One of the most exciting events of the year is almost here! The annual University Research Day will be held on April 15th 2026. Research Day provides members of the CUA community the opportunity to present their research outside of the classroom environment. Throughout the day, students and faculty will share their recent scholarship with the campus community. Research Day is a great event to learn about new topics and fields of study you may know little to nothing about.
The day begins with the keynote address delivered by Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan from the sociology department. Following the keynote address, oral presentations delivered by undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty are scheduled to take place in auditoriums and classrooms all over campus. During the lunch break, stop by the Pryzbyla Center for an exhibition of musical and drama performances or swing by the Conway Auditorium for the yearly Film Festival! In the afternoon, check out the poster presentations held on the third floor of the Pryzbyla Center. Finish your Research Day experience by attending the award ceremony and the raffle drawing (yep that’s right, attendees who sign in at events are entered into a raffle to win fabulous prizes!).
For the full list of scheduled activities, see the CUA Research Day website for more details.
University Research Day Digital Collections
Cannot wait for this year’s University Research Day presentations? Or maybe you want to see what research students and faculty have presented in the past? Check out the CUA libraries’ University Research Day digital collection! Our Special Collections department has uploaded videos and images from past oral presentations and posters. The collection includes works from the University Research Day in 2019 to last year’s event. If you are interested in works produced by a particular department or advisor, you can use the Search Within Collection option to locate relevant results to your needs and interests. Maybe one of these past works will spark a future Research Day presentation!
While you are checking out the University Research Day collection, why not see what other great content is available in the Digital Collections? There are twenty-three other collections full of exciting digital files, images and research papers. Collection topics range from yearbooks from previous years to Semitics/ICOR Library collection.
The University Libraries at Research Day
The University Libraries are committed to helping our community with their research needs. From the physical books stored in the on-campus stacks, to nearly three hundred different databases available on the library website, the libraries are here to support the research needs of the university community every day! Want to learn more? Stop by the libraries’ information table in the Pryzbyla Center from 11:30 to 3:30. Our friendly library staff will be on hand to answer any questions you may have!
Charles Gallagher is a Research and Instruction Librarian at The Catholic University of America Libraries.