URI_Research _Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2020_Melissa-McCarthy

Aria Mia Loberti ’20 wants you to know that research is not confined to graduate students. The undergraduate student at the University of Rhode Island racked up three published journal articles, a half dozen academic conference presentations, a teaching assistantship, a local TED Talk and accolades from the United Nations before ever earning her triple major in philosophy, communication studies and political science, and double minor in Rhetoric: Theory and Practice, and Ancient Greek with honors. “I really want people to be able to find joy in their curiosity,” Loberti says. “Students should take advantage of all these research opportunities here at the University.”

For Loberti, that research started freshman year. Her biology professor Bryan Dewsbury saw an interest in researching the interconnection between teaching and inclusiveness of students from all walks of life. Before she knew it, Loberti was researching teaching pedagogies and drafting a paper that appeared, with her name listed first, in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education . By sophomore year she entered the classroom practicing what she researched as a teaching assistant in Dewsbury’s class. Simultaneously in her freshman year, while sitting on a couch in Davis Hall reading Aristotle’s Politics , Harrington School of Communication and Media Associate Dean Adam Roth plopped down next to her inquiring about her book choice. That blossomed

“I really want people to be able to find joy in their curiosity. Students should take advantage of all these research opportunities here at the University.”

- Aria Mia Loberti

PRACTICING ANCIENT GREEK by Aria Mia Loberti ‘20 The Greek meaning of this photo is “Endure” - πάσχω

Spring | 2020 Page 47