Photo courtesy of the University of the South
Sanjana Priyonti, Executive Editor
On a late April Friday, Sewanee pauses – but not in the usual sense. Even as classrooms empty, intellectual life spills out across campus: into Spencer Hall, Convocation Hall, and Blackman Auditorium. Posters line hallways. Oral presentations fill rooms. Conversations stretch long before and after sessions end. This is Scholarship Sewanee, a day that has grown into one of the University’s most expansive academic traditions.
This year’s numbers tell part of the story: 46 oral presentations and 96 posters spanning disciplines from Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Neuroscience to Art, Art History, International and Global Studies, History, Classics and English.
But the fuller story lies in how Sewanee built the infrastructure, and the leadership that made such a day possible. Less than two decades ago, this event looked very different. Originally known as “Scientific Sewanee”, it was largely confined to the sciences. That began to change in 2008 with the appointment of Dr. Robert Bachman as Sewanee’s first Director of Undergraduate Research. Bachman’s role proved pivotal. He along with a committee from Sewanee set out to workshops conducted by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) to better develop Sewanee’s own student-faculty undergraduate research landscape. By 2009, he helped reimagine and rebrand the event as Scholarship Sewanee, a deliberate move to invite participation from across the humanities, social sciences, arts and not just the lab sciences.
Within a year, disciplines like religion, history, linguistics, and anthropology began presenting alongside scientific research. Oral presentations were introduced, and what had once been a specialized symposium evolved into a campus-wide intellectual gathering.
Bachman worked with faculty across departments to facilitate collaborative research, managed summer research programs, and helped build fundraising and policy support for undergraduate scholarship. His leadership laid the foundation for what would become a defining feature of Sewanee’s academic identity.
The Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS) became the engine behind visible student research celebrations like Scholarship Sewanee. Today, that work continues under the leadership of co-directors Dr. Elise Kikis and Dr. Ross Sowell, who have expanded and sustained the programs that make undergraduate research accessible across campus.
OURS does far more than organize a single day. It funds summer research through programs like the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), supports independent work through fellowships like the Gessell Fellowship, and enables students to present their work at conferences. At the same time, it operates behind the scenes: coordinating mentorship, supporting faculty-student collaboration, and shaping how research fits into the broader Sewanee curriculum. The goal remains ambitious: to ensure that every student has the opportunity to engage in meaningful, mentored scholarship.
Each spring, that vision becomes visible. At Scholarship Sewanee, the range of work is striking. In one room, a student analyzes European political media. In another, a neuroscience team studies dopamine’s role in sea star movement. Down the hall, an art installation explores grief and embodiment.
Scholarship Sewanee challenges traditional definitions of research. Creative work stands alongside empirical studies; interdisciplinary projects blur the boundaries between fields. This breadth reflects the original goal of the program: to expand not just participation, but the very meaning of scholarship at Sewanee.
Scholarship Sewanee is not just a culmination – it is a starting point. For many students, presenting their work marks the beginning of a longer academic journey: conferences, publications, graduate study, or creative careers. The experience of sharing ideas publicly becomes a defining moment in their intellectual development. And for the University, the event serves as a reaffirmation of its priorities. Research is not reserved for advanced scholars, but it is central to undergraduate education and aligns closely with Sewanee’s newly developed Strategic Plan: Mind, Heart and Place.
What began under Bachman as a strategic effort to broaden participation has grown into a deeply embedded institutional culture – one that continues to evolve under the leadership of Kikis and Sowell. With the program nearing capacity in many ways, Bachman hopes “we can soon move to a day without classes scheduled and encourage even more presentations.”
The story of OURS is still unfolding. Because of years of deliberate work – of building programs, securing funding, and fostering collaboration across disciplines – Scholarship Sewanee today seems seamless and will continue to celebrate and expand in years to come.