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Crossing Boundaries: Faculty and Students Charter New Territories Through Cross-Disciplinary Research
Watching an entire season of The Apprentice might sound like an enjoyable and leisurely way to pass a summer, but for assistant professor of communications Johny Garner it was all business. As part of the annual summer Cross-Disciplinary/Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research (CDIUR) program, Garner partnered with fellow assistant communications professor Emily Kinsky and Andrei Duta, assistant professor of organizational behavior and management, to research how employment roles are portrayed in the media. "We watched a lot of TV this summer!" he says.
The CDIUR program gives professors from differing academic disciplines the opportunity to work together on a research project. This summer, three groups of three faculty members formed, joined by partner students eager to chart new territory off the grid from their regular studies. Garner's faculty trio joined forces with students Elina Adut, Chris Boger, and Julie Danker, and recorded two weeks of primetime television. Garner explains that media scholars have argued for years that viewing habits can dictate behavioral norms; in which case, understanding workplace behavior as depicted on television may be vital to understanding real life behavior of employers and employees.
"To narrow our focus, we specifically looked at how certain jobs are portrayed, such as journalists, advertising executives, and marketing people; how leaders encourage or discourage creativity; and how the ethical dilemmas that may accompany such creativity are portrayed," says Garner.
Despite a primetime line-up of savvy and confident characters, the group found that conformity rather than individuality is the favored behavior in most programming. "I found myself most interested in the fact that dissent and speaking up have almost universally been portrayed as ineffective and useless," Garner says. "Overall, critical thinking tends to be discouraged, but there is a large body of organizational communication research that has demonstrated the value of dissent in the workplace, such as better decisions, increased job satisfaction, and decreased turnover."
From a communications standpoint, the project raises the troubling possibility that people taking their cues from television may be less likely to voice their concerns at work for fear of being overlooked or considered a naysayer. The group members are dissecting their findings and will present the results of their research at the undergraduate research banquet this fall, along with the two other CDIUR research groups that explored how language is learned in culture versus a classroom, and the uniquely historical Christian tradition among Los Angeles' Armenian population.
Faculty members Paul Begin, assistant professor of Spanish, and Phil Thomason, chair of the International Studies and Languages Division, decided to combine their language skills with geography professor Alexander C. Diener's academic expertise to examine the role of place or location in language acquisition. Working with students Rebekah Donaldson, Bradley Thomasma, and Alyssa Torjesen, the group developed a survey for language students spending nine weeks in Madrid, Spain, about their cultural and linguistic experiences in the country. The faculty-student team also conducted a survey with a control group of students learning Spanish in a traditional classroom on the Malibu campus, to compare the rate of language and cultural absorption in both situations. Almost anyone will learn a language better when physically in the land of that language, but this research group wanted to explore cultural acquisition rather than mere language absorption.
"Language acquisition is a very well studied field, however cultural acquisition—or deep learning, as opposed to learning 'about' something—is less studied," explains Thomason. He first approached this study with a paper he presented several years ago at a national meeting of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, titled "Teaching Culture and Civilization Abroad: Madrid as Laboratory."
While the team is still correlating data, Begin ostensibly contributes the role of place in deeper learning to the experience of building emotional ties to a place. "There is a big difference between immersing yourself in a culture, and just traveling around speaking English everywhere you go," he says. He cites the example that a student's perception of culture based on classroom reading or information processed from the media may differ greatly from the reality.
"The perception of religion was particularly interesting. Many students assumed Spain to be a thoroughly Catholic country," says Begin, noting that most Spanish language films depict a particular niche of the traditional Catholic nuclear family that might not accurately reflect the diverse culture in Madrid. "Many didn't realize that there is a high Muslim and Jewish population also."
Begin, Diener, and Thomason hope to continue their language and culture project by refining the survey, which they called the "instrument," and the control study in the coming year or more.
The third CDIUR research team combined the prevailing interest in Christian history held by assistant professor of religion Dyron Daughrity, with the academic interests of Levon Goukasian, associate professor of finance, and Mike Sugimoto, assistant professor of Japanese studies. Rounding out the group were students Lilit Azizyan, Kristi Bansemer, and Lida Manukyan, and together they explored the history of Christianity in Armenian culture, focusing particularly on Armenians living in Los Angeles. Daughrity explains that Armenia is the world's oldest Christian nation—the nation adopted Christianity as the state religion in 301 AD—and has resolutely remained that way despite near-constant attacks by neighboring states.
"Armenia is now one-tenth of the size it used to be because of constant attacks from Turkey," he says. "It is also surrounded by Muslim nations and has suffered years of persecution. Yet they remain stubbornly Christian, and are fiercely proud of it."
The team conducted a survey of Los Angeles-area Armenians, and discovered a people determined to maintain their religious heritage. This differs from Western Protestant Christianity, which more closely resembles Catholicism in practice. The project, titled "Against All Odds: The Tenacity and Courage of Armenian Christians," focuses specifically on the Armenian population of L.A., to explore whether they continue to practice their own specific type of worship and religion to maintain a cultural heritage, or if there are other reasons why the Armenian Church maintains consistent numbers of practicing members.
The group hopes to present its findings at a Baylor University conference in October, says Daughrity, who was able to visit Armenia this summer after meeting an Armenian priest through the project. The experience enriched his long-held appreciation for the Armenian people and their religious history.
The three groups of faculty researchers return to class with a renewed vigor as a result of their projects, while the students have gained the experience of working side-by-side a well-heeled academic on a topic beyond the bounds of the curriculum. Professor Garner was pleasantly surprised to discover last year, after working on a project as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Program that the summer research gave him the tools to be a better professor, an effect he is sure will be duplicated after this summer's CDIUR program. He also points out the huge academic benefits that the program has for students.
"Students after these summer experiences tend to be more engaged, perhaps because they have spent time creating primary source material, as opposed to reading textbooks, and have 'gotten their hands dirty' in research," says Garner. "That interest in learning carries over to the classroom. They also better understand how to apply some of the ideas that they hear in class."
The participating faculty also found that the CDIUR project allowed them to work closely with fellow faculty members and students from other disciplines, with whom they would not usually get the opportunity to work. Paul Begin found the experience professionally enriching. "That is what CDIUR is supposed to do," he says.
By Sarah Fisher
