The Valley Humanities Review is an online journal dedicated to the publication of excellent undergraduate research in the
fields of the humanities. We believe that undergraduates are capable of
exemplary research, so our goal is to showcase the best research in the
humanities going on at colleges across the globe. We have received hundreds of
submissions from students at colleges including Columbia, Brown, Gettysburg,
Harvard, Rhodes College, McGill University, Princeton, and the Baha'i Institute
for Higher Education. The spring 2013 issue is our fourth.
Publishing excellent undergraduate research allowsus to serve both professors and their students by providing an opportunity for
active learning. Current research on effective teaching talks a great deal
about concepts like "active learning," "authentic tasks," and "natural critical
learning environments." Though the value of such authentic, hands-on
experiences seems clear, the humanities present unique challenges in producing
these experiences for students. Professors' research generally consists of
individually produced papers presented at conferences and published in
journals, none of which usually welcome undergraduate participation. Some
professors may ask their students to present their papers to the class, but
this does not extend the scope of student research beyond the course into a
broader society where it could have a larger impact, and this is a major
stumbling block for professors who would like to model membership in a
scholarly community for undergraduates. This is also a problem for students,
who may have trouble taking work produced solely for a grade
seriously. When a student writes a paper just for his or her professor,
that paper can be seen as a practice exercise for some time in the future when
students will actually "use" those skills. Their work is produced in a
vacuum that bears little resemblance to the world beyond the classroom.
The VHR combats these difficulties in the humanities in two key ways. First, we
provide a place for exemplary undergraduate research in the humanities to be
published, thereby showing students that the potential rewards for excellent
scholarship go beyond receiving an "A." Second, the VHR models participation in a scholarly community for all the
students involved. The VHR employs
student editors, web developers, copyeditors, and interns. Students participate in-and have equal control
over-all choices made for the journal. On the editorial level, the journal is a collaborative project between
faculty and students. Faculty editors work with students from each of the humanities' departments (Art, English,
Religion, Philosophy, History, Foreign Languages) as equal partners in publishing
decisions. Thus, the VHR is deeply invested in challenging
borders-the borders between disciplines in the humanities, between teacher and
student, and between paper journals and online publications.
The goal with all our projects is to encourage a culture of undergraduate research at our
college and in the wider academic community, where excellent undergraduate work
can attain a wider audience and appreciation, inspiring students to greater
application and imagination in their fields.
