Ep.28: UMBC Review with Dr. April Householder, Clair Volkening, & Madelyn Pollack

8:52PM Oct 2, 2022

Speakers:

Dr. Ian Anson

Campus Connections

Alex Andrews

Dr. April Householder

Clair Volkening

Madelyn Pollack

Keywords:

umbc

students

editors

undergraduate research

research

clair

review

paper

journal

submit

submissions

publication

peer review process

published

social sciences

faculty

process

undergraduate

campus

thinking

Hello and welcome to Retrieving the Social Sciences, a production of the Center for Social Science Scholarship. I'm your host, Ian Anson, Associate Professor of Political Science here at UMBC. On today's show, as always, we'll be hearing from UMBC faculty, students, visiting speakers, and community partners about the social science research they've been performing in recent times. Qualitative, quantitative, applied, empirical, normative. On Retrieving the Social Siences, we bring the best of UMBC's social science community to you.

When I was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina, I remember arriving on campus mostly in search of friends, tips on how to live with a roommate, and of course, free pizza. I had my course schedule ready to go. And I was excited to take my first classes in what would end up being a very long sequence as it turned out of political science classes. And what I didn't know at the time was that I would be embarking on a journey that would eventually lead me to this very microphone, and to the awesome university that I now call my academic home. My journey did involve quite a bit of travel, but at the end of the day, it was a research journey more than anything. From my first exposure to social science research in that very first semester of college, to the completion of an honours thesis at UNC, to my time in grad school and beyond, I've been motivated by the fascinating world of social science research. And perhaps if you're listening to this episode, you're also on your own research journey. And to that I say, well met fellow traveler.

You know, what I didn't realize when I began this journey was that there are so many possible avenues to traverse, especially as an undergraduate researcher. And I've only more recently come to appreciate that at UMBC. These avenues are practically paved with gold. That is to say it's a fantastic time to be a student researcher at UMBC. As we'll learn today, in my conversations with several guests, one of the most unique and rewarding avenues for student research at UMBC is the UMBC Review, a fully student led academic journal that publishes peer reviewed student research. Today, I have the pleasure of bringing you my conversation with two of the editors of the UMBC review, Clair Volkening and Madelyn Pollack. Clair is a senior in the Department of English at UMBC, with a focus on communication and technology, while Madelyn is in the process of earning a degree at UMBC in History and Judaic studies. But not only that, in today's episode, we also hear from Dr. April Householder, the director of UMBC Undergraduate Research and Prestigious Scholarships, in her capacity as a supervisor of the UMBC Review. I'm really excited to bring you both of these conversations right now.

So today, I am delighted to welcome Dr. April Householder to the podcast. Thank you again, so much for agreeing to be here.

Oh, thank you so much. This is gonna be fun.

Yeah, so Dr. Householder, in your role as the Director of Undergraduate Research and Prestigious Scholarships at UMBC obviously, you're working together with the student editors that we're going to hear from in a minute, on the production, the publication of the UMBC Review. And I wanted to ask you a little bit about your perspective, as somebody who's sort of been over this process a little bit more than the student editors who have only recently stepped into their roles. Tell me a little bit about sort of the history, the trajectory of the Review, sort of how did it begin? How did it start? And are there any new developments that you might be able to tell us about?

