Gateway Seminars

While students are often interested in pursuing research, they can be uncertain of what it means to do so. Before they can identify specific areas of research interest or faculty with whom they may work, many want to develop an understanding of the research process within an academic field. Moreover, they want to get a better sense of the current research in that field.

The CURO Gateway Seminars are offered with these students in mind.

Through these seminars, faculty and CURO seek to encourage undergraduates to understand the research process and discover tools to engage in research of their own. It is a fun and informative way to learn about research opportunities and resources at UGA.

Specifically, these seminars introduce students to what it means to conduct research in broadly-defined disciplines and help them identify potential faculty mentors with whom the student will continue research through CURO research courses.

Gateway Seminars are offered each Spring semester for one-credit-hour, graded A-F, and are available to all students. Access must be obtained through the CURO Office. Please call 706-542-4053 or email Matt Jordan (mejordan@uga.edu) for access.

SPRING 2012 Gateway Seminars:

The Introduction to Research in the Arts seminar provides an overview of arts research, presents methodological models for sustaining research-based creative practice, and acts as a workshop for project development. The seminar will examine conventional and emerging forms of arts research, ranging from historical and critical studies to project-based works that address newer media and interdisciplinary approaches. Students will visit various areas of campus to become familiar with performance and exhibition resources at UGA and meet leading faculty and professionals who are conducting research in the Departments of Art, Dance, Theatre & Film Studies, English, Music, and ICE (Ideas for Creative Exploration). Students will be exposed to a range of models for creative practice based on visits with faculty, outside reading, and discussion. 

“MATH + SCIENCE  = SUCCESS” -- proclaim the billboards and the school boards.  It would seem that the humanities are being displaced from the curriculum and even from the cultural scene.  In bookstores it is easier to find gadgets and gimmicks than books. And yet UGA’s recent approval of a new course entitled “Literature and Medicine” suggests a genuine need for the humanities among those who study the sciences.  

How does one go about doing relevant research in the humanities today?  In a good research library there are millions of books, articles, papers. How do you know what to read? And how do you read? Finally, how do you write about what you have found important? How do you ensure that the topic you have chosen will survive the process of research and still interest you and others? These are the questions our seminar will address. The course will help you formulate research topics and will review various methodologies and tools used in the humanities with a special emphasis on interdisciplinary research.  In the process you will also meet faculty and graduate students who will share their experience and with whom you may decide to work on your Honors research projects. 

This seminar will provide an overview of humanities and social science research with a special focus on actual funded research projects directed by the instructor. This seminar will bring students into the middle of a famous 80-year-old research project, the American Linguistic Atlas Project, where they can learn about how large-scale research in the humanities and social sciences is conceived, executed, funded, and continued through the years. Participants will also hear about the instructor's Roswell (GA) Voices project, which is the first American member of the European Union's Living Laboratories network. Students will learn the actual techniques used on the projects, including current best practices in the field of humanities computing that students can transfer to other work. The seminar will also address the issue of collaborative research in the humanities and social sciences, in comparison with research carried out by individuals. Finally, and not less important, the seminar will review how the instructor created and published literary research. This seminar will ask students to prepare an abstract of the kind required for a CURO Research Course or Thesis, and students in the seminar will find many avenues to develop proposals for their own ideas about English language and literature and American culture more generally.

The Introduction to Research in the Biological Sciences seminar is intended for students interested in engaging in undergraduate research at the University of Georgia in the biological sciences. The major goal is to share the excitement for current findings in biological research, while exploring avenues for continuing research through Honors undergraduate research courses leading to a thesis. The class will focus on research areas, techniques, responsible conduct of research, and methods to identify and gain access to undergraduate research opportunities. Students will learn about professors on campus who may serve as mentors for their undergraduate research experience. Students will also learn about effective scientific communication skills. Students will read primary research papers and attend research lectures in order to gain appreciation for the variety, excitement, and significance of modern research in the biological sciences.

FULL

HONS 3070H
Introduction to Research in Clinical Medicine
Call#  93-629
Dr. Erik Hofmeister, School of Veterinary Medicine
1 credit hour
Mondays, 3:35-4:25 pm
H349 Paul D. Coverdell Center

This introductory course is designed to be a primer for students interested in biological research with an emphasis on clinical veterinary and human medical research. Clinical research requires curiosity and creativity as well as an analytical mind, and these elements will be explored throughout the course. Students will gain an understanding of the research process, including recruiting subjects, the importance of evidence-based clinical practice, and the ethical handling of research subjects and data. Students will be educated on how to identify and approach a research mentor to fulfill their own goals of undergraduate research. Students will also be given skills in how to read and evaluate journal articles and compose their own research proposal. By the end, it is expected that students will be comfortable establishing contact with a faculty mentor and be able to provide some understanding and insight into the research process.

• Understand the scientific process and how research is integral to that process.
• Learn about evidence-based medicine and the relevance of research for clinical practice.
• Know how clinical research is undertaken.
• Know the ethical considerations of clinical research.
• Learn vocabulary of research and how it is used.
• Understand how to find research publications and how to read a journal article critically
• Learn how to make contact with faculty mentors for CURO research
• Know the elements of a research proposal and how to draft one.

The objective of this course is for students to become familiar with the broad scope of natural and biological sciences, to understand some of the important societal issues being addressed by natural and biological scientists, and if interested, to identify a potential mentor with whom they will continue with honors research. This course will include general overviews of research questions and methods in the natural and biological sciences, discussions of relevant papers from the primary literature, profiles of UGA professors actively working in the natural and biological sciences, and tours of specific research programs.