Summer Research Training Program
A 9-week program, run from June-August, the MMUF Summer Research Training Program at the University of Chicago aims to initiate and cultivate each student as future researchers and scholars who will enter Ph.D. programs and pursue careers in the academy. In training and cultivating aspiring scholars and researchers, our approach is one that attends simultaneously to the academic, social and practical needs of each student. This Program prepares rising juniors and senior MMUF students from around the country. It is designed to carry out comprehensive scholarly research in the MMUF Program. Through the Summer Research Training Program we deepen students critical and analytical thinking capacities, develop further their scholarly writing and presentation skills, introduce them to methodology and research design relevant to their areas of study, as well as foster community in which the values and commitments of Benjamin Mays are explored and honored. Courses are taught by faculty and advanced graduate students (supervised by faculty). University of Chicago MMUF students typically complete this program during their first summer in the MMUF, but the program is flexible enough to be adapted to the needs of both rising juniors and rising seniors.
For those MMUF students who complete the SRTP as rising juniors, they typically use the second summer that they are in the MMUF Program to carry out independent research of greater depth and focus. As fourth-years, it is common for MMUF students to travel to other cities, libraries, universities and even other countries to carry out this second summer of research (some funds for research related expenses are available to MMUF students). During the junior year itself, Chicago MMUF students are expected to plan their second summer of research in consultation with their faculty mentors and with the MMUF Program coordinators. Since all University of Chicago MMUF students are required to complete a BA thesis or research project, typically, MMUF students parlay the research completed during the second summer in the MMUF into their senior theses.