Jump-start your first year with real research
Every year, we invite 20–25 bright new students to work side by side with our professors on their research.
At any given time, we may have active projects in psychology, communication, ancient studies, literature, religious studies, management, theatre, international business, biology and marine science. It’s a great way to get some research experience and see if what you think you’re interested in is really the major for you.
Students receive a one-year stipend of up to $1,000. Applications must be submitted by February 1.
Receive a one-year stipend of up to $1,000
Submit your app by February 1
Meet a first-year research associate
Associateships for the 2025-26 academic year
Art in Society
Field: Sociology
Faculty: Dr. Nick Dempsey
About the Project
For an upcoming textbook on the sociology of art, we are currently reviewing recent publications about the place of art in society. That includes such themes as how art is produced in collaborations between artists and nonartists, how some art is perceived as valuable or “trashy,” and the role of art in social movements. Students will be engaged in seeking, reading, and summarizing recent books and articles on relevant subjects.
Nicholas P. Dempsey, associate professor of sociology and discipline coordinator, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. His teaching and research interests include sociological theory, culture and the arts, urban sociology, and social stratification.
Marine Science First-Year Research
Field: Marine Science
Faculty: Dr. Amy Siuda
About the Project
The entire course will be an active learning opportunity where students will be working closely with a faculty member on research projects. Students will be engaged in research throughout the course of their freshman year collecting data, analyzing and interpreting their results and eventually presenting their findings. Thus, this course will focus primarily on students doing science compared to more traditional courses that teach about science. Once a week all students in the program will meet as a group with the faculty for discussions and updates on research projects. These meetings will give the entire research group a chance to exchange and develop ideas. Potential Marine Science projects include:
- Field studies and use of a catalog of dorsal fin markings to investigate social patterns in the bottlenose dolphin (field surveys and lab work with dolphin fin catalog)
- Trace metal concentrations in Gulf of Mexico sediments following the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill (lab work)
- Timing, frequency and environmental impacts of extreme events (e.g., hurricanes) or land use change on sensitive coastal environments, as recorded in sediments (field and lab work)
- Microplastics in Tampa Bay: spatial and temporal variability (field collecting and lab work)
- Assessing impacts from red tide on seafloor communities and geochemical processes (field collection and lab work)
- Establishing baseline seafloor community and geochemical processes characterization prior to Deep Sea Mining (lab work)
- Surveillance of Pollution from Emerging Chemical Threats in Tampa Bay (field collection and lab work)
- Climate change research on invertebrate fishery species physiology and reproduction (lab work)
- Monitoring juvenile recruitment and tagging of fishery species (stone crabs) in Tampa Bay (field work + lab work)
- Assess the influence of environmental factors on soil development as well as plant establishment, distribution, and productivity in natural and created mangrove forests
- Monitoring and assessment of resilience and population structure of local sea anemone populations (field collecting and lab work)
- Identifying ecological dynamics and drivers of marine invertebrate assemblages in estuarine to deep-sea environments over geological timescales and in response to anthropogenic impacts (field and/or lab work)
- Environmental DNA sampling in local waterways alongside visual surveys for invasive species and other invertebrate taxa of interest (field and lab work)
Amy Siuda is a marine ecologist and biological oceanographer. My research interests span marine plankton ecology from organismal to population and community levels.
Monitoring Coastal Vertebrates
Fields: Environmental Studies and Animal Studies
Faculty: Drs. Beth Forys and Tim Bransford
About the Project
Fort De Soto is a mostly undeveloped barrier island located just a few miles from Eckerd. We are using infrared cameras to take photos and videos of animals that walk past the cameras in a variety of human dominated and more pristine habitats embedded in this coastal ecosystem. Our goal is to measure vertebrate biodiversity on open beaches, dunes, wetlands, and upland forests and then to examine how human presence influences this biodiversity. Students will be involved with camera placement, collecting SD cards, examining and categorizing images and educating the public by sharing photographs on a webpage for each location. Students will be working with Dr. Forys & Dr. Bransford on this project.
