In the fall semester of 2019, I was able to participate in the Student Research Showcase with my Citizen 110 course, Society and its Monsters.
Throughout the course, we talked about monsters as creatures, such as vampires and werewolves, but we also talked about monsters in our society, such as psychopaths. We compared the two types of monsters, looking at what causes us to call something or someone a monster.
For our second presentation, we were tasked with watching a monster movie and creating a list of premises that led up to an argument about the movie. I watched the 2016 French horror/drama film Raw. It was about a young vegetarian woman who entered a veterinary school and underwent hazing, eventually becoming a cannibal, just as the rest of her family did. Looking at what causes people to become monsters, my argument was that the practice of cannibalism, as seen in movies, morphed into an outlet for self-discovery.
We used the presentations and grouped together to form panels for the showcase. Each student had done their own presentation, but we were able to find common themes between them. Our class joined the showcase with four different panel groups, each speaking on an overall theme, using the individual topics to support them.
This opportunity to present my information in a different and unique way allowed me to learn and grow in a way that would not have been possible without the showcase. I was able to practice presenting in a group fashion, while also being ready to answer any questions on the spot.