Research Excellence and Opportunity
Investigate, innovate and inspire
Across disciplines and campus, students and faculty alike are on the leading edge of research.
Our founder, Mary Lyon, was a chemist who encouraged Mount Holyoke’s earliest students to learn by getting out of the classroom and into the real world. Today, that inquisitive spirit is still in our DNA, and it’s why we are driven to make research possible for scholars of all levels and disciplines. Whether students are in the classroom, laboratory or out in the world, we provide opportunities for them to pursue their own research interests while supporting faculty with the resources to expand and deepen theirs.
Research on campus
From weather- and water-sampling stations to ecological field sites, our campus is a living laboratory. It’s just one example of the innovative research spaces you’ll find here, which balance leading-edge resources and equipment with accessibility and community.
Campus Living Laboratory
We use our 700 acres to investigate natural and built environments, with opportunities for multidisciplinary research in biology, ecology, sustainability and environmental history.
Science Center
In facilities ranked among the best in the U.S. per the 2019 Princeton Review, you can gain practical experience with sophisticated equipment as early as your first year.
Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS)
LITS combines research support with library materials and technology, resulting in a valuable resource hub for students and faculty alike.
Collage Archives and Special Collections
Trace the history of Mount Holyoke and explore a range of special collection materials from 276 A.D. to the 1980s.
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
Enjoy direct engagement with rich collections of art and material culture for research. The permanent collections of the Art Museum and its subsidiary, the Joseph Allen Skinner Museum, include more than 24,000 works of art, decorative art and material and visual culture from around the world and through time.
Campus Voices
Student Research in Action
Pursuing two major interests without sacrifice
Sophia Smith ’22
Taking part in productive, respectful discussions
Annie Olecki ’22
Happening at Mount Holyoke
Faculty Research in the News
Pot use clouds conflict resolution in couples
KC Haydon’s research suggests that cannabis users aren’t as good as they think they are when it comes to dealing with conflicts in their relationships.
When is a dinosaur bone not a dinosaur bone?
Mount Holyoke professor Mark McMenamin seeks clues to the valley’s Jurassic past hidden away in fossilized bones.
Immigration inequality in the U.S.
David Hernández, associate professor of Latina/o studies at Mount Holyoke, discusses the biases against Black and Muslim applicants for U.S. citizenship.
Recent Faculty/Student Published Research
Church JS, Renzelman ML [MHC ’20], Schwartzer JJ. Ten-week high fat and high sugar diets in mice alter gut-brain axis cytokines in a sex-dependent manner. J Nutr Biochem. 2022 Feb;100:108903.
Amelia Malpas ’22 and Adam Hilton, "Retreating from Redistribution? Trends in Democratic Party Fidelity to Economic Equality, 1984-2020," paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 14-18, 2021
Hilton, A., & Malpas, A. [MHC '22] (2021). "Biden's Democrats want to roll back the Reagan era. Are the party and the country ready?" Washington Post, March 19, 2021 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/19/bidens-democrats-want-roll-back-reagan-era-are-party-country-ready/
Paleontology lab has discovered the first direct evidence for coloration in a Permian vertebrate (approximately 280 million years old). Students from the Spring 2022 Geol 116 Art in Paleontology class contributed to this study.
Rebeccah Lijek, with Mount Holyoke student co-authors C. Wang, H. Knapp-Broas, J. Graham, K. W. Seiger, E. Webster, presented research on Chlamydia pathogenesis and vaccines at the 2021 World Microbe Forum and 2021 Boston Bacterial Meeting, where Lijek chaired a session on Host-Microbe Interactions.