The University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Graduate Student Council hosted the 2025 Community of Scholars Research Conference.
The event on April 17 brought together 60 graduate students, faculty and community members to showcase the essence of interdisciplinary research, community and collaboration. The conference chairs were Dr. Mohan Kumar Gajendran and Kiel Corkran, president of the Graduate Student Council (GSC).
Some key takeaways from the event:
- Education: Several grad students highlighted systemic gaps in institutional support, especially for international and first-generation students. There were strong calls for more equitable access to funding, research resources and recognition.
- Health: Mental health came up across disciplines, both in research topics and in personal experience. Students discussed how trauma-informed care, burnout and barriers to support intersect with their academic and community work.
- Local government: There was a recurring theme around policymaking disconnects — how local and state decisions often fail to account for the lived experience of those impacted. Some students proposed policy frameworks or pilot interventions rooted in their fieldwork.
The event featured a mix of poster presentations, podium sessions and a panel discussion titled “AI and Academic Writing: Integrity, Voice and Future Use.”
The day highlighted work from more than 30 student researchers across disciplines, alongside 13 faculty judges and guests from around campus.
Faculty member Dr. Antonio Byrd joined as moderator of the panel, where students engaged in open dialogue about using AI tools ethically in graduate work.
“Our goal was to create a space that honors the work graduate students are doing and shows that we can run this kind of thing ourselves,” one committee member shared.
The event also comes at a time when conversations about graduate student unionization and institutional support are gaining traction, making the Community of Scholars not just a showcase of research, but a reflection of a growing movement for visibility, respect and leadership.
