Research Sprints, hosted by the University of Virginia Library, offer faculty and staff researchers the opportunity to partner with a team of expert librarians on a specific project or a component of a broader project. These sprints extend beyond one-time consultations, offering deeper interaction and an extended time commitment. During the sprints, faculty or staff work intensively with librarians for three full working days. The goal is to work without distractions during that period to produce a tangible product or outcome.
The program supports projects at any phase of the scholarly lifecycle. It is ideal for those looking to initiate a new project or overcome hurdles in an ongoing one. For instance, startup projects could benefit from extensive literature reviews, facilitated brainstorming sessions, or the design of a technology application roadmap for research or teaching. in-progress projects might require help on information or data organization or curation. For projects nearing completion, the program can offer support in managing scholarly communications, designing programs, or addressing intellectual property and copyright issues. We welcome proposals for projects that are exploratory and experimental, as well as those that are well advanced.
For the 2025 program, we are extending the invitation to participate on a trial basis to staff members involved in research projects. These include projects undertaken in partnership with community organizations.
Potential project areas include, but are not limited to, the following areas in which we have in-house expertise:
We recommend that all project proposers, especially those whose projects involve the application of technology to research or teaching, consult with a staff member before submitting an application. Please contact Judith Thomas (jthomas@virginia.edu) for a referral.
You may be contacted by the selection committee with additional questions.
Rosalyn W. Berne, School of Engineering: Engineering and Society - Animals, Ethics, and Engineering. This Research Sprint will be used to refine and apply the technical tools needed to identify and record key elements found in the searched literature, towards the goal of preparing a book manuscript entitled, Animals, Ethics, and Engineering. The project will draw from the humanities and social sciences to formulate an applied approach to engineering ethics; one that acknowledges and recognizes the responsibilities of engineering design and practice to consider the welfare of non-human animals.
Library team:
Shu-Chen Chen, Arts and Sciences: East Asian Languages, Literatures and Culture - The Sprint will provide and facilitate support for two Scholars of Teaching and Learning research projects that have yielded improvements in assessed student learning outcomes since 2019. The two projects were already presented at national conferences-- the ACTFL annual conference in 2021 and the AAC&U 2022 Conference on Global Learning. By participating in this Sprint, Shu-Chen hopes to extend these presentations into published research material based on the collected empirical findings.
Library team:
MC Forelle, School of Engineering: Engineering and Society - This sprint will further my work on a book project, an examination of how increasingly digital automotive technologies, and the regulatory frameworks that apply to them, are making the work of repairing, maintaining, and modifying cars independently more and more difficult. My goal for Summer 2023 is to complete a detailed book proposal, including at least one substantive chapter where I will trace the parallels between technological development and regulatory pressures, thus requiring me to identify archives of technical knowledge and archives of regulatory/legislative history.
Library team:
T. Kenny Fountain, Arts and Sciences: English - Copyright & Intellectual Property Issues in Digital/Social Media Research. During this research sprint, I would like to work with librarians to identify and evaluate intellectual property and copyright issues in relation to my current book project. I am writing a book—Suspicious Attractions: QAnon and the Lure of Conspiracy Thinking in a Digital Ages—that traces the QAnon conspiracy theory from its historical antecedents to its early days as Pizzagate rumors and 4chan posts, to the now full-blown super-conspiracy amplified daily by conservative media, rightwing politicians, evangelical Christians, and New Age practitioners. My project combines digital ethnography, cultural history, and a close reading of the texts and media that make up this protean, hyper-partisan political myth.
Library team:
Erik Linstrum, Arts and Sciences: History - This Sprint will support preliminary research for a book project on the British Empire and global reaction after the First World War. How far did the new model of fascist dictatorship appeal to the empire’s rulers as they faced a wave of revolt from Ireland to Africa to India? Looking beyond aristocratic figures like Evelyn Waugh and Lord Londonderry notorious for their fascist sympathies, this Sprint will delve into newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, diaries, and letters to determine whether the less celebrated overseas ranks of bureaucrats, settlers, planters, and traders saw European fascism as a solution to British imperial problems.