Yeah, so the Review has actually been around for 24 years now. Yeah, it was started in 2000 when Dr. Diane Lee, who was the Dean then of UAA, was overseeing some new initiatives for undergraduate research. And URCAD had just got off the ground and the undergraduate research awards were starting to happen, and then there was a discussion about, you know, students now can get funded to do research at UMBC through the URA program, they can present their work at URCAD. How about we give them an opportunity to also publish their work in a peer reviewed journal? And so the idea was, was born to start the UMBC Review. And from the from the start, it was really all about being a student centered publication. And so we have two student editors that completely control the editing process. Every year they rotate out every year, sometimes they stay on for more than one year but and then we have a shadow usually that follows so that they can mentor the next generation of editors. And one of the editors is from the STEM fields, and one is from Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and they take in all of the all of the submissions and help the students become better writers and send them out to reviewers off campus. And they just basically oversee the entire publication from beginning to end. And then we also on the, on the graphic side, we have an art student that is a graphic designer that participates as the student Graphic Design Editor. And they oversee everything from beginning to end in terms of what the cover of the volume looks like, to the layout, to some, some really cool new things that editors in the last couple of years have done with graphics inside of the journal itself. So that was the idea that it was supposed to be student run, it was going to give an opportunity for students to publish their research, but also for students to participate as editors and get experience on that side of the house, too. So yeah, 24 years now strong. We're proud to say that the journal has been published in print for all those years, even through the pandemic. One thing you asked about innovations, what what? Yeah, yeah, so we did go during the pandemic, two years ago, we went all online. And so now you can access on ur.umbc.edu, which is the Undergraduate Research website, you can see full volumes there in all of their glorious color, and they just look so beautiful too. The graphic designers have really been doing a really, really great job with the production value. So yeah, everything is online. Now that and that's a difference. So we do print and online now as well.

Wow, this is really I mean, as you're describing this, I'm really just kind of struck by the unique nature of this particular publication. Because it's, I mean, I don't know that there are that many models quite like it out there. I mean, is that is that is that true? Is that something that that I'm right about? Or, or, I mean, because because it strikes me that there are a few publications out there that are sort of open to undergraduate submissions from sort of all over the country, you know, there's this competitive process, but there may be a little bit more kind of top down in their nature. But this is something that's that's entirely as you're saying, sort of student, student oriented in its in its approach.

Yes, I don't know, I don't know for a fact, but we I know that you, undergraduate research at UMBC is sort of leading the way nationwide, even with something like URCAD, one of the biggest Undergraduate Student Research conferences in the whole country. And it really is providing a model for other places to emulate. Yeah, and the student centered nature of it is just what makes it so awesome. And, you know, you mentioned some other publications, there's there are national undergraduate research journals. But the idea here is that students aren't in a competitive environment, this is supposed to be something that's about exploration and learning. Whether or not students final paper gets into the journal really isn't as important as the process itself. So just having them go through the process of submitting something to a journal in a professional way, getting feedback on their writing, and that's going to help improve that that piece of writing going forward. It helps them with everything from graduate school applications to you know, writing honors thesis and all kinds of different things. So, yeah.

Yeah, that's, that's fascinating to sort of see this as kind of a piece of a broader research journey, perhaps for students at UMBC. And obviously, I think, as you're, as you're describing it, I mean, it strikes me that we really are a campus that takes this this process seriously and considers that sort of almost student lifecycle kind of from their first day on campus to leaving campus as sort of a fledgling researcher, somebody who's able to actually make a, you know, a real, meaningful contribution to some sort of research field. So walk me, walk me through that a little bit. So where do you see the UMBC Review in terms of this kind of research lifecycle for a UMBC student?

Yeah, I mean, in a lot of ways, it's the culmination of the lifecycle of the research student and UMBC. So it starts with, you know, it really starts with the mentors. It starts with the faculty. That's really the backbone of undergraduate research, period. And, you know, we have lots of resources to help students find mentors and get started in research. You know, and if they walk through the process at UMBC, they really do get all the touch points of what it's like to be a professional in their field. So the mentor, they might apply for funding through the Undergraduate Research Award program and get some money to go do research project. They might then present that project at URCAD in the spring once they finish. And then, you know, publishing in the Review, would be kind of the culmination of all that. That's the, that's the output. And it does really represent, you know, what, what their life might be like, as a professional in their field. Yeah, and again, it's going to be something that enhances their resume for grad school, something to, it's a talking point for when they sit down with graduate school recruiters or in their first job interview. So, you know, there's practical elements of it too, not just about saying they were published, but you know, to have that you were published in a peer reviewed journal as an undergrad is really a cool thing. And, yeah, again, I think it's something that UMBC is unique in in helping students to do and have those conversations. And the other important part of this, like, you know, I would be remiss if I didn't also talk a little bit about prestigious scholarships, is that a lot of times, the students that are winning the really big scholarships are Rhodes Scholars and our Gate Scholars and our Marshall Scholars and Truman Scholars. Yeah, students who have participated in these programs and those steps along that lifecycle of them as a researcher has helped them get to the point where they're, they're becoming a Rhodes Scholar, let's say. So it's all set up to kind of, you know, lead into really, really big things. And we're doing it, we're standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the, you know, the most prestigious schools in the world, and UMBC is right there next to them. So.

