Held annually every April, EKU’s Scholars Showcase celebrates, showcases, and promotes faculty, student, faculty-student scholarship, research, and creative endeavors. Scholars Showcase increases opportunities for faculty scholarship, research and creative endeavors, and faculty-student collaborations while recognizing research, creative, and academic endeavors at all levels. Scholars Showcase will take place in April 2026.
Scholars Showcase recognizes the transformational significance of student and faculty scholarly activity, creative endeavors, and high-impact practices across all areas of Eastern Kentucky University (EKU). It is an opportunity to engage in productive and inspiring dialogues, develop cross-disciplinary collaborations that lead to innovation, immerse in highly effective learning experiences, and advance academic practices related to the scholarship of teaching and learning and discovery.
University Presentation Showcase Winners
Best-of Awards
The Scholars Showcase Best-of Awards celebrate excellence in research, innovation, and creative achievements across disciplines.
Scholars Tank
Scholars Tank is an entrepreneurial-themed addition to Scholars Showcase, where students and faculty can present an idea to improve some aspect of campus, that has the potential to be turned into an entrepreneurial venture. Our campus entrepreneurs will pitch their idea to a panel of “sharks” who will decide which idea gets funded.
The winner will be awarded $5,000 to seed that idea from concept to concrete–watching your idea grow into something that has a positive impact on the university. These can be individual projects or group projects (up to 5 people per group).
Three Minute Thesis -3MT@EKU
The Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition is a mainstay for many international and national graduate programs. The competition showcases public speaking and presentation skills as well as a graduate student’s ability to communicate research in a condensed time frame to a non-specialist audience. With only 180 seconds (three minutes), a single slide and no additional props or media, the competition will showcase some of the best and brightest graduate research projects at EKU. The 3MT@EKU is a collaborative effort between the EKU Graduate School, the EKU Graduate and Online Council, and the Noel Studio for Academic Creativity.
University Presentation Showcase
EKU’s Scholars Showcase celebrates, showcases, and promotes faculty, student, faculty-student scholarship, research, and creative endeavors. Students are encouraged to apply to present as part of the University Presentation (UP) Showcase & Scholars Fair. This is a great opportunity for students to present their research or creative endeavor they have developed over the past year.
Faculty Writer’s Retreat
The Office of the Provost, the College of Business, EKU Libraries, and the Noel Studio for Academic Creativity have partnered to offer an EKU Faculty Writer’s Retreat, May 18, 19, and 20, 2026.
Think of this retreat as an “academic incarceration”! We provide you with a private space – away from the distractions of your office – to focus only on your writing.
For three days, this “academic incarceration” will provide private space to focus on your writing project, grant application, or the finishing touches of your latest draft. In return, you agree to write – and leave the grading, email, meetings, and social media at home, or in your office.
Arriving at the retreat with very specific writing tasks, whether conceptualizing and drafting a new manuscript or completing final revisions to a long-standing work, will allow you to maximize this opportunity.
All instructional faculty are welcome to apply – preference will be given to faculty preparing for a major review and to new faculty establishing a writing program.