ASH Scholars

The Honors College and the Office of Undergraduate Research jointly support teams of undergraduate research students in the arts, social sciences or humanities (ASH) disciplines, who collaboratively work as members of a faculty-led research or design team.

Each ASH Scholars program consists of eight to 12 students who work closely with a faculty team on an established research project. ASH Scholars are awarded a scholarship of $3,000 for the year. There are five current ASH Projects:

  • Art of Death (Visual Studies) – Students on the Art of Death team will examine death, dying and grief within a culture via interdisciplinary research. Each student will learn and incorporate new technology into projects, such as interactive video, AI and VR. The goal of the research will be to present multimedia exhibitions to facilitate conversations about these typically somber and painful themes.
  • Close Relationships (Psychological Sciences) – This is a collaborative project examines the behavioral and psychophysiological correlates of adolescents’ functioning within friendships. This project provides students with relevant training, research experiences, and opportunities for authorship on conference presentations.
  • Collaborative Research in African Linguistics (CORAL) (Linguistics & English) – Students on the CORAL team will gain hands-on experience conducting professional research in linguistics, working closely with dedicated faculty mentors. They have an opportunity to participate in original, cutting-edge interdisciplinary work that uses linguistic data to address historical questions. They can contribute to research that address questions about the classification and evolution of languages, reconstructing the past from modern-day linguistic data.
  • Minority Focused News as a Locus of Empowerment (Communication) – The primary goal of this research is to document and analyze how persons of color are portrayed by minority-focused news outlets. By using data collection, surveys, and analysis of news coverage, this team aims to make contributions to publications and policy reform. Documenting how persons of color are represented within the media, especially minority-focused media provide powerful insights into how opinions about ethnic others are formed.
  • Public History (History and Kinder Institute) – The Kinder Institute ASH team will concern itself with public engagement in the run up to the United States’s semiquincentennial anniversary. The team will focus on two projects. First, they will conduct oral histories the canvas’s views of mid-Missourians concerning the United States as it turns 250. Second, the team will produce a website with vlogs of foreign historians giving brief birthday toasts (or roasts) for America’s coming birthday.

How to Apply

To apply for this scholarship, log into ScholarshipUniverse using your MU assigned username and password and search “ASH Scholarship”.

Applications for the 2024-2025 academic year will be open in summer 2024 and are due by Wednesday, July 31.