Library team:
Channing Mathews, Arts and Sciences: Psychology - Psychometric Evaluation of the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI) and the MIBI-Teen. This research sprint conduct an interdisciplinary literature review to assess how Black racial identity has been assessed quantitatively over the past 50 years. This literature review will support psychometric review of the evolution of Black racial identity measurement and its implications for current assessment of Black racial identity in relationship to psychosocial outcomes such as academic well-being, sociopolitical development, and positive mental health.
Nathan Wendte, Arts and Sciences: Anthropology; Interdisciplinary Program in Linguistics - This Sprint seeks to identify strains of research within the emergent field of ecolinguistics that could best explain the particular ecology of Louisiana Creoles speakers in a peripheral zone of the language’s traditional speaker area. The team will sift through the most current ecolinguistics literature while simultaneously gathering information on the sociohistorical and sociolinguistic demographics of Louisiana Creole speakers along the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain with the aim to support prospective reclamation work within the community.
Library team:
Janet Kong-Chow, American Studies and English, College of Arts and Sciences: This Sprint supports early research for a book manuscript exploring the processes through which the modern archive (physical and digital) came to be understood as a site of knowledge production in the West, and as such, how its curatorial practices continue to shape and transform ideas of race, ethnicity, gender, and postcoloniality in the American cultural imagination.
Library team:
Mary Kuhn, English, College of Arts and Sciences: This Sprint team will research the cultural history of Paris Green, a toxic arsenic-based compound widely used in domestic and agricultural settings in the late nineteenth-century United States. The project will draw on scientific and popular periodicals, agricultural and gardening manuals, advertisements, wallpaper samples, and other domestic material culture.
Library team:
Moira O’Neill, Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture and Law School: This Research Sprint will conduct an interdisciplinary literature review to support writing a book on how local governments implement climate and fair housing policy. The team will review both urban planning and law literature in their investigation of topics relating to spatial inequity, community participation in policy-making, and land use regulation.
Library team:
Michael Puri, Music, College of Arts and Sciences: The goal of this Research Sprint is to flesh out the cultural politics surrounding the relationship between French and German music at the turn of the twentieth century. The composers Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss receive particular attention as prominent and closely related representatives of the two traditions.
Library team:
Dylan Rogers, Art History and Archeology, College of Arts and Sciences: The Sprint will provide research support for an interdisciplinary book project on the history of the University of Virginia, which seeks to employ methodologies of archaeology, art history, and architectural history to understand better how the University’s physical imprint and cultural significance developed over time. The Sprint will lay the crucial groundwork for identifying and collating the numerous available archival materials housed in the University’s Library that provide insight into UVA’s complex history.
Library team:
Jessica Sewell, Planning, School of Architecture: This Sprint will provide support for the forthcoming book, “Gender and Vernacular Architecture,” which is simultaneously a primer for studying gender in vernacular architecture and a guide and manifesto for inclusive methodologies in the study of the built environment. The Sprint will assist in finding and acquiring illustrations, supporting and enhancing the argument, and boosting the beauty and accessibility of the book.
Library team:
Michael Sheehy, Contemplative Sciences Center: The Sprint will research topics at the intersection of sensory deprivation and meditation with a focus on self-emergent and hallucinatory visual experiences during dark exposure. The team will collaboratively identify multimedia resources on preselected topics in Religious Studies, Anthropology, Psychology, and Neuroscience.
Library team:
Ben Small, Architecture, School of Architecture: This project takes a close look at visitor centers commissioned by various government organizations in the United States and asks how these buildings might be understood in terms of local concepts of place and broader political agendas. The project team will collect and interpret documentation such as commission contracts, brochures, and more, related to publicly-funded visitor centers.
Library team:
Shilpa Davé, Media Studies, Arts and Sciences: This Sprint will investigate how media representations of English speakers and the relationship to the English language comment on racial and social cultural histories of the United States.
Library team:
Katy Ambrose, Music, Arts and Sciences: This Sprint will provide research support for a book about horn players of African descent in the United States, with a large focus on enslaved huntsmen on the estates of the “Founding Fathers” in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic.
