Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research

We've moved! Please update your links to
https://www.monmouthcollege.edu/mjur/
and keep encouraging submissions for our 2025 issue!

MJUR Founded in 2010, the Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research (MJUR) (ISSN: 2160-9357) is a multidisciplinary scholarly journal produced by a team of Monmouth College student editors and faculty members with peer and faculty (or experts in the field) reviewers for each article. Scholars from a vari...

Summer is the perfect time to revise your research papers and submit them to MJUR!

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2025. To submit, go to:

Call For Papers – Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research Call For Papers Want to share your research? The editors of the Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research invite undergraduate students at any college or university to submit manuscripts from any discipline to be considered for publication in our journal’s 16th issue (2025) by January 15, 2025. Re...

MJUR-y Update New issue of Monmouth’s Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research now in print.

Happy MJUR Monday! Check out this article about our newest edition of the journal!

New issue of Monmouth's Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research explores diverse range of disciplines, including shortage of teachers in Illinois The Illinois educator shortage - an issue that Monmouth College is taking an active role in trying to solve - is just one of the topics addressed in the new edition of the College's Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research, which is now available in p...

Congratulations to our graduating editors: Michael Gabriel Castillo Andal, Tyler Houck, and Larissa Pothoven!

Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors!

This year's edition of MJUR (Issue 15) contains 10 articles, the second highest number in the history of the journal. The highest count was 13 articles in 2017 (Issue 7).

If you would like to submit a paper to next year's edition of MJUR (Issue 16), go to: https://research.monm.edu/mjur/call-for-papers/?fbclid=IwAR3okqo6m_5K-8jefzEQxCbmh1uU6f_sweCx-i0ZmIetqXcVFYPfaPhH4Us

Happy MJUR Monday! Meet Maria Hosmer-Briggs, our Copy-editing Consultant.

During Maria Hosmer-Briggs’ teaching career at Syracuse University and the State of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry, she taught graduate and undergraduate composition and also tutored both traditional students and non-native English-speaking students in writing dissertations and academic journal articles. She eventually switched course slightly to take certification in professional editing at the University of Chicago’s Graham School. Maria has since worked for publishers, principally Syracuse University Press, various scientific journals, and individuals, on a freelance basis.

In many ways, Maria enjoys editing more than she did teaching. She was delighted to be invited by her friend Anne Mamary to edit for MJUR. The reading is always interesting, sometimes challenging, and she looks forward to each new issue.

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Education: Syracuse University, MA in Linguistics; World Learning/School for International Studies, MAT in teaching ESOL; University of Chicago, Graduate certificate in Editing

Happy MJUR Monday! Meet Dr. Michelle Holschuh Simmons, our Coordination Consultant.

Michelle Holschuh Simmons was an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Monmouth College until 2023, when she became the Engagement and Outreach Librarian at Western Illinois University. Between 2017 and 2023, she was involved with MJUR, first as the Design Advisor and then as the Coordinating Advisor. Even though she no longer is a professor at Monmouth College, she continues to be involved with MJUR as a Coordinating Consultant. She is committed to the mission of MJUR because it provides an impactful undergraduate learning experience both for the student editors and for the authors who submit manuscripts. Additionally, she enjoys working with the other faculty and students associated with MJUR because everyone involved is dedicated, curious, and engaged.

Meet Dr. Judi Kessler, our Submissions Manager!

Judi Kessler joined the faculty of Monmouth College in the Sociology and Anthropology Department after having worked as an RN/Cardiac Clinician at UCLA, an Advance Person for two California politicians, and Press Secretary for several international recording artists. Judi also served on the staff of an NGO, helping to build homes for rural residents in Central America. She ultimately returned to school and earned a second bachelor's degree in Latin American Studies, and master’s and doctoral degrees in Sociology.
Judi was an original member of the MJUR faculty and staff for the inaugural issue in 2010-11, and she continued working with MJUR up to and beyond her recent retirement from the college. She currently serves as MJUR’s Submissions Coordinator.
These days, Judi spends most of her time with her horses at an equestrian center outside of Galesburg, Illinois.

Meet Amjad Karkout, our Design Consultant!

Amjad Karkout is a class of 2018 Political Science major with minors in Media & Psychology. Amjad was an MJUR student editor & design co-editor during the 2017-2018 academic year. Since designing the Conference Proceedings issue in 2017, he has always been involved in the design project for MJUR as well as other administrative tasks.

After graduating from MC, Amjad continued to work at Monmouth College for almost 4 years. After leaving Monmouth, he worked as the Academic Support Coordinator at Midwestern Career College. Currently, he works at the Illinois Department of Human Services as a case worker in training.

Happy MJUR Monday! Meet Dr. Michael Solontoi, our Coordinating Advisor.

Michael Solontoi joined the department of Physics and Engineering at Monmouth College in 2018 and has been involved with MJUR since then, serving as the Coordinating Advisor as of 2023. He deeply enjoys working with the engaged and dedicated students who edit the broad range of scholarly submissions to MJUR. An astronomer by training, he has been a long-standing member of the Solar System Science Collaboration of the forthcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory, focusing on comet science. Michael actively conducts research with Monmouth students on a wide range of “space stuff” as well as non-astronomy related topics.

Happy MJUR Monday! Today we would like to highlight Dr. Anne Mamary, our Editing Advisor.

Professor of Philosophy Anne Mamary joined the Monmouth College Philosophy and Religious Studies Department in 2004 and is the copy-editing advisor for MJUR. During the decade in which Anne has worked with the journal, she has admired the brilliance, curiosity, and tenacity of the student editorial board, as they bring to life the importance of scholarship in the academic life.

In this vein, Anne edited The Alchemical Harry Potter (McFarland, 2021), which includes articles by Monmouth College class of 2018 graduates Isaac Willis (an MJUR co-coordinating editor) and Sean Paulsgrove, along with former Monmouth student, Tamyra Dixon-Rankin. The Journal of Critical Animal Studies published Anne’s article “How Do you Know His Name is Gabriel?” in 2020 and named it the faculty paper of the year. Anne’s favorite part of that research experience is that she had the journal’s editor-in-chief, Amber George, as an undergraduate student at SUNY Cortland and served as the outside reader on Amber’s dissertation committee some years later.

At present, Anne is co-editing (with Meredith Trexler Drees at Kansas Wesleyan University) Politeia: Essays in Honor of Anthony Preus (SUNY, forthcoming 2024). Anne studied with Dr. Preus when she was a graduate student at SUNY Binghamton, is very pleased to honor him with essays inspired by his work, and is delighted to work with MJUR students as they continue to bring excellent undergraduate research to the world.