A Murray State University undergraduate student presented research at the Popular Culture Association (PCA) conference in Chicago, Illinois this spring. Ania Boutin, a junior presidential fellow, has been developing her research with mentor Dr. Marcie Hinton for more than three years.
“Ania and I have been working together since her freshman year to help find her research agenda,” Hinton said. “We have met weekly, she has been in my classes and she has studied abroad with me, so we work very well together. She is a detail-oriented person and I am a big-picture person, which makes for a good scholarly team.”
Their research analyzed a series of documentaries, spanning 1979 to 2018, which cover the topic of female representation in the media. After detailed coding, they uncovered significant evolutions that reflect how on-screen portrayals and the media industry have changed in response to society’s advancements and regressions in gender equality.
PCA is an annual conference that highlights scholarly work from across the country. Boutin’s research was accepted by the Gender and Media Studies area, and she and Hinton presented their findings at the Exploring Gender Issues in Television and Film panel on March 28.
“It is rare that an undergraduate’s work gets included in academic conference proceedings, but Ania knocked it out of the ballpark,” Hinton said. “She answered questions from the audience like a pro. People stopped us in the hall to talk to her and tell her they hoped she would consider graduate school.”
Under Hinton, Boutin will transform her research into an honors thesis in Fall of 2024.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, PCA is a national conference that attracts scholars and enthusiasts alike to study and explore popular culture. It works to connect like-minded individuals and assist them in publishing research in the field. You can learn more about opportunities through PCA at https://pcaaca.org/.
