This spring, American University (AU) Communication Studies major Pallas Garvey, SOC/BA ’25, traveled to Pittsburgh to present original research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, also known as NCUR. The conference brings together nearly 4,000 undergraduate students from around the US each year to share work across all academic disciplines after a competitive selection process. Beyond presenting their research and creative works, attending research conferences gives undergraduate students opportunities to encounter new scholarship and to connect with peers and mentors who share their interests. 

Garvey was selected to present her project titled, “Fear and Fascination: A Computational Analysis of Personal Safety Discourses within the Subreddit r/TrueCrime which found that personal safety is an important consideration in people’s discussion of true crime media. Her work could help to spark future research that can really examine any correlations between feelings of personal safety and discussions of true crime.  

She began this project in AU School of Communication (SOC) during Professor Chelsea Butkowski’s COMM 378: Introduction to Communication Research Methods course. Garvey’s research analyzed how people talk about true crime media, including podcasts and documentaries, in relation to their own feelings of personal safety and security. She used big data and computational research methods to identify six different communication strategies that people used to discuss true crime on Reddit, such as safety information sharing and calls to action.  

In a conversation with SOC, Garvey shared her experiences attending the largest undergraduate research conference in the US. Below is a condensed version of her reflections, followed by a roundup of communications and media research presented at SOC earlier this year. 

Why did you apply to attend NCUR? 
PG: Initially, it was to get extra credit for my research methods class, but after I started going through it and started writing the abstract, I was like, ‘This is actually really cool. I’m excited for this.’ It was unlike anything I’ve done before, but I liked doing the project. I was excited to share it with other people. I also thought it would be a good resume boost. 

Can you describe the research project you presented at NCUR? 
PG: We were looking at true crime and how people discuss it on Reddit. I hypothesized that there’s a correlation between people consuming violent media that describes real-life events—like true crime—and their perception of real-life danger and how they protect themselves. That morphed into talking about Reddit discourses. I analyzed about 16,000 Reddit posts based on seven keywords and then sorted them into about six different clusters that describe how people engage with the material and with each other when discussing true crime and their personal feelings of safety. 

What was it like to present your research? 
PG: I made a poster, so for the poster session, I had 50 minutes to stand by my poster and answer questions. I gave a little spiel that was about two or three minutes long when each person would come by and ask me to talk to them about my project. Then, I would give them some time to look at it and ask questions. It was fun. I feel like the time kind of flew by. People asked me some really interesting questions, some of which I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer. But it made me feel like I had a better grasp on my project than I initially thought. I was nervous at first, but then once I started actually talking about it, I was like, ‘This is not scary!’ It’s fun to share, especially because people seemed to be interested in it. 

What was your conference experience like overall? 
PG: The conference was huge, so there were a lot of people. I don’t know what I was expecting in terms of the other projects that were there, but it was very science heavy, which I guess makes sense now that I think about it, but I wasn’t expecting that. It was cool because mine was different compared to everybody else's. After going to a few of the presentations, I liked the poster sessions best because they were more engaging, and there were more people that you got to talk to. It was cool to learn with and from other scholars, and everybody had a different project. 

Do you have any advice for AU students who might be interested in presenting their work at a research conference? 
PG: I would say that it's important to take the time to get to know your project really well so you can answer questions but also feel passionate about the work you're doing, especially since it will be a lot of effort. I'd also say to have fun! It can be overwhelming but is honestly very exciting to share your work with others and learn about others' projects you never would have thought of. 

Communication Capstone Poster Showcase

In May, AU SOC hosted the "Capstone Poster Showcase" which featured research from more than 20 graduating students in media studies and communication research capstone classes. The purpose of a capstone is to provide students an opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions gained through coursework in the major and across the AU experience. The work was presented on posters, and the AU community was invited to chat with the students who made them about their results, career next steps, and what they’re hoping to do this summer.    

Poster titles included: 

• Gendered Consumption of True Crime 

• From Posts to Protests: How Student Activists Use Social Media to Organize and Resist 

• The Rise of Readers and the Power of BookTok 

• Beauty as Discipline: Afro-Descendant Women Navigating Church and Employer Appearance Norms in the Dominican Republic and U.S 

• “I can't put myself through this”: An Analysis of Queer Sensemaking of Cancelled TV Shows 

• Political Ideology, Self-Censorship, and Underground Communities at American University 

• The Horrors of Caring: An Analysis of Sympathy-Inducing Characteristics in Horror Film Villains 

• Are Colleges Winning Championships, or Just Buying Student Athletes? How the Media and NIL is Shaping Student-Athlete Life 

• The Significant Impact of Generative AI Programs on the Creative Writing Process 

• Beyond Taylor Swift: Exploring How WAG Culture on Social Media Infiltrated a Sacred Male Sphere, the NFL 

• Red Lights, Green Lights, and Parasites: How Squid Game and Parasite Changed American College Students’ Perceptions of South Korea 

• Resist, Adopt, or Discontinue?: Freelance Graphic Designers and Generative AI 

• Too Good To Pass Up: How American University Student’s Use Food Waste Mitigation App 

• Alone Together: ASMR, Loneliness, and Gen Z’s Search for Intimacy 

• Altering of Art Crediting: the Influence of AI 

• The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze" in Horror 

• Domestic Violence in Media: Analyzing Maid and Game of Thrones Through Reddit Discourse 

• Talk is Cheap, Peeps: Performances of Neighborliness on Nextdoor 

• “Bridging Worlds: A Comparative Look at Cultural Integration Among Guinean Immigrant Parents in America” 

• The Hands That Feed 2amys 

• What Are We Being Fed? Analyzing the Design and Framing of Restaurant Menus 

• The Glass Proscenium: Women, Directing, and the DMV