University of Massachusetts Amherst

Search Google Appliance

Links

Students Hone Research Skills through Department Fellowships

Since September, ten Political Science and Legal Studies majors have been working as research fellows through the Department’s Undergraduate Research Engagement Program (UREP).

The program, now in its third year, partners majors with faculty for one-on-one experience conducting research. It allows students to interact with faculty outside of the classroom, develop closer relationships with their professors, and learn skills important for graduate school and the workforce.

“Students have told us that they want more opportunities to learn about the research our faculty conduct,” says Brian Schaffner, Department Chair. “At the same time, faculty have signaled a need for reliable research assistance. The UREP program has been a win-win for both faculty and students, and has been a wonderful investment for the Department.”

At the base of the program’s success has been the flexibility in the type of research projects which can receive funding. “Faculty at any stage of their research are eligible to apply for the program,” says Schaffner. “We want the program to reflect the reality of academic research and expose students to the various stages through which projects progress – from literature reviews to data collection and analysis, from writing and editing to final publication or presentation.”

The program also reflects the variety of faculty interests in the Department. This semester, student-faculty teams explored international environmental governance; weather patterns and political attitudes; corporate lobbying; the death penalty; early childhood funding practices; race, religion, and politics; federal policymaking; campaign finance laws; and property rights in the developing world.

Some fellows spent time in the library conducting extensive literature reviews and archival research; others provided editing support and helped to prepare conference presentations; still others collected, compiled, coded, and analyzed data.

“I learned how to refine my searches and dig through large amounts of information to find what we were looking for,” says Ben Secrist ’13 who worked with Professor Regine Spector. “I used the various UMass library databases to find relevant information, wrote analysis and summaries, and took notes during a live cast of a conference in D.C.”

Ben’s assistance played an important role in Professor Spector’s research. But it also provided skills necessary for his post-graduation career. “Ben was one of the best students in my Central Asia seminar last semester,” says Spector. “But the research experience and memo writing he did through this semester’s fellowship will help him when applying for jobs/grad school.”

Beyond honing post-graduation skills like writing and data collection, the UREP reinforces how time-consuming and complex social science research can be. “Doing hands-on research allows our students to appreciate just how much work goes into the production of knowledge,” says Professor Daniel LaChance. “You never know what you're going to find until you roll your sleeves up and start looking through material.”

Professor LaChance worked with Giovanna Randazzo ’13 to explore how the media reported and recorded on the death penalty from 1945-1965. Giovanna was tasked with searching for newspaper coverage of executions that took place fifty years ago. “Giovanna was surprised at how often coverage was missing from newspapers,” says LaChance. “At times, she would ask, ‘Am I doing this wrong?’ because so much seemed to be missing. But that's a normal question researchers face every day. In the process of often not finding what we set out to find, she learned a lot about the ins-and-outs, the ups and downs of research.”

Giovanna agrees. “I was able to build a stronger relationship with Professor LaChance, expand my resume in terms of graduate school and entry level research positions, and I have been able to further realize my interests,” she says.

Ten students will again work on research projects throughout the spring semester.

Fall 2012 UREP Fellows:

  • Daniel John Halloran ‘13
  • Troy Nichols ‘14
  • Matt O’Brien ‘13
  • Giovanna Randazzo ‘13
  • Laurie Roberts ‘13
  • Ben Secrist ‘13
  • Connor Sullivan ‘13
  • Savannah Van Leuvan-Smith ‘13
  • Ryan Webler ‘13
  • Sebastian Zapata ‘13

News Type: 

  • Student News