Wow. Yeah, we very recently had an episode where we talked to a number of individuals sort of involved in the UMBC Fulbright program. And it's interesting to sort of see that, you know, these episodes may be more connected than we thought, because, you know, when it comes to UMBC's sort of remarkable success in winning Fulbright's, which, you know, we talked at length about, you know, maybe when we start to think about this process, right, sort of supporting and cultivating undergraduate research, we get a little bit of a look inside the mechanism maybe of how we tend to do so well at these kinds of national and international competitions. So that's, that's an interesting insight, and I think really speaks to the power of UMBC Review, as you know, not just a publication for kind of UMBC's campus but something that that moves beyond to support students' sort of further endeavors and goals. So speaking of, you know, the the journal and and all that it can do, you know, I wanted to also ask you a little bit about the actual contents of this journal, specifically, actual articles that have been published in recent issues. Are there any that you've sort of noticed, that had been particularly interesting, particularly thought provoking? Ones that are sort of emblematic of the great work that goes into this journal?

Yeah, I mean, there are so many that I can mention (I'm sure). You know, students are working on such interesting projects. Everything from looking at the pandemic and its effects on, and not just in in terms of health outcomes and stuff like that, but you know, we have students that are researching about the effects of the pandemic on Asian American hate crimes, right, on the ability of UMBC students to finish their degrees, education. Anyway, there's a whole bunch of things going on with undergraduate research around the pandemic, contemporary politics. We've had recent publications about Trump-era politics. We have one coming through about the squeegee kids in Baltimore. Oh, wow. Interesting. Yeah. Which has been such a, you know, recently in the news with everything that's happening with that, and just really on the cusp of the cutting edge of what's happening in in the world today. There's one in particular from MCS that came out in the most recent edition in 2022. Tahia Shendy was she was writing about virtual influencers and identity and authenticity in social media. Again, just something that, you know, obviously is relevant to college students, but really, is on the minds of everybody worldwide, because they're worldwide global issues. So that's just one I can think of off the top of my head, but you can go to the online journal, and read, read through the table of contents, and now you're able to access all of the articles right online.

Definitely, and you can rest assured that we're going to be dropping that link in the show notes. So if you're listening, make sure to check those out and click directly through to read some of these interesting articles like this, this one you just mentioned about online influencers. I mean, it really speaks to, you know, at least in my mind, you know, the the research interests of students, I mean, they really are at the cutting edge, because students have, you know, such a, you know, deep understanding of, you know, their role in society and their vision for what society is going to be through their, through their studies, and through their lived experience. So, really cool. And a really interesting article that you mentioned. You know, speaking of this, you know, student process of actually taking these research interests and turning them into articles. I just kind of one last question for you before we let you go. And that's to think a little bit about, you know, maybe some advice that you might have for students who are maybe thinking about potentially publishing in the UMBC Review, and you know, more broadly, thinking about a potential career in the social sciences.

Yeah, I mean, the advice is just to submit your work, and it doesn't have to be perfect. I think sometimes students think, oh, you know, I have to have this really polished piece of writing to submit to the journal and it's gonna get rejected. And that's really not true at all. We are always looking for great submissions. We're also looking for submissions that aren't really perfect yet either. And that's why the process is in place. So if you, students out there have a paper that you wrote, you know, for class that you just really have a passion for the subject or you want to learn more about, you can submit that and the role of the editors is really to work with you to improve the writing and get it to a publishable quality level. And so don't be afraid that if it's not perfect, submit, submit submit. Obviously, the benefits, like I said, you're going to be able to talk about this process in other in other places as you move forward through your through your career. And also you have a chance to improve your writing, that's the thing, you'll get feedback on three different levels. So you'll get the peer feedback, and then the students actually send the articles out for review by non UMBC faculty in different institutions all around the country. And so yeah, so you can have your paper read by you know, any, someone really cool in another place and make a connection there. And also just really improve the writing and then maybe submit it for something else or, or keep it on the backburner for another project. Like I mentioned, it could be, it could be an honors thesis, it could be a capstone paper, it could be a lab paper that you eventually do. Anyway, yeah, it's it's all good. It's all beneficial. You know, even if you don't get in, there is a win in the process. I'm just harp on that again. Yeah, and it's going to be, if you do get in, obviously, it's gonna you're gonna have lots of lots of benefits, because you'll have something to hold in your head. I mean, how cool is it to hold a published book in your hand, there's no better feeling. And I say that, as somebody who also, you know, does this and is like, is getting chills right now just thinking about it. When you hold something that you've produced in your hand and can show it to your parents. And you can show it to a faculty, graduate school recruiter, I mean, that it's just, you know, there's nothing that's a gold star, there's nothing better than that. It's a really valuable process. And it's a really fulfilling process. So yeah, the advice is just to, to think about something you want to be known for in your field. And it's great practice for your future in your academic career.

