RIT Hosts Regional Conference for Undergraduate Communication Scholars

What began five years ago at Rochester Institute of Technology as a small local gathering of students from several area schools has grown into a regional event for undergraduate students studying various aspects of communication.

RIT will host the fifth annual Conference for Undergraduate Research in Communication Friday, April 18. The daylong event will be held in the Student Alumni Union, with poster presentations in the Idea Factory in Wallace Library. An awards ceremony at 4:15 p.m. in the Fireside Lounge in the SAU will recognize top papers and posters.

“This year, for the first time, we received papers from undergraduates in four states, including, in addition to New York, Massachusetts (Boston College), Pennsylvania (Villanova University), and Virginia (James Madison University),” says Patrick Scanlon, professor and Coordinator of Undergraduate Degree Programs in RIT’s Department of Communication.

Students will present 26 papers and six poster presentations at the event. A sampling of topics includes:

• Effects of Interactive Multimedia in E-Learning
  
• “We’re All Homos. Homo Sapiens.” The Study of Offensive Language in NBC’s Television Program The Office
  
• Just Like Their Parents? A Comparative Study of Automobile Purchase Motivations for Two Age-Cohorts: Generation Y & and the Baby Boomers
  
• Slogans from Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge
  
• Don’t Ask Me, I’m Just a Girl: Gender Roles in the Popular Television Sitcom The Simpsons
  
• Burke’s Guilt-Redemption Cycle of George W. Bush’s Response to the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
  
• The Media Creation of the War on Terrorism: How Biased Reporting and the Representation of Muslims Instigated the War

All presented papers will be published in a print-on-demand paperback, available through Lulu, an electronic publishing website.

“As was the case last year, the book will be designed by students in RIT’s Digital Design in Communication, a required course in the communication department’s degree programs, and will be available for review at the conference,” Scanlon says.

Several RIT students will present their work at the event, including Jessica Sica-Lieber, Renee Keiser, Smita Menon and Ryland Bacorn from the Department of Communication and Alay Shah from the E. Philip Saunders College of Business.

The Conference for Undergraduate Research in Communication is sponsored by the Department of Communication, in the College of Liberal Arts at RIT. Visit the Conference for Undergraduate Research in Communication for registration details.

Rochester Institute of Technology is internationally recognized for academic leadership in computing, engineering, biotechnology, imaging technology, and fine and applied arts, in addition to unparalleled support services for students with hearing loss. More than 15,800 full- and part-time students are enrolled in RIT’s 340 career-oriented and professional programs, and its cooperative education program is one of the oldest and largest in the nation.

For nearly two decades, U.S. News & World Report has ranked RIT among the nation’s leading comprehensive universities. The Princeton Review features RIT in its 2007 Best 361 Colleges rankings and named the university one of America’s “Most Wired Campuses.” RIT is also featured in Barron’s Best Buys in Education.