Grants and Writing Resources for Samford University

Samford students took five awards in the Southeast Journalism Conference's 2026 Best of the South competition, reported in February, including third place for Best Magazine for The Local, which students produce in a print practicum course. In March the Birmingham Center of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America honored seven Samford students for essays on early American history, written for a competition held with the Department of History. Their prizes came to more than $4,200, and the winning essays will be bound as Volume LXX in the university's Special Collection and University Archives.

Research Colloquia and Summer Projects

The Student Research Colloquia are an annual public forum for student research, most of it shown on posters. More than 170 students took part in the fifth annual event in April 2026, a graduate student among them, and winners are named in categories that include undergraduate research. Samford students also present at regional meetings such as the Southern Conference Undergraduate Research Forum, where a group shared work in October 2025.

Summer research has run through the Arts and Sciences Program for Independent Research (ASPIRE) since 2004. Each student works one-on-one with a faculty guide. In 2007 the Alabama Power Foundation put $250,000 into the University Fellows program, and Fellows can compete for Alabama Power Foundation Research Fellowships. Past recipients have done summer research in chemistry, classics, computer science and political science.

Journals That Print Student Work

The Samford Undergraduate Research Journal, or SURJ, is peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary. The University Fellows Program sponsors and staffs it, and any Samford undergraduate may submit. Sojourn, the literary arts magazine of the Department of Communication and Media, appears twice a year with photography, poetry, art and short stories by students and faculty.

The English program publishes Wide Angle: A Journal of Literature and Film once a year. A student editorial team produces it with a faculty general editor. On the critical side it takes essays on literature and film, along with book, film and scholarly reviews; on the creative side, poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, screenplays and original short films. Submissions are anonymous, with a limit of two pieces per category.

Prizes and Scholarships for Writers

Creative writing students in the Department of English finish with a creative writing thesis in their chosen genre, and the department gives the Charles T. Workman Creative Writing Award to a deserving English major in that concentration. The Margaret O'Bryan Brodnax Endowed Scholarship Fund for Excellence in Writing supports a first- or second-year student who shows promise in scholarly writing. An English Department Scholarship for London Studies pays for an English major's literary experience in London.

Tutoring and Research Help

The Academic Success Center offers free drop-in tutoring in several subjects in the fall and spring semesters, plus virtual tutoring in some subjects by appointment. For a class the schedule doesn't cover, students can send a Request Academic Assistance form, and the center replies within one business day.

Librarians in Reference and Research Services, on the second floor of the Davis Library building, answer questions through Ask Us, by phone and by email. Students can also book an in-person research consultation through Meet with a Librarian.

Our editors give papers, theses and dissertations a final edit for grammar, consistency and format before they go to a journal, a prize committee or a graduate program. See our Samford University dissertation and thesis editing and Samford University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write a Critical Essay: Mastering Academic Critique
• Literature Synthesis: Moving Beyond the Summary toward Authority
• From Dissertation to Publication: The Final Scholarly Synthesis