Dr. April, Householder, thank you so much for both that timely piece of advice and advice that actually could probably be, you know, for some of our faculty listeners, as well, right, to encourage their students also to submit that work. But also, thank you so much for taking the time more broadly, to talk to us today about the UMBC Review, and about its role in promoting undergraduate research on our campus.

Thanks for having me, Ian.

All right, I'm delighted today to have in the podcast studio, two fantastic students who happen to be the editors of the UMBC Review. We have Clair Volkening here and Madelyn Pollack. First of all, thank you both for being here today. I'm really happy to have you.

Thanks for having us.

Awesome. So I want to jump right in here. I want to ask you, first of all, a question just about this publication in the first place. So obviously, you're editors of the UMBC Review on the side of the social sciences and the humanities. For those of our listeners who may not know much about this, this journal, what is it really? What are its goals? What is its scope? What's its mission? What can we expect from the UMBC Review?

Yeah, so the NBC review is a research journal, peer reviewed, for undergraduates to get experience publishing their research. So its goal is mainly to give students that kind of feel for what it's like to publish in an academic journal. So we put it through like a kind of typical peer review process. So any paper we get, like we're going to publish goes through that process. And it just kind of gives students kind of a peek into what academia and publishing in journals is like.

Yeah, Clair, it sounds like they get more than a peak, right, they get the full sort of experience, right, the peer review process. So the peer review process obviously is such an important part of science because we're able to use sort of the the checks from peers in the disciplines who are knowledgeable about the subjects that we're writing on to be able to sort of gauge whether this is sort of worthy of inclusion in the journal so this is not just sort of a magazine where students can kind of submit whatever and have it have it selected this is actually rigorous in terms of its its sort of check on ensuring that you have very high quality undergraduate research. And so is this something that is you know, available to students across the disciplines? Are there specific areas at UMBC that the journal focuses on?

So it is available for students across all disciplines. Like the CAHSS section that we have two STEM editors, so it's everything and anything

Wow, okay, so arts, sciences, humanities. So Clair and Madelyn, you're working more on the CAHSS side of things, right? So you, so you're editors responsible for any submissions that are coming from any number of different departments? Is that right?

Yeah, this is true, but we also do split some of that work with our other, our fellow STEM editors. So we We all get a little taste of, as Claire said, everything and anything,

Everything and anything. I like that, that's great. It must be a fascinating process to get all of these submissions and to read some of the abstracts of, you know, these these articles, submissions to the journal,that are potentially outside of your own research interests and your own areas of specialization. Which, by the way, if you wouldn't mind, Clair and Madelyn, just telling me a little bit about, so what are the some of the topics that you are interested in, personally in, in the social sciences or in the humanities?

Well, for for myself as a history major with public history and Judaic studies minors, you can imagine, I have a great passion for all things history. (Yeah). It's kind of hard for me to narrow down what just one major focus, but my favorite histories are the ones I didn't really get to learn in high school and middle school. My favorites right now, which I'm taking classes on are the medieval period and history of science. So really, the biggest thing for me about history is I like to learn. So of course, I enjoy, like American history classes, but in those classes, I feel like there's a lot I'm already familiar with, and I want to be doing these things that I don't know about to kind of use a cliche to broaden my horizons.

