The following blog post was written by fellow UHPer and Spring 2023 SURE Award recipient, John Fine (Political Communication Major, ’23). Read on about how John plans to utilize the SURE Award funding to further expand upon his research experience!
This research project mixes the idea of mythology with the study of presidential rhetoric to investigate how Democratic presidents have changed the way they discuss the following foundational American myths: American heroes, American exceptionalism, American religion and the American dream. I found this project to be an interesting and important endeavor because myths are often thought to be relics of a bygone age. If there is something revealed by the continued existence of myths like George Washington’s cherry tree, ‘Honest Abe,’ or the United States as a ‘city on a hill,’ it is that these ideas of myths are very much still alive and well with us today. My purpose in this project was to understand how the use of myths like that have changed. Specifically, I chose to analyze Democratic presidents in order to look at the effects of changing political opinions by one party affects their leaders’ rhetoric. The award money supported my research by allowing me to reimburse coders and cover the cost of missing work to complete my thesis and participate in the showcase. The SURE Award presented a wonderful opportunity to me because it allowed me to focus on my research and bring in help that led to finding some reliability in my project. If there was one thing that I learned from this process it’s that it is always worth it to apply to opportunities that can support you in completing your work. Seeking out those resources can be just as important as completing the work itself when it means that it allows you to put more time and effort into your project. The next step for my project is to complete my final draft and defend it before a group of 3 professors in order to complete the SMPA honors requirement!
Interested in applying for your own SURE Award funding? Find out more about the application process here!
