The San José State University Library Research Scholars Program provides undergraduates with a year-long, paid opportunity to engage deeply with library faculty and staff, collections, and resources.
Facilitated by a team of librarian mentors, participants learn about the resources at King Library, basic research methodologies, and information topics, like plagiarism, copyright, and publishing. The culminating project of the experience is to present one's research in a group setting.
Research fellows deposit their work into the campus repository.
Library Research Scholars Program-
2022/2023 LRSP: Eleanor Rideout
Eleanor Rideout
Throughout history, life narratives have fueled and supported social movements through testimony and counter-narrative on the part of the author (Schaffer & Smith, 2004) and narrative empathy on the part of the reader (Keen, 2006). Narrative empathy invests individuals in a cause, and can serve as the basis for readers’ later involvement in social movements (Keen, 2006). These concepts of life narrative form an interesting connection with comics theory, which suggests that the form engages readers in unique ways through character identification, subjective reading, and closure. In connecting these ideas, this study explores how the medium of comics can be uniquely utilized by creators from underrepresented groups in order to express their lived experiences and the role of autobiographical comics in social movements.
Most of the literature that exists surrounding life narrative and autobiographical comics focus on analysis of the works themselves. In order to contribute to a more rounded understanding of these subjects, this study focuses on author perspectives. The interviews focused on each author’s experience with their published autobiographical comic(s), following the topics of motivation, process, formal construction, and reception of the work.
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2022/2023 LRSP: Inaya Rehman
Inaya Rehman and Michael Aguilar
This research study examines the relationship between COVID-19 pandemic-induced social isolation, self-efficacy, and academic outcomes among students at San Jose State University.
Using survey data from a sample of students, the study found that social isolation negatively impacts self-efficacy among students, leading to a decline in confidence and belief in their abilities to succeed academically. In turn, self-efficacy was found to be positively related to academic outcomes, as students with a strong sense of self-efficacy were more likely to perform well academically. The study also found that the negative relationship between social isolation and academic outcomes was less pronounced among students with high levels of self-efficacy.
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2019/2020 LRSP: Alexander Werdmuller von Elgg
Alexander Werdmuller von Elgg
This research aims to describe a condition of college level art education and is composed of two parts: an annotated bibliography and a survey. The annotated bibliography describes dissertations, research papers, articles, and books about histories and current trends in college level art education. The survey asks students and faculty at San Jose State University, California about their extent of value toward a variety of experiences in college level art education. Some key findings from the research are that studio space, expressivity, and craftsmanship are some of the most valuable qualities in college level art education.
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2019/2020 LRSP: Ricardo Andres Pimentel
Ricardo Andres Pimentel
Decades of constant wars have produced millions of military personnel returning home after their stints protecting their country. Though many of these military members are able to fully reintegrate into society, a significant minority return with psychical and psychological difficulties. Included in this vast list of difficulties is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This disorder is particularly endemic to military populations, and although numerous treatment modalities are available to veterans with PTSD, they are not all effective for every individual. Thus, numerous grassroots and private organizations have been working to pair veterans with service dogs for the treatment of PTSD. Despite mainly anecdotal evidence claiming the positive effects of pairing veterans with PTSD with service dogs, it is highly suggestible that these service dogs can provide substantial benefits for veterans. In the current research design, a survey was devised to gauge the attitudes and beliefs of veterans with PTSD toward their service dogs. The preliminary results of the current research strongly suggest that veterans with PTSD are strongly in favor of their service dogs, and are claiming that their service dogs are helping ameliorate their symptoms of PTSD.
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2019/2020 LRSP: Lindsay M. Cutler
Lindsay M. Cutler
The incidence rate of homelessness in the United States has been trending positively over the last decade. The Department of Housing and Urban Development attributes this growth primarily to the West-Coast. States in this region particularly responsible for the rise in rates have significantly large concentrations of both homelessness and high-paying innovation-sector jobs in major cities–known as superstars for the extreme demand to live there. Dispersion between higher and lower-income residents is noted to be significantly higher in superstar cities. In light of the recent interference of an unprecedented pandemic, COVID-19, economists predict a significant increase in the incidence rate of homelessness nationwide. To further elaborate on this relationship, the interactions between homelessness rates, employment, costs of living, and government response are analyzed prior to the onset of COVID-19, and after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the United States. This analysis intends to explore how COVID-19 has impacted these 5 agglomerated cities' responses to the housing crisis. A qualitative grounded theory meta-analysis was performed. 5 cities (San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, and Boston) were selected for a comparison of qualitative data describing trends in homelessness, employment, costs of living, and government strategies. Data was compiled from literature released by government databases, annual government reports, research institutions, and relevant stakeholder associations. The interactions of COVID-19 on each variable are analyzed. Implications for future hypothesis testing are explored for the state of the combined housing and pandemic crisis as it continues to develop.
