Florida State University IDEA Grants provide summer funding for undergraduate research and creative projects. The 2024 IDEA Grant winners delivered oral and poster presentations during the President’s Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence held Thursday, Oct. 10. 
The event, which drew an estimated 800 attendees, is a collaboration between the Office of the President and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement.
“Your research is fantastic, and we’re so proud of each and every one of you,” said FSU President Richard McCullough during his opening remarks to students, their mentors and other guests. “This work makes a difference in the world, and we’re so pleased to be able to be here and interact with the students about their projects.”
Thirty-five students selected by the competitive grant program shared their posters and creative projects on their work at the event, held in the FSU Student Union Ballrooms.
“One of the best parts of administering the IDEA Grants is being able to see students really blossom into researchers,” said Latika Young, director of the CRE. “Something that might start out as just a unique interest...can transform, with the support and funding offered by the IDEA Grant and under the mentorship of our terrific faculty, into a project that makes a valuable contribution to the field and allows the student to cement their researcher identity.”
Five English majors participated in this year’s event through a variety of academic topics.
Angelina Dobbs (left), who is on the Editing, Writing, and Media track for her major, and Kelsie Fernandez, who is in the Literature, Media, and Culture Program, exhibited their poster project, “Sip & Connect: Social Networks Italian Style,” which also is a 16-episode podcast. They, along with Colson Gantt, a double major in international affairs and French, and Emma Clark, a double major in political science and philosophy, grounded their project in the principles of Social Network Theory to examine the 18th-century culture of sociability in Italy and the diffusion of Enlightenment ideas through salon networks. Click here to read English major Hanna Rothenberg's article about their project.
Maiya Johnson is a double major in English-Editing, Writing, and Media and in religion, and she showcased her work titled “Hearing the Unheard: Understanding the Lived Religious Experiences of Queer LDS Women in Utah,” which aimed to a platform to queer LDS women to vocalize how their experiences demonstrate the marginalization of female queerness in Mormonism. Click here to read English major Emily Wilmot's article about Maiya's project.
Lark Stafford, who is in the department’s Creative Writing Program, showed her research findings in a poster presentation titled “The Scourge and the Submissive: Sadomasochism in the Face of Anti-Kink Feminism.” In her work, anti-kink feminism is challenged as arising from the expectation that women must explain their sexual selves, especially when a person deviates significantly from conventional social norms. Click here to read English major Jillian Kaplan's article about Lark's project.
Ella Windlan, who is on the Editing, Writing, and Media track, spoke about her project, “Algorithmic Law Enforcement Exploring the Human and Civil Rights Implications of Predictive Policing,” to a crowd of students, faculty, and other community members in a Union Ballroom. She conducted research into predictive and data-driven policing practices as a human rights issue after seeing the detrimental repercussions this style of law enforcement inflicted upon the people in her hometown. Click here to read English major Kaley Hoppenworth's article about Ella's project.
Information for the first four paragraphs on this page was taken from an Oct. 11, 2024 FSU News article titled "FSU Discovery Days annual undergraduate research showcase features grant-funded student projects."