Faculty - Student Research
Power of the Script: Framing Political Rhetoric in American Politics” & “From Script to Audience: Evaluating Responses to Political Rhetoric
25-26 Faculty Student Research Award: Dr. Amanda Donahoe, Associate Professor of Political Science, and student, Kaylee Roberts
The research by Dr. Donahoe and student, Kaylee Roberts examines the rhetorical styles of twenty-first-century presidential candidates in order to understand how political communication is shifting away from traditional models and how rhetoric may continue to evolve in the modern era. By comparing established rhetorical theories with contemporary practices, this project seeks both to evaluate the effectiveness of current strategies and to anticipate the directions in which political discourse is moving.
Onamanni Manuscript Research
25-26 Faculty Student Research Award: Dr. John Linstrom, Assistant Professor of English, and students, Sophia Cadena, Basil Pugh, and Amber Shaw
The purpose of this research is to initiate work toward establishing the definitive text and conducting a comprehensive survey of the scholarship and historical materials related to Onamanni, a previously unpublished manuscript by the prominent Progressive Era environmental writer Liberty Hyde Bailey. This research is intended to support the manuscript's eventual publication by Cornell University Press as part of The Liberty Hyde Bailey Library series.
What Are We To Do?: Exploring the Intersection of Gendered Identity Work and Political Narrative Among Evangelical Christians
25-26 Faculty Student Research Award: Dr. Michelle Wolkomir, Professor of Sociology, and student, Lauren Holley
The research proposed by Dr. Wolkomir and student Lauren Holley examines the emotions and narratives individuals use to explain their choices and construct their identities. The project aims to contribute to a richer and more nuanced understanding of voting behavior and political self-concept, one that not only explains how individuals vote but also how they understand themselves in relation to those choices.
Expectations, Culture, and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship, Management, and Innovation
24-25 Faculty Student Research Award: Dr. Priyanka Chakraborty, Assistant Professor of Economics, and students Isabella Giglio, Ashton Martin-Kibbey, and Ron Masti
Dr. Chakraborty and her students aim to understand why women continue to be heavily underrepresented in high-status and high-income sectors/occupations, especially in entrepreneurial and managerial opportunities.
Examining Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Northwest Louisiana: How can we track AMR and what are the stress tolerance mechanisms among environmental microbes?
24-25 Faculty Student Research Award: Dr. Ellyn Evans, Assistant Professor of Biology, and Students Kaleb Atkinson and Trinity Thomas
The research project by Dr. Evans and her students aims to enable student-led research with the focus on understanding antimicrobial (AMR) on and around campus. Their overarching goals were to 1. Identify the most common bacteria, 2. Determine the resistance profiles of such bacteria, and 3. Assess the stress tolerance and adaptation of the cultured bacteria with respect to several abiotic stresses, including, but not limited to heavy metal stress.
Experimental and Theoretical Explorations of the Physics of Acoustic Metamaterials
24-25 Faculty Student Research Award:Dr. David Kordahl, Assistant Professor of Physics, and student, Emma Foster
With support from the Faculty-Student Research Award, student Emma Foster gained experience in collecting and analyzing acoustical data using Python software packages. This work enabled her to further investigate the physics of acoustic arrays and culminated in a research project completed over a 10-week summer period, which she presented at an annual physics conference.
Assessing the local Shreveport community environmental microbiome and its impact on community health
24-25 Faculty Student Research Award: Dr. George Tiller, Assistant Professor of Biology, and students, Tuyen Chau and Jacob Nguyen
With support from the Faculty-Student Research Award, students Tuyen Chau and Jacob Nguyen and Dr. George Tiller investigated what bacterial (and fungal) microbes were found in student-facing environments or “common spaces” to establish a link between the bacteria and fungi present in common spaces and college student mental health at Centenary and eventually Louisiana State University of Shreveport (LSUS).
Racialized Work Experience on the Blue Line: Exploring the Emotional Labor of Policing in Communities
24-25 Faculty Student Research Award: Dr. Michelle Wolkomir, Professor of Sociology, and student, Nyla Pierce
Dr. Wolkomir and student Nyla Pierce designed a study examining the intersection of policing, emotional labor, and race relations. They initiated contact with local police departments and recruited interview volunteers in Fall 2023. During Spring 2024, they analyzed the data through coding, analytic induction (Charmaz, 1983), and the preparation of a paper and presentation. Nyla presented the findings at an undergraduate sociology conference and at the Centenary Research Conference.
Vocal Fry Research
24-25 Faculty Student Research Award: Dr. Jessica Alexander, Associate Professor of Psychology, and students Gracie Napier, Andrew Turner and collaborator, Sarah Irons
With support from the Faculty-Student Research Award, Dr. Alexander and her students were able to further Dr. Alexander’s research on vocal fry, a feature of spoken language that has traditionally been investigated in speech pathology research as a component of clinical voice disorders. The purpose of this award-funded project was to replicate Anderson et al. (2014) using the stimuli and recruiting participants through Qualtrics, an online research platform. For this study, Gracie Napier took the lead in transferring the study to the Qualtrics platform, conducting pilot testing to ensure there were no errors, managing data collection, and analyzing the results. This work will constitute the experimental portion of Gracie’s honors thesis, and she will complete the writing portion during her senior year.
Inclusive 3D Anatomical Models
With support from the Faculty-Student Research Award, Dr. Leal and student Jazmine Carroll worked to further promote their inclusive 3D anatomical models, which were painted to represent a broader range of skin tones. They planned to disseminate their painting process to educators and medical professionals to increase inclusivity in learning spaces and laboratories, further diversify anatomical education tools, and donate as many models as possible to local community centers and schools.