Librarians and faculty use expertise to promote student success
SMU Libraries is proud to announce the Fall 2025 winners of the Research Assignment Stipend. This $1,000 award supports collaboration between faculty and librarians to promote the integration of information literacy concepts into coursework, ultimately enhancing student research at SMU.
To apply, faculty members select a research assignment from an upcoming course and submit a proposal outlining how they will partner with a subject librarian to incorporate information literacy into the project. Proposals must also anticipate potential instructional challenges and describe strategies to address roadblocks and support student success.
Congratulations to the Fall 2025 winners
Dana Buzzee, visiting professor of practice in the Meadows School of the Arts, will work with fine arts research librarian Kate Alleman for the course Word and Image. This course will investigate how mark-making and communication technologies have evolved from cave paintings to the internet, and students will engage in creative research through media literacy. Professor Buzzee will work with Kate as she implements a multi-quest live action role-play game, modeled on internet protocol mechanics, which, according to Professor Buzzee, will tentatively be called the Library Action Research Protocol, or LARP. Through the examination of networked knowledge systems and emphasis on the library as a source for information navigation, the project aims to foster reflection on how media technologies shape understanding, storytelling, and artistic practice. Additional plans for the course include Kate and the instructor creating a custom AI server, offering hands-on workshops, in-class guidance, and access to curated research materials.
For her intermediate Spanish course, senior lecturer of Spanish Susana Solera Adoboe will collaborate with humanities research librarian Rebecca Graff. The course invites students to explore culture through research, with two research-based assignments centering on information literacy and cultural analysis. The first project – focusing on festivals and traditions – involves student research into the cultural traditions of Spanish-speaking countries using an analytical framework, while the second involves the exploration of labor systems, professional norms, and cultural attitudes towards work in these countries. Rebecca will collaborate with the instructor for the design of two targeted instruction sessions supporting the development of information literacy as students conduct research. Through this research, the course aims to illuminate cultural perspectives that drive communities around us, and to identify shared human experiences across cultures and regions.
Congratulations to this semester’s winners! For questions regarding the award or to learn more, visit the Research Assignment Stipend website.
This post was written in collaboration with Rebecca Graff, humanities research librarian. Rebecca’s subject area expertise covers world language and literature, English, philosophy, and more. Rebecca often collaborates with faculty as she visits classes for instructional sessions on research.