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NCUR 2019: The Future of Budding Academics

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Mawuko Kpodo  is a senior majoring in Philosophy. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR).


On April 12th, 2019, I presented my research project at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research. This annual conference brings together scholars from across the country to celebrate the unique accomplishments of undergraduate research scholars. This year, NCUR took place at Kennesaw State University, which is about an hour away from Emory University. On Thursday I traveled to Kennesaw to find the room that I would be presenting in and to attend several presentations that I found interesting when perusing the conference catalog. When I arrived at Kennesaw State, I was taken aback by the way the campus seemed to be teeming with lively, excited students. I quickly entered the James V. Carmichael Student Center to register and receive my conference name tag. The presentation I attended concerned the American Dream and Donald Trump’s presidency. While I did not entirely agree with the conclusions that the presenter discussed, I found the presentation and the research project to be compelling and incredibly intriguing. This presentation reinforced the idea that research does not have to be about agreement. It is about an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of asking better, clearer, more defined questions. 
            On Friday, I presented my own research project. Entitled Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Reimagining Spatial Epistemology through the Fictive, my research project is interdisciplinary and uses uncommon forms of media to conduct research. I have always loved the television show, ‘How to Get Away with Murder.’ I marveled at the way the show presented the law through the perspective of a black woman attorney. The drama that the show is engulfed with is heightened even further by the writers’ dedication to make the law as much of a character as anybody else. The law is not a backdrop, but an active participant in the creation of the show’s world. My research project focuses on a specific episode of the show called Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The episode is named after a class action lawsuit that lawyer, Annalise Keating argues in front of the United States Supreme Court. I focused on this episode because my larger research question was: Why are black women not represented on the United States Supreme Court. By using philosophical concepts, I use this episode to investigate the real-world implications that the absence of black women on the Supreme Court has had on the United States as a space. 
            Even though I did not have a lot of people in my presentation, I still felt proud to be discussing the work that I created and to be sharing my ideas at NCUR. This research paper has been published by the Emory Philosophy Review and will be considered for larger research journals. I am incredibly proud of the work that I have done for the past two years and I was excited about the opportunity to present my finds at a conference of this magnitude. 

Visit the Undergraduate Research Programs website to learn more about applying for Conference Grants.
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