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Undergraduate Library Research Award: Home

The Undergraduate Library Research Award (ULRA)

ABOUT THE AWARD

Established in 1997 by the Hofstra University Library faculty, the Undergraduate Library Research Award (ULRA) recognizes excellence in academic research by a graduating senior. 

Three awards of $500 each will be given for academic papers demonstrating exemplary research authored by seniors scheduled to graduate in December or May of the current academic year.  An award will be given for an outstanding paper in each of the three academic disciplines: Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences.  Past winners have come from the departments of Fine Arts, History, Music, Political Science, Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Global Studies & Geography, and Psychology.

In addition to the $500 prize, winning papers are published on the ULRA website during the academic year following the granting of the award, and winning authors are featured in Hofstra Horizons for Undergraduate Research magazine.

All papers must be nominated by the faculty member for whom the paper was written.  Papers with multiple authors and papers written in foreign languages are welcomed.  Papers are read carefully by a faculty selection committee. Submissions that demonstrate exceptional academic research practices and the extraordinary selection and use of research resources are rewarded.

Please read all guidelines carefully.  Things to note:

  • Faculty must submit a Turnitin.com originality report for each paper submitted at the time the online submission is made.
  • Faculty may sponsor more than one submission.
  • Students may submit more than one paper, but only one paper per course, per discipline, and only one award to a student.
  • Students may submit papers authored solely as well as co-authored papers, but the papers must be from different courses.
  • Multiple authors need to submit individual submission forms, but only one copy of a co-authored paper need be submitted.
  • Foreign language papers must be accompanied by a 1,000-word English language summary.

Please see the guidelines for complete instructions.

The deadline for submission is April 19, 2024.  The recipients of the award will be announced on May 1, 2024.

LINKS:

Submission Guidelines for Students and Faculty

Student Submission Form (Must be printed out, signed, and given to sponsoring faculty.)

Faculty Submission Form (Requires logging into the my.hofstra.edu portal.)

2023 ULRA Recipients

2023 Winner - Humanities: Isabella Colombo.  ""Nothing Is More Useful for Mortals than the Skepticism of a Sound Mind": Euripides' Helen as a Response to the Disaster in Sicily" for Prof. Steven Daniel Smith, CLL 197, Departmental Honors Candidacy: Essay, Department of Comparative Language, Literatures, and Linguistics

2023 Winner - Social Sciences: Sinjita Bhattacharya. ""At the End of the Day, It's Going to be on Me": Ableism, Stigma, and the Social Role of South Asian American Siblings to Disabled People" for Prof. Johanna Shih, SOC 100, Departmental Honors Candidacy: Department of Sociology

Past Winners

2022 Winner – Humanities: Jessica Hansen. “Existentialism in Literature: Why Existentialist and Absurdist Themes are Best Portrayed Through Works of Fiction” for Prof. Bartholomew Joseph Slaninka, PHL 193, Departmental Honors Candidacy: Essay, Department of Philosophy

2022 Winner – Sciences: Sam Gong. “Elemental Profiling of Gunshot Residue using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy” for Prof. Ling Huang, FOR 100, Departmental Honors Candidacy: Research, Department of Chemistry

2022 Winner – Social Sciences: Caitlin O'Brien. “Votes for Service? The Limits of Military and Foreign Policy Credentials in Post-9/11 United States Presidential Elections” for Prof. Meena Bose, PSC 100, Departmental Honors Candidacy: Essay, Department of Political Science

2022 Honorable Mention – Sciences: Ciara Negron. “Tree Inequality in the Town of Hempstead: A Study of Environmental Justice” for Prof. Jase E. Bernhardt, SBLY 110, Department of Geology, Environment and Sustainability

2021 Winner – Humanities: Katherine Dickenson.  “How Dialect Functions As True Language in the Austrian Turn-Of-The-Century Sprachkrise and Its Result” for Prof. Neil H. Donahue, GERM 100, Senior Honors Thesis, Department of Comparative Literature, Languages, & Linguistics

2021 Winner – Social Sciences: Alixandra Wilens.  “The Contested Origins of Altruism:  Child Reciprocity and Parent Engagement in Relation to Altruistic Prosocial Behavior in Preschoolers” for Prof. Brian D. Cox, PSY 100, Senior Honors Thesis, Department of Psychology

2021 Winner – Social Sciences: Dejan Perich Soto.  “By the Nation, For the Nation: Government Support for Film in Peruvian Legislation during the Authoritarian Regimes of Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975) and Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000)” for Prof. Carolyn M. Dudek, PSC 100, Senior Honors Thesis, Department of Political Science

2020 Winner – Humanities: Samuel Falotico.  “Sentence Structure and the Jazz Canon” for Prof. Philip S. Stoecker, Music 100, Senior Honors Thesis, Department. of Music

2020 Winner – Sciences: Brandon Crofts.  “Counting  Solutions  of  a2 + pbc = 0 in a Cube” for Prof. Eric Rowland, Mathematics 190, Senior Honors Thesis, Department of Mathematics

2020 Winner – Social Sciences: Michael Callahan.  “American Extended Deterrence and Allied Nuclear Non-Proliferation” for Prof. Paul Fritz, Political Science 100, Senior Honors Thesis, Department of Political Science

2019 Winner: Isaac Hoffman.  “The Power of the Childbearer in Aeschylus' Agamemnon” for Prof. Steven Daniel Smith, CLL197: Departmental Honors Candidacy: Essay, Comparative Literature, Languages, and Linguistics

2019 Winner: Nicole Homburger.  “Rapid NMR Spectroscopic Identification of Opioids” for Prof. Ling Huang, FOR199: Departmental Honors Candidacy: Research, Forensic Science Program/Chemistry

