
The College of Liberal Arts’ student body is driven by curiosity and questioning. We encourage all our students to participate in research and help create knowledge. The College of Liberal Arts offers funding opportunities each semester, including summer, to afford students to undertake critical and impactful work. Our Liberal Arts Undergraduate Research Awards (LAURAs) are College funded awards with bi-annual calls for proposals.
The Liberal Arts Undergraduate Research Awards (LAURAs). The LAURAs grant $2,000 each to undergraduate student-faculty member duos to conduct a research project over the course of a semester. Each student earns a $15/hour stipend from the grant while spending 100 hours on the project, which enables students to dedicate their time to developing research skills without having to worry about their financial wellbeing.
The Liberal Arts Undergraduate Research Awards (LAURA) creates more opportunities for undergraduate students to develop research skills by working with faculty mentors on faculty-led research projects while increasing support for faculty research in the College of Liberal Arts.
LAURA Scholars Teams Share Experiences
Student-faculty teams worked together over the course of a semester or summer on a research project of mutual interest. Visit our LAURA Scholars Testimonials page and watch the videos to see some of the experiences from our faculty and students!
Faculty and Student Research Teams
The College of Liberal Arts is pleased to announce the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 LAURA Scholar Awards:
Summer 2023
- James D. Bachmeier (Sociology) and student Amira Solomon for Childhood School Contexts and the Integration of the Children of Immigrants in 20th Century America
- Lisa A. Briand (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Bridget Armstrong for Effect of adolescent social isolation on brain immune cell expression and function
- Jason Chein (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Alex Barone for ChatGPT/AI Belief: Can AI create Human-like responses?
- Elise Chor (Political Science) and student Stephen Pelliccia for Literacy-Rich Neighborhoods in Philadelphia
- Nyron N. Crawford (Political Science) and student James L. Gray for Strike from the Record: Administrative Burden in Expungement of Criminal Records
- Tania Giovannetti (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Riya Chaturvedi for Assessment of Everyday Function in Older Adults
- Cristina Gragnani (French, German, Italian and Slavic) and student Makayla Anja Montarti for Gender Violence, Loathing, and Self-Affirmation Through Narration: Anna Franchi’s Avanti il Divorzio (1902)
- Donald A. Hantula (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Julia Zortea for Human Robot Interaction
- Philip C. Kendall (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Elizabeth (Lizzie) Rawa for Therapist ratings of in-session behavior and treatment outcomes for youth with anxiety disorders
- Rita Krueger (History) and student Elizabeth Allendoerfer for Exploring the Sounds of War
- Natalie M. Léger (English) and student Emme Goldman for “Unimaginable Solidarities: Black and Indigenous Resistance in Film”
- Judith A. Levine (Sociology) and student Juliya Medyukh for Landing a Job: Moving from College to Employment in the New Economy
- Laura McGrath (English) and student Abigail Corcelli for The Literary Agent and American Literature
- Nora Newcombe (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Camille Strand for Individual Differences in Integrating Spatial Relationships Across Separately Learned Routes
- Hamil Pearsall (Geography and Urban Studies) and student Karishma Medatia for Evaluation of Prescribe Outside program
- Victor M. Pueyo Zoco (Spanish and Portuguese) and student Meira Galapo for The Literature of the Commons. Reading the Early Modern Spanish Canon Otherwise (1450-1700)
- Leslie A. Reeder-Myers (Anthropology) and student Olivia Bove for The Thones Kunders Site: An Archaeological History of Germantown
- Eileen Ryan (History) and student Christopher Klapakis for Development Programs in Post-Imperial Europe
- Michael W. Sances (Political Science) and student Isabella Francisco for District Attorney Web Site and Social Media Collection
- Mathieu Wimmer (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Cass Tilley for Studying the impact of early life adversity on substance use traits using rodent models of addiction
Fall 2023
- Eunice Chen (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Mahanoor Rafi for Changes in cognitive, and emotional functioning with increasing physical activity in young adults
- Nyron N. Crawford (Political Science) and student James L. Gray for Strike from the Record: Administrative Burden in Expungement of Criminal Records
- Tania Giovannetti (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Melissa Rosahl for Relations between Language Production and the Performance of Everyday Tasks in Older Adults
- Tania Giovannetti (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Adaeze Uwaomah for Improving Everyday Action in People with Dementia
- Donald A. Hantula (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Julia Zortea for Human Robot Interaction
- Johanna Jarcho (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Thais Costa Macedo de Arruda for Childhood maltreatment and memory bias for social and non-social events: Exploring neural mechanisms that promote risk for mental health problems
- Michael A. Leeds (Economics) and student Owen Hurley for Recruiting and Reproduction: Do Female Athletes Consider Abortion Laws When Deciding on a College?
- Alan McPherson (History) and student Matthew Friedman for Vengeance in American Foreign Relations
- Melissa E. Noel (Criminal Justice) and student Anna Palillero-Benito for The Double-Edged Sword: A Qualitative Examination of Parental Incarceration and Parental Immigration Detention
- Ingrid Olson (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Caroline George for How the “little brain” may play a key role in modulating socioemotional thought and behavior
- Victor M. Pueyo Zoco (Spanish and Portuguese) and student Meira Galapo for The Literature of the Commons. Reading the Early Modern Spanish Canon Otherwise (1450-1700)
- Leslie A. Reeder-Myers (Anthropology) and student Abasi Nicholson for Immigration and the Philadelphia Dream, 1750-1850
- Eileen Ryan (History) and student Olivia Blake for Racialization of Italian Immigrants in the Americas
- Michael W. Sances (Political Science) and student Jaydyn Doebler for District Attorney Web Site and Social Media Collection
- Thomas F Shipley (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student and Neuroscience for Understanding the Unspoken: Comprehension and Communication of Uncertainty in Gestures
- David V. Smith (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Matthew Drayton for Characterizing Risk Factors for Financial Exploitation
- Kimberly D. Williams (Anthropology) and student Eitan Runyan for Exploring Dental Anthropology with a Future Dentist
- Mathieu Wimmer (Psychology and Neuroscience) and student Camryn Krumbhaar for The role of the hippocampus in the intensification of drug craving using animal models of substance use
