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Quest shows students’ work
Video
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
From Bob Dylan and Baroque music to gangsters and the effect of high debt on government, Youngstown State University students demonstrated their research.
Quest, conducted Tuesday in Kilcawley Center, celebrated scholarly achievements of students, providing a forum for them to present their research, work and creations to the university community.
Jeffrey T. Coldren, a professor in YSU’s psychology department and director of undergraduate research, said Quest allows students, most of whom are undergraduates, the opportunity to present their research before professors and others.
“They have the opportunity to do things I wasn’t able to do until grad school,” Coldren said.
Peter J. Kasvinsky, associate provost for research and dean of the school of graduate studies and research, said the forum gives undergraduate as well as graduate students the opportunity to present as if they are attending a national meeting with students at other universities.
Students also must answer questions from those who listen to their presentations.
“They have to answer questions really by the seat of their pants,” Kasvinsky said. “Only God knows what questions will be asked.”
In Sara Gulgas’ project, “Baroque ’n Roll: A Lighter Shade of Rock,” she talked about the synthesis of rock and classical music of such 1960s bands as The Zombies, The Left Banke and The Beatles.
“Baroque pop provided the neoclassic sound of string quartets, woodwind arrangements ... that was needed in a psychedelic age,” Gulgas, a music- history and literature major, said.
Janna Wheeler, who is studying studio art, presented “The Visual: Exploration or Interpretation,” explaining how her art is influenced by a particular object.
She’s drawn to things that share qualities with people, such as how the fabric on a chair shows its age and wear similar to how a person’s skin ages or how “a door’s wood grain is similar to a fingerprint,” Wheeler said.
In her presentation, “Bob Dylan: The Continuation of a Tradition of American Activism,” Stephanie Ruozzo, a music-education major, talked about how the music icon was influenced by folk artist Woody Guthrie.
Though the folk music made popular by Dylan in the 1960s is viewed as a folk revival, Ruozzo argued against that interpretation “in favor of regarding Dylan as the continuation of a legacy already well- established,” she said.