Welcome to the 2015 issue of the University of Utah’s Undergraduate Research Journal. Congratulations to the students who have published their important work here—the Undergraduate Research Journal collects and celebrates the contributions our undergraduate students from all over campus make to scholarship in their fields.

Many of you are familiar with the previous instantiation of this publication, the Undergraduate Research Abstracts Journal. We have made two important changes this year and moving forward: first, as you have seen, the Journal is now published online; second, submissions are no longer limited to abstracts—we now welcome submissions of all shapes and sizes. Our new online format more readily accommodates the work of our undergraduate students from all disciplines on campus, whether they include images of art work, links to performances, traditional research abstracts, artists’ statements, and more.

I would like to express my appreciation for the dedicated project leadership of my Office of Undergraduate Research colleague Janet Opel, who has made our vision for an online journal a reality. This was no small task, and Janet, along with team members Cindy Greaves and Stephanie Shiver, have created an inclusive and widely-accessible outlet for University of Utah students’ scholarship.

The transition to this online format would not have been possible, nor the product of such high quality, without the generous support and expertise of our partners in the Marriott Library. I would like to especially thank Anne Morrow for her commitment to launching the Journal, and for the spirit of collaboration in support of the undergraduate experience that permeates her work. We are proud that the Undergraduate Research Journalis now hosted by the Marriott Library’s e-publication system and look forward to our continued collaboration.

I would finally like to acknowledge the dedication and support of the faculty mentors who are committed to providing high-quality research experiences for undergraduate students at the University of Utah. The work published here represents countless hours of mentoring on the part of my colleagues all over campus—thank you for all that you do.

Happy reading, all!

Sincerely,
Rachel Hayes-Harb
Director, Office of Undergraduate Research
Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics