About the Event and Guidelines

General Guidelines

About the Event

NovaRhet is a research symposium whose primary purpose is to give a platform for students from ENGL 1302 students to showcase the brilliant work they are doing in their classrooms. Just as the name implies (Nova = New; Rhet = Rhetoric), our goal is to showcase these voices that are relatively new to the university so that all may have a chance to contribute meaningfully to the conversations that are taking place in academia; voices that are needing to be heard in a world that calls for the innovation and creativity that only these students can bring to it.

Types of Presentations / Projects

The following is a detailed list of presentations and events that students can choose to participate in.

Academic Poster

This type of project will have students create an academic poster following the genre expectations of academic posters that are shared at traditional conferences. Students can organize their research into an academic poster, which can then be printed by the UTRGV library. Students are welcome to include images and color in their academic posters for rhetorical effectiveness.

Multimodal Display

This type of project will have students create a display on a table, similar to that of a science fair or career fair setup. Each student or group of students will stand by their display and talk to visiting students for a few minutes at a time as they inform them of their various research related topics.

Video for Film Festival

This submission will include videos created by students and/or classes that will then be edited together to show as a playlist of videos as part of our NovaRhet film festival. Students are encouraged to create works that are more than reading slides from a powerpoint but rather tell a researched story in an engaging and creative format.

Artwork

This type of project will have students bring in a type of artwork such as a drawing, painting, sculpture, etc. that can be displayed in our art media room and which should be accompanied by a wall card (in the style of those that hang next to paintings and artworks in a museum) that explains how the artwork represents the research they have done in their ENGL 1302 course.

Data and Photo Use

By registering for NovaRhet Undergraduate Research Symposium, you provide consent that the information provided in submission forms will be stored with NovaRhet and shared with processing systems for the purpose of doing business with NovaRhet. You will provide consent to receiving announcements from NovaRhet and you may opt-out at any time by contacting NovaRhet committee members (contact information below) anytime.

By registering for NovaRhet Undergraduate Research Symposium, you will also consent to NovaRhet sharing your project files on the NovaRhet website as well as any corresponding online platforms. You may opt-out at any time by contacting NovaRhet committee members (contact information below) anytime.

If you are accepted to present at NovaRhet Undergraduate Research Symposium, your abstract and corresponding author information will be automatically added to a conference proceedings document to be published on the NovaRhet website and other various associated platforms.

By registering for NovaRhet Undergraduate Research Symposium, you give consent to have asynchronous projects available for viewing for a limited period during the event. NovaRhet also reserves the right to use screen grabs and/or photos captured by conference organizers in event marketing materials.

NovaRhet Code of Conduct

All participants, including, but not limited to, student presenters, student attendees, mentors and advisors, administrators, program directors, speakers, exhibitors, program committee members, and volunteers are expected to abide by the NovaRhet Undergraduate Research Symposium Code of Conduct.

Expectations for participants are to:

show courtesy and civility to all symposium attendees;
conduct oneself in a manner both professional and ethical;
avoid engaging in any inappropriate behavior such as discrimination or harassment.

Every interaction you have should be appropriate and considerate of the audience that comprises NovaRhet attendees. Further, as students, faculty, organizations, and institutions involved in undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry, we have the professional and ethical responsibility to maintain the highest professional conduct standards and embody the high moral and ethical standards of UTRGV in our words, actions, and deeds.

Examples of behavior that is encouraged at NovaRhet:

Use of language that is welcoming to all, including phrasing of questions/comments thoughtfully so as not to bring down anyone;
Understanding and being respectful of different viewpoints and opinions;
Committing oneself to the overall enjoyment of the event by all;
Showing compassion and empathy to other participants.

Behavior that is unacceptable at NovaRhet:

Harassment or discrimination of any person at any time;
Verbally abusing or attacking any conference attendee online in any way. Verbal/online abuse includes but is not limited to comments about any person’s gender, physical appearance, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion, national origin, inappropriate use of photos, or graphics that are sexual in nature, making threats to another participant;
All submitted pieces and ideas must be original and created by the participant. Plagiarism is unacceptable and could be subject to reprimand by the university;
Presentations, postings, and messages should not contain promotional materials, special offers, job offers, product announcements, or solicitation for services. NovaRhet reserves the right to remove such messages and potentially ban sources of those solicitations.

Project Guidelines

The following guidelines are suggestions for various project types that will be shared during NovaRhet. They are not all encompassing, therefore if you have recommendations on how to host your project, please include these suggestions along with your submission. Our goal is to create and maintain an accessible experience for all NovaRhet audiences, and we welcome thoughts and suggestions on how to best present your projects or classes.

Multimodal Displays:

Trifold displays that share information about your research are encouraged.
Presenters are welcomed and encouraged to include interactive elements to their display such as games, prizes, opinion sharing, etc.
Presenters are discouraged from using anything that relies on digital audio (for example, trying to show a video) at their display as the environment will be loud and could make hearing difficult for visitors.

Video Projects:

Videos will need to be submitted the Friday before NovaRhet is to take place to ensure enough time for videos to be uploaded and included in the film festival compilation.
Examples of video projects include interviews, music videos, mini-movies, documentaries. etc.
A blurb to accompany video project submissions should be included that explains the goal/overall purpose of the project.
Supported file types: MP4, 3GPP, AVI, FLV, MOV, MPEG4, MPEGPS, WebM and WMV.