Research Archives - BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications

Lifelong Learning: BYU Comms Alum Rebecca Irvine Reflects on Her Education and Career

Alyssa Anderson — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 14:36:27 +0000

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Comms Professor Wins Boston University Award of Excellence for Article on the Psychological Effects of COVID-19

Alyssa Anderson — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:40:26 +0000

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Dance Student Daylin Williams on Injury, Recovery and What Moves Her

Sarah Duffin — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 22:10:46 +0000

Dance education major Daylin Williams shares how her experience with serious injury has made her stronger College has been a busy time for Daylin Williams. A dance education major entering her senior year, Williams has performed and choreographed with BYU’s dancEnsemble several times and has served as both vice president and president for the company. Last summer, Williams spent six weeks touring Europe with a contemporary dance study abroad, and has participated in several local and national dance festivals. Vibrant and outspoken, Williams is a leader in the Department of Dance, and it is difficult to imagine that anything could stand in her way. During her time at BYU, however, Williams has undergone three major knee surgeries and grueling recoveries, a setback that could have ended her career. But instead of letting that keep her from dancing, Williams decided to push forward and use her experiences to help other injured dancers on the road to recovery. “The hardest part was going into class every day,” she said. “I would just sit there watching all of my peers work so hard, improve, perform and do all the things that I wanted so badly to do, but was not physically able to.” Read the full story at dance.byu.edu

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BFA Graduate Caitlin Shill Shares How Dance Has Stretched Her Soul

Sarah Duffin — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 04:11:27 +0000

Shill — a native of Cottonwood Heights, Utah — will graduate with a BFA in dance on April 24, 2020 Caitlin Shill didn’t always plan to be a dance major. She auditioned for the program as an incoming freshman, fully intending to switch majors as soon as she found what she actually wanted to study. But the longer Shill spent in the Department of Dance, the more apparent it became that she was meant to be there. “I felt a profound sense of belonging, and I became acutely aware of an expansive gap of knowledge that I hungered to close,” said Shill. “I was drawn to the knowledge that came from the expression of such a personal art form, dressed with intellect in a way I had never encountered before. It was active, hungry, hardworking and human-centered.” While deeply rewarding, Shill’s study of dance would be far from easy. It would require physical, mental and spiritual stretching beyond what she originally imagined. “I had an impression of the humility, sacrifice and intellect it would demand, but I had no idea how much,” she said. “If dance were a god it would be a sacrificial one.” In her junior year, Shill experienced a serious injury to her right knee, a setback that would eventually lead to surgery and a grueling recovery. “It would be nine months until I danced again, and many more until I felt like I could dance again,” she said of the experience. “There is a bittersweet difference between the two.” As difficult as it was, Shill is grateful for the lessons her injury taught her about resilience and compassion. “College is often a lesson in justice as the reality of the world starts to sink in,” said Shill. “However, I’ve been instructed more on the rightness of mercy than on justice through the constant support of the Department of Dance and its faculty. If recovering was an accomplishment, it is not mine. It belongs to my families, both in Cottonwood Heights and in the Department of Dance.” During her time at BYU, Shill performed as a member of both dancEnsemble and Contemporary Dance Theatre, and her work in the department took her across the nation — and the world — several times. Through her dance experience, Shill has found that she has gained profound insight into the human condition. “Being with your body for seven to eight hours a day, listening to it, strengthening it and sharing it creatively with peers and strangers alike is an instruction in every virtue and godly attribute,” she continued. “Our bodies aren’t just objects, they are souls: integrated, whole and full of contradictions. It is through being a dance major that I have become acquainted with myself and humanity.” Some of her most memorable lessons came from her time conducting ethnographic research on a dance study abroad to Beijing. “Researching and observing children of God in an unfamiliar culture was a profound experience, especially in such a personal art form,” said Shill. “I saw dimensions of the human soul and experience that stretched my intellect and expression of identity in ways no other experience has.” Shill invites students to use their time at BYU as an opportunity not only to receive, but also to give of themselves. “I’ve found during my time as an undergraduate that the more you give from your cup, the more your cup will run over,” she said. “It sounds counterintuitive and too good to be true. However, time and time again I have had moments of undeserved or disproportionate joy and opportunity because I opened my heart and gave from an almost empty cup — just to find it running over.” Shill warns that life is hard, and it can be tempting to focus inward rather than outward when things get tough. But that, she argues, is precisely the time when we most need to give. “It is wonderful to give the best parts of yourself,” Shill said. “Your hope, your positivity, your creative spirit. But the greatest gifts — and the ones that cause an empty cup to overflow — are when we give away the worst of us. We give away our arrogance by letting another’s performance inspire us. We give away our greed by offering what we need most to another. We give away our insecurity by helping someone else see how they are succeeding. It is in the cultivation of this simple habit of giving away the best — and occasionally the worst — parts of myself that I can reflect on a full life and education at BYU.” Shill plans to pursue a master’s or doctorate degree in the future, with the goal of teaching at a university. Q&A WITH CAITLIN SCHILL, BFA ‘20 DANCE | CONTEMPORARY What did you want to be when you grew up? “Ironically, I never wanted to be a ballerina. Oxford was my Disneyland. I venerated higher education and the glistening world of academia. I took a personality test in the seventh grade that said I should be an astrophysicist, and I spent middle school and high school excelling at math just for that reason. My dad still loves to remind me that I could get a double major in math.” What was your favorite class that you took at BYU? “Healthy Sexuality, hands down. As a dance major, I was able to dispel so many cultural inhibitions and over-sexualized projections society had made on my body. The Healthy Sexuality in Marriage class helped me name and give form to the things that I felt so pressured by as a young woman in our society, while also schooling me in what healthy sexuality looks like.” Is there a specific work or practitioner in your field that has had a particularly strong influence on you? “Pina Bausch! She created doors in contemporary where rock walls stood, and they are ones that I easily walk through. She was an engineer in movement theatre and has one of the most creative and aesthetic minds I’ve ever seen. I admire her work greatly and know that I could spend a lifetime creating dance, and she would still surpass my lifetime of good ideas in the first 20 minutes of any of her works.” What is a hidden talent you have or a hobby outside [...]

