CSB SJU scholarship day

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Undergraduate scholarship and creativity will take center stage at the College of Saint

Benedict and Saint John's University during the inaugural Celebrating Scholarship Day, May 5.

The campus-wide event will honor and publicize the scholarly and creative achievements of CSB/SJU undergraduate students in all disciplines. The day will highlight their best work through poster presentations, brief talks, as well as artistic displays in the visual, theater and musical arts.

Presenters will range from seniors discussing their research seminar papers to talented sophomores who have collaborated with a faculty member on a research project.

Dr. Marcus Webster, undergraduate research and creativity coordinator, is chair of the Celebrating

Scholarship Day.

"I am constantly amazed at the exceptional and creative research our students do in all fields, from literary criticism to experimental physics and everything in between. We are excited to celebrate their achievements with this day of presentations. Parents, alumni and friends of CSB/SJU are coming from all over to honor these students, and we hope this will kick off a new annual tradition of campus-wide recognition of our student researchers and artists," Webster said.

John N. Swift, professor and chair of the department of English and comparative literary studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles, will deliver the keynote address. He will speak at 1:30 p.m. in Quad 264 on the SJU campus about the ways in which research-based education transforms our approach to teaching, learning, scholarship, and discipline itself, in a lecture titled "Research and Transformation."

Also in conjunction with Celebrating Scholarship weekend activities, Swift will deliver a public address on Friday, May 4. Swift will speak about his work on the author Willa Cather and his experiences conducting scholarly research with undergraduate collaborators. His talk, entitled "Big Boots, Lab Coats, and the Romance of the Archives," will be at 7:30 p.m. in the SJU Alumni Lounge.

Swift teaches courses in early 20th century British and American fiction, psychoanalytic approaches to literature, and the history and culture of Los Angeles. From 1988 to 1997, he served as associate dean of the faculty at Occidental, and in that capacity, coordinated the development of a college-wide program in undergraduate research. In 1997 he was elected to the Board of Governors of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

His scholarly interests are in British and American literature from 1890 to 1940, and his recent papers have addressed the history of American science and its relation to the work of American writer Willa Cather. He is the editor of a collection of essays, Willa Cather and the American Southwest, to be published by the University of Nebraska Press in the spring of 2002.

Saint John's University for men and the College of Saint Benedict for women are partners in liberal arts education, providing students the benefit from the distinctions of two nationally recognized Catholic, undergraduate colleges. Together the colleges challenge students to live balanced lives of learning, work, leadership and service in a changing world.