Last Friday, Jones Auditorium and the Mabee Ballrooms in Ragsdale were transformed into places where undergraduate research and creative work was shared among the St. Edward’s University community.

The Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression, known as SOURCE, is an annual St. Edward’s event that gives students the opportunity to present their research or creative projects and hear about what students in other disciplines are learning. Presenters showcased their work throughout the day, giving either an oral or poster presentation.  

“It looks like a very diverse group of presentations, which is great because that really brings the whole university together,” School of Humanities Administrative Coordinator Casey Burkhart said.

A total of 29 students gave oral presentations and 15 gave poster presentations. Co-Chairs of the SOURCE Steering Committee, professors Paul Walter and James Kallman organized the event with the help of others in the marketing, graphic design and humanities departments.

Walter estimated that about 350 people attended the event for at least part of the day, and felt like the symposium was a success. 

 “Throughout the day, I was quite pleased and impressed with the quality of our students’ presentations,” Walter said.

Madeline Veit, a senior sociology major, participated by giving an oral presentation about the increased suicide rates of middle-aged Americans. She drew on previous research and completed a statistical analysis comparing suicide rates to social factors such as marital or employment status. She read many  sociological studies for her project, but found less literature investigating the recent trends for suicides in middle-aged Americans. 

“I sought to fill in the gap in literature through my research,” Veit said. “Using this information we can find a possible trigger to suicide.”

Senior fine arts major Amber Nunnery gave an oral presentation featuring a dramatic film composed of her interpretive illustrations of John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost, which explores the concept of Satan. Amber created charcoal sketches to represent lines in the poem and challenge her audience to consider the significance of Milton’s romanticized and humanistic version of Satan.

“I insisted on it being based on chance and impulse as much as I could allow for,” Nunnery said. “I meant the sketches to be quick, but later I realized it does kind of match the nature of Satan.”

While the oral presentations were ongoing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 13 students presented their research during the poster presentations at noon. The posters covered a variety of disciplines, from art to biology to English writing and rhetoric.

Psychology major Taylor Johnson presented her research into how Western media representations of Arab women have changed as a result of the Arab Spring. She said she enjoyed reading news articles for her research and was inspired to investigate this topic after taking courses at St. Edward’s focused on Middle Eastern revolutions and gender roles.  

Students represented at SOURCE also have the opportunity to submit their work to be published in the undergraduate research journal J-SOURCE. 

The presentations concluded with the Harald Becker High Tea ceremony honoring the students that participated. Vice President of Academic Affairs Mary Boyd was the keynote speaker for the ceremony and discussed the value of undergraduate research at St. Edward’s.

“SOURCE exemplifies the very best of undergraduate research, showcasing the enormous talents and abilities of our students, as well as the powerful collaborations between students and faculty,” Boyd said. 

While this year there were less student presenters compared to last year, Burkhart said the event was still a positive example of undergraduate student research. 

“In one way it’s great because it’s more intimate, but in another way we would definitely like to see it with a larger turnout of students,” Burkhart said. 

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