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Establishing a Social Science Undergraduate Research Program 
 
Joseph P. Joyce, Stanford Calderwood Professor of Economics and
Director, Social Science Summer Research Program
 
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA 02481
 
 
Inception of the Program
 
Wellesley College has a strong tradition of fostering undergraduate research, and a highlight of the academic year is the Ruhlman Conference in late spring when students present the results of their work to a wide audience. The departments in the natural sciences have for many years utilized NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site grants to administer summer programs that encourage women to pursue research careers in science and medicine through their participation in research at an early stage in their academic careers. While many students in the social science departments undertake one-credit individual research study projects or two-credit senior theses (106 in 2002-2003), these departments had not previously cooperated in a common undergraduate research program.
 
It seemed particularly appropriate and timely to extend this model of student-faculty collaboration to the social sciences. All students in the social sciences take a quantitative reasoning course or a similar course, and so they were prepared to carry out data analysis. Because the faculty had active research agendas, there was a large group of potential mentors. Moreover, a renovation of the social sciences classroom building was in progress that would provide space for interaction both among faculty in the various departments and with students. Interdiscipli-nary issues such as women’s studies and environmentalism that had recently emerged in the social sciences could provide new directions for research projects. 
 
The Dean of the College at the time when Wellesley applied for the NSF-AIRE grant was Nancy Kolodny, a member of the Chemistry Department and one of the principal investigators of the grant. The other PI was Professor Mary Allen of the Biology Department, who has received national recognition for her work with undergraduates. Both had distinguished records of mentoring students in the REU programs, and they sought the NSF-AIRE grant to launch a similar summer research program in the social sciences. Once the grant had been made, the Dean of the College (currently Lee Cuba of the Sociology Department) and the social science departments took over the administration of the program. The Program Director publicizes the program at Wellesley, coordinates the selection of students and their assignment to faculty advisors, organizes the living accommodations for the students, arranges the seminars and workshops, and prepares reports on the program.
 
Structure of the Program
 
The social science research program runs from early June through the first week of August. Eleven positions for continuing Wellesley students have been funded through the NSF-AIRE grant, and another four positions are funded by the College. Students receive stipends of $4,100 for 10 weeks of research including a $1,000 housing/commuting supplement which may be used for dormitory housing. The stipend equals the amount paid to students in the REU Sites, and is commensurate with what the students could earn in summer jobs.

Photo 1: New facilities for research in the social sciences.

 
The application process begins in the winter, when faculty members are invited to post descriptions of their research agendas on the College’s AIRE Web site and express their interest in working with students. The program is widely publicized at the beginning of the spring semester in late January. Students are directed to consult with faculty about their research interests. Application forms accompanied by resumes and transcripts are due in late February. The program’s director examines the applications and consults with the faculty about the students who have applied to work with them. Acceptances are based on the students’ previous coursework and experience. First-round acceptances are mailed in mid-March, and students are asked to respond by early April so that those on the wait list can be notified early. About half of the applicants are accepted. The number accepted is determined both by the availability of funding and the need to keep the program at a manageable size. Many students apply before their senior year, but rising juniors and sophomores also apply and are accepted. 

Faculty are paid a small stipend for their participation. Participating researchers have included faculty from all the social science departments, as well as members of the Women’s Studies Department and Wellesley’s prestigious Center for Research on Women. Table 1 shows that the projects over the last five years have been widely distributed across the disciplines represented in the program. 
 
Research Topics and Outcomes
 
The students and their sponsors are responsible for defining the research work and the students’ responsibilities. The range of topics investigated by the students and the nature of their work vary widely. Some students work on research initiated by the faculty and others establish their own research projects. Students work on bibliographic research and literature reviews, collect data from sources such as databases or surveys, analyze data and write reports. Internet resources are widely used. All the research projects are designed to give the students the chance to study a particular issue in some depth.
 
Descriptions of the student projects illustrate the wide range of topics and the interdisciplinary focus the program has provided. Students have: 

• reviewed the evolution of the issue of human rights in sociology, anthropology and political science (Sociology). 
   
• assessed the life course implications of emotional instability in adolescence, using data from a longitudinal study (Psychology).
   
• studied the exercise of leadership in a group of college women (Center for Research on Women). 
   
• explored the different forms and aims of corporate philanthropy (Sociology).
   
