On Friday Sept. 21, 2018, student research on Alice Dunbar-Nelson, a little-known African American writer, teacher, and activist, was featured at the 2018 Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Connelly Center. The research was conducted as part of a three-student team that traveled this past spring to an archive at the University of Delaware with Dr. Jean Lutes, associate professor of English.
Gia Beaton, a sophomore economics and political science major, spoke about Alice Dunbar Nelson's work as an educator and her quest for racial justice. Gia also presented the research of English major Jacquelyn Solomon, who was unable to attend. Jackie transcribed an unpublished short story of Dunbar-Nelson's and compared it to the manuscript and published versions of another story.
This was the first time the Villanova research symposium included oral presentations by students in the humanities, in addition to poster sessions. The oral presentations were so successful that the Center for Research and Fellowships intends to make them a standard part of the annual symposium.
