Showcase of scholarship

Students are celebrating student scholarship all day on April 9.

This is the first year the Celebration of Student Scholarship is being hosted in a symposium-style format, with concurrent and spotlight sessions.

Throughout the day students have been presenting their research around campus, showing to their peers what they have done throughout the year.

Susan Larson, the director of undergraduate research, helped organize the event. She said the students presenting at the CoSS do their projects in many different environments like in class or for independent studies. The students also range from freshmen to seniors.

Senior Kari Mehr, a student presenting at the Celebration also presented her research at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research. She was one of 10 students from Concordia to present at the conference.

Mehr’s research built upon Judith Butler’s Gender Performance Theory by presenting an ethnographic look at World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

Her paper is titled, “No Girls Allowed: How Female Gender Performance is Restricted in World of Warcraft.”

She presented her research at the conference to a large audience, she said.

She realized she had forgot her note cards in Moorhead and had to present without them.

“Note cards have always been my security blanket, so that was a big step for me,” Mehr said.

Mehr hopes to continue her research later in life and is excited to present at the CoSS for the second year in a row.

“I’m honestly just excited to share my research with more people.” she said. “I’m pretty passionate about it.”

Marie Vanderpan is another senior who is presenting her research at the CoSS. She is presenting two different projects, one analyzing Swiss Family Robinson and another presenting Social Proof Theory.

Vanderpan submitted her research “on a whim” but is excited to present.

“I’m excited to be a part of something so big,” she said.

In the evening, there will be an Alumni panel, an award ceremony and a performance of Much Ado About Nothing.

For a few years, students and faculty have expressed that they would like to have more sessions during the school day. If the day goes well, this may be the format that the CoSS will take each year.

“This would be a great bookend to Symposium,” Larson said. “This is a way to have another scholarly event on campus.”