SPARK Projects

Faculty Mentor: Gerald Butters, History, gbutters@aurora.edu

This project is a follow up to my book “Censoring the City: Chicago, Morality and the Politics of Cinema, 1895–1920.” I am under contract with Indiana University Press. I am currently working on the period 1945–1965. I need someone to help me research this era to figure out what movies were banned or threatened to be banned by the Chicago Board of Censorship. This is a project for individuals interested in history or film. I need someone who is a fantastic researcher and can work independently. I will give credit in the book to the researcher so they can use this on their personal resume.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Online and database research
• Organizing materials systematically
• Looking for patterns of censorship

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Enjoy research
• Are creative and like to think outside the box when conducting research
• Are interested in film

Faculty Mentor: Caleb Lewis, Economics/Business, clewis@aurora.edu

Employers must make decisions to call back or interview applicants based on limited information from a resume and cover letter. Signals about race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or other identity markers have repeatedly been found to have an impact on the hiring practices of employers. The goal of this project is to contribute to this research, looking into groups, regions, and contexts that have not yet been investigated.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Support the literature review process
• Collect, review, and clean data

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Have strong time management skills
• Are familiar with Excel
• Are interested in social science research, economics, or labor issues
• Have a strong sense of curiosity and willingness to learn new skills

Faculty Mentor: Natasha Ritsma, Museum Studies, nritsma@aurora.edu

The student will evaluate the museum’s current marketing and outreach efforts, identify opportunities to increase visibility and engagement, and work with the museum director to determine effective communication strategies. The student will identify key audiences and community groups, including retirement communities, area high school students and seniors, lifelong learners, and organizations interested in art, culture, education, and community programming. Through research, the student will develop targeted outreach strategies to strengthen connections between the museum and the community. The student will also create audience-specific marketing and communication materials promoting exhibitions, programs, events, and educational opportunities, including social media content, digital and print materials, emails, flyers, and newsletters.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Review and assess promotional materials and communication channels
• Gather feedback from the community
• Identify key audiences and community groups and develop targeted outreach strategies

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Are interested in marketing and/or art
• Are creative
• Like to manage a project

Faculty Mentor: David Rudek, Psychology, drudek@aurora.edu

Our research team is interested in the varying factors that predict belief in paranormal activity such as astrology, ghosts, and UFO/UAP sightings. We have studied a range of ideas from social media influence to core free-will beliefs. Recently, we found that celebrity endorsement of paranormal practices (e.g., visiting a psychic) and one’s own personality contribute in unique ways to one’s assessment of these extraordinary practices. We plan to extend that work by designing a related study further exploring specific characteristics of those who endorse such practices and what specific personality factors make one more prone to such beliefs.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Conduct a literature review
• Read and critique research articles
• Work with upper-level students to design materials and procedures
• Collect data from participants on campus

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Have an interest in research
• Are comfortable collaborating with peers
• Enjoy creating new materials

Faculty Mentor: Mark Soderstrom, History, msoderst@aurora.edu

The purpose of this project is to facilitate dialogue between students and faculty about artificial intelligence (large language models in particular, such as ChatGPT and Gemini) and its relationship to college work and life. In regular meetings, student participants will share candid perspectives on how they and their peers use these technologies, discuss hopes and concerns that they have in relation to them, and offer suggestions about what they would like to see their professors and courses doing — and not doing — in relation to AI.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Survey peers on the topic of AI use
• Research AI use among college students
• Discuss AI use in regular meetings
• Develop suggestions to improve courses and assignments

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Are curious
• Read for fun
• Like to participate in discussions

Faculty Mentor: Chris Wells, Parks and Recreation, cwells@aurora.edu

This research project uses visual pictures of sound, called spectrograms, to study the diversity of birds on the AU campus. Bird songs and calls will be recorded using an AudioMoth device and the recordings will be analyzed with Raven Lite software from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to identify birds and understand how their diversity changes over the course of the fall semester.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Record bird songs and calls and upload audio recordings to a cloud drive
• Use Raven Lite software from the Cornell Lab of Orinthology to analyze recordings
• Write weekly report about which birds were identified

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Are interested in learning about how technology can be used to understand the natural environment
• Are interested in doing field-based research
• Enjoy spending time outdoors