Research Sprints, hosted by the University of Virginia Library, offer faculty the opportunity to partner with a team of expert librarians on a specific project or component of a broader project. Sprints differ from one-time consultations in their timing and depth of interaction. Individuals or teams of faculty will work intensively with librarians for four and a half working days. The intention is for the entire team — faculty and library staff — to work without distractions for that period of time to produce a tangible product or outcome.
The program supports projects at any phase of the scholarly lifecycle, providing an excellent opportunity for faculty who want to get started on a new project or overcome an obstacle on an existing project. For example, startup projects might benefit from literature reviews or facilitated brainstorming, or from the design of a roadmap toward the application of technology to a research or a teaching problem; in-progress projects might require help on information or data organization or curation. Projects nearing completion might benefit from assistance in managing scholarly communications or designing programs, or identifying and evaluating intellectual property or copyright issues. We welcome proposals for projects that are exploratory and experimental, as well as those that are well advanced.
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.
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: