Stetson Showcase: The Stetson Undergraduate Research and Creative Arts Symposium

A festival of intellectual inquiry held across the campus each April, this event highlights students' research and creative activity in disciplines across the university. In recent years, an increasing number of Communication & Media Studies majors have presented their research at the Stetson Showcase. For more information on Showcase, including recent winners, presentation abstracts, and the application process, visit http://www.stetson.edu/other/research/showcase.php

In 2010, senior Audrey Ramirez Coyne (photo, above right) won one of the Maris Prizes, awarded to the most outstanding presentations of the event.  In 2011, senior Taylor Smith (double major with political science) won a Maris Prize as well.

2012 Stetson Showcase Presentations

Mary Basden, "Mary McLeod Bethune's Fight for Equality of African Americans: Creating a Foundation for the Civil Rights Movement"

Andrew Boyd, "Looking at Girlfriends:  Ideological Hegemony and the Misrepresentation of Black Womanhood in a Black Situation Comedy"

Allison Davis, "Best Laid Plans:  The Diffusion and Adoption of Social Media in County-Level Florida Emergency Management Departments"

Levi Gorman, "Adolescents' Exposure to Violence in Video Games:  Analyzing the Arguments in Brown v. EMA"

Megan Hevner, "Celebration and Blame:  An Epideictic Analysis of President Barack Obama's Address on Osama bin Laden's Assassination"

Damecia Jackson, "Hollywood, Gender, and Counterculture:  Baudrillard's Simulation in Myra Breckinridge"

Natalya Jones, "'I said I was amazing/Not that I'm a mason':  Anti-Masonic Conspiracy Rhetoric and Hip-Hop Culture"

Christina Kapusta, "Termination Procedures: Managers' Self- Understanding and Usage of Parenting and Coaching Metaphors"

Sidney Simmons, "The Rhetorical Invasion:  The Bush Administration's Discourse from September 2001 through March 2003"

Christa Hazel, "Small Sustainable Businesses on Facebook:  Establishing Brands and Fostering Communities"

Ashley Strauss, "'Even grief recedes with time and grace': George W. Bush and the Genre of Tragedy"

2011 SURCAS Presentations

Alyssa Lohr, "Orson Welles, We Have Ourselves a Rhetorical' Situation"

Taylor Smith, "Hyper Pluralism in the Media: A Rhetorical Analysis"

Brittany Weiss, "'Get a Mac;' The Persuasiveness of the Apple Campaign and its Relevance to the Brand Image"

2010 SURCAS Presentations

Audrey Coyne, "From Snow White to Miley Cyrus: Can Postmodernism and the Progression of Third-Wave Feminism Make Peace with Disney?

Sarah Holland, "Un/Attainable Perfection: Incongruous Beauty Ideals in Glamour Magazine"

Adam Langston, "Playing with Cultural Relevance: What Form, Entelechy, Intertextuality, and Interactivity Can Tell Us about Gaming"

Laura Loveday, "A Narrative Criticism of Isabella Beecher Hooker's Rhetoric for the Women's Suffrage Movement"

Holly Myers, "Anonymous Letters of France: A Frame Analysis of the Media News Coverage on President Nicholas Sarkozy"

Kathleen Orlik, "The Rhetoric of Google"

Erica Saviuk, "Lending Support on Group Loop: A Qualitative Analysis of Message Board Posts and Responses on a Web Site for Teens with Cancer"

Taylor Smith, "The Rhetoric of Federalist No. 10"

Savanna Westwood, "Identity Negotiation Theory: A Qualitative Analysis on Americans Haggling in China"

2009 SURCAS Presentations

Isa Adney, "'Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman': The Incongruous Juxtaposition of Girlhood and Womanhood in Mediated Portrayals of Britney Spears"

Lauren Sicilia, "'The Hostess with the Mostest': Portrayals of First Ladies in Ladies Home Journal, 1908-2008"

Jacob Wagner, "Constructing the Narrative Arc: Sarah Palin and Editorial Cartoons of the 2008 Election"

2008 SURCAS Presentations

Sharde Edwards, "The Presence of Sexualization in Seventeen Magazine: A Longitudinal Content Analysis"

Heather Martyn, "'Not in Our Town': Public Controversies Over the Presence of Wal-Mart in Florida Communities"

Nina Savas, "New Friend Request-Your Future President: A Rhetorical Analysis Using Identification and Consubstantiality of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' MySpace Webpages"

Alexis Zoe Schmidt, "The Face and Facework of Modern Midwives"

SURE Grants

Each summer, a select group of Stetson undergraduates (usually 12-20 total) undertake in-depth research projects of their own choosing under the mentorship of a faculty member. Often these research projects provide the foundation for the students' senior research and help build one's qualifications for graduate study. In addition, participating students are awarded a stipend for their summer work as well funding to reimburse expenses incurred in the research process as well as travel to conduct research and to present their findings at scholarly conferences. In recent years, Communication & Media Studies students have been amongst those selected to participate in this program, the Stetson Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE).

Michael Paul Cartledge, Summer 2012 SURE Grant Recipient:  Michael Paul's research project is entitled, "Communicating about Community at Hipster Church." 

Kai Eckenrode, Summer 2012 SURE Grant receipient:  Kai's research project is entitled, "Sustainability, Resilience, and the Future of Environmental Rhetoric."

Sarah Holland, Summer 2009 SURE Grant recipient: Sarah's research project was entitled, "Chasing Perfection: American Ideals of Beauty as Communicated in Young Women's Magazines." She went on to present her research in April 2010 at the 36^th annual DePauw University Annual Undergraduate Honors Conference, a nationally competitive conference for students in communication studies. (Note: Stetson has also had students represent us at this conference in the 1980s and 1990s.) http://www.depauw.edu/academics/departments-programs/communication-theatre/undergraduate-honors-conferenc/

Laura Loveday, Summer 2009 SURE Grant recipient: Laura's research project was entitled, "The Rhetoric of the Beecher Family as Exigence Towards the Women's Suffrage Movement in the 19^th Century." She went on to present her research at the nationalconvention of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender, held in October 2010 in St. Petersburg Beach.

Isa Adney, Summer 2008 SURE Grant recipient: Isa's research project was entitled, "Wearing the Scarlet Letter on the Red Carpet: The Influence of Media Portrayals of Celebrity Women on American Standards for Womanhood." She went on to present her research at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association national convention in New Orleans, LA, in April 2009.

Heather Martyn, Summer 2007 SURE Grant recipient: Heather's research project was entitled, "'Not in Our Town:' Public Controversies Over the Presence of Wal-Mart in Florida Communities." She went on to present her research at the Theodore Clevenger Undergraduate Honors Conference at the Southern States Communication Association in Savannah, GA, in April 2008.

For more information on the SURE Grant program, including the application process that occurs each spring, visit http://www.stetson.edu/other/research/sure.php