Written by Amanda Toye// Photo by Abigail Callicoat
The Honors College Undergraduate Research Conference is an annual that allows students to present research they have prepared throughout the school year. This conference provides students with the opportunity to present in groups of two, or, individually.
Sophomore Julia Howell is presenting for her first time regarding the biblical themes in the popular 2023 film, “The Barbie Movie.”
“I am presenting by myself.” Howell said. “I wrote this paper when I was at Abilene Christian University as a Freshman. We did this whole research project where we could just write about anything concerning the Barbie movie. The first time I had seen that movie I immediately thought that it had Biblical themes and allusions in it so I wanted to write about that. I wrote this paper and then my professor really encouraged me to either speak about it at a conference or publish it.” Howell said.
After transferring to Harding, Howell met with several English professors and ended up submitting her paper to the Honors College Undergraduate Research Conference which is how she achieved the opportunity to present her work.
Sophomore Henely Sanders took a different route to presenting her project. While in her research lab this semester, Sanders’ professor asked her to team up with a partner and research any chosen topic to present at the conference. Sanders and her partner, Danae Lucio, decided to study “The Importance of Research as an Undergraduate Student.” Together, they will present their findings on April 18th.
“We have thirty-one research grants at Harding, totalling 4.5 million dollars, but we found most people don’t even know about the research going on. Out of the 68 people that I conducted my survey on, only 7 percent of them knew there was research going on.” Sanders said.
With the amount of funds the University receives for various research, students have plenty of opportunities to conduct their own specialized research.
Sophomore Emma Gaskill has been conducting her own set of research. “I am presenting on parental reactions to children’s negative emotions and the TV show, Daniel Tiger.” Gaskill said.
“I was familiar with the show and parents and family dynamics are super interesting to me since I’m going into the field of psychology.” Gaskill said.
Gaskill’s research is led by the new prevalence of children consuming more TV, Youtube, and media in general than what they used to. Gaskill is hoping to analyze TV shows and help parents decipher what media is actually appropriate for their children to be consuming. Gaskill’s research has taken her to Las Vegas, Nevada where she will present her findings.
