Course Enrichment Grants, offered by the University of Virginia Library, provide support to faculty interested in enhancing students’ abilities to seek, evaluate, manage, and use information and data in scholarly contexts, as well as create media-rich class assignments.
Faculty recipients of these grants will receive:
The program aims to fund projects that promote student learning in the following areas. All funded projects will involve partnership with a team of library staff with expertise in the proposed topic.
Who is eligible? How do I apply?
What are the selection criteria?
What are the expectations of the faculty?
Other considerations:
Learn more
Attend an information session:
See a list of previously funded projects.
For questions about any aspect of the program, please email Judith Thomas at jthomas@virginia.edu.
Jülide Etem, Arts and Sciences, Media Studies. This course, "Seeking Social Justice through Documentary Film," which was first offered in Fall 2022, critically examines the transformative impact of media on global social issues. Planned enhancements include updating the reading list and activities, incorporating expert workshops, and introducing hands-on training in documentary production and theory. The course aims to foster critical thinking and community engagement among students, encouraging them to produce impactful projects on local social justice issues.
Library team:
Jessie Gibson, School of Nursing. This course, “RN's in Complex Systems” is divided into four units including Legal Issues, Career Planning, Quality and Health Care Systems, and Global Ethics. This project will rework the Quality and Health Care Systems unit through collaboration with the library team to develop more dynamic and effective content delivery methods, such as interactive modules, along with a pre/post survey to assess the impact. Our aim is to improve our teaching methods in order to enhance students' understanding and critical thinking about health care systems, preparing them as future nursing leaders providing optimal health care through evidence-based practice.
Library team:
Anne Rotich, Arts and Sciences, African American and African Studies. This course is being redesigned from a 1-credit College Advising class to a 3-credit course titled "African Refugee Cultures and Stories." This new version will explore the cultures and stories of African refugees in-depth, including migration theories, the impact of race and ethnicity, the role of international organizations, and personal resettlement stories, using various activities like digital research projects, quizzes, and weekly reflections. The goal is to enrich students' understanding and empathy towards cultural diversity and displaced people, enhancing students' knowledge and engagement with real-world refugee experiences.
Library team:
Tessa Farmer, Arts and Sciences, Anthropology. This project will enhance the Global Studies capstone course's focus on information literacy, addressing areas identified as needing improvement in a recent IAS evaluation. The evaluation revealed that while students generally performed proficiently in information literacy, there's room for growth in skills like source evaluation, interpretation, and citation. The proposed project involves collaborating with the library staff to revise the course's skill workshops, focusing on such goals as effective use of UVA/library resources, improving source evaluation, and differentiating students' ideas from secondary sources. Ultimately the project aims to strengthen students’ research competencies and information management skills.
Library team:
Mona Kasra, Arts and Sciences, Drama. A new undergraduate course in the Drama Department, required for Drama majors and elective for others, will focus on design principles in theatrical production. The course will familiarize students with various aspects of theatrical design, such as scenic, lighting, costume, projections, and sound, and will acquaint students with the collaborative process of stage design. The objective is to leverage the library's resources and expertise to create a comprehensive and engaging course, with a focus on non-textual, digital methods and hands-on activities, enabling students to interact with the library's material and maker labs in innovative ways. This course will be finalized in Spring 2024 and subsequently taught by other faculty as part of Drama’s revised and recently launched undergraduate curriculum.
Library team:
Channing Mathews, Arts and Sciences, Psychology. The course, centered on community engagement through mental health prevention science, is being revamped to emphasize community and school interventions, particularly around civic/sociopolitical contexts. Assignments will now include developing practical interventions with community partners and a digital project for science communication of community-engaged research, complemented by updated readings on relevant issues. This change aims to enhance students' skills in both theory and practice of community work, focusing on understanding personal biases and effective collaboration. The course's impact is expected to extend beyond the classroom, fostering valuable partnerships between UVA students and community members.
