English & Communications Student-Faculty Collaboration

English & Communications majors develop wide-ranging and customized student-faculty projects to explore interests, advance professional goal, and apply work beyond the classroom. Students also can participate in undergraduate conferences, exhibitions, and publications to present the results of their work.

Recent Projects

Norte-Sur | International Translation & Arts Project 

Liam Schmidt ’22—double major in English & Spanish—and now M.A. in English with a Concentration in Irish Literature & Culture at Boston College—achieved many things while at LVC, including collaborations that resulted in the presentation, “Irish Literature & the Postcolonial: Seamus Heaney’s Confrontation with History” at the International Conference on Poetry Studies at the London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research; and a presentation with Dr. McEvoy on Irish diaspora in Peru. With Dr. Machado & Dr. Carmen Garcia-Armero, he also was translator of NORTE/SUR (Tijuana, Mexico)—a book-length “cartonera” that centers on the violence of borderlands and complexities of identity, community, & nationhood. This book is now part of the esteemed Ibero-American Studies and Romance Languages Collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Liam’s M.A. thesis at Boston College in part extends from this work at LVC. 

A+F theground | Library Science & Equity

Athena Vinson ’25 helped co-found a chapter of Art + Feminism and continues workshops at LVC. Art + Feminism is an international organization committed to closing information gaps related to gender, feminism, and the arts, beginning with Wikipedia. In 2024, Athena established a chapter of this org. called theground. In simple terms, the group uses a list of folks provided by A+F that either are missing Wikipedia pages or whose pages are insufficient. The group then edits pages together on site or remotely. A+F and Wikipedia then track the work. Athena, now an alumna, still works on this project, and in 2025, created a presentation and workshop at LVC that has been integrated into multiple courses and is applying knowledge creation beyond the classroom. As of Nov. 17, 2025, for example, updated pages from one workshop received a subsequent 13.2k views. 

Gaming & Communal Storytelling

Students in Gaming & Communal Storytelling—a course taught by Dr. Nyk Cialini who has expertise in English, Creative Writing, and Gaming—not only study the ways in which video games and tabletop roleplaying games tell stories, they create their own. As part of this process, the course collaborates with Lancaster’s gaming store Farbo Co, who also then features a chapbook of games made by students. These games also are featured at the indie digital game publication site, itch.io. The course hosts indie game designer, Kathryn Hymes to talk about indie development, gaming, and the design process. There is a book launch party at a local gaming cafe. And historically, students also have the opportunity to attend and perhaps present on gaming at the academic conference, zenkaikon.

Claire Fitzgibbons ’20: “Beyond the Laces: Feminist Sneaker Culture & The Politics of Style”

Presented her research at the Popular Culture Association’s (PCA’s) National Conference in Washington, D.C. in spring 2019. This project, according to Claire, played a significant role in her acceptance to an Ivy League law school and subsequent career within law.

Feature Writing on Veterans

Students in ENG 430 Multimedia Feature Writing (Spring 2019) worked collaboratively with Professor Jaime Fettrow-Alderfer and local veterans at the Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lebanon to interview and capture their experiences. Students honed their interviewing skills while learning to weave descriptive storytelling into their nonfiction writing. The goal was to provide local veterans with the opportunity to share their unique stories and experiences and to foster connections and a better understanding of how “service” experience shapes the lives of the individual. According to the Center, through “sharing veteran stories that highlight life experiences that otherwise might not be told,” this collaboration meaningfully resulted for veterans in: “improved mood, support of strength and resilience, decreased sense of being alone, and an increased sense of self-worth and connection.” The publication was distributed to all. participating veterans and is now housed in the Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

These are just a few of the many exciting student-faculty projects developed each year. Check out a few more below. Let’s do work— together—that matters to you! 

• Book Cover Design in Contemporary Young Adult Literature 
• Queer(ing) Archives 
• Public Poetics (research, film, poem, projection into public, graduate school M.A.)
• What You Can Do About Climate Change: A Normal Person’s Guide to Preparing for Climate Disaster in Pennsylvania 
• Gamification & Recycling 
• Translating Text to Sound for Literary Analysis: App Development & Applications 
• Solving Challenges in Medical Translation/Interpretation 
• Floral Drone: Transducing Bioelectrical Plant Energy into Music to Bring About Increased Environmental Awareness 
• Being Vocal about the Mental Health Crisis: A Call to Action Through Vocal Art Therapy 
• Improving College and University Student Ambassador Programs 
• Assistance Animals and College Campuses: Ways Forward 
• The Impact of Contemporary Leadership Styles on Organizational Citizen Behavior 
• Self Defense Training for Domestic Violence Survivors: A Clinical Perspective 
• Defying the Smallest Version: Embracing Feminine Muscularity Through “Bodybuilding”