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Are Disney Princesses Harmful to Young Girls? New BYU Study Says No

McKell Park — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 22:50:52 +0000

Disney princesses excite and inspire young girls all over the world, captivating them with beauty, bravery and royal status. This princess frenzy — a hallmark of the childhood experience — also fuels passionate debates about the unrealistic expectations these characters set, especially concerning body image and romantic relationships. BYU communications professors Tom Robinson, Clark Callahan and Scott Church, along with graduate students Mckenzie Madsen and Lucia Pollock, recently published their research paper “Virtue, royalty, dreams and power: Exploring the appeal of Disney Princesses to preadolescent girls in the United States” which investigates the topic through the eyes of the girls themselves. “This study is unique because it’s talking about Disney princesses, but it’s not an adult talking about them,” Robinson said. “We’re showing what the young girls themselves think and discovered that they do not all think alike.” Read the full article at comms.byu.edu

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Which type of online sports fan are you: tailgater, trivia seeker or bandwagon fan?

admin — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 23:32:49 +0000

With so many avenues and options to get the latest information on sports, why do fans visit online forums, such as team message boards? Recent research from BYU communications professors found the reason many fans get online to read and post about their favorite sports team tells a lot about the type of fan they are. As part of the study, a group of sports fans who visit sports forums at least weekly ranked a series of statements. These included things like “I feel a sense of community with the other users of sports forums,” or “I like to visit sports forums for entertainment when I’m bored.” Researchers then interviewed participants to obtain a better understanding of their rankings. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data lead to the classification of three different types of online sports fans: tailgaters, trivia seekers and bandwagon fans. Read the full article at news.byu.edu

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Students and Faculty Share Research at Dance Education Conference

Sarah Duffin — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 22:54:28 +0000

