Featured Abstract: "Boycotts for Liberty: How the Non-Importation Movement Shifted Women's Place in Colonial Society"

Today's featured abstract is an oldie-but-goodie.  Hallie Wolff delivered this excellent oral presentation during our very first Symposium in 2010.

Boycotts for Liberty: How the Non-Importation Movement Shifted Women’s Place in Colonial Society

Hallie Wolff

Faculty Sponsor: John Moser, History & Political Science

In the years leading up to the outbreak of the American Revolution, many colonial leaders called for the boycott of British goods in an effort to force British Parliament to repeal colonial taxes. The success of the non-importation movement was contingent on the cooperation of colonial women. Studies have been conducted on the years leading up to the American Revolution and on women in colonial society, but little has been done on women’s participation in the colonial boycotts. Works by prominent historians such as T.H. Breen and Carol Berkin were studied as well as primary sources from the era to analyze the changes the non-importation movement brought to colonial women. Women were key participants in the non-importation movement. Their participation brought them something they never had access to before: a voice in politics. Through refusal to purchase certain goods, colonial women were able to voice political opinions without stepping outside their duties as a wife, mother, and daughter. The small political freedoms women gained through this era did not lead to any major changes in the political rights of women, though. At the conclusion of the American Revolution and non-importation movement, women’s lives resumed as they were before, showing that the political role women undertook during the various boycotts was not continued afterwards.

Featured Abstract: "How to Be a Wicked Witch; or, A Guide to Becoming the Next Dark Lord"

Today we're introducing a new element of the blog- the Featured Abstract!  Every few days, we'll put the spotlight on a particularly well-written abstract from a previous Symposium.  We hope that prospective presenters will use these for inspiration as they write their own fabulous abstracts.

Today's featured abstract comes to us from the 2012 Symposium.  If you were in the audience for this presentation, you know that Madeline, Drew, and Edward delivered a presentation that was every bit as fantastic as this abstract.

How to Be a Wicked Witch; or, A Guide to Becoming the Next Dark Lord

Madeline Beer, Drew Rothhaar, Edward Carney
Faculty Sponsor: Fabio Polanco, Theatre

In the world of musical theatre, it is important to know your “character type.” Your appearance, demeanor, humor, personality, and style indicate the spectrum of characters that you may be able to play. One person may be best suited to play the heroic lead while another may be more inclined to take the role of a comedic sidekick. As we examined our own character types, we found we both fell into a happy, “good-guy/girl” category. In order to challenge ourselves even further before leaving the academic theatre world and entering the professional theatre world, we have concocted a musical revue in which we both play villains. We collected information and songs from the canon of villains in musical theatre and film and devised a script around the recurring themes of jealousy, vanity, lust, anger, gluttony, greed, and sloth. One researcher has found that his biggest challenge has been portraying the narcissism of characters such as the evil Gaston from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, while the other researcher has found that hers has been portraying the seductive nature of characters such as Velma Kelly from Kander and Ebb’s Chicago. As we continue to work toward our final performance at the end of March, we will hone in on these particular challenges in order to epitomize the villainous character type. Stretching ourselves beyond the characters we usually play will help us identify our personal character types and reveal our strengths and weaknesses. During our session, we will be performing and then elucidating for the audience a scene from our production that exemplifies these villainous characters and the challenges they pose.

URCA Preparation Workshop Planned

The URCA Symposium Committee will hold an abstract preparation workshop in mid-January, approximately one week prior to the deadline for abstract submissions.  We have tentatively scheduled the workshop for the evening of January 22, 2013.  During this workshop, faculty who are members of the Committee will be available to review and give feedback to students who have prepared a draft of an abstract.  We hope you'll plan to attend!

In the meantime, if you are looking for guidance on how to begin preparing your abstract, you might find the Mediasite recording linked below helpful.  Dr. Andrew Greene, the 2011-2012 URCA Director, created this great presentation that outlined the abstract writing and submission process for last year's Symposium.  Although the dates and submission instructions have changed somewhat (see the "Submission Instructions" tab at the top of this blog for details), the advice for writing an appropriate abstract is still absolutely relevant.

Click here to go to the Mediasite recording prepared for last year's submitters: http://mediasite.ashland.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=6ae61d4ef3464bfeac0dc7caf40a4be6

Tips from the Veterans #3

What another of our seasoned veterans wants new presenters to know:

"Advice that I would give students who are presenting their first presentations at URCA would be to go through several timed practice runs before the presentation (to ensure they are speaking slowly and clearly enough for an audience). I would also advise new students to speak in terms (if giving an oral presentation) that everyone in the audience will be able to understand. Other than that, my tip to new students would be to just be confident while presenting and be prepared for any potential questions." --Sarah Guarino (Psychology), 2012 URCA Presenter

Free Abstract Writing Tips!

Are you unsure of how exactly to go about writing an abstract for a conference?  The University of Alberta recently held a seminar on abstract writing, and they are sharing their notes from that seminar online.  Click here to view their fantastic PowerPoint presentation.

Presenter Profile: Lindsey Knapp

Lindsey Knapp (Biology) presented "PICCOLO (PCLO) Is Differentially Expressed During Mouse Brain Development" at the 2012 URCA Symposium. Here's what Lindsey had to say about her experience with URCA:
 
"Presenting at the URCA Symposium has given me a lot of confidence in presenting my research. This summer I gave presentations to the lab I worked in at UC-Berkeley and even gave a presentation via video chat with other labs. Without URCA, that would have been a lot more intimidating. I am currently applying to Ph.D. programs in Developmental Biology and hope to pursue a career in the field. Having the experience of undergraduate research is a great way to prepare for graduate school or a career and presenting my research was a great way to practice speaking about science, a valuable skill for any scientist.

"I would recommend URCA to any student who is participating in undergraduate research or creative activities. The satisfaction of being able to share all or your hard work with your peers, professors, and public is priceless. Writing your project down and hoping people read it is always an option, but actually interacting with the people who see are interested in your work is very rewarding."

Call for Papers: Ohio Academy of Science Meeting

Students, are you looking for a forum to share your research with other scientists?  If so, consider submitting your work to the Ohio Academy of Science annual meeting.  Undergraduate student researchers who have completed projects or whose projects will be complete by April 2013 are invited to submit to the meeting.  The meeting will be held on April 6, 2013 on the campus of the University of Findley.  Submissions will be peer-reviewed, and accepted submissions will be published in a special issue of The Ohio Journal of Science.

Follow this link to view the complete details in the Call for Papers: http://www.ohiosci.org/2013CFP.pdf.  Submissions must be postmarked by November 5, 2012.