Certainly, yeah, I really liked that you mentioned the history of science, because obviously, as you know, this is a social sciences podcast. You know, we in the social sciences are always thinking at least a little bit about sort of where we've come from as social sciences, which, you know, not to not to give away any spoilers, but it's a very, it's a very complex and interesting history as to how the modern social science disciplines got to where they are today, right. So it's really fascinating, I'm really glad that you shared that particular interest. How about you Clair, what are some interests that are driving you, in terms of your inquiry?

I think I, as an English major, uhm like communication and kind of how we make things happen. And like how we communicate things with each other, and how that kind of affects the spaces that like, are then kind of put forward. And like that you can exist, we can like, kind of be part of that really fascinates me just how like our words kind of affect how we're comfortable, where we're comfortable, who we're comfortable with. And then just broadly, like kind of literature and how that also kind of just, like, affects society in ways that, you know, I think a lot of people don't necessarily think of how, like, we are kind of a product of everything that we read and take in. So things examining that are things I'm very interested in.

We are products of everything we read, I love that statement. And you know, how true that you know, you as editors of UMBC Review are also, you know, you know, taking in all of this knowledge from these various submissions. And then I think also getting this incredible vantage point on on the social science disciplines. As you as you read, so really interesting as well. So, you know, I want to know a little bit about also, in addition to your own interests, this process, because obviously, you know, your students who are, you know, doing your own work your own sort of, you know, research and scholarship and these various fields be it English, be it history, Judaic studies. But obviously, you're getting these these submissions from the social sciences, to the UMBC Review, I want to know a little bit about what these people who submit these submissions might come to expect as they go through that process. What's what's it like to submit one of these articles? And I think the corollary question that I really kind of drive at here is, if I were to try to submit one of these papers that I may have written for, you know, let's say an honors seminar, or for you know, a research class in the disciplines, what might distinguish me as like, somebody who's who's made a really good submission.

As to the submission process itself, we do really look for students across all majors. Now, some people might think that's really just for those who do a lot of writing the social sciences, the humanities students, but as an R1 research institution, we really want to be covering the students all across all of our schools. So we do encourage everyone, anyone and everyone on anything and everything to submit their research. So we're looking for papers that demonstrate that high quality research that we can see they've spent a lot of time with it. And we're not looking for perfection. We're looking for papers that demonstrate a high level of research and thinking and are well written and make people want to read them. Students can submit via the UMBC Review website. And the process involves providing us with a paper from 8 to 30 pages long with an abstract, a brief statement on the research journey, and a recommendation form from their advisor.

Yeah, like Madelyn said, we are really looking for papers from everywhere, and everyone and kind of things kind of out of the ordinary, so, like new kind of takes on research. Like all research is looking at something new, but I think we'd be particularly interested in kind of, like surprise us. Like us take us something we weren't expecting and kind of just like, putting different ideas together, which I think is something that is very commonly done in the humanities, just because it's so it's kind of wide open for thoughts to be had and thinking to be done.

Yeah, so often, you know, I think about the research enterprise. You know, when I'm teaching my research methods courses to political science undergraduates, I talk a lot about, you know, the process of research, the craft of political research, and I use this term, the research enterprise all the time. And, you know, I thought about it at one point, and I realized that the research enterprise implies research entrepreneurs, right. And so, if we're doing this, you know, for submitting these pieces of research, you know, especially as social sciences, we're doing something, probably in the realm of some kind of empirical analysis, though, not always, right. We're thinking always about how we might craft, you know, research that is going to attract an audience's attention, right, through this kind of entrepreneurship process, we're thinking about how we can tell a story about, you know, the, the empirical world in a way that is captivating, in a way that's novel, and in a way that informs our theories, right? I think that's, you put it in a great way, you know, both both Clair and Madelyn, that, you know, these submissions, right, kind of subscribe to that to that sort of rubric, right. You know, I think it's great that you're looking for submissions of this of this type. You know, I want to ask you also about this peer review process. So who are the peers that are reviewing this work? And what's it like to edit the journal when you when you submit these things to peer review?

