Annual Student Research in Communication Conference
Annual Student Research in Communication Conference
March 25, 2027
Join the RIT School of Communication to hear from graduate and undergraduate students who are presenting their research at the annual Student Research in Communication Conference.
When: Thursday, March 27, 2027
Where: Student Alumni Union, RIT campus
Register: Sign Up via Google form
On Thursday, March 25, 2027, the RIT Department of Communication will host graduate and undergraduate students from across New York state and beyond to share their research in communication and related disciplines during our Student Research in Communication Conference.
Sponsored by the Department of Communication and hosted annually at Rochester Institute of Technology, this conference originated in 2004. It began as a small gathering of communication students from western New York and has evolved into a vibrant regional conference.
Over 20 years since its inception, the Department of Communication continues to share our commitment to communication research and underscore our appreciation for those students whose work touches all edges of the discipline’s broad boundaries.
Register to Attend
Whether you are faculty, an undergraduate student, graduate student, high school student, or member of the community, we invite you to register to attend the conference and learn from these scholars.
Register to attend via Google form
Accommodations
If you are traveling to Rochester and will need hotel accommodations, the RIT Inn and Conference Center offers an RIT rate, which you can request upon booking. Alternatively, you can explore other hotel options within the Rochester region.
Read more and make reservations at the RIT Inn and Conference Center
Questions?
Please email one or all of these RIT professors:
- Kari Cameron, klcgpt@rit.edu
- Nickesia Gordon, nsggpt@rit.edu
- Eun Sook Kwon, exkgpt@rit.edu
- David Neumann, dsngsl@rit.edu
- Susan Quatro, sxqvcs@rit.edu
Paper Presentation Guidelines
Graduate, undergraduate, and high school students are invited to submit research papers on any topic within the Communication field and related disciplines (including advertising, public relations, media studies, film studies, journalism, and others).
All research approaches and methodologies were welcome, including qualitative, quantitative, critical, and theoretical studies. Works-in-progress papers and research projects suitable for presentation in poster format are also encouraged.
Topics
Papers may center on topics including, but not limited to:
- Communication at the interpersonal, group, and organizational levels.
- Health communication, visual communication, and intercultural communication.
- Advertising and public relations campaigns and strategies.
- Film, television, and audiovisual media.
- Print media, journalism, and photojournalism.
- Social media, digital media, and AI.
- Communication and gender, race, ethnicity, and identity.
- Communication and public advocacy.
- Political communication and international communication.
Requirements
The works must be authored by one or more students and one student must submit a structured abstract of 500-1000 words, including:
- Title Purpose/goals of the study
- Design/methodology/approach to explore the topic area (if applicable)
- Findings/expected findings based on educated guess/main arguments/conclusion
- Insights/implications
- Originality/value of the study
Research presentation in traditional format.
Individual presentations at the conference will be limited to 15 or 20 minutes, depending on whether there are three or four presenters in the same session.
Past Conference Participants
My experience at the Student Research in Communication Conference (SRCC) was absolutely amazing! SRCC was my first communication conference, and the opportunity to present my research, build meaningful connections, and compete for—and ultimately win—the Top Paper Award sparked a newfound confidence in me that I am now ready to carry into NCA and ICA.
But perhaps even more valuable was the opportunity to engage with research beyond the familiar environment of my home university. I was exposed to different methodologies, perspectives, ways of understanding the world, and fascinating research topics developed by fellow emerging communication scholars. These were ideas and approaches I might never have encountered had I not attended SRCC.
I highly recommend this experience to any communication student. It is an opportunity to challenge yourself, expand your understanding of the discipline, and connect with a community of scholars who are just as passionate about their work as you are. More than anything, SRCC helped me recognize what I was capable of as an emerging scholar, and that is something I will carry with me throughout my academic journey.
Presenting my capstone, “Emotional Verisimilitude: A Media Analysis of AI-Generated Emotional Discourse,” at the Student Research in Communication Conference was my first experience at an academic conference, and it felt like a fitting conclusion to my time at RIT. Turning my written thesis into a presentation pushed me to filter my most interesting findings to the forefront, and because the project drew on the accumulation of everything I have learned in my academic career, I walked in feeling genuinely prepared.
Before our panel, I had the chance to connect with faculty and staff, and I had the opportunity to hear research from other students, including undergraduates from outside RIT, making the day feel like a real exchange of ideas. Once I had the floor, I felt far calmer than I expected, and I enjoyed guiding the audience through my work featuring slides that I had designed to keep them engaged.
The most rewarding moment came during the Q&A, when attendees circled back to my project with questions about my measures and reasoning.
I left proud of the confidence I found in myself as both a researcher and a presenter, and I would encourage any student to choose a project that brings their academic work full circle, because presenting research that you have truly dedicated time and effort to is an experience worth having before you graduate.