HomeBlogUndergraduate Research Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Humanities by Jessie L. Moore and Nolan SchultheisNovember 3, 2025 Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionPodcasts – Home 60-Second SoTL Limed: Teaching with a Twist Making College “Worth It” Special Series First-Year Seminars Land Acknowledgement Making College “Worth It” – Season 3, Episode 2 In this episode, we explore strategies to keep students engaged in research in the humanities. We speak with Dr. Mary Isbell, an associate professor of English at the University of New Haven, and Dr. Kevin Ostoyich, a professor of history at Valparaiso University. Our conversation focuses on course-based undergraduate research experiences they’ve developed. Listen in to learn how they scaffold research experiences in the humanities! View a transcript of this episode. Meet our Guests Dr. Kevin Ostoyich (B.A., University of Pennsylvania; A.M. and Ph.D., Harvard University) is professor of history at Valparaiso University, where he served as chair of the Department of History from 2015 to 2019, was the recipient of the Dixon W. and Herta E. Benz Fund for Faculty Support (an endowed position) from 2020 – 2022, and was bestowed the Excellence in Teaching Award for 2017-2018. He is currently serving as a guest professor at the Center for Applied Policy Research at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the historian for the Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation. He has previously served as a fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg (global dis:connect) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at the Ludwig Maximilan University of Munich; a guest professor at the Institute for Bavarian History at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich; a senior fellow at the German Historical Institute Pacific Regional Office/University of California, Berkeley; a visiting professor for Shanghai University; and a visiting assistant professor at the University of Montana. In addition to penning many articles and book chapters, Ostoyich co-edited The History of the Shanghai Jews: New Pathways of Research (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) and authored The German Society of Pennsylvania: A Guide to Its Book and Manuscript Collections (German Historical Institute, 2006). Ostoyich’s work has led to two recent films: the documentary film, Gary’s Letter, and the filmed-play, Three Girls of Shanghai. In 2024, he curated the museum exhibition, “Sewing and Survival: Textile Histories of the Shanghai Jews,” for the Staatliches Textil- und Industriemuseum Augsburg, and wrote the podcast episode, “Tiny Dancer: Tracing the Steps of Jackie Beer,” for the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The podcast is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. He has written many plays with university students about the Shanghai Jewish refugees. The most recent play, titled, “Lyrics and Laughter from Shanghai: A Relevant Cabaret with Historical Commentary,” was premiered at Slippery Rock University (Slippery Rock, PA.) on May 7, 2025. Ostoyich interviews Holocaust survivors and lectures on the Holocaust around the world. Dr. Mary Isbell, is an Associate Professor of English at The University of New Haven. Her research focuses on nineteenth-century literature and culture, narratology, scholarly text encoding, and open educational practices. Her work has appeared in Victorian Literature and Culture, Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies, Scholarly Editing, and Victoriographies. With Matt Wranovix, she served as PI on the Open Pedagogy Project and she is working with a team of humanities faculty to build The Connected Core, an initiative to remove the barriers that often stop professionally minded students from engaging with the arts and humanities. Mary’s current project is Searching for Wonder, an openly licensed book designed to support those who want to teach literature with student-selected texts. She created an episode for the C19 podcast about this project. She also leads the team of faculty and developers building WonderCat, a relational database of story experiences that users can peruse and expand by sharing their own experiences. The tool is an alternative to recommender systems that predict user preferences based on demographics and user behavior. Designed for use in and out of the classroom, WonderCat encourages agency and democratic engagement with scholarly expertise. Learn more about her work. Episode Credits This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Nolan Schultheis, a third-year student at Elon University, studying Psychology with an interest in law. Nolan Schultheis also edited the episode. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. Episode art was created by Nolan Schultheis and Jennie Goforth. Funky Percussions is by Denys Kyshchuk (@audiocoffeemusic) – https://www.audiocoffee.net/. Soft Beat is by ComaStudio. Explore Resources Related to The Episode Bryant, John, Mary Isbell, Christopher Ohge, and Mary Erica Zimmer. 2024. “Digital Editing and Pedagogy: Making Editions / Building Arguments.” Scholarly Editing 41. https://doi.org/10.55520/KBS01GGN Isbell, Mary. 2025. Searching for Wonder: Teaching Literature with Student-Selected Texts. The University of New Haven Press. Ostoyich, Kevin, and Yun Xia, Eds. 2022. The History of the Shanghai Jews: New Pathways of Research. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. Translating the Past: Reflections from Behind the Ledger During the summer of 2025, I had the opportunity to work on a transcription project involving historical records from the War Department about Maryland, Missouri, and the US Bureau of Colored Troops during the Civil War. These included an account… Engaging Students in Transcribing Historical Data: About the Project In this post and a series of student contributions that follow, we describe a summer project where we engaged with students doing transcription work of historical archival documents. While the original conception of the project started off as purely oriented… Facilitating Reflection in Undergraduate Research Making College “Worth It” – Season 2, Episode 9 In this episode, Nolan and Jessie talk with Dr. Paul Miller about facilitating reflection in undergraduate research. Collaborating with colleagues in experiential learning, Paul and Jessie created the FIRE Toolkit, a free… Collaboration in Creation: A Guide for Preparing and Presenting Research Posters – Part 2, For Mentors In our previous post, we, the members of the Infant Development Lab, shared advice for students on how to prepare to present research posters. In Part 2 of this series, we will now share several ways faculty mentors can support… Collaboration in Creation: A Guide for Preparing and Presenting Research Posters – Part 1, For Students “No idea is fully formed until it can be communicated.” The Boyer Commission 1998 As we near the end of the academic year, many undergraduate research students and their mentors are planning to present research posters showcasing their accomplishments. In… 1 2 … 13 14 >
