Bristol Community College President Laura L. Douglas and students to be featured at the 2021 Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference

Bristol Community College President Laura L. Douglas and Bristol students will be featured at the virtual 2021 Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference (MassURC), on Friday, April 23, 2021. The MassURC serves as an opportunity for undergraduate students from Massachusetts’ public colleges, universities and community colleges to showcase their research and engage with peers, faculty and conference attendees. The conference will feature the research of 910 undergraduate students representing 26 of the Massachusetts public higher education institutions.

Laura L Douglas, President of Bristol Community College will participate in the MassURC’s live panel discussion and Q&A session, alongside distinguished leadership from across the Massachusetts public higher education spectrum, including F. Javier Cevallos, President of Framingham State University and Kumble R. Subbaswamy, Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The leaders will engage with student presenters in a 45-minute discussion and Q&A session and share the impact that undergraduate research and creative scholarship have had on their careers.

Bristol Community College students Celina Brasil of South Attleboro, Robert Comerford of North Attleboro, Katherine Haley of Fall River, Magielette Hudson of Fall River and Hannah Walsh of Westport will represent the college’s Commonwealth Honors program and showcase their research projects conducted during the Spring 2021 semester.

H. Zahra Caldwell, Associate Professor in the Ethnic and Gender Studies Department at Westfield State University, has been selected as the 2021 MassURC keynote speaker. Her keynote, “Research & Wonder, The Terrible, The Historical, and The Joyous,” will explore Caldwell’s own cultural history research and wonder surrounding a lineage of Black women activist artists and the often terrible historical and modern backdrops within which they created and existed as artists and citizens. Professor Caldwell is an educator and cultural historian who teaches in the fields of history, Black studies and women’s studies.

The day-long conference will provide pre-recorded and live programming. All students will have pre-recorded research presentations available for viewing on the MassURC mobile app. beginning on Tuesday, April 20. Many of the MassURC presenters will participate in live discussions about their work during the “Research in Conversation” sessions on the day of the conference.

For more information about the 2021 Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference, including student researcher spotlights, please visit https://www.umass.edu/honors/curriculum/opportunities/MassURC