• investigated differences in education resource allocation patterns among inner cities and rural areas (Economics). 
   
• investigated the implementation of macroeconomic stabilization programs of the International Monetary Fund (Economics).
   
• analyzed the imaginary relationships of pre-school age children, using interviews undertaken at the College’s Child Study Center (Psychology). 
   
• examined the use of Web sites by Congressional Representatives to communicate with their constituents (Political Science). 
   
• traced the evolution of dietary guidelines in the U.S., examining the shifts that have occurred over time in dietary standards (Sociology).
   
• analyzed the differences in environmental, labor and safety standards for ships across nations, and the patterns of ship registration (Political Science). 
   
• studied the “impostor” (i.e., individuals with fear of discovery) phenomenon among Wellesley College students (Psychology). 
   
• evaluated public policy with respect to domestic violence in China (Anthropology). 
   
• investigated the geographic distribution of inventions within the US (Economics).
   

The program has included several research projects in foreign countries. In the summer of 2000 a faculty/student team traveled to Pakistan to research community organizations. In 2001, two students spent part of the summer with faculty from the Anthropology Department carrying out fieldwork in China and Russia. Another student spent part of the summer of 2002 in Crete with a member of the Anthropology Department researching perceptions of cancer.
 
In some cases, the student was able to continue her research as a senior thesis project during the school year. Other students continued to work with faculty members on their research projects. The data collected by the students have been used in many faculty research projects and led to papers authored jointly with faculty mentors.
 
A number of papers written with students have been accepted for publication. These include:
 
Just, Marion (Department of Political Science), Rosalind Leving with Kathleen Regan (Wellesley ’02). "News For Sale." Columbia Journalism Review November/December 2001.
 
Konstam, Varda, Fern Marx (Center for Research on Women), Jennifer Schurer (Wellesley ’99), Nancy B. Emerson Lombardo (Center for Research on Women) and Anne K. Harrington. “Forgiving in Practice: What Mental Health Counselors Are Telling Us.” In Sharon Lamb and Jeffrie G. Murphy (eds.), Before Forgiveness: Cautionary Views on Forgiveness in Psychotherapy. Oxford University Press. 2002.
 
Pillemer, David B. (Department of Psychology), Paul Wink (Department of Psychology), Theresa E. DiDonato (Wellesley ’99) and Rebecca Sanborn (Wellesley ’99). “Gender Differences in Autobiographical Memory Styles of Older Adults.” Memory 2003 (forthcoming).
 
Program Activities
 
During the summer program a number of activities are held to increase the students’ understanding of the research process and their knowledge of the social sciences, to enhance their skills and to foster a sense of intellectual community. Students present the results of their work at seminars to an audience of fellow students and the faculty. The students work hard to prepare their presentations and accompanying handouts, and rehearse the presentations with their faculty sponsors. The give and take of a seminar is often a novel event for these students, and past students have found that giving their own presentations, and attending those of the other students, are both rewarding experiences.
 
The student seminars also provide opportunities to discuss methodological issues in the social sciences. At one session, the first student presented results derived from the student’s own survey data, a second presented results based on data collected by a faculty member, and a third student presented results derived from U.S. government economic data. This stimulated a discussion by students and faculty about how these several types of data varied and how the nature of data often determined the types of questions that could be addressed.
 
The seminars also often include “life stories” by the faculty that explain their professional path and the interests and choices that led them to undertake research-oriented careers. Because students often have little knowledge of academic life, these personal stories are very interesting and often instructive. The faculty’s accounts often make the point that rewards other than monetary ones were most important in their choice of a career. 
 
In the summer of 2002 we inaugurated a faculty seminar with a talk by Professor Jonathan Imber, Chair of Wellesley’s Sociology Department and Class of ’49 Professor of Ethics. Professor Imber drew upon his experience as editor-in-chief of the periodical Society to speak about methodological issues across the social sciences. His talk was followed by a lively discussion of the role of social scientists in political decision-making. 
 
We also hold a number of workshops that support the students’ research endeavors. 
The Director of User Services in the Information Services Department meets with the students during the program’s first week to describe the technological resources available on campus. In addition, staff members from the College’s Clapp Library meet with the students on an individual basis to review the materials on the Web, on campus and at other Boston-area locations that are most suitable for their research work. A faculty member from the Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance at Brown University conducts public speaking workshops for the participants of all the research programs on campus. The sessions are designed to improve the students’ understanding of the communication process and to learn the basic principles of delivery. Students present a brief talk and receive feedback.
 
