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Undergraduate Student Research Opportunities


The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences helps facilitate a range of research opportunities for undergraduate students.

Undergraduate students in the Arts and Social Sciences are not just learners—they are active contributors to knowledge and innovation. Through initiatives like the Carleton University Research Opportunity Program (CUROP), the Students as Partners Program (SaPP), and independent fourth-year research projects, students explore new frontiers and shape their academic journeys. Across Arts and Social Sciences programs, research labs welcome undergraduate participation, offering collaboration with graduate researchers and faculty. These experiences can lead to co-authored publications, expanded professional networks, and valuable preparation for graduate studies.

Riveting Research Labs


There are research labs across the Arts and Social Sciences that accept undergraduate student participation. Collaborating with graduate-level researchers and faculty members in these labs can lead to co-authorship on research papers, growing your professional network and exploring pathways to graduate school.

I’m an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Adaptive Neuromorphics, Intelligence, Memory, and Unified Systems (ANIMUS) lab conducting research on the topic of moral decision-making in AI agents, how the decisions made by these systems can be improved through attention to ethical and safety considerations, and highlighting the potential problems that serve as a threat in existing models. My fellow lab members, including principal investigator Professor Mary Kelly, have helped me at every stage of my research on ethical AI and the nature of intelligent beings.

Taran Allan-McKay, Cognitive Science Student

Research Opportunities

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I-CUREUS

The Internship-Carleton University Research Experience for Undergraduate Students, or I-CUREUS, allows an undergraduate student to contribute to a research project.

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SaPP

The Students as Partners Program (SaPP) provides funding for undergraduate students to partner with faculty, instructors, librarians and teaching support staff on course design projects.

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CUROP

As part of the Carleton University Research Opportunity Program (CUROP), the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers funds summer research internships with an opportunity to develop an original research project under the supervision of a faculty member.

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Fourth Year Research Project

Students opting for an Honours Research Project or Directed Study in their fourth year have the opportunity to deeply engage with the subject of their choice under the guidance of a faculty member.

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NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards

Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRAs) are meant to nurture students’ interest and fully develop their potential for a research career in health, natural sciences, engineering, social sciences or humanities.

Paula Rodrigo, Anthropology Graduate 

Paula Rodrigo
Paula Rodrigo

Paula Rodrigo’s fourth year Honours Research Project looked at how Carleton students navigate Ottawa’s public transit system. The project combined surveys, interviews and ethnographic research methods to gain comprehensive user experience (UX) insights into how riding public transit shapes students’ conceptions of place and time. Through her project, she explored her interest in walkable cities and championed the voices and perspectives of university students when it comes to urban planning and infrastructure decision-making in Ottawa. Throughout her degree, Paula completed three Co-op terms with a UX focus (one with Nokia, the other two with the federal government).

As a student learning online during the pandemic, I noticed how challenging it could be to learn new words, understand their meanings and incorporate them into my vocabulary. Through the Carleton University Research Opportunity Program (CUROP), I investigated these issues systemically by looking at the effects of different amounts of interaction on the ease and accuracy of word learning. Through my research project titled “When Learning New Words, What is the Importance of Interaction?” I learned about the types of research questions and experimental methods used in linguistics, which helped me refine my research question and sharpen my skills for my Honours Thesis.

– Nikki Ermuth, Cognitive Science student, project in Linguistics 

Angela Mortimer, History Graduate

Through the Students as Partners Program, History student Angela Mortimer, Ingenium’s Curator of Communication Technologies Tom Everrett, and Professor James Opp co-designed a course about the material history of the 1980s, which included a visit to Ingenium’s collection storage facility to get up close with some signature objects that defined a generation. 

Angela Mortimer holds original Sony Walkman packaging, and Professor James Opp holds his own cassette tapes from the 1980s. Photo by Ainslie Coghill.
Angela Mortimer holds original Sony Walkman packaging, and Professor James Opp holds his own cassette tapes from the 1980s. Photo by Ainslie Coghill.

As part of my studies, I explore ADHD and its impacts on the well-being of people affected by it. I’ve been privileged to conduct research through Rogers Child Mental Health Labs with Professor Maria Rogers, Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health and Well-Being. My work in the lab focuses on understanding the impact of ADHD on children, aims to enhance their educational and psychosocial outcomes, and further ensures equity and representation of all children and youth who are affected by this lifelong neurological disability.

Shine Soki, Psychology Student

The Carleton University Research Opportunity Program (CUROP) is one of the best opportunities I’ve ever had. I was able to pursue my own academic research on the relationship between colonialism and cultural heritage in my family’s home country of Malta, under the supervision of an amazing historian, Professor Susan Whitney. I used some of the funding to spend the summer in Malta so I could visit archives and libraries there. It was a great chance learn a bit more about the ins-and-outs of academic research, which really helped to prepare me for graduate school. As a first-generation student, this opportunity has continued to benefit me and I would absolutely encourage all research-oriented undergraduate students to give it a shot.

– Niġel Klemenčič-Puglisevich, History graduate