EnterNameHere

First of all, maybe this should go in the Graduate School Forum, but I'm not sure--so it's here for the time being.

Anyway--I'm an English undergrad with the intention of attending grad school. With this in mind, I'd like to do some undergraduate research to bolster my CV/Resume for Graduate applications. However, finding a research position for Liberal Arts in the Humanities seems much more difficult than someone in the sciences. There typically aren't "labs" for us to work in.

Does anyone know how I should go about trying to get involved in undergraduate research in the Humanities?

The one thing it seems like I can do is write an Honors Thesis, which I'm already on track to do, but is there anything else I should be doing to make myself appealing to graduate programs?

NovaLynnx

Talk to your professors about your graduate school plans and desire to be involved in research. They may be working on papers that you can contribute to by researching materials and helping to co-author. A thesis will be great experience as well. These are good opportunities to get to know your profs well so that you end up with strong letters of recommendation, which are also important in addition to research experience. It is never too soon to begin exploring these options with your advisor or a profressor in the field you're interested in pursuing in graduate school.

marcdvl

Have you tried talking to your professors? My schools English program has a group (or many groups?) in which they are doing something with the complete works of Spencer.

There's even a course that has students work in the lab, in addition to the work of a normal class. A description is below. Perhaps your school has some similar group?
"
A practical course in literary study. Students in the Spenser Lab will engage in the same sort of literary-critical and literary-historical study as students in E Lit 498, the "regular" Spenser course, but they will also meet separately and their written work will be different, for students in the lab will assist in work on a major print and digital edition of the Collected Works of Edmund Spenser, editing commentary, writing grants, drafting notes and introductions. Students in the lab will learn about early printing and about the theory and practice of editing; they will have substantial exposure to many aspects of the new digital humanities, and they will gain experience in collaborative scholarship."

stradmom

Present a paper at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research - they have lots of humanities presentations there and it's great practice for grad school. This year's conference is in April at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and you need to apply by December 4. http://www.cur.org/ncur_2013/

Big10Champ

It's unlikely that you will be able to co-author a paper as an undergraduate an English, for while we do participate in research, it's not the same as a lab where even the guy cleaning glasses can get his name in somewhere. I am a senior applying to graduate schools in English now and have gotten the opportunity to write 3 research papers at length (one which I'm not refining into my writing sample) and present at two undergraduate symposiums, so I can recommend some options.

If you have an area of research interest (even if it's something general like the post-modern novel), find a faculty member at your school who specializes in that interest and ask about individual study course options. If it's a professor you've had in class before, that's even better. Or, if your class professors don't specialize in that area, they can generally recommend someone who can and put a word in. Explain your intent to go to graduate school and that you would like to have some research experience.

See if your school does have some sort of undergraduate research conference in the spring/summer. If so, you have something concrete that you can discuss with a professor and a definite ending point for a research project if you begin to start one.

Otherwise, if you're a junior, start brainstorming ideas for your honors thesis. You will probably change your decision a million times, but it's good to start thinking. Since that's likely going to be your writing sample, the earlier you get started the more time you have to make it great. You're not going to be rejected from schools because you haven't published XYZ amount of papers or learned the so-and-so method; but you are going to need to prove that you have a grasp of major concepts in the field, are interested in and engaged in making contributions, and can write your butt off