Library team:
Gretchen Wiersma, School of Nursing: Students enrolled in the Registered Nurse-Bachelor of Science in Nursing program are licensed RNs working at various medical facilities. The Library’s Course Enrichment Grant will support the development, training, and application of a student assignment in the first semester of Professor Wiersma’s “Foundations of Professional Nursing” course. The assignment will focus on identifying and applying information technology and resources at their facility to support clinical decision making and evidence-based practice.
Library team:
Dan Wilson, Associate Director for Collection Management and Access Services, Health Sciences Library
Bethany Mickel, Coordinator of the CEG Program
Cecelia Parks, Undergraduate Student Success Librarian
Haley Gillilan, Undergraduate Student Success Librarian
Evan Shieh, School of Architecture: The goal of Professor Shieh’s course is to create a framework allowing students to reimagine ways in which architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and urban designers can intervene in the context and contentious histories of particular highways through design and policy strategies. Students will be encouraged to rethink highways through multiple scales, from large-scale removal and decking to adaptive conversion and smaller-scale tactical interventions — for example, how an infrastructure serving only single-occupancy vehicles can be reconceived as a positive multi-functional infrastructure fostering multi-modal shared forms of mobility, community-empowering social spaces and amenities, and environmentally sustainable outcomes.
Library team:
Rebecca Coleman, Research Librarian for Architecture
Chris Gist, Geographic Information Systems Specialist
Drew McQueen, Geospatial Consultant
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian, Coordinator of the CEG Program
Fang Yi, Educational Technologist
John Edwin Mason, Department of History: Students in Professor Mason’s course, HIST 1501 “The Camera Is Our Weapon,” will focus on the African American portraits in the Holsinger Studio Collection in the Library’s special collections, and will contribute to community engagement programs that support the Holsinger Portrait Project’s 2022-2023 exhibition in the Harrison/Small gallery. Students will learn to work with and interpret primary sources and explore the history of the Charlottesville region and the lives of the sitters in the Holsinger Studio’s portraits. They will also work with the Holsinger Portrait Project’s community advisors to create community engagement materials for the exhibitions, such as pamphlets, docents’ guides, pop-up exhibitions, and web pages. Students will see their work go out into the world and help to change the way that people in the Charlottesville region see their history, both literally and figuratively.
Library team:
Rebecca Coleman, Research Librarian for Architecture
Krystal Appiah, Curator, Special Collections
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian, Coordinator of the CEG Program
Holly Robertson, Curator of Exhibitions
Regina Rush, Reference Librarian
Katrina Spencer, kls9wv@virginia.edu, Librarian for African American & African Studies
Keith Weimer, kw6m@virginia.edu, Librarian for History, Politics, and Religious Studies
Kathryn Schetlick, Department of Drama: In the fall of 2021, Professor Schetlick, inspired by the emergence of new dance podcasts and how they propose new modes of criticism and expand the performance archive, piloted a new podcast project to replace a final written research assignment. Over the course of the semester, each student worked to script a podcast episode about a choreographer that had visited UVA during the first fifteen years of the UVA Dance Program (2006-2021). With the help of the Course Enrichment Grant and a dedicated team of library specialists, she hopes to strengthen and expand this successful pilot alongside the restructuring of the DANC 1400 course “How Dance Matters.” This project will provide students with a platform to express their personal reflections on dance, performance, and its social relevance, and add their voices to a dynamic archive documenting fifteen years of dance at UVA.
Library team:
Amy Hunsaker, Librarian for Music and the Performing Arts
Brandon Butler, Director of Information Policy
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian, Coordinator of the CEG Program
Fang Yi, Educational Technologist
Andrew Ferguson, Undergraduate College, College of Arts & Sciences: First-year students in Professor Ferguson’s “Videogames and Videography” course will explore one of the most critically renowned and culturally resonant games of the past decade, Kentucky Route Zero, and capture their experiences in the form of a weekly play log, a print or digital zine, and a short video essay. Each week they will play through and discuss one of the game’s five Acts and, between class and the library, will work on basic skills and techniques for video editing. Class will conclude with an exhibition of the class video essays and zine art.
