On Thursday, December 9, 2021, USU’s annual Fall Student Research Symposium, which was inaugurated in 2013, featured several students from the English Department. Students had the option of oral or poster presentations as well as in-person or virtual. Presentations were online for comments with the researchers responding and continue to be accessible here at the FSRS website. A great advantage of this approach is that USU students, no matter where they reside, could participate.
Faculty mentors from the English Department included Jared Colton, Joyce Kinkead, Adena Rivera-Dundas, and Cree Taylor.
Cree Taylor’s students from ENGL 2010 presented on a range of topics from Greek life to misogyny. Isom Courtney presented on an analysis of True Gritfrom Jared Colton’s course while Beloved by Toni Morrison was the topic under consideration for Sariah Dutkiewicz from Adena Rivera-Dundas’ course.
Joyce Kinkead’s empirical research methods course, English 3470, included eleven individual presentations as well as a whole-class collaborative work, “Bookworms? The Reading Lives of English Majors.” In a similar vein, Mya Bethers investigated the fascinating world of TikTok’s BookToks and found that those who watched book reviews on this social media platform read more and read more diverse titles. Several English Teaching students focused on teacher action research. Josie Rivera uncovered how the way a classroom looks and the design elements teachers choose can complement and supplement curriculum. Tiffany Sanderson, who is at USU Eastern and working as a librarian in the Helper schools, investigated how required Lexile scores may help or hinder middle school readers. Amrutha Obulasetty asked how college teachers would teach differently if they were to return to high school settings. The findings? More technology, more diverse books. Kerrin Mountcastle questioned the tried-and-true method of organizing paragraphs and essays by comparing it to building a hamburger. Joyce says, “Empirical research is especially helpful to future high school teachersas they are learning teacher-action methods.”
Another area of English studies uncovered was fandom and fanfiction. Virginia Beikmann traced how hash-tagging helps readers of fanfiction find choice genres while Cayla Cappel performed and ethnography of fanfiction, surveying 700+ respondents. 
Ryan Collins asked, “do lawyers really read John Grisham?” Jill Fletcher tracked the interest of young girls in fiction about horses, and Samuel Richens traced the fascinating discussions on a members-only Hot Wheels Redline Club online discussion forum. English majors working in classes other than English also presented at the all-university event.
The next student research symposium occurs in the spring during Research Week, which is April 12-13. Before that event, students from the English Department will be presenting at the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research (UCUR) and Research on Capitol Hill, both occurring in February.
Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed is a graduate student in his second year, pursuing a doctorate in sociology at USU. He recently helped survey Utahns to see if environmental concerns affect the decision to have children.
Utah State University President’s Office recently held receptions for this year’s round of inaugural lectures. Three recently promoted faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences presented thoughtful reflections on their research and the even...
