West Virginia Wesleyan College will host the inaugural Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Research Conference on Friday, March 26 and Saturday, March 27. The conference will feature more than 35 student presentations representing a variety of academic disciplines including: physics and physics-engineering, English, history, communications studies, religion, and environmental science.

The conference has attracted submissions from a variety of colleges and universities in the region, including West Virginia University, Mount Union College, Wheeling Jesuit University, Bethany College, and Marietta College. West Virginia Wesleyan College is also well represented on the conference program.

According to acting program secretary and Wesleyan Associate Professor of Philosophy Dr. Rob Hull, presenting the results of research or of one’s creative efforts has a variety of benefits: “Conference presentations are an essential academic experience in liberal arts education. Students have the opportunity to refine their work, form it into a coherent presentation and explain it before responding to comments and constructive criticisms. The sort of skills this develops will be valuable to the students regardless of what they may end up doing after graduation. Additionally, as a celebration of student creativity and learning, an event like this one fosters academic culture on campus while foregrounding the all-important feature of a liberal arts institution, the life of the mind.”

Students and faculty who attend presentations will also gain from the experience, according to Hull. “ We hope that students and faculty attend a few presentations outside their own academic specialization. Sometimes the various members of a learning community forget the excellent work students are doing in other departments, and this is an opportunity for us to recognize and learn from the achievement of students from a range of academic disciplines. We can also see what sort of work students from other campuses are doing, and this too, is a positive experience.”

The overwhelming response to the call for papers and presentations underscores the interest for a regional undergraduate conference, Hull reports. “In the end we had to turn away a number of promising submissions—the response was terrific. But the slate of presentations we have is very exciting. Remember that the conference will feature some of the finest work students are doing at West Virginia Wesleyan College and a number of peer institutions in the region.” The conference will be held in the Martin Religious Center in the back of Wesley Chapel. For more information contact Dr. Hull at hull@wvwc.edu.

For an online schedule of events visit the unofficial site of the Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Research Conference.