by Carly Schnitzler, Graduate Communications Editor
The Department of English and Comparative Literature (ECL) is introducing two Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) this fall. These CURE course offerings aim to engage undergraduate students in hypothesis-driven research problems outside of traditionally research-intensive STEM disciplines.
The two CURE courses offered this fall are ENGL 353: Metadata, Mark-up, and Mapping: Rhetoric and Digital Humanities, taught by Dr. Courtney Rivard, and ENGL 385: Literature and Law, taught by Dr. Jennifer Larson. Both courses encourage students to think critically about the contexts of the primary sources they draw upon and to ask and explore questions of language’s relationship to history through established and emerging research methodologies in English and Comparative Literature. Dr. Rivard and Dr. Larson are bringing a humanities focus to the roster of CURE courses, allowing their unique research expertise to reach interested undergraduates earlier in their academic careers. Professors are encouraged to “create an authentic research experience for students to let them explore novel and unscripted research questions,” says Dr. Rivard, and these ECL CURE courses will allow students to do just that.