Library Team:
Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
Jeremy Boggs, Head of Research and Development, Scholars’ Lab
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian, Coordinator of the CEG Program
Jack Kelly, Senior Software Engineer, Accessibility Consultant
Anastasia Dakouri-Hild, Department of Art: Professor Dakouri-Hild will modify ARTH 3595 “Art History Practicum” to dovetail with planning for her exhibition “The Worlds in Between: Egypt, Wawat, Kush and Meroe in Africa” at the Fralin Museum of Art. The project will examine in detail the extent to which Egypt was of Africa culturally speaking: What did Egypt owe to other African cultures of its time and, inversely, what did it bequeath to the latter cultures? The exhibition project is being presented in tandem with a pedagogical effort allowing a cohort of Art History majors to engage with current curatorial practice as active members of the exhibition team.
Library team:
Lucie Stylianopoulos, Librarian for Art, Archaeology, & Indigenous Studies
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian, Coordinator of the CEG Program
Chris Gist, Geographic Information Systems Specialist
Drew McQueen, Geospatial Consultant
Francesca Calamita, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, College of Arts & Sciences: First-year students of “Food for Feminist Global Thought” will learn how to develop connections between ideas covered in the seminar and everyday life through online and in-class cross-cultural reflections. They will also learn how to critically find, evaluate, and manage sources for their final presentation on food and gender across the globe.
Library team:
Erin Pappas, Research Librarian for the Humanities
Miguel Valladares-Llata, Librarian for Romance Languages and Latin American Studies
Cecilia Parks, Undergraduate Student Success Librarian
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
Leigh Rockey, Video Collections Librarian
Christine Slaughter, Social Sciences Research Librarian
Yoon Hwa Choi, East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, College of Arts & Sciences: Students will be required to research Korean culture using authentic materials and create two 5 to 7-minute videos introducing their topic, in both Korean and English, to students with basic Korean language skills.
Library team:
Wei Wang, Research Librarian for East Asian Studies
Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
Brandon Butler, Director of Information Policy
Lisa Goff, English, College of Arts & Sciences: The course “Moving On: Migration to/from US” will include a course enrichment project designed to help the 25-30 class members better understand how their lives, and the lives of their families and friends, have intersected with migration in, to, and around the United States. We will partner with the Library to guide students in researching and documenting their own family trees, using genealogical tools and family interviews to trace their families back in time, as broad geographically as possible..
There will be other options — for example, tracing the family history of an historical figure — for students who are not comfortable with documenting the status of living family members.
Library team:
Sherri Brown, Librarian for English
Drew MacQueen, Geospatial Consultant
Chris Gist, Geographic Information Systems Specialist
Krystal Appiah, Instruction Librarian, Special Collections
Jean Cooper, Metadata Librarian
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
Erin Putalik, Architectural History, School of Architecture: This project for a survey course in architectural history will teach students to find lesser-known representations of a single iconic work of early 20th century architecture, showing changes in the work or its context over the course of a half-century or more. Students will be taught to effectively use various image databases and develop annotated, image-based essays that challenge the ways these buildings are typically represented — as standing heroically outside of time, untouched by their human and environmental contexts.
Library team:
Rebecca Coleman, Research Librarian for Architecture
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
Ann Burns, Metadata Librarian
Brandon Butler, Director of Information Policy
Hallie Richmond, English, College of Arts & Sciences: Students will design a virtual narrative that illustrates differences in student access to challenging and inclusive literary texts in K-12 classes across Albemarle County. The narrative will be housed in a new course website intended to serve English teachers who are seeking open educational resources related to reading and teaching literature of a challenging nature.
