Strategies for Organizing a Scholarly Sojourn
As a Humanities Correspondent, I've had the opportunity to embark on a research trip, an enlightening experience that came with its fair share of challenges. This article aims to share some key tips for undergraduate students planning their own research trips, focusing on advanced planning, securing funding, and detailed scheduling.
Advanced Planning
Selecting a research area closely related to your academic field and interests is crucial. This will help in identifying a suitable supervisor and relevant resources. Preliminary research is essential to define a clear, manageable research topic and formulate a research question early. Break your project into manageable tasks and dedicate time consistently, using techniques like the Pomodoro technique for focus.
Funding Sources
Explore institutional funding such as travel awards or research supplies grants offered competitively by your university’s research and creative endeavors programs. For example, Eastern Kentucky University offers Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (URE) Travel Awards to support presenting research at professional conferences, and research supply awards to assist with financial barriers. Additionally, external funding like the National Science Foundation's International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program provides international research opportunities with mentorship in foreign labs. U.S. citizens/permanent residents can apply, often needing letters, transcripts, and statements of purpose. Other programs include federal internships via the Pathways Program offering paid research-related employment opportunities.
The Student Activities Funding Engine (SAFE) offers a wide variety of funding opportunities for research trips. It's also beneficial to ask faculty and administrators in your home department and/or certificate programs for funding for research trips.
Day-by-Day Scheduling
When planning your itinerary, critically evaluate how much time each research site or destination requires, balancing deep investigation with realistic time constraints. Allocate more time to your top priorities and less to less essential stops. For example, spending 2–3 days per primary destination with shorter visits for secondary sites can keep the schedule manageable and productive. Maintain a flexible but structured timeline to handle unexpected research challenges.
Remember to give yourself more time than needed when planning research destinations, due to additional time spent traveling between sites, registering for access, and waiting for materials. It's also important to check in advance if libraries or archives are open, as their business hours may not be standard.
Practical Experiences
During my research trip in Boston, I visited the Massachusetts Historical Society, Harvard’s Houghton Library, and Harvard Divinity School’s Andover-Harvard Theological Library. Spending time in reading rooms took more time than anticipated during a research trip. I also had to travel to Boston to view manuscript collections of prominent antislavery activists, as Princeton’s own library system may not contain all necessary material for a research project.
In conclusion, successful undergraduate research trips rely on early topic selection and project scoping, applying for dedicated funding early through university and external programs, and a balanced, prioritized daily schedule that allows both depth and breadth within practical time limits. Seeking faculty mentorship and leveraging institutional resources are also critical components for success.
My time in Boston was a great hands-on learning experience, and I'm looking forward to similar work when I begin thesis research this summer. However, I encountered bumps along the way, such as realising I had been unrealistic in the amount of material I wanted to get through on my research trip, and that if I had also visited the public library, it would have been unmanageable. It's essential to keep these factors in mind when planning your research trip.
References:
- Planning a Research Trip
- Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (URE)
- The Pomodoro Technique
- International Research Experiences for Students (IRES)
- Pathways Program
- For undergraduate students aiming to embark on a junior paper research trip, personal growth and learning opportunities are abundant, especially through hands-on experiences like visiting libraries and archives.
- The process of planning a research trip, including securing funding and advanced planning, is crucial for self-development as it equips students with education-and-self-development skills like time management, research techniques, and project organization, as demonstrated by the author's experience in Boston.
