Kodjo Adabra, associate professor of Francophone studies (photo provided)
Kodjo Adabra, associate professor of Francophone studies in Global Languages and Cultures, has been elected to a three-year term as a councilor in the Arts and Humanities Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).
CUR is a national organization representing more than 900 colleges and universities whose mission is to support and promote high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and scholarship. Adabra says his election means a lot to him as an invested undergraduate research mentor, but it could also be a strategic asset for the Geneseo campus.
“The most rewarding aspect of my career at Geneseo has been to take a diverse group of Geneseo students to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), a branch of CUR, as their research mentor and witness them cultivate critical thinking, gain intellectual independence, and develop problem-solving skills through the process,” he says. “Being a CUR councilor will provide me with the scalable tools to promote undergraduate research across SUNY campuses, especially among our own Geneseo students, and get more Geneseo colleagues involved in mentoring our students for research at the national stage.”
Adabra’s responsibilities as CUR councilor include serving in leadership or programmatic capacities within the Arts and Humanities Division, representing the division in available task force or committee positions within the CUR organization, serving as institute facilitator and coordinator, and working with national agencies and foundations to enhance undergraduate research opportunities for students.
Last year, Adabra was awarded Geneseo’s James & Julia Lockhart Endowed Professorship, which he’ll hold through 2025. He received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2020 and the Chancellor’s Award for Internationalization (CAFI) in 2011.