Students honored at Lycoming College Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference

Lycoming College’s fourth annual Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference was its largest yet featuring 78 presenters from institutions across the region, all dedicated to furthering the humanities through high-level undergraduate research.

Scott Manning Stevens, Ph.D., delivered the keynote address, closing out the event, with a talk entitled, “The Haudenosaunee and the Ethos of Sustainability.” The keynote served the dual purpose of also closing out Lycoming College’s Environmental Justice Symposium, which launched earlier in the semester.

Stevens is an enrolled citizen of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation and an associate professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies, with a courtesy appointment in Art History, at Syracuse University. He also serves as director of the Native and Indigenous American studies program and is the founding director of the new Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice at Syracuse. He earned his doctoral degree from Harvard University and has held a variety of fellowships in his field, including a recent fellowship at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies. He is the co-author of three books and the author of numerous published essays and book chapters. His work addresses issues around Native material culture, the history of ethnographic collecting, and museum studies.

A panel of Lycoming College humanities faculty and students selected the undergraduate presenters, who represented dozens of institutions including Bryn Mawr College, Ithaca College, Penn State University, Juniata College, University of Scranton, Swarthmore College, Goucher College, Lafayette College and more.

The following students were selected and awarded for best papers:

• Molly Carson, Ithaca College, won the award for the best paper in the category of History, Archaeology, & Humanities-Focused Social Sciences for “A City Upon a Hill: The Historical and Gendered Roots of the Religious Right in the United States.”
• Claire Melican, Bryn Mawr College, won the award for the best paper in the category of Literature, Languages, & Art History for “How to Make Pear Tree Sex PG: Rewriting Chaucer’s “The Merchant’s Tale” for Children.”
• John Adkins, Grove City College, won the award for the best paper in the category of Philosophy, Ethics, & Religion for “In Memory of Her Paul: The Acts of Thecla as the Female Quest for the Historical Apostle.”
• Chasely Ward, Messiah University, won the award for the best paper in the category of Ethnic & Racial Studies for “Incomplete Histories: Trauma, Silence, and the Short Story Cycle in The Dew Breaker.”
• Haley Bateman, Elizabethtown College, won the award for the best paper in the category of Women’s & Gender Studies for “‘The Researcher Contemplates Venus’: Bettina Judd’s Narrative Revival and Resistance to Medical Racism and Archival Silence.”
• Emma Mitcheltree won the award for the best paper by a Lycoming Student for “‘Where those gentlemen who please to favor me’: Tavern Matrons & Masculinity throughout Colonial America’s Publick Houses.”

“The Lycoming Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference is a Lyco tradition that I look forward to every year. There is something so special about a day dedicated to the celebration of undergraduate students and their amazing research. I, myself, presented research from my honors project,” said Lycoming College history major and English minor Emma Mitcheltree ’26. “A lot of hard work goes into student research, so the fact that Lycoming offers an opportunity for students to share their work with others is a testament to the scholarship this institution fosters and celebrates. Not only was presenting my research rewarding, but interacting with other students from other disciplines and institutions reminded me of how the humanities thrive through community. This year's conference was one for the books and I was so grateful to be a part of it and share the podium with so many other fantastic student researchers.”

All presenters are invited to submit their research for consideration of publication in the fourth volume of Lycoming’s humanities research journal. Previous issues of the Mid-Atlantic Humanities Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Research can be found online.

The Lycoming College Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference is a gathering and celebration of the region’s bright minds who are dedicated to furthering the humanities through high-level research. The Humanities Research Center at Lycoming College bolsters educational opportunities for those majoring or minoring in the humanities by supporting joint student-faculty research, internships, guided scholarship, digital humanities, graduate school placement, and fellowships. Select proceedings of the conference are featured in the Mid-Atlantic Humanities Review. More information about the Conference can be found online. The next conference is slated for April 10, 2027, and a call for papers will be available in early 2027.