Students present Honors Essays during The Future is Arts: Faculty of Arts Inaugural Honors Festival

The Faculty of Arts attracts exceptionally curious and attentive students, with this past year providing them the opportunity to showcase their resiliency and dedication to the pursuit of knowledge. In fact, many of our graduating Honors students will present their honors essays, the capstone project of their programs, over the next two months.

Steve Patten, Interim Dean, offers how completing an honors essay is an invaluable experience as it “allows students to develop their research skills, to work independently [and] to complete a major piece of academic writing.”

“Research is ingrained in our Faculty and across the institution”, says Allen Ball, Associate Dean Teaching and Learning, and he shares how the University of Alberta is unique in that undergraduate students are seen as “researchers from day one, to wherever they end up”, whether it be completing graduate studies or entering the workforce right away.

The Bachelor of Arts Honors program is an academically rigorous one, where students connect with peers and faculty that have similar academic interests and passions, and students challenge themselves with independent study. Ball expands on this by explaining that “students don’t just work in labs on professors’ projects. They create their own original research and creative projects. Our university takes research seriously and undergraduate [students] can do research that matters.”

All members and friends of the University of Alberta and Faculty of Arts communities are invited to learn more about the independent research and creative activities Arts Honors students have undertaken.

Presentations begin with the Festival of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (FURCA) taking place March 9 - 11. The Faculty of Arts is once again sponsoring the Award for Outstanding Creative Activity at this university-wide celebration. Additionally, BA Honors students from across the myriad Faculty of Arts disciplines will present their original research at departmental Honors Conferences now until mid-April.