Over 50 presentation boards filled the library Reading Room and Giumarra Courtyard on Wednesday for the Celebration of Scholarship & Research.

With the large number of presenters, the Celebration of Scholarship & Research Committee held two sections for the event, with a panel in the middle to discuss their research and aspects needed to complete specific types of research. The topics of the presentations ranged from archeology to polycentric missiology to inner-city injustice.

PRESENTATION MODE

Associate professor of intercultural studies Allen Yeh, both a presenter and panel member, shared about his book called “Polycentric Missiology” and how missions has gone back to the idea of “from everyone to everywhere” over 100 years.

“I think it’s great… for students to see that their professors are publishing things and for them to be inspired by this. I also think it’s great that students themselves are involved in this and showcasing what they have researched,” Yeh said. “Really, research should be a synergetic thing between faculty and students—sometimes collaboratively, sometimes one inspiring the other.”

Students also shared their personal or course research, including senior anthropology major Amber Blevins and junior anthropology major Lauren Biltonen on a burial finding that led them to work alongside Native Americans. Blevins sees the event as a great opportunity, including in helping other students to understand the amount of time required for research.

“It’s not easy, and especially… this is a whole lot of stuff that we have to condense down into one poster so even with something like this, as great as it is, they’re still not getting the full picture of how long it takes to do this kind of research,” Blevins said.

RESEARCH FURTHERED

As a part of some of associate professor of modern language Julianne Bryant’s courses, those in the courtyard presented on Latin American countries. Freshman psychology major Marisa Vasquez focused on the Dominican Republic.

“I would want people to really have pride for the Dominican Republic,” Vasquez said. “People know, everybody knows how beautiful this country is because of the beaches and it’s surrounded by water. But I want people to also understand the Dominican Republic’s history rather than how beautiful the country is.”

Students, faculty, staff and alumni could visit booths both inside and outside to expand their knowledge as well as see the scholarship the library supports on a daily basis, as dean of the library Gregg Geary explained.

“We support scholarship everyday through the databases that we provide, the books, the journals and all the things that we do, and this is a way we can see the fruit of that because we don’t always see what is the end result, what did the people discover, what did they realize from their research that the library was part of. So it really helps kind of complete the circle for us,” Geary said.