Faculty members of our Art Studio Department conduct a session on the basic principles of visual design and poster presentations. The faculty member is also available before the poster session to meet with the students on an individual basis. Constructing posters is another novel experience for many of the students in the social sciences, and they have found the guidance to be quite beneficial. In addition, Wellesley College joined a group of women’s colleges who received a grant to develop GRE prep courses designed to raise women’s scores on the test and encourage them to pursue graduate school and research careers. The course includes initial skill testing and assessment, classroom sessions and practice exams. 
 
The students appreciate the opportunity these seminars and workshops give for discussion and interaction with other faculty and students. We intend to offer additional panels, such as a career panel where alumnae and other professionals with undergraduate degrees in the social sciences discuss career options available to students. We also plan to offer classes on statistics for the social sciences, and a series of workshops on creating an electronic portfolio of research and other professional activities. 
 
At the poster session at the end of the summer program, the students in the program join the students who have worked on campus with faculty in other disciplines. This event is widely publicized in the community and well attended. The posters are then displayed in Pendleton East, where they draw attention to the intellectual vitality of the campus. The continued presence of the posters and the booklet containing abstracts of each research project help publicize the program and stimulate interest.
 
Evaluations and Assessment
 
Evaluation forms are distributed to the participating students and faculty at the end of the summer. The students’ forms contain questions on the overall value of the program and the effectiveness of the various components, and how participation in the program has affected the student’s future plans. The students cite a number of positive outcomes of their research experience. They report that research skills, such as framing of hypotheses and understanding the uses (and misuses) of data, have improved. They are more confident of their ability to present ideas to audiences, to respond to constructive criticism and to think critically. Exposure to the various disciplines is an important consequence of the program, particularly for students who had only taken classes in one of the social sciences. They can now appreciate the changing nature of our knowledge of human society. While classroom presentations may give the impression that a discipline consists of a fixed canon, undertaking research reveals that we are constantly revising our understanding of the social order.
 
Some students have said that their collaborative relationship with faculty members is a crucial aspect of the research experience. For many students this is the first time that they are equal partners with faculty, and they enjoy their status, independence, and the opportunity to take responsibility and work at their own pace. At the same time, they value the support they receive from the faculty, their peers and the participants in the seminars and workshops. Some students have suggested that we include more group activities in the program.
 
A limitation of the program noted by some students was the short-term nature of the collaboration with faculty. For some students, the program ends just as they are completing data collection and the analysis is about to begin. The extensive preliminary data collection typical of many social science projects makes them quite different than research projects in the natural sciences, where the acquisition and analysis of data are nearly concurrent. While the faculty try to update the students during the academic year to maintain their sense of involvement with the work, it is hard for the students to leave their project when they are still incomplete. Students who continue working with faculty in some fashion are more likely to co-author articles or make conference presentations. 
 
Our assessment asked faculty mentors about the benefits and costs to them of working with a student, and their assessment of the impact of the program on their students. Faculty cite several benefits, including the student’s assistance in obtaining data and performing other tasks that free up faculty time, and the perspective and insights the mentor gains from discussions with students. In a few cases the faculty found that they had to spend more time overseeing a student’s work than they anticipated. This suggests that faculty need to carefully explain their expectations to the students during the selection process. The faculty believe that the students benefit greatly from the overall experience, learning skills that will serve them well in future work and learning about social issues in more depth than they would in the classroom.
 
We are currently participating with several other AIRE recipients (Grinnell, Hope, and Harvey Mudd) in a comprehensive assessment of summer research programs, undertaken by Dr. Elaine Seymour (University of Colorado) and Dr. David Lopatto (Grinnell). During past summers our students completed evaluation forms for this project.
 
A team of reviewers visited Wellesley College in August 2000 on a site visit to assess the progress of all the NSF-AIRE grant activities. They spent part of their time on the campus with faculty who had participated in the social science undergraduate research program and met with all the students. In their final report, the review team stated:

The growth of empirical research opportunities in the social sciences under the grant is obvious from the testimony of the faculty (and the informal testimony of the social science students, with whom the team had lunch)…it seems clear that the social science faculty, particularly in economics, sociology, psychology, the Center for Research on Women, and those in the interdisciplinary multicultural program, are determined and enthusiastic about student research opportunities and foresee no barriers to research opportunities becoming ubiquitous in the social sciences… The college appears poised to enhance and institutionalize a summer research program for social sciences comparable to the established science program. The enthusiasm of the faculty and students as well as the completion of facilities renovation bode well for continued success.

