The Affect of Undergraduate Research: From Joy to Gratitude

Undergraduate research is recognized as a high impact practice that leads to higher learning success (AAC&U 2024). The benefits of undergraduate research are without a doubt clear in undergraduate students who participate in research at the University of Utah, where 91% of our students who engage in Office of Undergraduate Research opportunities graduate in 6 years, and 62% in 4 years. The positive impact of learning experiences like undergraduate research not only shape retention towards graduation, but also graduate school and career decisions – we are seeing the benefits of research  in our students (Office of Undergraduate Research 2024).

Faculty who mentor students, students who participate in research, and the teams that are created to support the research enterprise create and circulate feelings about research and higher education – that is, the feelings about research itself and the people in research, are tethered to how people feel about the university. As Sara Ahmed conveys: “how do emotions move between bodies? … emotions do things, and they align individuals with communities – or bodily space with social space” (Ahmed 2004). Student submissions and research reflections describe feelings about how their research is furthering their career decisions, what they think about the institution, and the connections with people they worked with. Students reflected on how they held positive feelings about their career decisions because of research they were conducting – some reflected on new job pursuits, others on graduate school aspirations. Other emotions manifested including desire – that is feelings of curiosity, or what they described as a growing “interest” in a subject matter or solving a problem. One student even described how they loved their experience, another was inspired, others described joy. And overall, there was a sense of gratitude, where thanks and feelings of gratefulness manifested in student reflections.

Why do these feelings matter?

The role of public research universities is that they prepare people for a workforce, citizens of society, and these universities like University of Utah serve as “stewards and repositories of human knowledge” (American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2024). As the university serves a vital role in knowledge dissemination, our students experience higher education with a range of feelings. No doubt there are other feelings that have come to light including how research can be hard, difficult, and even for some, scary. How students feel about our institutions and the research enterprise has longterm implications on whether or not they become ambassadors of our universities. It is for this reason, the positive feelings that emanated in the research reflections was striking. As our students participate in research as public good, their reflections also showed the affective power of research as a public good. When we feel good about what we are doing in research, we also may feel good about the institutions we are connected to.

Therefore, as readers peruse these various contributions that spans the disciplines, consider the feelings, desires, hopes and possibilities that made possible the research. And that for many of these students, while things were not always easy, many did in the process experience joy and gratitude.

Special appreciation to the Office of Undergraduate Research team Cindy Greaves, Angie Leiva, Shelly Parker, Ali Myers, Sara Cody, Jennifer Santiago (former staff editor of the journal), Doi Ahn, Anna Gilstrap, Ali Nopper, Sonia Osuna, Ava Peitz, and Kishan Thambu (student editor of the journal).

Annie Isabel Fukushima
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies and Director, Office of Undergraduate Research
University of Utah

References

AAC&U (American Association of Colleges and Universities) (2024). High-Impact Practices. https://www.aacu.org/trending-topics/high-impact

Ahmed, Sara. Affective Economies. Social Text 79, vol. 22, no. 2: 117 – 139.

American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2024). Public Research Universities: Why They Matter. The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education. https://www.amacad.org/publication/public-research-universities-why-they-matter/section/1

Office of Undergraduate Research (2024). Annual Report. https://our.utah.edu/about-us/our-success/