Library team:
Erin Putalik, Architecture, School of Architecture: The Sprint team will research the ways in which formaldehyde-based adhesives and resins became so integral to contemporary building materials. The project will delve into patent history, case law, and key digital repositories of technical literature for building materials, with a focus on the 1940s-70s.
Library team:
Joel Thurston and Stephanie Shipp, Biocomplexity Institute: The Sprint team will conduct a literature review on team science as it relates to working in a virtual environment, and will develop a data collection plan targeting gaps in the literature with a focus on connecting team science practices to practical outcomes (e.g., overcoming communication obstacles, and strengthening interpersonal connections between team members).
Library team:
Nicole Bonino, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, Arts & Sciences: The Sprint will provide research support for a multi-disciplinary book on the artistic and literary manifestations of migratory dynamics in the urban spaces of the “Southern Cone” (the southernmost area of South America). The project will analyze visual and plastic art, novels, and films highlighting issues of race, space, and social justice.
Library team:
Toni Irving, Darden School: This Sprint will provide research support for a developing project about the relationship between 19th century arcades, consumer culture, and citizenship. The Sprint will lay a groundwork of archival research, related published scholarship, and public data sets to launch this project.
Library Team:
Priya Date, Biology, Engagement, Arts and Sciences: This Sprint will provide support to review current pedagogy literature in order to create a framework to integrate the arts in a science classroom, helping to redesign/restructure a sensory biology course such that it supports creativity and makes science learning accessible.
Library Team:
Rachel Most, Anthropology, Dean’s Office, Arts and Sciences: This Sprint will provide research support for a chapter in a proposed book on higher education. The chapter focuses on who should go to college, why one should attend college, what one should expect in college, and why a liberal arts degree is preparation for a lifetime of various jobs and careers.
Library Team:
Derrick Alridge, Curry School of Education & Human Development: Provide research support for a book project about the role of African American teachers in the civil rights movement. The project will draw on oral histories, teachers' personal papers, and various archives to discern teachers' activism inside and outside the classroom.
Library team:
Kirsten Gelsdorf, Batten School: Engage in research that will result in a book on that will include discourse, data, and case studies arguing for the global humanitarian imperative. The sprint will develop a research plan, including published scholarship, gray literature, and archival sources.
Library team:
Adrienne Ghaly, Arts & Sciences New Curriculum, English: Provide research support for both a book project and a digital humanities collaboration with JSTORLabs to create visual essays tracking the cultural processes contributing to manmade species extinction in materials of everyday life.
Library team:
Jonathan Kropko, School of Data Science: Tech companies, from local startups to giants like Facebook and Google, have programs that use the expertise of tech and data professionals to work on projects to benefit the "social good". We study the rich history of collaboration between UVA researchers and the city of Charlottesville on community-involved projects and we use this history to generate recommendations and guidelines to help projects for the social good be ethical and successful.
Library team:
Heidi Nobles, College of Arts & Sciences, English: Heidi Nobles, English, College of Arts & Sciences: Expand archival materials for a developing course on writing processes and products by discovering additional archives, negotiating copyright issues, and creating innovative formats for publishing/producing course material.
Library team:
Natasha Heller, Religious Studies, College of Arts & Sciences: Examine publication and citation practices in Buddhist Studies to provide a quantified overview of gender disparities in this field.
Library team:
Fiona Greenland, Sociology, College of Arts & Sciences: Provide research support for a new book project about the restitution of Nazi art plunder as a causal mechanism of moral development in American perceptions of the Holocaust.
Library team:
William Hitchcock, History, College of Arts & Sciences: Provide research support for a book project about American opposition to Nazism and the imperialist nations of Europe and Asia, illuminating America’s long history of combating fascism.
Library team:
Marcy Linton, Drama, College of Arts & Sciences: Devise a plan to document and provide intellectual access to the contents of the Drama Department’s Historic Collection of Dress.
Library team:
Katie Stranix and JT Bachman, Architecture, School of Architecture: Expand upon the ideas and the research of the project Rest Ops, which explores the potential of rest stops to provide moments of connection, meditation, and play.
Library team:
Kelly Sulick, Music, College of Arts & Sciences. Create a research plan and a literature review across a number of fields relating to the work of the German sound artist/flutist/composer Christina Kubisch.
Library team: