By Jon Aske
Foreign Languages

Jon Aske, Department of Foreign Languages

Introduction

In order to get a better idea of the degree to which research is an important part of the academic programs of the School of Arts and Sciences, the communications team sent a survey to the chairs of the twenty SOAS academic departments with the following five questions:

1. Does your department require a research course of your majors?
   A) Yes, all majors; B) Yes, of some majors; C) No
2. Does your department require a research course of your minors?
   A) Yes, all minors; B) Yes, of some minors; C) No
3. To the best of your knowledge, how often is your department represented by student participants at the Undergraduate Research Symposium?
   A) Often, B) Sometimes, C) Rarely, D) Never
4. In the past four years, has your department taken students to an off-campus conference to present student research?
   A) Yes, B) No
5. Have some / any of your faculty co-presented or co-published work that has grown out of a research program undertaken with assistance of undergraduate students?
   A) Yes, B) No
6. How would you categorize your department’s discipline?
   A) Arts/Humanities, B) Social Science, C) Science

Respondents were given a chance to elaborate on their answers and most of them did so to a greater or lesser extent.

Disciplines

Starting with the last question first, the 20 departments categorized themselves per discipline as follows:

• Arts/Humanities (6): Art, English, Foreign Languages, Music, Philosophy, and Theater and Speech Communication
• Social Science (6): Communications, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology
• Science (5): Biology, Chemistry-Physics, Computer Science, Geological Sciences, and Mathematics
• Mixed departments (due to the nature of the discipline or variety of programs offered):

Arts/Humanities, Social Science and Science: Geography

Arts/Humanities, Social Science: Interdisciplinary Studies

Research in Core Requirements and Other courses

It should be mentioned that a core course, required of every student at Salem State, with the exception of some transfer students, covers the basics of research, namely ENG102 (ENG103 for English and Education majors). In ENG102, students “learn methods for conducting library research and the details of at least one system of formal documentation”¹ and in ENG103, students “learn some basic procedures for library research.” ²

Some chairs mentioned that many of the courses offered in their departments demand a certain amount of research from students, even though they are not, strictly speaking, research-oriented courses. In the following sections we concentrate on courses that are specifically research oriented, particularly for majors.

Research Requirement for Majors

Seven departments reported that research is required of all majors: Geological Sciences, Foreign Languages, Theater & Speech Communication, Economics, History, Psychology, and Geography. One of these is a science department, two are arts/humanities departments, and three are social science departments.

For the most part, departments that require research of all their majors have a required course in which students do research, typically a senior seminar, such as Foreign Languages’ SPN501 (Senior Seminar with Thesis) or another upper division course, such as History’s HIS405A (Seminar in Research) or EConomics’ ECO401 (Economic Research). In other departments, the research course is a 300-level course, such as in Communications (COM300) or Geography (GPH302). Other departments report research being spread out among different courses. Thus, Theater & Speech Communication reports having three research courses.

Another eight departments reported that research is required of some majors, depending on the concentration. So in Biology, all majors except clinical students in the Nuclear Medicine Technology program take research-oriented BIO415N. In Chemistry, only majors in the American Chemical Society approved concentration take a research course. In some programs, the research course is an elective, such as in Sociology, where students may take a data analysis course in which they complete a piece of original research.

Only one department, Music, said that research is not required of any of its majors, but it reports that some courses require research as a major component of the class.

Research Requirement for Minors

Most departments reported that there is no research requirement for minors. Only three departments reported that some minors conduct research: Art (Art History minors) and IDS (Women’s Studies minors). In Theater & Speech Communication, the research-oriented course THE401 is a minor elective.

Participation at the Undergraduate Research Symposium

Most departments report active participation in the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium on reading day after the last day of spring classes. In some departments such as Foreign Languages and Geological Sciences, presenting research is required of all majors.

Off-Campus Conference Presentations by Students

The level of participation varies, from occasional (“once,” “several times”), to common (“many times”), to frequent, with at least half a dozen presentations a year for Geological Sciences. Students in some departments, such as Psychology and Geological Sciences, go to a variety of conferences. Other departments tend to have specific off-campus conferences where students go, such as Theater & Speech Communication, whose student actors, directors, playwrights, and designers present their work every year at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and Sociology, which sends students as attendants and participants every spring to the New England Undergraduate Sociology Research Conference.

Co-presentations/publications with Faculty

Half of the departments report that students have presented or published papers together with faculty members. Four out of five science departments report having done this, whereas only one out of five arts/humanities departments have, with social sciences departments falling somewhere in between (two out of six have). Some departments regularly have students and faculty present or co-author research at specific conferences, such as, for example, Chemistry/Physics at American Chemical Society conferences, and English at the statewide honors conference.

This article is part of ASpect’s May 2009 issue, Undergraduate Research.