BC hosts Graduate Research Symposium
A showcase of work by some 40 Boston College master's- and doctoral-level students—in fields including social work, management, education, nursing, and more—will be the focus of the Graduate Research Symposium on March 26, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the Corcoran Commons Heights Room.
The event brings together graduate students from across the University to share their work through oral and poster presentations. The symposium helps build community and recognizes student success, according to organizers, and also enhances participants’ professional and career development skills, through the process of research submission and the presentation of their findings in a public forum.
“Giving opportunities for graduate students to share their empirical research within a community of their peers is reflective of BC’s commitment to graduate student formation,” said Boston College School of Social Work Doctoral Program Assistant Director Deborah Hogan, who organized the event in collaboration with the other sponsoring schools outlined below.
According to Hogan, 49 proposals were received from students at all eight of BC’s graduate schools, and symposium presenters were selected through a blind faculty review process. Oral presentations will be given by 14 students from BCSSW, the Connell School of Nursing, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and Clough School of Theology and Ministry.
In addition, 23 students from BCSSW, CSON, MCAS, LSOEHD, BC Law School, and the Woods College of Advancing Studies will present posters during a session which runs from 9-10 a.m.
Following welcoming remarks at 9:45 a.m. by Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School, oral presentations—organized into five themes—will run in concurrent sessions in the Boston and Newton Rooms from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Students will each give a 10-minute synopsis of their respective empirical research, followed by five minutes of audience questions.
Themes this year include: Care, Ethics, and Those Affected; Exploring and Understanding Identity in Community; Mathematics and Technology: Curricular Considerations; The Impacts of Violence; and Writing and Reflecting in Teaching and Learning.
At the conclusion of the symposium, a lunch-and-learn event on public scholarship will be held only for BC graduate students, with featured guest speaker Kenneth Carter, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement at Emory University. Published extensively in both academic and lay publications, Carter actively engages in the translation of psychology research into everyday language.
The symposium is open to the BC community. Attendees of last year’s gathering offered enthusiastic comments to organizers, saying they were impressed by the student participation at both the master’s and doctoral levels, as well as by their resulting conversations with the graduate student researchers.
In addition to BCSSW, the 2025 symposium is sponsored by the Connell School, Lynch School, MCAS Graduate School, and Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.