The Scholarship & Social Justice Undergraduate Research Conference will be held on Thursday, April 18th and Friday, April 19th, 2024. The Request for Proposals (RFP) will be released in December 2023 and registration for the conference will open in Feburary 2024. If you are an undergraduate conducting independent research, we encourage you to submit a proposal to share your research. Click here for the RFP
History of the conference
Since 2015, this conference led by the Center for Public Service & Engaged Scholarship and Harvard Foundation for Intercultural & Race Relations at Harvard College has welcomed undergraduate students from private and public institutions across the nation. With each year of this conference, we continue to be impressed with the rigor and depth of the research undertaken by undergraduate scholars from across the country. This conference is partnered with the Campus Compact for Southern New England Region, as well as the following Harvard affilates: Undergraduate Research and Fellows Office, Global Health Institute, Inequality Initiative in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Office of BGLTQ Harvard College, Harvard College Women's Center.
Purpose statement
This conference seeks to bring staff, faculty and undergraduates together to celebrate social-justice focused scholarship, and reflective learning. The purpose of this conference is:
- to honor scholarship which focuses on challenges facing society with regard to equity and inclusion and historically marginalized and under-represented communities;
- to illuminate community-engaged research which reflects qualities of reciprocity and mutuality in the co-creation of scholarship, in addition to being transdisciplinary and inclusive of knowledge from outside the academy.
- to provide undergraduate researchers an opportunity to engage in academic discourse and research dissemination
For student scholars, this is an opportunity to engage in academic dialogue with peers and faculty mentors. For faculty, this conference presents an opportunity to explore about how other disciplines conduct research that creates new knowledge and understanding about equity and social justice and to be inspired by the next generation of scholars.
In particular, we hope that this conference will encourage historically under-represented students to pursue careers in the academy.
If you want to see a sample of what the conference is like, please go here to see the faculty panel from 2018
Videos of the 2018 conference can be found here.