Library team:
Brandon Walsh, Head of Scholars’ Lab Student Programs
Sherri Brown, Librarian for English
Ashley Hosbach, Education and Social Science Research Librarian
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
Arin Bennett, Information Visualization Specialist
Drew MacQueen, Geospatial Consultant
Chris Gist, Geographic Information Systems Specialist
Nancy Kechner, ADSTP Specialist
Jennifer Sessions, History, College of Arts & Sciences: Students in a new “Workshop” seminar for History majors will learn essential research skills by exploring the history of crime and scandal in fin-de-siècle Europe and building ArcGIS StoryMaps to organize, analyze, and present their research on a particular case study.
Library team:
Keith Weimer, Librarian for History, Politics, and Religious Studies
Drew MacQueen Geospatial Consultant
Todd Burks, Teaching and Learning Librarian
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
Leigh Rockey, Video Collections Librarian
Christopher Ali, Media Studies, College of Arts of Sciences: Christopher Ali, Department of Media Studies: Undergraduates will learn about the methods of policy analysis by consulting digital platforms to retrieve and organize key documents, and then apply different methods of analysis such as stakeholder analysis and discourse analysis. These methods will be applied to student’s final assignment, a critical policy memo, and will give students a foundation both in the specifics of policy analysis and in the methods of media studies more broadly
Library team:
Erin Pappas, Research Librarian for the Humanities
Cecilia Parks, Undergraduate Student Success Librarian
Jenn Huck, Data Librarian
Brandon Butler, Director, Information Policy
Federico Cuatlcuatl, Studio Art, College of Arts of Sciences: This course will challenge and engage students in multiple modes of fabrication and digital productions through the conceptual framework of wearable self-portraits.
Library team:
Lucie Stylianopoulos, Research Librarian for Art, Archaeology, Classics, Indigenous Studies
Ammon Shepherd, Makerspace Manager
Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
Arin Bennett, Information Visualization Specialist
Will Rourk, 3D Data & Content Specialist
Fang Yi, Educational Technologist
Bremen Donovan, Anthropology, College of Arts of Sciences: Students from across disciplines will be introduced to diverse modes of ethnographic research and creative practice in this course designed to broaden understanding of what rigorous scholarship can look, sound, and feel like. In addition to readings, screenings, and other interventions, students will collaboratively explore different forms of knowledge production and representation, and will engage in practical training to guide them in the conception and bringing to fruition their own small-scale experimental projects.
Library team:
Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
Phil McEldowney, Librarian for Middle East and South Asia Studies
Krystal Appiah, Instruction Librarian, Special Collections
Chris Gist, Geographic Information Systems Specialist
Drew Macqueen, Geospatial Consultant
Erin Lambert, History, College of Arts of Sciences: Students will develop skills in historical research by tracing the travels of a single object through early modern global trade networks and presenting their projects in an ArcGIS StoryMap.
Library team:
Keith Weimer, Librarian for History, Politics, and Religious Studies
Krystal Appiah, Instruction Librarian, Special Collections
Chris Gist, Geographic Information Systems Specialist
Drew Macqueen, Geospatial Consultant
Lucie Stylianopoulos, Research Librarian for Art, Archaeology, Classics, Indigenous Studies
Ronda Grizzle, Project Management and Training Specialist
Stella Mattioli, Spanish, College of Arts of Sciences: The students of Elementary Italian will work in pairs to create an interactive picture book about an Italian cultural aspect that they will have to choose and research.
Library team:
Miguel Valladares-Llata, Librarian for Romance Languages and Latin American Studies
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
David Singerman, History, College of Arts of Sciences: First-year students will explore the 2008 financial crisis by learning to think like historians. They’ll combine scholarship, media accounts, and interviews with friends and family into multimedia projects about what it’s like to live through a major historical event.
Library team:
Todd Burks, Teaching and Learning Librarian
Keith Weimer, Librarian for History, Politics, and Religious Studies
Bill Corey, Research Data Management Librarian
Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
Tyler Jo Smith, McIntire Department of Art/Interdisciplinary Archaeology Program, College of Arts and Sciences: In a seminar setting, students will learn how to research individual objects of religious significance belonging to the Fralin Museum of Art. They will share their final project results using 3D technologies of scanning, printing, and digital presentation.
