Before there was SSCRL there was IMSRL
As a sociologist and professor, Dr. Arthur Scarritt recognized students’ desire for more meaningful research opportunities in their education. Simply learning about qualitative research without actively engaging in it wasn’t enough. He knew that hands-on experience was critical for students’ growth as scholars.
During a tumultuous time in higher education, Dr. Scarritt saw offering qualitative research training as a twofold opportunity:
“We would enable students’ desire for conducting research to challenge the exploitative conditions they faced, as a lens to better understand and fight against the larger forces of inequality in society.”
Drawing inspiration from the McNair Program, Dr. Arthur Scarritt founded the Intermountain Social Research Lab aka IMSRL to offer students the opportunity to engage in a qualitative research project of their own design.
Founding The Intermountain Social Research Lab
Est. 2011 Department of Sociology
IMSRL
The Intermountain Social Research Lab (IMSRL) is a rigorous program that allows students to carry out the process of qualitative research from start to finish. From picking a topic, to writing a proposal, to conducting interviews, to analyzing data, to presenting the final paper, the entire process is completed in two semesters.
The beauty of IMSRL is in the freedom. Students choose a topic they’re interested in under the general umbrella of neoliberal higher education. The learning is trial and error where honest mistakes aren’t met with reprimand. The drive and curiosity come from within the student.
Over a Decade of Growth and Student Engagement
Dr. Scarritt had big dreams for IMSRL when he founded it. First and foremost was his goal of transformative research, but he envisioned other things too: publications, expansion, pay for students. The transformative research came quickly, but the other goals were sidelined. Something else had to come first: student connection.
It took immense dedication, and a few years of trial and error, to figure out how best to engage students and how best to make a categorically overwhelming project manageable for undergraduates. But the dedication paid off, students walk in at all levels of knowledge and walk out as informed scholars. Cohorts come and go, but students started to return as mentors. Even current Co-director Dr. Michael Kreiter is an IMSRL alumni.
“It is just so fantastic to see people grasp research as not only an amazing process of discovery, but as an empowering means to challenge the injustices of society.”– Dr. Arthur Scarritt
Founding Syringa State Community Research Lab
A fruition of the early IMSRL dreams.
Syringa State Community Research Lab
Syringa State Community Research Lab is the natural evolution of IMSRL. The reigniting of the past vision for publications, expansion, and pay for IMSRL students now that the foundation of transformative research and student connection has been solidly laid. Co-Directors of IMSRL Dr. Scarritt and Dr. Kreiter, after having the opportunity to work with two of their past IMSRL students, realized the potential of the trained students was too much not to act on.
Instead of students creating their own research to learn, Syringa State Community Research Lab is utilizing their honed skills to engage in research to support the communities around them across Idaho and beyond. It offers students experience and financial support, it offers quality research to those looking for actionable change, and it offers a showcasing of the sociological field.