Undergraduates present their research in Westminster

Friday, 04 March 2016

Two Reading students presented the outcome of their research projects to MPs at ‘Posters in Parliament' in Westminster at the beginning of February. The annual exhibition, hosted by the University of Central Lancashire, saw 53 students from 27 universities display their research to a range of MPs and higher education policymakers.

Abigail Ford (Archaeology) and Erin Shearer (History) took part in the summer 2015 Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP). They were chosen as overall winners at the UROP Showcase event in November by Alex Saxon, Interim Head of Research Councils UK Strategy Unit, with participation in Posters in Parliament as part of their prize.

Abigail's project, supervised by Dr Rob Hosfield, Prof. Martin Bell and Dr Wendy Matthews (Archaeology), assessed how experimental archaeology can be used in teaching, and how it can also contribute to public engagement and research through designing a series of experiments that could be applied to all of these areas. Abigail’s poster was one of nine research projects to be shortlisted for the overall Posters in Parliament competition on the day.

Erin's work, supervised by Dr Emily West (History), focused on the dual exploitation of female slaves. This refers to how slaveholders abused both women’s labour and reproductive abilities, and encompasses the ‘double shift’, where women laboured for their masters and families in North and South Carolina during the Antebellum era (1815-1861).

Both Abigail and Erin had lively discussions with their fellow undergraduate researchers from other universities and with Wokingham MP John Redwood.

A growing number of universities are engaging their undergraduates in research. Reading remains at the forefront with 2015/6 being a record breaking year for the number of UROP applications received and the number of projects being funded across the university.

These UROP projects will be advertised to students throughout February and March and will be advertised on the UROP website.