We intend to carry out a follow-up assessment of the impact of the program on the students. We will work with the college’s Office of Institutional Research to develop a questionnaire that asks the participants how their early exposure to research affected the rest of their undergraduate education, and their subsequent decisions regarding jobs and graduate school. Anecdotal evidence indicates that many of the students who participate in our program have chosen careers in research-oriented institutions and eventually matriculate to graduate school. 
 
Future Directions
 
The multi-disciplinary nature of our program has been one of its assets. The broad range of faculty sponsors offers the students a variety of research opportunities and their exposure to the different research projects during the program illustrates how the various disciplines treat similar issues. However, we intend to establish a common focus for the program, based on the social roles of women.
 
The program is still relatively new, and we adapt it each year in response to our experiences in the previous year and the comments of the participants. The program’s reputation on campus has grown, and the number of applicants has increased each year. We currently have twice as many applicants as there are spaces. The response of the students shows that they are eager to expand their learning opportunities outside the classroom. 
 
While faculty in the social sciences realize that they can integrate their research with mentoring of students, there are still fewer such collaborations than in the natural sciences. In part, this may be because research in the natural sciences is more amenable to dividing projects among one or more teams of researchers who can undertake and finish each part independently. The common appearance of co-authored papers in the natural sciences is consistent with this type of division of labor. 
 
There are a number of opportunities and challenges that we will face in future years. The current number of 15 students per year represents the upper limit if we are to maintain the small group nature of the program. We have discussed establishing a similar program during the academic year, since it would expand the opportunities for faculty-mentored student research. We would have to decide whether the students would receive academic credit for research activities as they do for independent study, and whether faculty mentors would be exempted from other teaching or administrative duties. 
 
We have recently been awarded a grant from the NSF to establish the social sciences program as an REU Site beginning in 2004. As part of our responsibilities under the grant, we will bring students from outside Wellesley to participate in the program. We look forward to meeting this challenge and expanding the program in new directions.
 
 
The Institution
 
Wellesley College recently celebrated its 125^th anniversary of educating women. It has been rated fourth in the U.S. News and World Report rankings of liberal arts colleges for nine of the last eleven years, and was also ranked as number five in the most recent listing for diversity by the U.S. News and World Report. Wellesley has approximately 2,300 students and 330 faculty members. 
 
Wellesley’s five social science departments are well known for the quality of their scholarship and teaching and the accomplishments of former students. A significant proportion of the current students’ majors (35% in 2002-2003) and course enrollments (24%) are in the social science departments. The social sciences are also a major component of several inter-disciplinary programs, such as Africana Studies, International Relations, and Women’s Studies. Alumnae pursue careers in a broad range of fields, including business, law, government, academia and non-profit organizations. 
 
The 70 members of the social science faculty, who represent approximately one-fifth of the total faculty, are active in research activities and their departments have established national reputations. The Economics Department, for example, placed first in a recent ranking of the research output of economics departments at all national liberal arts colleges, while the Psychology Department was fourth in a similar ranking of the total number of published articles by psychology departments at liberal arts colleges.¹ Members of the Political Science Department have received research grants from the Ford, Rockefeller Brothers and Russell Sage Foundations. The faculty of the Anthropology and Sociology Departments are well known in their fields for their research, and members have held leadership positions in professional societies in their disciplines and edited journals. Many of the faculty in these departments have co-authored journal or book articles with their students.
 
 
Acknowledgements
 
We gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation's support of undergraduate education at Wellesley College through its AIRE grant. I also thank Professors Mary Allen and Nancy Kolodny, the grant's PIs, and Dean Lee Cuba for their support and encouragement. 
 
 
Endnote

1. See Bodenhorn (2003), “Economic Scholarship at Elite Liberal Arts Colleges,” Journal of Economic Education, vol. 34 no. 2, p. 341-359 and Schmauder, Robinson and Hartley (1999), “Psychology Research at Liberal Arts Colleges,” Teaching of Psychology, vol. 26 no. 2, p. 96–101.

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