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College of Arts and Sciences

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Our Research

In the College of Arts and Sciences, we embrace and live UD's identity as a Catholic research university.  Throughout our departments and programs, we foster research across varied topics including humanities, physical and life sciences, performing and visual arts and social sciences.

Explore some of our recent research and learn about the College’s Liberal Arts Catalyst Program, as well as how students have opportunities to get involved in research.

Featured Research Initiatives and Programs

Paul Laurence Dunbar

UD is home to research and scholarly works revolving around the life and works of Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Explore Dunbar Research

Endowed Chairs

Our endowed chairs and professorships are filled for specific terms by faculty who are recognized for their teaching and research.

Explore Endowed Chairs

Dean’s Summer Fellowship

The Dean’s Summer Fellowship program provides an opportunity for undergraduate students in the College to conduct research during the summer in any academic discipline under the guidance of a full-time faculty mentor.

Explore Dean’s Summer Fellowship

Stander Symposium

Students can present their research at the Stander Symposium — an annual event held to recognize, showcase and celebrate mentored academic and artistic accomplishments in undergraduate and graduate education.

Explore Stander Symposium
Research Stories
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Tianming Zhao
Research
12.15.2025

National Science Foundation awards computer scientists $350K for early-career research link-arrow link-arrow

The grants enable faculty to establish independent research agendas and hire students to assist with their projects.
Research
07.14.2025

UD wildlife ecologist awarded ODNR grant to track black bears recolonizing Ohio link-arrow link-arrow

The four-year grant will support the field activities of the faculty member, a doctoral student and undergraduate research technicians.
Research
06.09.2025

Neuroscientist awarded $413K to study brain disorders, mentor student research link-arrow link-arrow

The NIH funding will support one doctoral student and seven undergraduate students.
Liberal Arts Scholarship Catalyst Grants

The College's Liberal Arts Catalyst Program is one important investment we're making in faculty scholarship. The program makes available, on a competitive basis, funds for scholarly and creative work that shows clear potential for increasing the faculty member's research productivity and advancing professional goals, including the pursuit of external funding and application for promotion. 

Additional Information

Given existing sources of research support for tenure-track faculty, most notably Research Council Seed Grants, and the dearth of comparable internal programs for tenured faculty, Liberal Arts Catalyst grants are limited to tenured faculty in the humanities, social sciences and arts divisions of the College.

Grants support work taking place in the summer and during the following academic year.

2026-27 Recipients
  • Josh Ambrosius (Dept. of Political Science): Creation Care on Campus: Catholic Social Teaching and Sustainability Culture
  • Glenna Jennings (Dept. of Art and Design): The Price of Eggs: art, photography and food justice in Dayton, Ohio
  • Viorel Pâslaru (Dept. of Philosophy): Speaking Scientific Truth to Power in an Authoritarian Society
  • Shannon Toll (Dep. of English): Harnessing the 101 Ranch: Choreographies of Dominance and Dare-Devilry in Early Oklahoma Cinema
  • Siman Zhao (Dept. of Psychology): Observing Social Withdrawal in Context: Implications for Emerging Adults’ Cognitive and Psychological Development

2025-26 Recipients
  • Julius Amin (Dept. of History): West Africa — US Foreign Relations: A Case Study of the Contours of Diplomacy
  • Dorian Borbonus (Dept. of History): Mapping the Funerary Landscapes of Imperial Rome
  • Simanti Dasgupta (Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work): Riparian Clay: Climate Change, Gender and Out-Migration in the Sundarbans, India
  • Liz Hutter (Dept. of English): “A modern classic built for the digital age”: Exploring the design discourse of medical training manikins
  • Li-Yin Liu (Dept. Political Science): AI and Administrative Evil: Empirical Insights into Organizational and Individual Dynamics in Public Administration

2024-25 Recipients
  • Haimanti Roy (Dept. of History): Paper Trails: Documentary Identity and the Indian Citizen, 1920-2015
  • Jamie L. Small (Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work): Split: How Do Divorce Lawyers Make Decisions about Property Settlement, Financial Support and Child Custody in the Modern Family?
  • Cecilia Moore (Principal investigator), Nicholas Rademacher (Principal investigator), Joseph Flipper (Contributor), Dept. of Religious Studies: Documenting the Black Catholic Experience in Dayton, Ohio

Developing Solutions

At UD, research is about more than innovation for the sake of discovery. It's about developing solutions to help others.

Explore Research at UD
Contact College of Arts and Sciences
300 College Park
Dayton, Ohio 45469 - 0800
937-229-2611
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