THURJ: The Honors Undergraduate Research Journal
The Honors Undergraduate Research Journal (THURJ) is an annual publication that celebrates undergraduate research in all academic disciplines. Each spring, THURJ publishes the best undergraduate research papers from the previous year written by Honors students, as determined by an editorial board of their peers. The editorial board reads and evaluates submissions using a blind review process, and chooses between 8-12 papers for publication in the journal. All published authors also receive a $100 prize.
THURJ is advised by two Honors College faculty who select approximately eight students to serve on the editorial board each year.
If you are interested in serving on the THURJ editorial board, look for publicized announcements in August and September about the application deadline.
If you are interested in submitting a paper to THURJ for consideration for publication, look for publicized announcements in December and January about the submission deadline.Deadlines for this program vary from year to year based on decisions made by the Student Editorial Board. Please contact the Honors College for details.
For more information, go to the Honors College Undergraduate Research website or contact Dr. Dan Mains or Will O'Donnell.
Recent Submissions
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Spontaneous Generation and Kuhn's Model of Scientific Revolution Undergraduate
(2012)Thomas S. Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" describes the cyclical process by which science develops. This process, far from one of slow, gradual accumulation, is a process of revolution in which one framework ... -
THURJ: The Honors Undergraduate Research Journal, Volume 15 (2016) Undergraduate
(2016)A publication of the Joe C. and Carole Kerr McClendon Honors College at the University of Oklahoma. -
Women of the Wild: Women, Outdoor Sport, and Changing Gender Roles Undergraduate
(2016)Today, a quick Internet search will reveal that shooting, hunting, fishing, mountain climbing, and camping are all recreational activities that fall into the category of “outdoorsman” sports. As the name “outdoorsman” ... -
A Grand Evasion: How Corporations Deprive Workers, Government, and Society by Widespread Tax Avoidance Undergraduate
(2016)Corporate tax avoidance is a growing concern for the stability of America. Corporations are able to avoid paying their dues to society and instead extract economics rents from both workers and the government. This paper ... -
Le Prix du Sucre Undergraduate
(2016)Today’s society, as many before it, views sugar as the embodiment of pleasure, luxury, and jubilance. Society’s infatuation with sugar is seen in the figurative usage of the word sweet, the association of children with ... -
Arabella Buckley's Epic: Uniting Evolutionary Epic & Spiritualism to Account for the Evolution of Morals from Mutualism Undergraduate
(2016)In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species (The Origin), outlining his theory of evolution through the mechanism of natural selection. With this text, he employed and shaped the genre of evolutionary ... -
Space and the Psychology of Personality Types: How Personality Influences Reactions to Architectural Space Undergraduate
(2016)Researchers in both architecture and psychology agree that open office plans can have significant negative consequences for employees. This, though, is where universal agreement ends: researchers in both fields have ... -
El Curandero Actual: Preserving Indigenous Identity Through Mexican Folk Healing’s Chants Undergraduate
(2016)Curanderismo is a syncretic form of Mexican folk healing whose origins date back to the Spanish colonization of the Americas. This medical system, drawing from both indigenous healing practices and Catholic spirituality, ... -
Between a Poor and a Poorer Place: Why Welfare Should View the Labor Market as the Problem Rather than the Solution to Poverty Undergraduate
(2016)This paper seeks to argue, in direct contrast to Clinton’s reforms in the 1990s, that the modern American welfare state should view the secondary labor market as the primary problem low income citizens face rather than ... -
Dinner and a Date: the Misguiding Nature of Expiration Dates and Their Influence on Consumer Food Waste Behavior Undergraduate
(2016)Food waste is largely considered one of the greatest paradoxes of today: while millions of people in the world starve, we waste an astonishing amount of the food we produce. One factor that produces a substantial amount ... -
But Where Are All the Women? Examining the Often Overlooked Role of Women in and against Islamist Extremism Undergraduate
(2016)Over the past several decades, Islamist extremism has become an omnipresent topic in discussions of global politics, national security, and international relations. However, women have been conspicuously absent from ... -
The Economics of Affirmative Action Admissions Policies for Asian American Students Undergraduate
(2015)In the realm of higher education, Asian American students have thrived in terms of academic excellence. During the last fifty years, many Asian Americans have done so well academically that they are no longer underrepresented ... -
Cross-Cultural Musical Healing Practices: Egocentric and Sociocentric Approaches Undergraduate
(2015)The maintenance of health and healing when illness arises can be approached from different perspectives, apparent in diverse healing practices around the world. One system of healthcare delivery that has occupied a powerful ... -
Too Big to Hail: Why We Need to Split Up the Ninth Circuit Undergraduate
(2015)Some may say that at the rate law schools are churning them out, there will be more lawyers than humans by 2050. While this little population “prediction” does provide a nice laugh, it also speaks to the increasingly ... -
Modes of Violence Against Puerto Rico’s Urban Poor: Housing Policy in Puerto Rico Undergraduate
(2015)Public housing projects reserved for low-income families in Puerto Rico are known as caseríos. A caserío consists of several tenement structures subdivided into one-family apartments built on a large and compact settlement ... -
China’s South-to-North Water Transfer Project Undergraduate
(2015)China’s ongoing South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) is the largest water pipeline project that has ever been undertaken anywhere in the world. At its completion sometime around 2050, it will connect the southern ... -
A Study of Female Representation in American Popular Music Festival Culture Undergraduate
(2015)When music festivals featuring both popular artists and more underground genres first appeared in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, they provided individuals with an opportunity to escape from reality and ... -
Weapons of Mass Destruction: OTC Derivatives and the 2008 Financial Crisis Undergraduate
(2015)In 2002, Warren Buffet included a warning in his annual letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway which now seems eerily prophetic: “We view [derivatives] as time bombs, [as] financial weapons of mass destruction, ... -
Fancydancing: the Art of Self Undergraduate
(2015)Visual images of the drunken, vanishing, or stoic Indian are commonplace within the popular imagination. Indigenous films have provided a medium to challenge and refute these stereotypes. As a Native American writer and ... -
The ART of Producing Responsa: Feminist Critiques of Rabbinic Law through the Lens of Assisted Reproductive Technologies Undergraduate
(2015)Prior to the mid-twentieth century, when assisted reproductive technologies (ART) stepped on to the medical scene, supplications and prayers to God were the primary means for religious Jewish couples to cope with the issue ...