Research and Creative Arts Conference seeks student submissions
LIZ DAVIS
THE SIGNAL
The Student Conference for Research and Creative Arts (SCRCA) will celebrate its 20th anniversary April 14-17 in the Bayou Building. The conference is accepting submissions until March 9.
The SCRCA will cover student presentations from all disciplines from any university, not just UHCL. Academic work in any subject is accepted as long as the student has a faculty sponsor.
The conference is co-directed by Michael Hunt and Pilar Goyaizu with faculty members attending as sponsors and audience members.
Hunt said that many presenters attend as audience members first because they do not think their work is professional enough to present to an audience and evaluators. He encourages students to show their work to a potential faculty sponsor before automatically disqualifying themselves from presenting at the conference.
“This is a co-curricular event to help prepare students for a professional career,” Hunt said. “They also may include their presentations on their curriculum vitae as conference presentations and as a publication.”
At the conference, there will be a large selection of events and exhibits for presenters and audience members to attend.
Stuart Larson, associate professor of graphic design, said that the Graphic Design Symposium, held for the first time at last year’s SCRCA, was very insightful.
“I even learned things from that presentation,” Larson said.
A graduate and undergraduate art exhibit will be displayed in the Bayou Building for creative art presenters. The Animation Symposium and Festival will take place during the week for students specializing in digital media to screen their animations and will be followed by a group forum.
A poetry session with a coffee house set-up will be scheduled for students to read their own poems to audience members. John Gorman, professor of literature and UHCL’s unofficial poet laureate, will be the moderator.
“As Professor John Gorman is retiring this year, the poetry reading should be especially sentimental,” Larson said.
Another session will be a mock trial presented by legal studies students enrolled in courses taught by Jim Benson, associate professor of legal studies.
Former students who have presented at the conference have gone on to serve on UHCL faculty, including Pilar Goyaizu and Camille Peres.
Camille Peres, now an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at Texas A&M, presented at the first SCRCA held in 1995. Peres graduated from UHCL with a technical theatre degree in 1990. After she attended the conference, she decided to pursue her doctorate in psychology.
“Conducting the study that I presented at that conference was when I discovered that I loved, and I mean loved, research, statistics and the entire scientific method,” Peres said.
Peres said she sponsored more students than she could count in her eight years as faculty at UHCL.
“Attending these presentations is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had at UHCL,” Larson said. “The level of professionalism and insight is truly impressive. This is what learning is truly about; being exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking.”
The deadline for student submissions is March 9. The application fee is $12 per author and $12 for each co-author. To fill out an application, visit http://prtl.uhcl.edu/portal/page/portal/SCR/Home/Application.
