Undergraduate students in the Department of English won the majority of a fellowship that supports research in the humanities.

Four of the seven Humanities Undergraduate Research Fellowship (HURF) recipients during the 2023 program were English majors. A HURF fellow is awarded a $2,500 stipend to explore their scholarly interests over 16 weeks, beginning in January, and receives support from a faculty advisor.

“It’s really nice having the length of time that we have and a dedicated faculty advisor,” said Eric Lane, one of the English majors who has presented their HURF work. “Normally in classes... You don’t get that much one-on-one interaction with the instructor.”

The fellowship offers participants the opportunity to meet weekly with other HURF recipients to share their research methods, challenges, and discoveries. HURF offers English students the opportunity to work one-on-one with faculty, who also receive a $500 stipend. Advisor mentorship provides fellows with valuable guidance, support and personalized attention.

HURF is a collaboration between the Oregon Humanities Center, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

“My favorite part has been hearing about the projects that everyone has been doing,” said Lauryn Cole, who presented her research titled “Fat and Fabulous: Women’s Bodies in Contemporary Romance” at the 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium in May. “They’re all so creative, and it’s cool to hear how they are all approaching their research methods.”

The symposium offers students the opportunity to present their research to faculty and peers and foster academic dialogue and collaboration.

“The presentation really brings the stakes of research home to undergraduate scholars by letting them know that there is an audience for their work and that their work solves problems in and out of a field of study, “said Corbett Upton, faculty advisor to Eric Lane.
Students who are interested in the 2024 HURF program should have a faculty advisor and project proposal finalized before submitting applications. HURF is open to students from any department, but the project must be related to the humanities. For more information, visit the HURF page.

The 2023 English major HURF recipients are: 

• Lauryn Cole, Fat and Fabulous: Women’s Bodies in Contemporary Romance 
• Meg Carrol, The Use of Androgyny in Medieval Texts: What it Says About Femininity, 
• Casper Byrne, Monsters in the Closet: The Transformative Possibilities of Gothic Monstrosity in Queer Narrative 
• Eric Lane, "My body is its image, here": Diasporic Identity and the Deconstruction of Binary Division in 21st Century Asian American Poetry