So me personally, have not yet participated in the peer review process as this is our first year as editors with the Review. So I can tell you like, kind of what we know, so far from the past editors. But so the peer reviewers are typically faculty from different institutions.

Oh, Okay (yeah) wow.

You really get your paper reviewed by like experts in your field, which is really an incredible experience. So we will work with those peer reviewers throughout the process and kind of like work with the editors to give her own feedback and be the kind of mediator between the peer reviewers and then the people who submit, but as of yet, we can't talk to the specifics since we've not kind of reached that part of the year.

Sure. Well, I mean, that sounds really incredible to think that, you know, when we consider ourselves to be peers in the peer review process, you know, we're all producers of knowledge at the undergraduate level, at the faculty level. So what you're telling me is that, you know, if you submit to the UMBC review, this, this work that you've submitted is actually going to be reviewed by experts in the field, from other universities. And that's a really cool feature, I think, of this of this process is that, you know, it's it may not even just be faculty at UMBC that have certain kinds of expertise. It's actually people who all across the country, who are the top scholars potentially, in their field, putting eyes to your paper, so wow, I mean, what an incredible opportunity. I wish that I had that as an undergraduate, I mean, that would have been a really great way to get some amazing feedback on the work that I'm, that I was trying to produce at the time. And I'm sure that it would have been a lot better than it ended up being. So that's really, really cool to hear. And I'm really, I'm really enthused to think about, you know, maybe some of the student listeners to the podcast, as they're preparing their submissions getting galvanized to receive some of that feedback from from experts across the country. You know, speaking of submissions, you know, I know maybe this is kind of the you're early in the process, kind of as editors, but it's kind of wondering, you know, looking back over some of the back issues of the journal, some of the recently published issues, or even any that have sort of already been submitted. Are there any social science papers, any sort of topics, or, or particular abstracts that kind of caught your eye as being especially kind of interesting?

Absolutely. One abstract that really did catch my eye was came out of the 2021 edition, an article by Sarah Driver, about the impact of pianos in homes, in middle class homes, in the 19th century. And of course I'm attracted to those history papers, but I really love unique histories, and this is definitely one of them. It's not by any means the only paper that has caught my eye, but I would say it's the one I'm most excited to have a look at.

Pianos in homes in the 19th century, is that right. That's such a fascinating topic. You know, I really kind of wonder what the process was whereby this particular student was able to come up with this as a specific focus of research. I will mention that we'll definitely a drop some of these have links to these papers in the show notes. So that any listeners who are interested in reading a little bit more about these particular papers can can check those out. Clair, do you have any that caught your eye specifically?

So one I was kind of looking over on the uhm, it's from the last issue we put out. Uhm just about the representation of agency of medieval aristocratic women. And I cannot pronounce the person's name, but uhm, Chrétien de Troyes , I'm most likely butchering it. But just how like the way that we represent groups of people, whether it's in the past or the future, can kind of show the agency that we either ascribe to them or even give them agency and just kind of playing with that. Just something I'm kind of trying to find the time to go and read the paper.

Alright, so the again, these are really fascinating papers that you have both chosen to highlight. And, you know, I also had a number of students who have worked on papers that have gone to the UMBC Review before, I'll shout out at least one of them. So my student Jacob Street from 2018 actually wrote a very interesting paper that appeared in the UMBC review that was about the various presentations of universal basic incom. Sort of ways that we might be able to frame that issue and sort of an evaluation of how those different frames impacted public support for the proposal. So certainly an interesting, provocative kind of topic. And I think that, you know, together with those that you recently mentioned, it really just showcases the diversity of the topics that are being studied in the UMBC review, and again, just the the incredible high quality of the publications that have appeared there. So yeah, thanks so much for shouting those out. You know, before we let you go, and again, thank you so much for agreeing to be here. Thanks so much for you know, taking the time to talk to me a bit about your role in the UMBC Review. And, you know, the the exciting possibility that students can submit to this to this publication in the near future. You know, obviously, you are both students with kind of unique vantage point on, on research, on how to conduct an academic study, because you're, you know, serving in this capacity as editors. I just wanted to ask you, you know, I often asked this question of faculty that we have on the podcast, but I thought it would be really interesting to ask you as well, if you had any pieces of advice for students who are hoping to sort of improve their skills in the social sciences and become, you know, maybe eventually professional researchers themselves.

