Ten Communication Studies majors from Gustavus Adolphus College presented individual research projects at the 19th annual University of Saint Thomas Undergraduate Communication Research Conference on Friday, April 23.
Students spoke on several panels throughout the day about their own research on a variety of topics from a rhetorical analysis on a political speech to understanding the lived experience of the indigenous Sami of northern Sweden. Faculty respondents and other student researchers provided feedback to the students’ works.
Leila Brammer, associate professor of Communication Studies at Gustavus, has been a driving force behind the school’s representation at this research conference.
“Students gain a greater understanding of the field by listening to research of others and participating in those conversations,” Brammer said. “It allows them the experience of presenting their research and taking themselves and their work seriously.”
Gustavus students have been participating in this conference for the past 15 years. “Our participation in the conference has established our department as one of the best in the region…Graduate programs certainly recognize us as one of the best communication studies departments in the region if not the nation,” Brammer said.
The annual research conference is sponsored by Saint Thomas’s Department of Communication and Journalism, which seeks to bring students and faculty together to celebrate undergraduate research in all areas of the Communications discipline. Individual and group research projects from as far away as Georgia were selected to present at the conference.
Listed below are the names of participating Gustavus students and the titles of their research projects.
Lauren Bennett
Millions of Dollars Cannot Pay For the Right Words: An Introduction and Explanation of a Professional Athlete Crisis Communication Model
Jennifer Broman
Prince Charming with a Bite: A Narrative Analysis of Gender Roles in the Twilight Series
Jaimie Farel
The World as a Friend with a Capital “F”: The Lived Experience of Facebook
Megan Gode
The Indigenous Sami
Kerri Groff
The Media and Body Image: Implications on Power and Gender
Phillip Helt
John McCain’s 2008 Presidential Race Concession Speech: An Analysis in Image Restoration
Kelly Nelson
“A Two-Edged Sword”: The Lived Experience of Power
Hannah Nordell
You Can’t Stop The Waves – But You Can Learn to Surf: A Phenomenological Approach to Understanding Defense Mechanisms
Jenna Rusnako
The not-so-Private Practice
Zach Sill
False Start: The Race to Equality
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Media Contact: Director of Media Relations and Internal Communication Luc Hatlestad
luch@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510
Congratulations to the whole Communications team for all your hard work on these presentations!