Library team:
Lucie Stylianopoulos, Research Librarian for Art, Archaeology, Classics, Indigenous Studies
Bethany Mickel, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
Arin Bennett, Information Visualization Specialist
Will Rourk, 3D Data & Content Specialist
Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
Jeffrey Boichuk, McIntire School of Commerce: Students will develop life-long skills in the areas of research, written communication, and information, strengthening their marketing projects through connection with the larger marketing literature and the business press at large.
Library team:
Bill Corey (lead), Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Todd Burks, Teaching & Learning
Jenn Huck, Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Hanni Nabahe, Resident Librarian
Phoebe Crisman, Architecture, School of Architecture: Students will improve their ability to employ media-rich technologies and data visualization in their semester-long Think Global/Act Local project, the goal of which is to inspire sustainability action through new interactive research and communication methods.
Library team:
Fang Yi (lead), Teaching & Learning
Todd Burks, Teaching & Learning
Jeremy Garritano, Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Ricky Patterson, Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Kevin Driscoll, Media Studies, College of Arts & Sciences: Undergraduates will engage in original research for media archival projects related to social change; the course will culminate in a museum-style exhibit based on a comparative analysis of media artifacts.
Library team:
Erin Pappas (lead), Arts & Humanities
Bethany Mickel, Teaching & Learning
Stephen Villereal, Preservation Services
Krystal Appiah, Special Collections Library
Sony Prosper, Special Collections Library
Brandon Butler, Scholarly Communication
Bonnie Hagerman, Women, Gender & Sexuality, College of Arts & Sciences: Working with a detailed data set (created in part by the class) about Olympic medal winners, students will analyze the data to better understand the intersections of gender, race, geography, age, ability, and sexual orientation in the Games.
Library team:
Erin Pappas (lead), Arts & Humanities
Nancy Kechner, Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Bethany Mickel, Teaching & Learning
Foteini Kondyli, Art History, College of Arts & Sciences. As part of a new multilayered approach to learning about Byzantine cities, students will balance scholarly reading and writing with hands-on activities using a range digital technologies, such as 3D modeling, virtual reality, and 3D printing.
Library team:
Lucie Stylianopoulos (lead), Arts & Humanities
Arin Bennett, Scholars’ Lab
Will Rourk, Scholars’ Lab
Bethany Mickel, Teaching & Learning
Hsin-Hsin Liang (Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) and Yingyao Wang (Sociology), College of Arts & Sciences: By enhancing the newly redesigned Media Chinese language course to incorporate expert lectures of current topics on China, library instruction, and media technology workshops, students will better understand scholarly information, develop research skills related to their Chinese studies, and apply newly gained media technology expertise to their video projects.
Library team:
Wei Wang (lead), Arts & Humanities
Leigh Rockey, Collection Management
Todd Burks, Teaching & Learning
Fang Yi, Teaching & Learning
Andrea Hansen Phillips, Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture. Architecture students will be introduced to the fundamentals of coding and digital technologies such as web mapping, user experience design, and data visualization, in order to elevate the role of civic engagement and public interest design.
Library team:
Rebecca Coleman (lead), Arts & Humanities
Jeremy Boggs, Scholars’ Lab
Jill Heinze, User Experience
Erich Purpur, Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Meridith Wolnick, Teaching & Learning
Kim Brooks Mata, Drama, College of Arts & Sciences: Students will develop the skills to engage in research in the context of artistic practice and will enhance their understanding of dance as both an expressive and investigative field.
Library team:
Abigail Flanigan (lead), Arts & Humanities
Paula Archey, Teaching & Learning
Meredith Clark, Media Studies, College of Arts & Sciences: Students will engage in a critical analysis of social media data to produce case studies about specific issues related to race and digital culture.