Dr. Forys is a professor in Eckerd’s Environmental Studies and Biology disciplines. She is a conservation biologist interested in spatial ecology and endangered species. She teaches Environmental Biology, Conservation Biology, GIS, Research Methods and Field Ornithology.
Dr. Bransford is a professor in Eckerd’s Animal Studies discipline. He is a primatologist that works with both wild and captive primates, and uses a variety of direct and remote observation methods to answer questions about primate foraging and ranging behavior, ecology, conservation biology, and the human-animal interface.
Stress and Sleep in Queer Identifying Adults
Field: Psychology
Faculty: Dr. Sarah Lyle
About the Project
Currently, the Health and Well-Being Lab is planning a project exploring sleep and stress in college students and other adults who identify as sexual and gender minorities (e.g., queer, gay, bisexual, gender-fluid, and trans). This project seeks to understand the links between stress and sleep and factors that may offset the negative consequences of stress on sleep in queer-identifying people.
Dr. Sarah Lyle is the director of Eckerd’s Health and Well-Being Lab, and she teaches courses in health psychology, developmental psychology, and research methods. Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of stress and resilience across the lifespan.
The Ancient Animals Project
Field: Animal Studies
Faculty: Dr. Kathryn Hudson
About the Project
This exciting project focuses on documenting, cataloging, and analyzing animal imagery and related motifs on archaeological artifacts from Central America, Mexico, and the southeastern United States! Animal motifs were a very important part of many artistic traditions and writing systems in the ancient Americas, and they can provide a lot of information about culture, identity, and sociopolitical systems. We will focus on animal motifs on pottery, in murals, and on other kinds of decorated items. Students will be able to catalog and describe animal motifs; document, record, and analyze their archaeological contexts; and contribute to the development of a research database that is part of the Human-Animal Interfaces Past and Present (HAIPP) Lab in the Animal Studies program at Eckerd. This unique opportunity will also allow for hands-on work with archaeological materials and for potential collaborations with students at other institutions.
Kathryn Hudson is an archaeologist, anthropologist, and linguist focusing on global animal studies. Her research explores the human-animal interface as well as mechanisms of identity (re)construction, processes of visual and non-verbal communication, ceramic analysis, ethnohistory, historical linguistics, and the documentation of cultural and linguistic traditions. Her main geographic foci are Mexico and Central America, southeastern Europe, the Pacific, the southeastern United States, and west Africa.
Women in the History of Philosophy
Field: Philosophy
Faculty: Dr. Louise Daoust
About the Project
This project is an opportunity for students to work closely with a faculty member in the humanities on a new modern edition of a work written in the 1820s by Scottish philosopher Lady Mary Shepherd. Shepherd’s writings were taught at Cambridge University during her lifetime. However, like so many significant women thinkers from the early modern and modern periods, Shepherd’s contributions were neglected soon after her death. In recent years, Shepherd’s writings have been rediscovered, and this project aims to help them reach a broader audience. The text we’ll work on, titled Essay upon the Relation of Cause and Effect, deals with foundational questions in the philosophy of science. Research Associates will be responsible for reading and discussing primary sources, carrying out supervised research projects, and checking citations and proofs of the manuscript. Strong reading and writing skills will be an asset, and a genuine interest in the history of ideas and/or philosophical inquiry is essential (no formal experience with philosophy is required).
Dr. Daoust is an assistant professor of philosophy at Eckerd College. She is interested in normative issues in cognitive science, especially in perceptual psychology and biology. Her research focuses on the interplay between perceiving organisms and their environments, and on what that interplay can teach us about the conditions under which perception is successful. She has additional research interests in the history of philosophy and psychology, and teaches a broad range of courses, including courses in philosophy of gender and environmental philosophy.
Studying marine life in Boca Ciega Bay
Studying sediment layers extracted from the Gulf of Mexico
