Honors_Newsletter_Fall2020

We are very excited to announce that two of our honors students had the opportunity to present their honors thesis research at the National Collegiate Honors Conference in fall 2020. The NCHC was held differently this year due to COVID-19, which meant our students needed to submit their research almost two months early and present virtually. Despite these challenges, our two honors students, Sarah Schafer and Amanda Mcllravy, were able to overcome the obstacles and present their honors thesis research. We had the opportunity to hear from both Amanda and Sarah about their research, experience, and advice for future students who are hoping to present. Sarah Schafer is an English education major with a history minor and coaching endorsement, with a graduation date of fall 2021. The title of her thesis research is “Early Modern English Pronoun Changes Applied to Emerging Gender-Neutral Problems,” and her thesis advisor is Dr. Peter Ramey. We asked her for a summary regarding her research and she responded, “I evaluated pronoun changes of Early Modern English to determine if there is a gender- neutral third person pronoun emerging. Using historical linguistics, William Shakespeare's ‘Hamlet’ was studied with a focus on the usage of ‘you’ and the loss of ‘thou’ in the second person. The shift from Early Modern English was studied through the lens of the Politeness Theory, which can then be applied and paralleled to the shift happening today.” Schafer decided to explore this topic because she found herself “gravitating toward the linguistic aspects” within each of her English classes. The study of “Hamlet” also sparked her interest in the topic because she was fascinated by the pronouns used during her Shakespeare class. The combination of these two interests led her to search for a research question that included linguistics and Shakespearean text. Schafer shared some of the important lessons she learned throughout this process such as to not be afraid when faced with a challenge. The deadline for the NCHC presentation was moved up by two months, creating pressure for the students presenting to finish their research earlier than expected. Fortunately, Schafer used the encouragement from her advisors and peers to accept the challenge and trust herself, as well as her advisors, to successfully complete her presentation. When discussing how this process will benefit her future, she explained that the research will help Northern State University Honors Newsletter Fall 2020 Schafer and Mcllravy Present Virtually at the National Collegiate Honors Conference