So the biggest piece of advice I would say to any students listening is, don't be afraid to ask any questions. It doesn't matter if it feels dumb to you. If getting an answer gets you further and closer to where you want to be, that's all that matters. Reach out and ask those questions. And also really, really try and move past the imposter syndrome. You got yourself where you are, and you're gonna get yourself where you're going. So have faith in yourself, and have faith in the people around you who are going to help you get to the future you want.

Well said, Madelyn. I certainly think that that's a piece of advice that all of us can take to heart not just, you know, undergraduate students. You know, I think also about that relationship with the academic, you know, the advisor, not your economic adviser, who's going to tell you which courses you should take or help you with your schedule, but the advisor who's going to help guide that research process. I often find so much of the time that students have all this trepidation about approaching me with a research idea. And at the end of the day, it's such a silly thing, because I'm super excited about helping students craft those research proposals into something really tractable, really meaningful, and eventually, that might appear in the pages of the Review. But students always, you know, are holding back, I think, because they're a little concerned about this potential imposter syndrome and how could I possibly do research at this quality. Madelyn, you're telling us, and I agree with you completely, that you know, you got to believe in yourself and take that first step just reaching out to one of these faculty. Get involved, get connected and you know, that research process has to begin with a single step, right. What about you, Clair? Any any additional words of advice for us?

I really think just echoing what Madelyn just said, reaching out, taking advantage of opportunities and just not letting the fear of kind, you know, like, feeling like an imposter or being told no, 'cause like you just said too Dr. Anson, most professors are very excited to work with undergraduates and they're very willing and they're very helpful and absolutely wonderful. So just kind of getting over that fear, if you do feel fear and putting yourself out there and kind of trusting that it will work out. Yeah, and just having faith in yourself.

Having faith in ourselves. That's such an important point and such a great note to end on. Again, Clair Volkening, Madelyn Pollack, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Best wishes to both of you as you continue to edit the UMBC Review this year, and we really look forward to seeing what fantastic publications come out of that journal in the new issue which is coming out what, what, what time this year?

So it'll be coming out in April of 2023.

Perfect. April of 2023. I hope that all the listeners are marking their calendars right now and looking forward to getting a digital or print copy of the Review as soon as they possibly can. Thanks again to both of you for coming on the show.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Campus Connections, Campus Connections, Campus Connection, Campus Connections, Campus Connections.

Now it's time for Campus Connections, the part of the podcast where we connect today's featured content to other work happening at UMBC. Today, our awesome production assistant, Alex Andrews is back with a review of the UMBC Review. Alex, we've heard about several recent UMBC Review pieces that have sparked our guests interests. Are there any that stood out to you?

Thanks for that, Dr. Anson. I've selected two papers from the UMBC Review that really sparked my curiosity. For our first publication from the Review, I wanted to highlight the work of Melissa Williamson, a part time returning UMBC student majoring in history with a particular interest in Japan and Northern Europe. Notably, she won a Beacon prize for her paper "Hero in Silk, Hero in Steal" while in the Renaissance Scholars program at Montgomery College. Her essay "The Role of Art in the Tulip Mania Speculation During the Dutch Golden Age," covers how artwork depicting tulips helped the flower gain immense financial value. For my second publication, I chose "Physician Assisted Suicide and Maryland's End of Life Option Act" by Terrence Moore. Terrence is a social work major set to graduate in the spring of 2022 with a minor in psychology and plans to pursue a master's degree in social work. His paper discusses the ethics of social work regarding assisted suicide, and if Maryland should pass an assisted suicide act after its last attempt in 2020. That's all for Campus Connection. Thanks a lot, Dr. Anson.

Thanks so much, Alex for shouting out these great examples of UMBC undergraduate research. Remember that you can also submit your work to the UMBC Review by visiting the link in the show notes. Even if the deadline has passed, the editors may be able to accept your work on a rolling basis. So reach out to Clair and Madelyn if you have questions. That'll do it for today's episode of Retrieving the Social Sciences. Good luck on your research journey. And remember to keep questioning.