SUNY Geneseo’s participation in a recent undergraduate communication scholars conference yielded a Top Paper Award, a third-place poster recognition and a Top School Award for the largest number of accepted student research projects (tied with Northeastern University and Penn State Schuylkill).
Nine Geneseo students participated in the 7th annual James C. McCroskey and Virginia P. Richmond Undergraduate Scholars Conference, a component of the annual meeting of the 108th Eastern Communication Association (ECA) in Boston. Each student presented his or her single-authored study in either a panel or poster presentation. Corinne Shanahan, a communication and business administration double major from Getzville, N.Y., won the Top Paper Award and Riagan McMahon, a communication and sociology double major from Albany, N.Y., won third place in the competitive poster session.
The ECA is the nation’s oldest professional association in the discipline of communication.
“Our department is very happy and proud of these hardworking students,” said Atsushi Tajima, associate professor of communication at Geneseo, who accompanied the students to the conference. “They devoted hours gathering data, analyzing data, writing and more. I call their work ‘tangible intellectual craft.’ We appreciate how Geneseo encourages undergraduate research. Many of our students continue to work on their projects and some have been published in peer-reviewed journals.”
ECA started the undergraduate conference in 2011. Since then, Geneseo has had the largest presence at the conference. Geneseo had the largest number of student projects accepted in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (tie with another college) and 2015, 2016 and 2017 (tie with two other colleges). Geneseo has sponsored 78 undergraduate original research projects at the conference, more than double the school with the second largest number of sponsored projects. In addition, Geneseo has won 6 top-paper awards and 3 top-poster awards.
Although the conference is for undergraduate submissions, it involves rigorous blind reviews on full papers. This year’s acceptance rate was 35%.
The following Geneseo students presented single-authored papers or posters at the conference:
- Callista Fiegl. “Our Inherent Flaws: The Harmful Stereotypes Western News Reporting Propagates about Muslims.” Faculty sponsor: Atsushi Tajima
- Nicole Heney. “Symbolic Resources of Support during the College Planning Process.” Faculty sponsor: Meredith Marko Harrigan
- Olivia MacDonald. “African American Women’s Hairstyles in Fashion Advertising.” Faculty sponsor: Atsushi Tajima
- Riagan K. McMahon. “Sports Cuties Sell: The Impact Diet and Fitness-Oriented Advertising Has on Body Dissatisfaction and Anxiety Development Among Women.” Faculty sponsor: Atsushi Tajima (Third place for competitive poster session)
- Meghan Murphy. “The Reflection of Color: The Cross-Cultural Use of Complexion-Altering Products.” Faculty sponsor: Atsushi Tajima
- Kristen Paterno. “Do You Suffer from Depression? Or Are You Just #depressed? The Use and Misuse of the Hashtag in Providing a New Communicative Space for Depression.” Faculty sponsor: Atsushi Tajima
- Noah Andrew Jacob Pfeiffer. “Guns That Heal: An Analysis of Individualistic Themes in Firearm Advertisements.” Faculty sponsor: Atsushi Tajima
- Corinne Shanahan. “Double-speak, Double-eat: Misleading Food Advertisements and Their Influence on Obesity in America. Faculty sponsor: Atsushi Tajima (Top Paper Award)
- Megan Tomaszewski. “Losing It: The Prevalence of Eating Disorder Paradigms in Food Advertising.” Faculty sponsor: Atsushi Tajima
Photo: Left, top to bottom, are Meghan Murphy, Riagan McMahon, and Corinne Shanahan. Right, top to bottom, are Noah Pfeiffer, Nicole Heney, Olivia MacDonald, Kristen Paterno, Megan Tomaszewski, and Callista Fiegl.
Media Contact:
David Irwin
(585) 245-5529
Irwin@geneseo.edu