About
SHPRS’ Undergraduate Research Experience places undergraduate students into research assistant opportunities working with individual faculty members on their research projects. Students will enroll in HST/ PHI/ REL 494: Undergraduate Research Experience* and may earn up to 9 hours of elective credits (and in some cases, apply them towards their major). All students in good academic standing are invited to apply (minimum GPA 2.0).
Undergraduate research opportunities will be added as they become available. Please check back regularly for new opportunities.
* As with any course at ASU that earns credit, regular tuition charges apply.
**Undergraduate Research Experience can only count as elective credit within the major and cannot substitute for required courses. If you have already fulfilled all of your major electives, the course will only count as general elective credit. If your major is not in SHPRS, please consult with your major advisor.
Applications for Fall 2025 are due March 27, 2025.
Benefits of the program
- First-hand experience of professional research
- Learn applicable research skills
- Invest invaluable relationships with faculty
Program highlights
As a research assistant, you will:
- Work with SHPRS faculty supporting his or her research
- Earn credit commensurate with the number of hours of work (determined in advance and detailed in the URE contract)
- Learn applicable research skills
- Strengthen your resume and grad school application
Steps to apply
1. Review the URE opportunities available and determine which one(s) interest you.
2. Submit your application. You can apply to one research opportunity. Faculty leading the project may request a follow-up interview.
3. Receive an email announcing selected applicants and next steps. Once you’re in the door make the best of the opportunity…learn what you came to learn, get your questions answered, make a connection that lasts a lifetime.
Questions? Email Marissa.R.Timmerman@asu.edu.
Opportunities
Fall 2025 Opportunities
Tempe/Online
Philosophy of Religion: Developing a Novel Version of the Argument from Evil
Professor Matt Schuler, Philosophy
The principal objective of this URE is to offer research support for an ongoing project within the philosophy of religion. Specifically, it concerns the problem of evil. Quite some time ago, I developed a novel version of the Argument from Evil that appears not to succumb to the difficulties that typically plague both “logical” versions of the argument and “evidential” (or “probabilistic”) versions of the argument. However, I subsequently came to believe that this project requires non-trivial revision before publication is viable – but have not yet had time to revisit the project. As such, this research experience serves as an opportunity for me to return to this work with the aid of undergraduate research assistants, who will gain hands-on experience in the literature review component of philosophical research (and, in the course of this, valuable exposure to the vast existent literature on the problem of evil).
Public History Research Experience
Erin Craft, History
Public History is history that engages the community in building connections to their pasts and each other. For this research experience, students will work with the Public History coordinator and various faculty on a variety of ongoing Public History projects. Projects will include curating Salt River Stories and Global World War II Monuments through editing, research, and writing interpretive text. Additional project work may include developing and curating digital archives, such as our past project Journal of a Plague Year: An Archive of Covid-19, conducting “history harvests” with local partners such as the City of Phoenix, or conducting and processing oral histories.
Tempe
Local Museums: Archives & Collections Research Experience
Erin Craft, History
The collections at the Arizona Historical Society (AHS), Tempe History Museum, and the Arizona Jewish Historical Society broadly represent Arizona History and are invaluable to researchers of various disciplines and the public. Students will work with Senior Program Coordinator Erin Craft and Professor Mark Tebeau, as well as the archivists, collections manager and librarians at one or more of the three museum locations, to engage in hands-on work surrounding digital and physical collections and archive management. Tasks might include item evaluation, collection management, exhibit design, or research, and will be designed to meet student’s skills and interests as much as possible.