The following blog post was written by fellow UHPer and Spring 2023 SURE Award recipient, JP Infortuna (Political Communication Major, ’23). Read on about how JP plans to utilize the SURE Award funding to further expand upon his research experience!
My senior thesis project examines a small portion of the evolution of musician advocacy over the last 60 years. Specifically, it focuses on the development of the benefit concert to determine how the strategies and tactics employed by musicians around these events have grown and how their impact and scope have changed. In order to investigate this, I examined three cases (The Concert for Bangladesh, Live Aid, and Live 8) and employed a news coverage analysis to determine how these concerts were received by the press both contemporarily and retrospectively. The SURE Award has been instrumental to my research in two major ways. First, it ensured I had access to all of the news articles I needed in order to complete this analysis in a reliable fashion. This allowed me to complete a fuller examination of the coverage that surrounded these events than would have otherwise been possible, giving me access to publications with a paywall, like Rolling Stone. Second, it enabled me to hire a coding assistant, helping bolster my findings and ensuring that they stand on solid ground. Without a second coder, my findings would be speculative at best. Through the process of writing my thesis, I have learned a great deal about not only the history of benefit concerts, but about the research generally. I never thought I would pursue a project as large as this has turned out to be, but I have found the experience incredibly rewarding. I’ve also found it has sharpened every skill I honed at GW, from writing to data analysis. All in all, the award has set me up to create a project that I can be immensely proud of, which is something I am beyond grateful for.
Interested in applying for your own SURE Award funding? Find out more about the application process here!
