The School of Humanities Showcases Student Research in The Humanities Undergraduate Research Conference

Undergraduate Research has been an integral part of The University of West Georgia’s undergraduate education. All students have several opportunities throughout the year to present and participate in undergraduate research. One of these opportunities, The Humanities Undergraduate Research Conference, took place on Oct 16. 2025 in the UWG Campus Center Ballroom from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Small panels of three to four students took place in one of three rooms across three sessions, accounting for eight different panels. Presented research covered areas of the humanities like art, English, philosophy and history. 

Students’ research dealt with topics in fairy tales, American romanticism, transcendentalists, Latin American politics, literature and philosophy. Other panels shared work completed in classes like Senior Capstones and multimodal projects. The presentation offered insight into what UWG undergraduate education offers students and how what is taught in the classroom can be applied to other work. 

Students also showed off their interpretations of theories combined with pop culture topics like Barbie, cottagecore, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) and the effects of screen time to offer deep insight into the modern world.  

Several members of the Humanities faculty were involved in the process of creating research panels for the conference. Dr. Alex Claussen and  Dr. Anca Koczkas sponsored panels in language and culture studies. Claussen served as chair for a roundtable discussion titled “Interpreting French Fairy Tales” and Koczkas led a panel in “Latin American Literature and Politics”. Dr. Patrick Erben, Dr. Maria Doyle, Dr. Rebecca Harrison and Dr. Leah Haught sponsored panels in English studies. Erben sponsored two panels, “American Romanticism and its Contemporary Resonances” and “Multimodality as Literary Research in Sophomore- Level Survey Classes” which Harrison served as chair for. Doyle sponsored a panel on “Storytelling in the Wake of Empire” and Haught served as sponsor and chair for a roundtable on “Contextualizing Fairy Tales”. Dr. Alzbeta Hajkova sponsored a panel in philosophy titled “Philosophical Approaches to Life and Art”. Finally, Dr. Elaine Mackinnon sponsored a roundtable in history focusing on Senior Capstone projects titled “Researching the Past: Senior Capstone Projects in History”. 

This year’s conference also featured a presentation from Georgia Tech’s Dr. Juan Carlos Rodriguez, this year’s plenary speaker. Rodriguez is a humanities professor focused in Film and Latin American studies. He shared his research of Vieques and the creation of his archive that spanned across several decades. The Friday preceding the conference, UWG held a screening of Rodriguez’s documentary Vieques: A Living Archive  (2025) in preparation for the Plenary. 

The plenary and panels worked to display excellent success in academia, research and classroom application that are all an essential part of undergraduate education. The School of Humanities students and faculty feel The Undergraduate Research Conference was able to complete another successful year celebrating talented students and all their hard work.