My IAC Dean’s Research Internship

This year, I was given the opportunity to do research through the IAC’s Dean Research Internship program! This internship pairs first year liberal arts students with a professor of their major and field of interest in order to learn the ropes of conducting research. In this program each student could either work on their own project with guidance from their professor, or they could help their professor with whatever they were working on. I chose to do the latter.

My professor (Dr. Jay Telotte, an LMC professor and expert in science fiction and animation) and I explored the relationship between science fiction pulp magazines and movies from 1920-1950. We wanted to know if movie companies used print platforms to advertise their films and, if so, how. My only previous experience with the subject was Star Wars, but I was immediately interested by movies and magazines and the way they advertised different subject matter.

Both mediums have similar fan bases, so we were surprised to find that there actually were very few traditional movie advertisements present. Instead, there were tons of reviews, pictures of cameras, stories about Hollywood…basically everything but big full-page ads with headlines screaming about War of the Worlds or Star Trek.

So, the separate worlds did converge, and over time, these interactions became more and more frequent, just not in the way we expected. It was really interesting to learn about; it was almost like I was experiencing these shifts over time too.

Last week, we had a research internship exhibition where all of the Dean’s Research Interns shared their work with both faculty and each other. It was exciting to see what everyone else had been working on all year. It was also a really good chance to practice giving presentations to strangers in a more professional setting—something ya girl is not used to or totally comfortable with, but that I was happy to practice.

Thank you so much again to the Dean, Dr. Telotte, and Elizabeth Miller for this amazing opportunity, all of the help you’ve given me, and for the innumerable lessons and skills that I have learned! My freshman year has been wonderful, and I am so grateful for this invaluable experience.

If you are interested in learning more about what we found, the subject matter, my experience and what I learned, or the internship program itself, check out the website I made! ~ https://spacebarinvaders.wordpress.com/