatives, and researchers at the College of Arts and Humanities and welcomes proposals and presentations that include a diversity of voices, backgrounds, and viewpoints.

To learn more, please contact our office.

Contact Information

P.O. Box 8142
Foy Building, Room 3007
Statesboro, GA 30460-8142
Email: Julia Griffin at jgriffin@georgiasouthern.edu, Cathy Skidmore-Hess at cskid@georgiasouthern.edu, or Laura Valeri at LValeri@georgiasouthern.edu

Spring Symposium

The CURIO Symposium will showcase undergraduate research and creative activity undertaken by students in the College of Arts and Humanities. Students must submit a 250 word abstract for a project worked on or completed anytime during 2022 or in Spring 2023. Applicants may choose to present at only one or at both campuses. A CAH faculty mentor must approve the proposal and assist the student in preparing for the symposium. All CAH undergraduates working in any CAH discipline are eligible for cash awards if enrolled in 2019 or 2020. Faculty may submit applications on student’s behalf.

Click here for the CAH CURIO 2023 Symposium Application.

The fall submission deadline is Thursday, Dec. 1.

The spring submission deadline is Friday, March 10.

A panel of judges will review every presentation in each category and select a winner and finalists for each category. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners at the conclusion of the judging process.

Presentation schedule TBD

2022 Symposium Links

Digital Commons Virtual CURIO Symposium

CURIO YouTube Channel

2023 CURIO Committee Chairs

Dr. Julia Griffin, Chair, Statesboro, Literature
Dr. Cathy Skidmore-Hess, Co-Chair, Statesboro, History

CURIO Committee

Dr. Olga Amarie, World Languages & Cultures
Dr. Allison Scardino Belzer, History
Dr. Martin Gendelman, Music
Dr. Daniel Larkin, Philosophy & Religious Studies
Dr. Missy Plew, Communication Arts
Dr. Morgan Rempel, Philosophy & Religious Studies
Prof. Casey Schachner, Art
Dr. Cathy Skidmore-Hess, History
Prof. Laura Valeri, Writing & Linguistics

Submission Information

The office for Undergraduate Research & Intellectual Opportunities (or CURIO) is pleased to host an evening highlighting the best research and creative endeavors of the college’s students at the CURIO Symposium to be held in Spring 2023. We welcome submissions from currently enrolled undergraduate students from all major and minor areas of study in the College of Arts and Humanities. Projects completed during anytime during 2022 or spring 2023 are welcome. Interdisciplinary projects from those semesters may also be submitted.

To apply for the Symposium, students should submit a 250-word abstract describing the scholarly or creative activity and the presentation, paper, performance, or poster that will be utilized to showcase their research or creative endeavor. The abstracts should explain how the project represents original student work. The application also requires the listing of a faculty mentor with whom the student worked with on the project. The faculty mentor should help students prepare to deliver their presentation by providing both advice and feedback on their material and physical presentation.

This year, faculty mentors may also submit an application on behalf of students who wish to participate in the Symposium. The abstract should describe the student’s research or creative endeavor in detail and explain how the project, paper, performance, or poster represents original student work. Please limit these to 250 words.

Applications will be accepted until Friday, March 10. Click here for the submission form. If you have any questions, email Julia Griffin at jgriffin@georgiasouthern.edu or Cathy Skidmore-Hess at cskid@georgiasouthern.edu.

Projects selected for the Symposium program will take the form of 10-15 minute presentations, readings, or performances. Students presenting posters will be allotted time to discuss their work. If selected to participate, students must be physically present at the Symposium to comment on their research, presentation, performance, or poster and to respond to questions from the audience. Selected papers, projects, performances, and posters need be in final draft format or ready to be performed by April 1.

Outstanding presentations, performances, and posters in the humanities, fine arts, and social sciences, as determined by judges, will be recognized at the Symposium with a monetary award and the student’s name on the website.

Presenters

TBD
Student	Faculty Advisor	Project Title

Award Winners

Committee Members

	Dr. Olga Amarie, an Associate Professor of French in the Department of World Languages and Cultures, a Board Member of Pi Delta Phi (The National French Honor Society in the United States), served on the Undergraduate Research Council at Georgia Southern University from 2013-2020. She has collaborated to a critical edition and has authored several articles based on her research on nineteenth-century unpublished manuscripts by Juliette Adam, Octave Mirbeau, and Remy de Gourmont preserved by the Lilly Library of rare books and manuscripts at Indiana University. Her latest publications include: « Amour et séduction dans la Légende de Tristan et Iseut chez Béroul, Thomas, et Albert Cohen » in Entre-Textes: Dialogues littéraires et culturels, Routledge: 2018; “Displacement Vector Analysis on the GO Board in ∈ by Jacques Roubaud” in The Guests of Chance: Hodeporic Poetry, Semicerchio 63, Rivista di Poesia Comparata, Pacini Editore, 2020/2; “Remy de Gourmont 1858-1915” in the Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (TCLC),Volume 407, Layman Poupard Publishing for Gale/Cengage Learning’s Literature Criticism Series, 2021.
	Dr. Allison Scardino Belzer, Associate Professor of History on the Armstrong Campus, served from 2011-2020 as the college’s coordinator of Undergraduate Research and also has chaired the Armstrong Student Scholars Symposium. She is dedicated to enhancing the undergraduate experience, recently publishing two works for classroom use with Oxford University Press.
	Martín Gendelman is an Associate Professor and Head of the Music Composition and Theory Area at the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music, and the founding director of the On The Verge new-music series at Georgia Southern. His work as a composer –which includes music for soloists, chamber groups, and large ensembles, as well as electronics– has been performed throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. He has also led multiple cross-disciplinary collaborations with choreographers, actors, videographers, and other artists. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), California State University, Northridge, and the University of Maryland.
	Dr. Julia Griffin is an Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Humanities, Department of Literature on the Statesboro Campus of Georgia Southern University. Her specialty is Renaissance English literature (Shakespeare and Milton period). She is also Light Magazine‘s featured poet.
	Dr. Dan Larkin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Memphis in 2017. His research focuses mostly on Plato, specifically the roles by religion and divine inspiration throughout Plato’s work.
	Dr. Missy Plew is a Principal Lecturer and Director of Public Speaking in the Communication Arts department on the Statesboro campus.  She teaches a variety of courses in both the undergraduate Communication Studies area and the Professional Leadership and Communication graduate program.  But her favorite part of the job is working with graduate teaching assistants and watching them become more confident as teachers and scholars.
	Dr. Morgan Rempel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Georgia Southern University, Armstrong Campus.
	Casey Schachner is an Assistant Professor of Art in the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art on the Armstrong Campus. She received her Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Montana. Her research focuses on 3D and sculptural pieces and has had artwork exhibited nationally and internationally ranging from site-specific installations to permanent public artworks.
	Dr. Skidmore-Hess is an associate professor of history and author of “Identity, Guns, and Globalization and Murder in Nata,” and “Murder in Nata: Landscapes of Colonial Justice. Her areas of research are Economics, Environment, Gender and Religion.
	Laura Valeri is Professor of Creative Writing and Pedagogy in the Department of Writing & Linguistics. She earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Florida International University and a Masters of Fine Arts in Fiction from the Iowa Writers Workshop. She has authored five books in fiction and nonfiction and has published numerous stories, literary essays, scholarly criticism, and literary translations. Professor Valeri’s books have earned the John Simmons Award, the John Gardner Award, and SFASU Press Award for Literary Fiction. She has been twice nominated for a Georgia Author of the Year award.