Faculty Fellows

The goals of the Office for Undergraduate Research (OUR) are to continue to expand the opportunities for undergraduates to engage in authentic research, mentored scholarship, and creative performance at UNC Charlotte.  OUR provides opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage with the undergraduate research enterprise through curricular innovation, co-curricular mentored research experiences, and dissemination of novel research knowledge to diverse audiences through professional and public conferences. To support this effort, OUR employs several Faculty Fellows as thought leaders to help develop and lead programming that directly serves students and research mentors supporting the mission of OUR.

Faculty Learning Community (Kefaya Diab & Rick White)

OUR seeks to identify two faculty fellowships for curricular innovation.  The responsibilities of these fellows are to organize and lead a faculty learning community on embedding undergraduate research into the curriculum.  The fellows, with the assistance of the Director of OUR, will curate a reading list of general and disciplinary resources to provide relevant examples for curricular integration of scaffolded undergraduate research experiences, transferable skill development through UR, Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE), and best practices for teaching research skills and processes through the curriculum.  The fellows will recruit willing faculty across diverse colleges and departments, organize and lead a series of discussions, journal clubs, books groups, or other relevant sessions to examine, evaluate, and innovate curricular adaptations that are culturally appropriate for UNC Charlotte from these discussions.  The two fellows will come from different disciplines in the natural and social sciences or humanities and arts.

Goals for this fellowship include:

  • Engaging current faculty members in curricular discussions
  • Encourage current faculty to innovate in courses with Undergraduate Research
  • Develop ideas adaptable to disciplinary curricula for UR embedding
  • Build cohort confidence in exploring curricular UR integration among members
  • Identify additional Professional Development opportunities for embedding UR into curricula for faculty and teaching staff
  • Report outcomes to the Director of OUR annually

Qualifications:

  • Tenured or tenure-track faculty members
  • Experienced undergraduate research mentor

Faculty fellows will meet regularly with the Director of OUR to provide leadership for OUR and to communicate progress towards deliverable tasks.

Duration of the fellowship is for two years with the potential for renewal for a third year based on outcomes.

Undergraduate Research Journal (Eric Millard)

OUR seeks to identify a faculty fellowship for dissemination of undergraduate research.  The responsibilities of this fellow are to explore, examine, consider different models for undergraduate research journals at UNC Charlotte.  The fellow will not only evaluate existing models, but they will seek campus partners, as appropriate, and recommend a sustainable, culturally appropriate model for an undergraduate research journal at UNC Charlotte.

Goals for this fellowship include:

  • Compile a list of models for UR Journals
  • Engage students and mentors at UNC Charlotte by convening focus groups or soliciting campus input as appropriate
  • Evaluate existing models and recommend a sustainable model for a UR Journal at UNC Charlotte
  • Identify a path forward for publication of issue 3 within 1 year
  • Advance the implementation of the new model, as appropriate, by seeking campus partners and collaborators
  • Report outcomes to the Director of OUR annually

Faculty fellows will meet regularly with the Director of OUR to provide leadership for OUR and to communicate progress towards deliverable tasks.

Duration of the fellowship is one year with the potential for renewal for a second year to launch the Journal model.

Undergraduate Research Conference (Erik Byker)

OUR seeks to identify a faculty fellowship for dissemination of undergraduate research.  The responsibilities of this fellow are to manage and run all aspects of the Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) in collaboration with the OUR staff.  The fellow chairs the URC committee composed of a broad set of representatives that match the diversity of colleges, departments, and disciplines represented in the UR enterprise at UNC Charlotte.  

Goals for this fellowship include:

  • Chair the URC committee
  • Coordinate student volunteers
  • Engage constituents to remove barriers to participation in URC events
  • Coordinate with the OUR staff on
    • Communication and Marketing for the URC
    • Space reservations, catering, budgeting, facilities, easels, etc
    • Assessment plans
  • Coordinate and manage URC planning and execution including but not limited to:
    • Soliciting student presentations
    • Soliciting faculty judges
    • URC awards management
  • Symposium by Forager One site development and management
  • Collect assessment of URC activities providing raw data and preliminary analysis to OUR staff
  • Report outcomes to the Director of OUR annually

Faculty fellows will meet regularly with the Director of OUR to provide leadership for OUR and to communicate progress towards deliverable tasks.

The term of the fellowship is one year with renewals on an annual basis.