Projects in English

• Claire Buck
  Professor of English

  Society for the Study of the Space Between annual conference

  Proposal

  I would like to have a Wheaton Research Partnership student to assist me as the main organizer of the 14^th annual conference of the Society for the Study of the Space Between.  Co-sponsored by Wheaton this conference will be held at Brown University June 2012.  The student would work on all aspects of the conference organization, such as updating the society’s membership database, creating a conference list-serve, identifying relevant professional list-serves, circulating the call for papers, liaising with the society’s board and conference committee, and answering queries.

  The student would also help me with my book on British First World War literature, completing some newspaper research necessary to my final revisions, checking quotations, and finding missing citations as I prepare the final manuscript.

  Academic year: 2011-2012

• Lisa Lebduska
  Associate Professor of English

  English learning web resources for Chinese speakers

  Proposal

  I seek Wheaton Research Partnership funding to hire a student who can evaluate websites aimed at helping Chinese students to learn English and can develop web pages linked to the writing program website. The student will need to be fluent in Chinese as well as English and be able to write webpages. This project will become part of a larger research project aimed at enhancing and assessing literacy education for Wheaton’s bilingual students.

  Academic year: 2011-2012

• Josh Stenger
  Associate Professor of Film Studies and English

  Handheld Devices and the Consumption of Popular Culture Media

  I would like to work with a Wheaton Research Partnership student on collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data relating to the the effects that recent 'handheld' devices — primarily iPods, smart phones, e-Readers and tablets — have had on the production, distribution and consumption of popular-cultural media such as recorded music, motion pictures, television, books, magazines and newspapers. A cursory review of these effects suggests that the relationship between individuals and electronic media devices designed for 'personal' use (rather than 'home' use, e.g., desktop computers, televisions, stereos, etc.) is multidimensional and frequently defies easy generalization.

  Academic year: 2010-2011