English and Writing students present at Undergraduate Research Day 2019

Several English majors and Writing minors were among the students who gave oral presentations and presented posters at Undergraduate Research Day on November 1, 2019, in Z. Smith Reynolds Library. 

Undergraduate Research Day is an annual event held by the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Center, also known as URECA. It’s held on the Friday of Family Weekend each year, and allows students from all disciplines to share their mentored or independent research with their families and friends as well as faculty, staff, and students. 

You can learn more about The URECA Center at its website, ureca.wfu.edu. 

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Departmental Presentations

Andrew Murphy, English major

Mentor: Jessica Richard 

The Edgeworth Letters and Late-Enlightenment Education 

“The Maria Edgeworth-Rachel Mordecai correspondence held in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina is an interesting artifact of Irish and American intellectual history, as Edgeworth was one of the most famous authors of her time and Mordecai a middle-class American woman with no literary aspirations. The correspondence between the Anglo-Irish Edgeworth and the Jewish American Mordecai reveals a powerful story about religious tolerance and education — one which has been largely ignored despite its importance to history.” 

Elijah Shalaway, English major

Mentor: Alan Brown (Education)

Sports and Literacy: An Analysis of Scholarship since Title IX 

“The purpose of this study has been to investigate how and why secondary teachers of literacy and English language arts account for the students’ interests in sports and sports culture, as documented in peer-reviewed academic journals from 1972 to 2018.” 

Julia Stevens, English major

Mentor: Zak Lancaster

Genre Analysis of First Year Writing in the Discipline 

“As a required course for WFU students, Writing 111 emphasizes the foundations of college-level writing. However, since the various sections of WRI 111 are uniquely designed, without uniformed textbooks or assignment sequencing, the purpose of this research was to explore points of coherence within this diversity — in particular, the kinds of assignments that cut across the various course sections.” 

Whitley Thomas, Psychology major

Mentor: Jefferson Holdridge

The Lure of Irish Folklore: How Ireland’s Past has Impacted Present Day Ireland and Southern Appalachia 

“From late May until early July, I spent six weeks traveling throughout Ireland immersing myself in Irish folklore in an attempt to understand some of my own Appalachian roots. One of the main goals of my research was to redefine my schema of folklore. … With my presentation, I will focus on the people and places that impacted me the most.” 

Abby Vogeley, Biology major and Writing minor

Mentors: Anne Boyle and Elisabeth Whitehead

Writing Moves: An Online Journal of Wake Forest Student Writing 

“Primarily, [Writing Moves] serves as a collection of student written pieces selected by Wake Forest Writing professors as exemplifying aspects of writing to be admired. In addition, it may be used in a pedagogical manner, enabling faculty to use student writing as a teaching tool in college classrooms and as models of various writing styles and skills.”