The new site serves as a platform for students to share about their undergraduate research and what the experience has meant to them during a time when Elon has shifted to online learning.
Each spring, Elon University comes together to celebrate the power of undergraduate research through events such as CELEBRATE! Week and the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF). These events offer an opportunity for students and their mentors to showcase new discoveries and advances they have made in their fields. They speak to the power of collaboration and mentorship at Elon and offer an opportunity for members of the campus community to learn from each other.
These events are among many canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online learning. If not for the pandemic, Elon students, faculty and staff would be gathering on Tuesday, April 28, in the Great Hall and other locations around campus to take part in the nearly 120 poster presentations and more than 125 oral presentations including two interdisciplinary symposia.
To provide students a platform to showcase their hard work and dedication, the university has launched a Celebration of Undergraduate Research at Elon website. The site provides information submitted by students about themselves and their research. Students were encouraged to submit content including posters, videos and essays. They were given the opportunity share about their research and the impact the undergraduate research experience has had upon them.
Visit the site to learn more about how undergraduate research is shaping Elon students by visiting www.elon.edu/u/celebrating-undergraduate-research.
In addition, multiple departments are mounting individual efforts to share the research of their students.
- Public Health Studies students will be sharing their research posters on the department’s website.
- Senior French majors in the Department of World Languages and Culture will make online presentations of their capstone projects to faculty members on Tuesday morning.
- The Spanish program in the Department of World Languages and Culture will present a WebEx panel discussion at 10:50 a.m. on Tuesday with three Spanish majors. The discussion is available here and will be moderated by Calissa Holder. Titles and presenters are:
- “Women’s Identity and Spatial Existence in Chicano Culture: A Feminist Analysis of The House on Mango Street” por Jizelle P. Campbell
- “Violencia intrínseca: La violencia caracterizadora de México en el siglo XX en El cielo árido de Emiliano Monge” por Lily P. Sobalvarro
- “The Cultural Pertinence of Family Planning Projects Implemented by NGOs in the District of Acomayo, Cusco, Peru” por Sadie B. Traylor
- Students in the Department of Performing Arts will present their research to Elon students, faculty and staff via WebEx during two sessions Tuesday morning — one that begins at 10:05 a.m. and one that begins at 11:05 a.m. The 10:05 a.m. meeting is accessible here with these meeting details (Meeting number: 614 624 819; Password: ZEbVMp9jD73) and the 11:05 a.m. meeting is accessible here with these meeting details (Meeting number: 614 624 819; Password: ZEbVMp9jD73). Those presenting and their topics are:
- 10:05 a.m.: Maeve Riley, “Neocolonialism and the Irish Playwright: Studies on Subalternity During the Celtic Tiger Period” (mentor: Scott Proudfit)
- 10:15 a.m.: Shannon O’Shaughnessy, “Adapting Theatre for the Modern Audience: How Adaptations of Formative Musical Theatre Creates Access for the Marginalized and Disenfranchised” (mentor: Kim Shively)
- 10:25 a.m.: Avery H. Hunt, “CNC Scenery: New Methods of Creating Theatrical Scenery Using Advances in Production Technology” (mentor: Natalie Hart)
- 11:05 a.m.: Katie Paris, “The Relationship between Regional/Community Theatre and Theatre Education in North Carolina” (mentor: Scott Proudfit)
- 11:15 a.m.: Weston Lecrone, “Minimalism in Music Theatre: Stripping Down Commercialism” (mentor: Kim Shively)
- 11:25 a.m.: Mackenzie Hall, “Storytelling to Engage the Senses: A Look Towards Creating a Sensory Inclusive Theatre” (mentor: Susanne Shawyer)
- The Department of Religious Studies is hosting a SURF Day College Coffee through WebEx.
- The Art History program in the Department of History and Geography is hosting an online SURF Day session with student presentations
- Seniors in the Department of Economics will be presenting their work online for faculty and fellow students.
- Senior Teaching Fellows will be presenting to first-year teaching fellows in one of the department’s seminar courses. Additionally, education students who had been slated to participate in SURF were invited to create a short video describing their research with those videos shared on the department’s social media accounts throughout the week (Twitter and Instagram).
- The Department of Biology has presented undergraduate posters with narration, oral presentations and research talks by recent alumni now in graduate school. The department is also sponsoring an online “BioSURF” program to showcase undergraduate research from 2 to 5 p.m. Available at tinyurl.com/biosurf2020, the lineup of speakers is below.
