ENMU instructors win award

Staff writer

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Rebecca Poe, an adjunct instructor of sociology at Eastern New Mexico University, won a "Best Presentation" award along with her colleague, Megan Lockard, at the University of Nevada Reno's fifth annual conference, The College of Liberal Arts Graduate Symposium.

According to Poe, the conference, which took place in February, ran for three days and featured 100 presenters represented by 40 different universities across 38 disciplines.

Poe and Lockard's presentation, which was titled "The Dissertation Unbound: Constructing 21st-Century Humanity through Creativity, Digital Media, and Discourse," took the prize for one of only two awards given out at the conference.

"It was tremendously exciting to win because this was the first conference Meg and I had ever been to as presenters," said Poe. "It was also very valuable to receive feedback and that has caused us to explore other areas of research."

Poe said part of their argument was that "having an alternative to the traditional monograph is a way to promote artistic scholarship that speaks to an audience beyond academia and in doing so, it inspires the type of public discourse that could lead to a more just and equitable world."

"Our challenge for this conference was to create a presentation that would embody and exemplify our message and demonstrate how 21st century technology can be used to promote and share information," Poe said.

Poe, who is also currently a student in a doctoral program in curriculum and instruction at New Mexico State University, said she became aware of the opportunity when the education department at NMSU sent out a notice to all of its graduate students from the University of Nevada at Reno calling for proposals.

"The theme of this year's conference, "Constructing Humanity," caught my attention because Meg and I were conducting research into the uses and advantages of alternatively formatted dissertations," Poe said.

Poe's husband, Larry, an English teacher at Clovis High school, said that although he couldn't attend the conference due to work and pet care, he was able to see the presentation develop through all of its stages.

"Rebecca never ceases to amaze me with her creativity and resourcefulness," he said.

Poe will be doing a presentation on a similar topic next month at the Shared Knowledge Conference at the University of New Mexico. Lockard will be joining her virtually.

The students also plan on presenting at the 21st Century Academic Forum at Harvard University this September and competing for publication in Harvard's academic journals.