African American and African Studies, Comparative Studies and Ethnic Studies
Potential research topics in this area include but not limited to Africans in the Diaspora, antiracism, Francophone rap music and culture, hip hop culture, social justice, and virtual worlds. Contact Assistant Professor Leta Hendricks to discuss topic ideas.
Animal Sciences, Food Science & Technology, Environment & Natural Resources, and Veterinary Medicine
Potential research topics in this area include a comprehensive or structured literature review on a topic related to animal sciences, food science & technology, the environment & natural resources, or veterinary medicine. Contact Associate Professor Jessica Page.
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Potential research topics in this area include cartoons, comics, and graphic novels. Contact Associate Professor Wendy Pflug or Associate Professor Caitlin McGurk.
Lima Campus Archives or Hymnology
Potential research topics include historical studies (on a variety of topics) incorporating materials available through the Lima Campus Archives, or identifying and addressing data needs for hymnary.org, or a close study of hymnals in any category. Contact Professor Tina Schneider.
Information Access and Discovery
Potential projects could include: creating finding tools for primary sources and artifacts, developing infographics or interactive maps, creating exhibits highlighting primary sources, or developing discipline-specific bibliographies. Contact Associate Professor Sherab Chen.
Life Sciences
Potential projects include: creating a bibliography of material at the OSU Herbarium Library, conducting surveys of unique constituent needs. Contact Assistant Professor Amanda Rinehart.
Music
Potential projects could focus on research materials available in the Music & Dance Library, including editing and encoding manuscript music scores using Finale music notation software, and creating descriptions of music or dance images in an international performing arts iconography database (db.ridim.org). Contact Professor Alan Green.
Rare Books & Manuscripts Library (RBML)
Potential modern literature projects could include: book history projects focused on American literature (working with RBML's first editions and/or literary archives); women's history (such as working with nineteenth-century diaries or 1970s feminist newspapers); cookbooks; zines; catalogs (working with RBML's collection of trade catalogs. Contact Associate Professor Jolie Braun. Other potential projects could include investigating our world-class Don Quixote collection to see how the novel has been adapted in a variety of literary, multi-media, and commercial forms, and using the extensive military history archives to explore the lives of US Veterans. Contact Professor Eric Johnson.
Sciences & Engineering
Potential topics include: Showcase the past of a science/engineering department’s history, including its creation, past names, prominent faculty and students of the past, significant achievements, etc; Showcase the work of current and past faculty in the sciences/engineering who are from underrepresented groups. Create an online annotated bibliography of Geology Library artwork. The Geology Library has a collection of artwork of geologists and landscapes, with a short guide available. An annotated bibliography would enable users to learn more about the people and places involved; or, pick from topics such as non-English print maps, Theses and Dissertations, Technical Reports, Highly-Cited OSU-Authored publications, Textbooks, or something else! Contact Professor Danny Dotson.
Theatre Research Institute
Potential theater projects include diversity in theatre, tent shows and vaudeville in the early 1900s, film advertising, and 1960s & 1970s LGBTQ theatre. Contact Professor Dr. Beth Kattelman.
U.S. Ethnic Studies
Potential topics include multidisciplinary approaches to research in Latinx, Asian & Asian American, and Native American studies. This could include issues of identity, transnational exploration, historical studies, science, to name a few. Resources will be drawn from a broad array of library resources – from documents in the Rare Books & Manuscripts Library (RBML) to digital resources and development of oral history projects. Contact Assistant Professor Leticia Wiggins.
NOTE: If you have a project idea that is not listed, contact Craig Gibson at gibson.721@osu.edu.