Gwen Walton | Contributing Writer
Take a poll of your non-BVU college-going friends. How many of them know someone who has been invited to go to a national conference to present their own research that they completed in a general education course? It would likely be a good bet that an extremely small percentage could respond with a “yes.” At Buena Vista University (BVU), opportunities as rare and exciting as this are provided on a regular basis.
This past weekend, Dr. Gwen Hart took three of her Written Communication II students to present at the Far West Popular Culture Association’s Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The group included junior biology major Natalie Bellairs, junior communication studies major Faith Pritchard, and junior accounting major Courtney Bailey. This was Hart’s second year taking students to the conference.
Hart’s Written Communication II course spends a large portion of the semester on a research project. Students can choose any form of media and analyze it according to particular theories. Pritchard chose to apply theory to Shakespeare’s romantic comedies. Bellairs analyzed the popular television series Glee, and Bailey looked at the relationship between two characters on the television show Grey’s Anatomy.
Hart also completed a research paper because, as she said, “Why should they have all the fun?”
She analyzed two women’s relationships on the BBC series Downton Abbey. Their final papers averaged 24 pages each, but they condensed them into about 10 pages for the presentation because of the time constrictions. Prior to the trip, students practiced and polished their presentation with the feedback of Hart’s academic assistant, senior Lacey Flugge.
According to Hart, the audience responded appreciatively to the presentation, and the students were proud of their work.
While at the conference, the students were able to attend several presentations as audience members as well. Some favorite sessions included a look into Facebook interactions between professors and students and a study concerning horror movies and why people continue to watch them.
“It opened my eyes to what people in academics do with their research, and how they go about discussing and analyzing it,” Bellairs said. “I found it interesting to experience being part of a conference and learning how it worked.”
Photo courtesy of Natalie Bellairs