Library team:
Erin Pappas (lead), Arts & Humanities
Regina Carter, Teaching & Learning
Jeremy Boggs, Scholar’s Lab
Max Edelson (History) and Ricardo Padron (Spanish, Italian & Portuguese), College of Arts & Sciences: Students will embark on research projects in a variety of fields of study, gaining understanding of the relationship between space, knowledge, and power, and developing competencies with research strategies and tools.
Library team:
Keith Weimer (lead), Arts & Humanities
Todd Burks, Teaching & Learning
Sean Ferguson, Science, Technology and Society Program, School of Engineering and Applied Science: Through hands-on activities, students will learn how to combine quantitative and qualitative material to gain deep understanding of social phenomena, developing their skills in data manipulation, curation, and visualization.
Library team:
Jennifer Huck (lead), Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Todd Burks, Teaching & Learning
Bonnie Gordon, Music, College of Arts & Sciences: Students will develop skills in critical reflection and information literacy as they engage with historical sources to understand how music reflects and influences history and cultural change.
Library team:
Abigail Flanigan (lead), Arts & Humanities
Paula Archey, Teaching & Learning
Bethany Mickel, Teaching & Learning
David Whitesell, Special Collections Library
Mary Kuhn, English, College of Arts & Sciences: Students will broaden their understanding of what constitutes an environmental text, conducting research to uncover primary and secondary sources and using digital tools to practice public-facing research and writing.
Library team:
Chris Ruotolo (lead), Arts & Humanities
Krystal Appiah, Special Collections Library
Meridith Wolnick, Teaching & Learning
Jonah Shulhofer-Wohl, Politics, College of Arts & Sciences: After learning how to define an answerable research question about Middle East politics, students will conduct independent research, gaining necessary skills in assessing, analyzing, and synthesizing information.
Library team:
Christine Slaughter (lead), Arts & Humanities
Bethany Mickel, Teaching & Learning
2017-2018
Jeanine Braithwaite, Frank Batten School: Students working on their Applied Policy Projects will gain foundational information literacy skills, allowing them to choosing substantial, meaty policy problems and conduct original research on their area of policy interest.
Library team:
Jenn Huck, Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Bethany Mickel, Teaching & Learning
George Gilliam, History, College of Arts & Sciences: Working with archival source material, students will learn historical research methods for identifying and finding primary sources, understand the difference between primary and secondary sources, and analyze sources in order to answer a research question.
Library team:
Krystal Appiah, Special Collections Library
Bethany Mickel, Teaching & Learning
Keith Weimer, Arts & Humanities
Cristina Griffin, English, College of Arts & Sciences: As part of their in-depth exploration of the history of gothic literature, students will work with archival texts on a focused information literacy project, learning to form research questions, discover unexpected ways of finding answers, and interrogate information dynamically along the way.
Library team:
Chris Ruotolo, Arts & Humanities
Meridith Wolnick, Teaching & Learning
David Whitesell, Special Collections Library
Katelyn Hale Wood, Drama, College of Arts & Sciences: In this course, with a new emphasis on historiographical methodology, students will engage in the process of information creation, link structures of authority to the construction of historical evidence, and learn effective research strategies.
Library team:
Abigail Flanigan, Arts & Humanities
Paula Archey, Teaching & Learning
Zaneta Hong, Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture: Students will understand and practice research and design methodologies related to materials and technologies for the built environment, in the interest of creating a sustainable, ethical, and environmentally-sensitive design practice.
Library team:
Rebecca Coleman, Arts and Humanities
Jeremy Garritano, Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences
Maggie Nunley, Research Data Services and Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences (then Teaching & Learning)
Deborah McGrady, French, College of Arts & Sciences: Students will learn how to conduct research – in particular to identify and find information, and evaluate its credibility – in their investigations into the historical and artistic legacy of Joan of Arc, from medieval to modern times.
Library team:
Todd Burks, Teaching & Learning
Lucie Stylianopoulos, Arts & Humanities
Miguel Valladares-Llata, Arts and Humanities