Undergraduate Research in Dance

Undergraduate Research in Dance: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding research skills, alongside examples of undergraduate research in dance scholarship. This second edition has been updated throughout for current students, with new chapters on mentoring and dance studies.

Dance can be studied as an expressive embodied art form with physical, cognitive, and affective domains, and as an integral part of society, history, and vast areas of interdisciplinary content. To this end, the guidance provided by this book will equip future dance professionals with the means to move the field of dance forward. Chapters 1–9 guide students through the fundamentals of research methods, providing a foundation to help students get started in understanding research protocols and processes. A new chapter 10 provides guidelines for mentoring undergraduate students in dance. Chapters 11–21 detail forms of undergraduate research in a rich diversity of fields within dance that are taught in many collegiate dance programs including dance therapy, history, science, psychology, education, and technology, in addition to public scholarship, choreography, and interdisciplinary topics. A new chapter on dance studies has been added to this second edition. The book also includes annotated online resources, and many of its chapters are supported by examples of abstracts of capstone projects, senior theses, and conference presentations by undergraduate researchers across the United States and globally.

Suitable for both professors and students, this book is an ideal reference book for dance studies as well as humanities and arts courses intersecting with dance.

Lynnette Young Overby is Professor Emerita in Theatre and Dance at the University of Delaware, USA, and currently a Research Associate with the Arnhold Institute for Dance Education, Research, Policy & Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. She is also past Director of Research for Dance and the Child International. Overby has co-organized poster sessions for the National Dance Education Organization for several years.

Jenny Olin Shanahan is Assistant Provost for High Impact Practices at Bridgewater State University, USA, and has held numerous leadership roles with the Council for Undergraduate Research.

Gregory Young is Professor of Music at Montana State University, USA, and has held ongoing posts in conferences of undergraduate research and in curriculum development.