First Mediated Minds Conference Held

How many hours do you sit down and focus on all of your research-based arguments in college? After working on all of these papers, what do you have to show? Just a good grade? In the past that was true, but not anymore.

A student research conference titled "Mediated Minds" was created this year by Professors Sonja Andrus, Debra Frame, Eric Jenkins, and Nancy Jenning to showcase such research papers. Other UCBA faculty involved in planning and organizing the event were Kevin Oberlin, Amber Peplow, and Susanna Clason.

This year, Mediated Minds was held on April 20 at the University of Cincinnati Clifton campus in Tangerman University Center. This coincided with National Undergraduate Student Research Day. Dr. Andrus said they are hoping to make this an annual conference, to be held on National Undergraduate Student Research Day, with events held on each of the major campuses. The primary site of the event will rotate each year between UC Clifton, UCBA, and UC Clermont campuses.

The Mediated Minds conference gives students an opportunity to share their research projects in a professional conference setting, something typically not afforded to undergraduate students (particularly first- and second-year students). Presentations range from posters to paper readings to round-table discussions, and help is available from the committee for students who are interested in presenting but need a bit of assistance getting ready to share their work.

UCBA Students who participated in the inaugural Mediated Minds conference include Eric Gardner, Kaitlyn Salyers, Meghan Davis, Michelle Leicester, Ana Montalvan, and John Gorsuch.

This year, the STARS program encouraged their research students to participate in Mediated Minds, a partnership Dr. Andrus hopes to continue in the future. STARS is a UC program that pairs undergraduate students with faculty in the fields that interest the students, and students participate in a major research project within that field across the year. (For more information on STARS, contact Stephanie Davis at davis2s5@UCMAIL.UC.EDU). Several of these students gave presentations of their research projects this year.

The conference sessions included faculty respondents in the question and answer sessions.  UCBA Professors Jody Ballah, Debra Frame, Kevin Oberlin and Patrick Owen served as faculty respondents.

In addition, Dr. Andrus stated that they would not have been able to hold this event without the help of graduate students from the UC Communications Studies Department. These students introduced speakers, timed each of their presentations, and mediated the question-and-answer periods at the end of each session.

If any student is interested in participating in this conference, you can either present your research work or attend the conference to support your fellow students. You can learn more about Mediated Minds at https://sites.google.com/site/mediatedminds/. Feel free to email the committee at MediatedMindsUC@gmail.com or Dr. Andrus directly at Sonja.Andrus@UC.edu.

Please come out and participate in this event next year; the staff and students would love to see you there!