In the summer of 2014, several undergraduate and graduate students from the College of Arts & Sciences received a grant from the National Science Foundation. This NSF grant gave them the means to pursue research in various fields as they explored their interests and prepared for their potential futures. In this interview, we speak with Emily VanMeter, a senior Political Science and French Studies major. VanMeter speaks about her research on civil conflict and peacekeeping and how her project helped her explore the unseen processes of academia.
All three students conducted focus-group research. Elizabeth Kunnecke studied differences between perceptions of first and second generation immigrants. Tyler Davoren looked at geographic influences on perceptions of immigrants. Emily VanMeter examined how people’s religious attitudes influenced the way they interacted with immigrants. Their posters were on display on April 25, 2012, in the Ballroom at the Student Center.