EWU's 13th annual research and creative works symposium coming

By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

If number of entries is any indication, Eastern's 13th annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium taking place this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, May 18-19, may be the best yet in presenting creative and research works by university students and faculty mentors.

Symposium coordinator Tiffany Fulkerson said there will be 345 presenters this year, an increase of 56 over last year's numbers, along with 107 faculty mentors working with Eastern students, up 26 from last year.

The symposium kicks off at 4:30 p.m. in the university's Fine Arts Complex at the Art Building with presenter check-in and opening remarks by College of Arts and Letters associate dean Gina Petrie along with appetizers and refreshments in the Art Building lobby.

Presentations begin at 5 p.m. and run to roughly 9:10 p.m. throughout the arts complex. Art compositions include “Lighter than Air: Wire, Graduating Plastic Sheets, White Duct Tape,” by Bridget Freeman Wamsley, music compositions such as Ben Robertson's “Lattice,” along with theatre productions, creative writing, film presentations and a new category, Film with Music which includes “My Lover's Back…It's Not What I Expected,” by Woo Kim and Dexter Moetului.

Day two research presentations take place in Senior Hall. Oral and poster presentations in fields such as biology, chemistry and biochemistry, sociology, justice and related studies, engineering and design, philosophy, physical therapy, English, anthropology, fine arts, communication studies and history run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Some of the presentations include research on human-powered paper vehicles, whether or not the Northern Pocket gopher can sense magnetic fields for navigation and moral ambiguity and modern television.

The symposium concludes with a banquet in Hargreaves Hall's second floor reading room with a keynote address by Dr. Terrance McMullen, EWU philosophy professor, entitled “Connecting the Circuit: Community as the Source and End of Research.”

The symposium is free and open to the public, and Fulkerson said the entire community is welcome and encouraged to attend.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].