The Chiang Research Festival is both a celebration of student research and a forum in which students can test and refine their ideas before submitting their final research portfolios.
The Chiang Research Festival began in Fall 2014, when College Writing faculty Sim Chiang and Ryan Sloan paired their two sections of R4B so that students could present their research to one another. As more instructors became involved, the Festival took place in a handful of classrooms in Dwinelle before Moffitt Library agreed to host the event on its 5th Floor. Today the Festival includes every student enrolled in CW R4B: Reading, Composition & Research and has become a twice-yearly tradition for our Program. As one student put it recently: "I'm proud that we have so many interesting people doing such interesting projects. It says a lot about the diversity of ideas at Cal."
As the College Writing R4B student population continues to grow and as space on campus becomes harder to secure, the Chiang Research Festival has moved online, providing options that weren’t possible in face-to-face settings. What remains the same regardless of venue is the opportunity for students to present their research to an audience of peers, answer and ask questions, engage with R4B students from other sections, and develop an academic community bigger and richer than any one classroom.
Hosting more than 350 students with each iteration, the Chiang Research Festival runs online during the Fall and Spring semester on Monday of RRR Week. We continue to offer two sessions to accommodate student schedules; R4B students need to participate in only one of these sessions.
The Spring 2025 Chiang Research Festival will take place on Zoom on:
MONDAY, May 5, 2025, on Zoom
Session 1 (9am to 11am, Pacific)
Session 2 (4pm to 6pm, Pacific)
College Writing R4B instructors will have more information—including registration details—as the Festival approaches.
College Writing Programs acknowledges our co-sponsor, Moffitt Undergraduate Library. We are grateful for Moffitt partnering with us for the Chiang Research Festival and to all of the librarians who offer their expertise in helping our students learn about and access an array of primary and secondary sources throughout the semester.
Festival-Related Documents
- Chiang Research Festival Programs, featuring the names of presenters and the titles of their talks
- The Spring 2025 Chiang Research Festival Program (forthcoming)
- The Fall 2024 Chiang Research Festival Program
- The Spring 2024 Chiang Research Festival Program
- The Fall 2023 Chiang Research Festival Program
- Online Festival Guidelines with Zoom Participant Tips, an overview of Festival logisitics and protocols for this semester.
- Collaborative Breakout Room Respondent Sheet, a collaborative GoogleDoc for someone in the breakout room to download and share so all breakout room participants can record comments, questions, and observations during and after each presentation.
- Presenting Your Research at the Chiang Research Festival, a list of benefits to presenting research in a professional forum.
