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 Yuet-Sim Darrell 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 CWR4B: 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 continued to grow and as space on campus became harder to secure, the Chiang Research Festival moved online, providing options that weren’t possible in face-to-face settings. Yet recognizing the value of in-person conversations regarding research, we piloted an on-campus iteration of the festival in fall 2025, moving us one step closer to formalizing a hybrid research festival.
Regardless of venue, what remains the same 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 450 students with each iteration, the Chiang Research Festival runs online during the Fall and Spring semester on Monday of RRR Week. The Spring 2026 Chiang Research Festival will take place on:
MONDAY, May 4, 2026
Online Session (TBA)
On-campus Session (TBA)
College Writing R4B students need to participate in only one of these sessions, and their 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
- 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.
