Students Showcase Scholarship for Research Week
The two days of student presentations stirred interest in scholarship and opened doors for exploration.
Mississippi College (MC) hosted its second annual Research Week. Research Week provided students the opportunity to present their academic research to peers and professors. The presentations took place April 22-24 in B.C. Rogers. Over 90 students from various schools participated.
“It’s [an] effort to showcase all the things that are going on academically at MC,” History and Political Science Professor and Research Week organizer Dr. Christian Pinnen said. “It’s uniting honors projects, both of people who are a part of the honors college and people that are doing the honors projects on their own.”
Research Week also allowed students to learn valuable skills marketable in the professional world.
“It’s good to share [research] with peers and to get input. It’s the process of how we research and learn,” Pinnen said. “These are skills [not just for academics.] You're going to present something at some point for someone.”
Among the projects, senior Rachel Duncan’s research probably yielded the most head-turns.
“My research topic is the ethical and medical implications of venereal diseases within Victorian marriage,” the English literature and history major said. “I found a source a while ago that covered more of the ethic[al] side of it rather than the actual medicine. It was fascinating, talking about the gender roles and the different things that were implied within marriages in that context as far as social class.”
Duncan began a deep dive into Victorian England two years ago, though her research on venereal diseases only started earlier this semester. The history lover was excited to share her findings with an audience.
“It’s a lot of fun to show off what you are able to do and learn, “ Duncan said. “It’s fun to be able to share it with a wider audience who may [change their perspective]. We have so many perceptions of what the Victorian era was like, and when you go back and study it, it’s actually very different.”
Research topics varied from modern languages to biology to film. Robert Pennell, a senior English writing and math major, submitted two research projects. Pennell examined depictions of place across genres in Jesmyn Ward’s “Where the Line Bleeds” and “Men We Reaped.” Additionally, his second research project centered on bathymetric cross-section analysis.
“I decided to participate in research week because undergraduate research is really important,” Pennell said. “It takes learning from memorization or from performance to trying new things and learning new things. Because I spend such a large part of my undergrad doing [research], I now have the opportunity here to share it with the rest of campus.”
Having a Research Week allowed underclassmen the opportunity to learn from their older peers and for the presenters to learn from one another. It stirred fresh interest in contributing to the academic community and opened doorways for students to explore niche topics.
“It's encouraging to those lower class men who get to look up and see, ‘I'm not just studying for a test, because that's not always fun, but I'm learning what I need to learn so that one day I can contribute to the larger academic community,’” Pennell said.
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