11 Department of Dance students and nine faculty members attended the National Dance Education Organization’s annual conference in Miami As Utah faced an unseasonably cold snap at the end of October, 20 BYU dancers were enjoying the Miami sun. The warmth, however, did not distract them from their purpose — to attend a national forum on dance education and hone their craft as leaders and teachers. The annual conference, hosted by the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), featured lectures, panels and workshops led by dance educators from across the nation. 11 students and nine faculty from the Department of Dance attended. “The NDEO conference offers the opportunity for dance educators from around the world to network with other educators, engage in professional development and present their work,” said Pam Musil, associate chair of the department. “We like our students to attend because it helps them see the scope of dance education beyond Utah and gives them opportunities to rub shoulders with students and educators throughout the nation.” Six of the attending BYU professors shared their research at the conference, as did dance major Cait Shill. Shill– who has been struggling with a knee injury for the past year — has found that diving into the academic side of dance has provided her with a new way to engage in the field she loves. Read more about Shill and other students’ experiences at dance.byu.edu.

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‘King Kong’ and the Music of Max Steiner: Why It Still Matters

Martha Duzett — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 13:14:15 +0000

The School of Music will present BYU’s first ever movie in concert with “King Kong” (1933). The BYU Philharmonic — under the direction of Kory Katseanes — will perform Max Steiner’s landmark score as the film plays on the big screen in the de Jong Concert Hall Nov. 2. The concert also marks the first time the score has been performed live since its reconstruction from Steiner’s original sketches by film composer John Morgan. Music theory professor Brent Yorgason worked behind the scenes with BYU students, faculty and staff as well as industry professionals to transcribe and polish the reconstructed score, coordinate media elements and create click tracks to keep the live music in sync with the images on the screen. Yorgason discusses the importance of Steiner’s legacy — and BYU’s unique connection to it — in a Q&A on the School of Music website.

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Professor Quint Randle Wins Top Faculty Paper Award for Research on Drone Usage in News Media

Morgan Reis — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 20:31:45 +0000

BYU communications professor uses passion for flying drones — both personally and professionally — as inspiration for award-winning research paper School of Communications professor Quint Randle’s fascination with drones led him to co-write a paper that won the top faculty paper award from the Scholastic Journalism division of AEJMC. Randle teamed up with fellow drone-enthusiasts and communication professors Avery Holton from the University of Utah and Jean Norman from Weber State University to research the use of drones in collegiate environments and the policies that individual universities have surrounding their use on campus. “I’ve been interested in flying drones for the past couple of years,” said Randle. “The legalities and rules of using drones in journalism is a new and exciting topic. It’s an interest in my personal life and has become a big interest in my professional life as well.” The paper entitled “Drones on High: Uses and Challenges of Incorporating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Into Higher Education” gives a small glimpse into a larger project that Randle, Holton and Norman have been working on about the adaptation of drone usage in the field of news media. These professors believe that drone usage in news media has the potential to open the door to better visuals and multimedia to accompany reporters’ stories. Read the full story at comms.byu.edu.

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Why Do We Like ‘Stranger Things’ So Much? A BYU Professor Explains

admin — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 17:31:49 +0000

Scott Haden Church has a confession: At the start of the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” he rolled his eyes. The opening scene — a person running down a hallway of flickering lights, reaching an elevator and frantically pushing the buttons to escape a mysterious creature — wasn’t anything new. That the person ends up getting demolished by the creature anyway was even more predictable. Despite his initial hesitation, Church finished the first season of “Stranger Things” in three days. Aside from wondering what happened to Eleven and how being in the Upside Down would continue to affect Will, Church had another question on his mind: Why did he like the show so much? He wasn’t alone. In 2017, Netflix ratings confirmed that during the first three days season two of “Stranger Things” was made available on Netflix, 15.8 million people watched the first episode. As a whole the season averaged 8.8 million viewers per episode, and 361,000 people watched all nine episodes of the season within the first 24 hours of its release. Church soon after began his “Stranger Things” research — which he first presented last year at the Pop Culture Association in Indianapolis — by closely watching the show and picking apart the episodes to find how the Duffer brothers had remixed elements of ‘80s pop culture to create a new story. Read the full Deseret News article.

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