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
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. All presentations will delivered through a video format submitted by the presenters.
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
2022 CURIO Committee Chairs
Dr. Julia Griffin, Chair, Statesboro, Literature
2022 CURIO Committee
Dr. Olga Amarie, World Languages & Cultures
Dr. Martin Gendelman, Music
Prof. John Goshorn, Communication Arts
Dr. Amanda Konkle, Literature
Dr. Daniel Larkin, Philosophy & Religious Studies
Dr. Morgan Rempel, Philosophy & Religious Studies
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 2022. 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 2019 or spring 2020 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 Thursday, March 10. Click here for the submission form. If you have any questions, email jgriffin@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
| Presenting poster sessions Thursday, April 7, from 5:30-8 p.m. in the lobby of the Interdisciplinary Building, Statesboro Campus | ||
| Student | Faculty Advisor | Project Title |
| Anna Kathleen Trull, history major | Dr. Robert Batchelor | Lafayette’s Intellect |
| Sydney Rigdon, history major | Dr. Robert Batchelor | Digesting the Donners: The public’s consumption of American history |
| Alexandria Shearer, world languages & cultures major | Dr. Grant Gearhart | Practicum practico: Learning in the community with hands-on education |
| Ainsley Marie Sprayberry, history major | Dr. Robert Batchelor | Marie Rowlandson: Captivity and religious identity |
| Presenting concurrent sessions Thursday, April 7, from 6-7 p.m. in the Interdisciplinary Building, Room 229, Statesboro Campus | ||
| Student | Faculty Advisor | Project Title |
| Khadir Curry, public relations major | Dr. Lauren Bayliss | Agenda-framing and setting in hip hop |
| A.J. Abad, writing and linguistics major | Dr. Joanna Schreiber | Queer inclusion in post-secondary education |
| Tiffany Wells, writing and linguistics major | Dr. Lisa Costello | The gay agenda: Being accepted in children’s literature |
| Presenting concurrent sessions Thursday, April 7, from 6-7 p.m. in the Interdisciplinary Building, Room 230, Statesboro Campus | ||
| Student | Faculty Advisor | Project Title |
| Caroline Boykin, public relations major | Dr. Lauren Bayliss | Assertion of brand identity and strategic use of frames by North Face and Columbia Sportswear |
| Ariel Harvell, world languages and cultures major | Dr. Zuotang Zhang | Chinese translation |
| Austin Thomas Gasiecki, world languages and cultures major | Dr. Zuotang Zhang | Learning Chinese vocabulary: Understanding students’ perspective |
| Presenting concurrent sessions Thursday, April 7, from 6-7 p.m. in the Interdisciplinary Building, Room 231, Statesboro Campus | ||
| Student | Faculty Advisor | Project Title |
| Spencer Garner, history major | Dr. Robert Batchelor | William Kidd: From company privateer to anti-Imperial pirate |
| Jack Palmer, history major | Dr. Robert Batchelor | Adam Smith’s travels |
| Jake Quinn, literature major | Dr. Hans-Georg Erney | From men to dogs and back again: The plight of the perfect soldiers in Midnight’s Children |
| Presenting concurrent sessions Thursday, April 7, from 7-8 p.m. in the Interdisciplinary Building, Room 239, Statesboro Campus | ||
| Student | Faculty Advisor | Project Title |
| Amy Turenne, writing and linguistics major | Dr. Olivia Carr Edenfield | Breece Pancake’s Appalachian landscape |
| Brooke Marie Neal, literature major | Dr. Olivia Carr Edenfield | Traversing borders: Presence and role of liminal space of Ernest Hemingway |
| Allison Noonan, literature major | Dr. Olivia Carr Edenfield | Salinger’s disciples: Prophet figures in nine stories |
| Presenting concurrent sessions Thursday, April 7, from 7-8 p.m. in the Interdisciplinary Building, Room 240, Statesboro Campus | ||
| Student | Faculty Advisor | Project Title |
| Arria McGinty, writing and linguistics/literature major | Dr. Mary Villepouteaux | A Shakespearean subculture of sexuality |
| Brenna Salverson, philosophy and religious studies/writing and linguistics major | Dr. Jason Slone | How do religious stories help us secure long-term mates? |
| Amir Alexander, writing and linguistics major | Prof. Laura Valeri | Vulnerable (creative presentation) |
| Lauren Humble | Prof. Laura Valeri | Behind the black cloak (creative presentation) |
| 8-8:30 p.m., refreshments, closing remarks and award of prizes in the Interdisciplinary Building lobby |
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. |
 | John Goshorn is an assistant professor of Multimedia & Film Production within the Communication Arts department at Georgia Southern. An award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter, his feature film THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH has worldwide distribution and is available for download, streaming and on DVD, via several major online outlets. |
| 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. Amanda Konkle holds a Ph.D. in English. She is an Assistant Professor who teaches Film Studies and Literature classes for the Department of Literature. She is the author of recently published research on Marilyn Monroe films and contemporary television. |
 | 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. |
| Morgan Rempel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Georgia Southern University, Armstrong Campus. | |
 | 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. |
Last updated: 4/13/2022