Abstracts for Fall Oral Presentation Honors Session

December 3rd 2025 | 10:00am -12:00pm & 1:00pm - 2:00pm | SUB 312

• 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Heavy Metal Music & Society

  Mentor: Jessica Fisher
  College: Stewart Library
  Department: Honors Program
  Abstract: The projects presented by students were assigned to meet the four learning outcomes of critical thinking, analyzing familiar cultural assumptions, adapting and applying ideas and concepts, and writing to communicate in a clear and compelling way. Projects include: two original songs, a cover of a popular song, a zine that mixes together visual art with critical analysis, a short-form documentary, a video essay, an interview of a regionally local band, as well as a traditional paper.

  All of these projects will work toward answering the question: What can studying heavy metal music teach us about society, each other, and ourselves? Students additionally will have the opportunity to pick a weekly question to answer as well (e.g. What is the role of youth in conversations about race, class, music fandom, and violence?). The students who do not complete a traditional paper engage with these questions in part through a write-up that they submit in addition to their other work.

  Through a combined sociological, musicological, and American Studies lens brought by the instructor, students are encouraged to engage with the material in an interdisciplinary manner. The actual work presented will make unique contributions through, primarily, the presentation of original cultural artifacts that evidence the connection between heavy metal fandom and academic rigor.

  Students are addressing the above question about studying heavy metal through a number of lenses including: Autobiography (e.g. how heavy metal relates to gender and gender expression, or how the lessons in heavy metal can help inform parenting), the importance of racial and ethnic representation in the bands we listen to, how heavy metal connects to other cultural artifacts (e.g. Horror films), what heavy metal’s history has to teach us about addressing censorship and obscenity, how heavy metal and its influences inform 21st century culture, and more.

• 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Break for Lunch

   

• 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Heavy Metal Music & Society

  Mentor: Jessica Fisher
  College: Stewart Library
  Department: Honors Program
  Abstract: The projects presented by students were assigned to meet the four learning outcomes of critical thinking, analyzing familiar cultural assumptions, adapting and applying ideas and concepts, and writing to communicate in a clear and compelling way. Projects include: two original songs, a cover of a popular song, a zine that mixes together visual art with critical analysis, a short-form documentary, a video essay, an interview of a regionally local band, as well as a traditional paper.

  All of these projects will work toward answering the question: What can studying heavy metal music teach us about society, each other, and ourselves? Students additionally will have the opportunity to pick a weekly question to answer as well (e.g. What is the role of youth in conversations about race, class, music fandom, and violence?). The students who do not complete a traditional paper engage with these questions in part through a write-up that they submit in addition to their other work.

  Through a combined sociological, musicological, and American Studies lens brought by the instructor, students are encouraged to engage with the material in an interdisciplinary manner. The actual work presented will make unique contributions through, primarily, the presentation of original cultural artifacts that evidence the connection between heavy metal fandom and academic rigor.

  Students are addressing the above question about studying heavy metal through a number of lenses including: Autobiography (e.g. how heavy metal relates to gender and gender expression, or how the lessons in heavy metal can help inform parenting), the importance of racial and ethnic representation in the bands we listen to, how heavy metal connects to other cultural artifacts (e.g. Horror films), what heavy metal’s history has to teach us about addressing censorship and obscenity, how heavy metal and its influences inform 21st century culture, and more.

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