Library’s annual research award honors undergraduate projects in sciences, humanities and arts

Now in its seventh year, UC Santa Barbara’s Library Award for Undergraduate Research (LAUR) highlights emerging scholarship from a range of academic disciplines. It also hands out cash prizes to the students who best demonstrate an expertise of library collections, services and related resources.   

Judged by a panel of UCSB librarians and faculty from across campus, each winner’s project included a bibliography demonstrating the range and depth of their research materials, plus a reflective essay describing their process. Judges evaluated search strategies and sources, and how students persevered through research obstacles and demonstrated growth and sophistication in their knowledge of library resources.

“We received an impressive number of submissions, especially in the Humanities & Fine Arts category,” said Heather Nisen, librarian and LAUR program lead. “The judges shared that it was difficult to choose winners because the quality of student research and use of library materials was so remarkable.” 

“As always,” Nisen added, “these emerging scholars will be invited to upload their award-winning works into eScholarship, UC’s institutional open access repository, where they can be discovered by a wider population.”

Science & Engineering 

Environmental studies senior Schuyler Capita finished first in the sciences and engineering category with his research paper, “Charting The Winds of Fate - Exploring the Role of Wind Stress as a Driver of Coastal Sage Scrub Plant Community Assemblage.” This year’s runner-up, sophomore biopsychology major Jasmine Ispasoiu, wrote “The Effects of Discussing Race on Racial Bias and Health Attitudes.”

Social Sciences 

In the social sciences category, the judges determined that two seniors had produced equally outstanding submissions filled with high-quality research and use of library resources. Environmental studies major Isabel Chang produced the paper, “‘And Then I Got Angry’: Why Black Feminist Thought is Critical to Movements for Environmental Justice.” Joseph Ekpo, who is double majoring in political science and psychological and brain sciences, authored “Evaluating Racial Match and Concordance in ASD Interventions: Preliminary Findings from a Multidisciplinary Scoping Review.” 

Humanities & Fine Arts