Alexis Franzese, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at �þ���, was recently featured on the “In the FIELD” podcast hosted by Heidi James-Dunbar of the Foundation for International Education (FIE).

In the episode, Franzese discusses her new co-edited volume, “Why the Magic Matters,” and explores themes that shape her work, including authenticity, identity and well-being. The conversation also highlights the impact of study abroad and off-campus learning experiences, drawing on Franzese’s experience �þ��� in London through Elon’s Global Education Center partnership with FIE. The episode examines how immersive educational environments, including spaces like Disney, can function as powerful sites of learning and self-discovery.

The full episode is available at and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

The session featured projects spanning an impressive range of sociological issues—from family, identity, media and mental health to law, education, community support and social inequality. Each poster represented months of work designing studies and attaining IRB approval, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing connections to broader sociological theories and frameworks.

�þ��� examined how people make meaning in their everyday lives through media, relationships and culture. Projects included explorations of comfort television among individuals with OCD (Brooke Goldstein), children’s books and neurodivergent identity formation (Avery Shipp), media portrayals of serial homicide (Morgan Murphy, Elon College Fellow, mentored by Associate Professor Rena Zito) and the role of third places in modern university settings (Emily Dvorak).

Several students focused on family and identity, including sibling experiences in families with special needs children (Shelby Kaufman), parental perspectives on adoption from China during the One-Child Policy (Emma Hash, Honors Fellow mentored by Professor of Sociology Tom Arcaro) and depictions of families in the media (Khoreen Johnson). Others analyzed social issues in institutional contexts, such as mental illness in prison media depictions (Emilee Welch), the law school pipeline (Savannah Ginda) and experiences of Black fatigue among students at PWIs (Kendall Lytle).

The showcase also included projects on social support and community response, such as support mechanisms for children experiencing domestic violence in Alamance County (Gia Coleman), and studies of stigma, identity, and belonging, including the experiences of furries and their fursonas (Will Walters) and the ADHD experiences of today’s youth (Parker Greason).

Additional projects explored fitness culture (Daniela Lorino), public grief narratives surrounding adolescent suicide and school shootings (Gavin Michaud), older adults’ sense of being heard in healthcare settings (Diana Luther), and the storytelling and legitimacy of handwritten versus typed in forma pauperis petitions (Corrin Line).

Light refreshments were provided by Alpha Kappa Delta, the Sociology Honor Society, as faculty, staff, and peers visited each poster, asked questions, and celebrated the intellectual growth of the department’s graduating seniors. The course is taught by Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Alexis Franzese.

The senior seminar course is designed to give students the opportunity to apply the full range of their sociological training.  The creativity, rigor, and thoughtfulness on display in these projects reflects the depth of the learning and the passion majors bring to understanding real-world issues. �þ��� will give oral presentations on their topics during the final exam week and have also created portfolios that reflect their educational journeys in the major.

At the conference, McKee presented a paper called “Decreasing Burnout Among Pre-Health Undergraduates: Does an Authentic Interest in Coursework Matter?” in which he and his mentor, Alexis T. Franzese, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology investigated whether an authentic interest in coursework, in one’s major and in medicine broadly are associated with burnout and engagement among pre-health �þ��� students.

Their preliminary results indicate that an authentic interest in coursework (and to a lesser degree in one’s major) are associated with lower levels of burnout, whereas authentic interest in coursework was associated with higher levels of engagement. This research is an expansion of work that McKee began in Franzese’s Honors seminar “Authenticity: Is there a True Self?”

In addition to his �þ��� research with Franzese, McKee is a chemistry major conducting Lumen Prize-funded research on chemotherapy resistance and pancreatic cancer.