The UCI Libraries inspire discovery and innovative student research through its collections and services.  As part of our mission to support undergraduate research, The UCI Libraries, in cooperation with the UCI Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), sponsor the Libraries-UROP Research Fellowship (LURF) awards. 

Co-funded by the Libraries’ Nellie Ansley Reeves Award Endowed Fund and UROP, LURF awards provide recognition and support up to $500 to selected fellows whose research projects make significant use of library resources, demonstrate creative applications of research methodology, or focus on research about the scholarly information process.  In addition to their faculty mentors, LURF Fellows have the opportunity to work closely with a research librarian who is a subject expert in the student’s field of inquiry.

Submissions are judged on how well student researchers demonstrate unusual depth or broadness in the use of library resources and collections

Submissions are judged on how well student researchers demonstrate unusual depth or broadness in the use of library resources and collections; extraordinary ability to identify, locate, select, evaluate, and synthesize library resources and to use them in the creation of a project in any medium that shows originality and/or has the potential to lead to original research in the future; and a demonstration of significant personal knowledge in the methods of research and inquiry.

The winners of the 2011-12 LURF Awards illustrate the diversity of projects that the Libraries have selected for recognition.

  • Jillian Tempesta, $500 for “City of Sound: Reformist Fictions in Postwar Radio Dramas.”
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  • Eddie Bonilla, $250 for “Taking a Left at the Chicano Movement.”
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  • Colleen Humfrevill, $250 for "Female Journalists, and their Budding Role with the Emergence of WWII."
  • Vileana De La Rosa, $250 for “Recreating and Rethinking La Voz: Analysis of Ethnic Student Media at UC Irvine and Beyond.”
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  • Kimberly Lucas, $100 for “Los Angeles: Perfecting the ‘Art’ of Urban Movement and Transportation.”
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  • Sophie Punkar, $100 for “Transphobia and the Prison Industrial Complex.”
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  • Felipe Hernandez, $100 for “Narco-Corridos in Los Ángeles and Orange County: A New Audience, Local Performers, and Narco culture.”
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  • Jane Chung, $100 for “Political Science, Religious Studies, Preservation of Juche through Propaganda.”
  • Amanda Ghattas, $100 for “LGBTQ Rights and Conservative Ideology: Today’s Political Clash.”
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    For more information about the LURF award and how to support student research, please contact Interim Director of Development Julie Sully at 949.824.4658 or jsully@uci.edu.