2019 Winner: Thomas McGlone.  “Equality and Necessity: An Examination of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Egalitarian Philosophy” for Prof. Ira Jay Singer, PHI193: Department Honors Candidacy: Essay, Philosophy

2018 Winner: Hirra Arain. “Astrocytes Exposed to Chronic High Glucose Promotes Neuronal Synaptic Loss Through Impaired Nutrient Support: Implications for Alzheimer’s Disease Progression” for Prof. Jason D. Williams, BIO90A: Intro to Lab Research, Biology

2018 Winner: Jason Belanger. "Plunking Notes" or Teaching Music? A Thesis on Interactions between Actors and Music Directors in the Rehearsal Room” for Prof. Jennifer Lee Hart, Drama100: Honors Thesis, Drama 100

2018 Winner: Alexander Hayes. “Far Right Politics and the Shaping of Migration Policy Austria and Germany’s Divergence” for Prof. Carolyn Marie Dudek, PSC100: Senior Honors Thesis, Political Science

2017 Winner: Sarah Gerwens.  “Anglicisms - Nein Danke?  Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of the Occurrence and Usage of English Loanwords in Contemporary German” for Prof. Zilkia Janer, GS100: Global Studies.

2017 Winner: Richard Myers.  “On the Dressing of String Solutions” for Prof. Benjamin Burrington, PHYS100: Physics and Astronomy.

2017 Winner: Carmen Pestano.  “Cayuco and Euro Crises: Changing EU Governance of Migration Policy?” for Prof. Carolyn Dudek, PSC100: Political Science.

2016 Winner: Maryum Alam. "When Does Counterinsurgency Work? An Analysis of Counterinsurgency Campaigns After 1945" for Prof. Paul Brian Fritz, PSC100: Political Science.
2016 Winner: Angelika Rafalowsky. "Structural Determinants of Cephamycinase Activity in FOX-4 Cephamycinase" for Prof. Scott Travis Lefurgy, BCHM183: Biochemical Research.

2016 Winner: Nicole Speth. "Female Homoeroticism in the Roman Empire: How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Disruption of a Phallocentric Model of Sexuality?" for Prof. Daniel Smith, CLL197: Humanities.

2015 Winner: Irina R. Fanarraga. "Mental Health Courts: An Effective Criminal Diversion Alternative," for Dr, Robin A Flaton, PSY100: Psychology.

2015 Winner Victoria G. Neely. "Presidential Personality: Cases in Foreign Policymaking," for Dr. Meenekshi Bose, PSC100: Political Science.

2014 Winner: Katherine Pachnos. "G'day, Gothic!: The British Gothic, Cloudstreet, and Contemporary Australian Consciousness," for Dr. Scott B. Harshbarger, Honors Essay, ENGL199: English.

2014 Winner: Patrick Tierney.  "Practical Skepticism, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love to Doubt," for Dr. Mark V. McEvoy, Honors Thesis, PHL193: Philosophy.

2013 Winner: Ashley Rothbart. "A Figure Study: Depictions of King David in Renaissance and Baroque Art," for Dr. Claire K. Lindgren, Honors Essay, AH100: Art History.

2013 Winner: Jesse Crosson. "The 'Art of the Possible': No Child Left Behind, the Affordable Care Act, and Bipartisanship in the Twenty-First Century," for Dr. Meenekshi Bose, Honors Essay, PSC100: Political Science. 

2012 Winner: William Barna, II. U.S. Military Intervention for Humanitarian Purposes: Exception to Policy or an Emerging Norm?,” for Dr. Paul Brian Fritz, Honors Thesis, PSC100: Political Science.

2012 Winner: Etana Jacobi. iGlobalization: Kodak, Apple, and the Evolution of U.S. Employment from 1960 to 2012, for Dr. Grant R. Saff, Honors Thesis, GS100: Global Studies.

2011 Winner: Alex Moore, "Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Creation of American Dance, 1619-1950.” for Prof. Dyane Harvey-Salaam, Honors Thesis, Global Studies 180

2011 Winner: Brendan Barnes, "Enter Pirates:  The Role of Piracy in Late Elizabethan Drama.” for Prof. Vimala C. Pasupathi, Honors Essay, English 199

2010 Winner: Jason Curreri, "The Question of Assimilation Defined from Cherokee and Euro-American Perspectives,” for Prof. Karyn Valerius, Honors Essay, ENG199

2009 Winner: Amanda Braverman, "Personality Aspects and Blame Style of Singers with Performance Anxiety,” for Prof. Michael J. Barnes, PSY100

2008 Winner: Jessica Knobler, "Photography, Politics, and the Holocaust 1920-1950," for Prof. Sally Charnow, HIS100

2003 Winner: Lisa B. Ross, "The Role of Word Class in the Attrition of School Learned French: are Nouns or Verbs More Likely to be Lost?," for Prof. Evelyn Altenberg, SPCH100

2002 Winner: Laura Vosswinkel, "Government Response to the Pullman Strike," for Prof. Susan Yohn, HIS185

2001 Winner: Janine Vannata, "Jasper Johns' Paintings and the Habit of Perception," Prof. Laurie Fendrich, UHP020

2000 Winner: Christopher Doherty, "Johannes Brahms and Idiomatic Writing for the Horn," Prof. Howard Cinnamon, MUS100

1999 Winner: David Creed, "Fooled by 'A Dream': The Strategic Defense Initiative's Role in Ending the Cold War," for Prof. Meena Bose, PSC134

1998 Winner: Donnalynn Gazza, "The Chemical Weapons Convention: An International Paradigm of Cooperation," for Prof. Meena Bose, PSC134

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