The Body Project began in 2008 as a collaborative effort between graduate students in the English Department and the Center for Arts and Humanities. It is an annual event held in the spring on MU’s campus and features presentations by grad students, post-docs, and research staff at Mizzou. The MU community as well as the public are welcome to attend the event to learn more about interdisciplinary research. Oral presentations, posters, art installations, or other types of research presentations are presented in a variety of sessions centered on “the body.” We are very excited to showcase a student keynote speaker in addition to a faculty speaker this year. Students have the option of submitting a supplemental application (in addition to the regular abstract submission) if they wish to be considered for keynote speaker. We are not aware of any other opportunities for a student speaker to be acknowledged in this manner.

Interdisciplinary research is highly desirable in today’s academic environment but is difficult to initiate. This conference allows interested students to present their ideas, obtain valuable feedback, and possibly build future collaborations with other students and faculty. We selected the theme “The Body Project” with the hope that any student can find a connection to the myriad of topics that relate to the human body, bodies of water, habeus corpus, the body after death, celestial bodies, professional bodies, bodies of knowledge, or any other interpretation of a body as an object or grouping of ideas or things. The purpose of the theme is to initiate possible avenues for interdisciplinary research, and such research not directly fitting the theme of the conference is also welcome.

We have three goals:

• Build interdisciplinary collaborative relationships among MU graduate and professional students
• Provide an affordable professionalization opportunity
• Showcase exciting research