This spring, students in Professor Christine Ingebritsen’s course did not submit a final paper as part of their course requirements. Instead, Dr. Ingebritsen encouraged her students to think creatively and use the popular web platform, YouTube, to create video submissions that make the work publicly available. She called this “Active Voice Research Projects”.
Christine Ingebritsen answers a student question at UW
The course, Modern Scandinavian Politics, asks students to critically analyze the political, economic and historical development of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland from World War II to the present.
“Having a media-based final project was wonderful,” wrote Ellen Ahlness, a Ph.D. Student in Political Science, “it encouraged the same learning process as a final paper while incorporating learning a new skill. I ended with a project I can use to reach a broader audience.”
Indeed, this was the goal for Ingebritsen. With the growing need for academia to expand its reach to the wider community, she saw an opportunity to encourage her students to practice sharing their research beyond the halls of the institution. “Students selected a research question, collected data to respond, and prepared themselves for an oral presentation to the class. Questions were raised, discussion ensued, and the level of technological competence was extremely high,” she said. “In this way, in-depth research that would normally be reserved for a paper or academic conference is instead now available to anyone, anywhere.”
It’s no surprise that faculty members and course instructors are finding new ways to present research. As innovation increases demand for accessible information, the UW, and in particular, Scandinavian Studies, is looking toward new ways of sharing critical content.
Students projects are available below. This site will be updated as more projects continue to be uploaded.
- “Arctic Implications | Security v. Environmentalism in the Far North” by Ellen Ahlness, Ph.D. Student, Political Science, UW.
- “Why is Norway Topping the Charts: Possibilities for Norm Entrepreneurship in Health Policies” by Connie Amundson, D.C. and graduate student, Department of Scandinavian Studies, UW.