The Office of the Provost is pleased to announce that the annual Innovative Research Symposium will take place on Thursday, April 22, 2021, to showcase the diversity of intellectual and creative expression that highlights the University’s commitment to innovation and academic excellence rooted in Jesuit values. All programming for this celebration of student and faculty collaborative research will be held online.

"We are thrilled to host the 2021 Innovative Research Symposium which this year happens to fall on Earth Day,” said Jocelyn M. Boryczka, PhD, associate vice provost for scholarly, creative, and community engagement. “We will lift up Fairfield’s commitment to environmental sustainability and our research related to racial justice and to Covid-19 — three areas central to our experiences this past year. Our featured speaker, Melody Serafino ’05, weaves together these three areas innovatively within her professional space of media relations. Such intersections reflect the exciting synergies that emerge from a Fairfield education where we invite our students to reach for the magis, past given ways of knowing the world.”

More than 300 undergraduate and graduate students from across academic disciplines will make their faculty-moderated research presentations virtually during two daytime sessions from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., and from 2 to 4:30 p.m.

Projects will include presentations from Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies students, Sigma Xi STEM students, and students who have pursued independent and community-based research. To engage with students the day of the Symposium, community members with a Fairfield NetID are invited to visit fairfield.edu/symposium to download the eBook of student projects, to have online conversations with students about their research using Quip, and to join live, faculty-moderated research presentations on Zoom.

New this year, the University community is invited to tune in for a Live Show at noon. During the live show, viewers will get a behind-the-scenes look at campus life from four student-researchers and their faculty mentors. Viewers will also hear from Provost Christine Siegel, PhD, who will discuss the significance of student and faculty collaborative research at Fairfield.

Directly following the live show, Fairfield will welcome writer and media relations professional Melody Serafino ’05, co-founder of communications agency No. 29, for a 1 p.m. virtual conversation about her Fairfield experience and how it prepared her for a career in media and public relations. Assistant Professor of Physics Robert Nazarian, PhD, will be joined by students to discuss how their research relates to Serafino’s work in environmental sustainability, social justice, and public health.

Serafino has overseen major campaigns for nonprofits, startups, artists, filmmakers, and brands including TED, Embodied’s Moxie – which was named a best invention of 2020 by TIME magazine – and the UN premiere of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film HUMAN.

The day will conclude at 4:30 p.m. with a celebratory virtual performance by Pilobolus, the Connecticut-based modern dance company whose mission is to test the limits of human physicality to explore the beauty and the power of connected bodies. The group will perform their nature-inspired piece “Branches,” featuring the Fairfield University Art Museum’s The Lost Bird Project exhibit, followed by an interactive dialogue with viewers. 

Stay tuned for details about how to take part in this year’s Innovative Research Symposium on Thursday, April 22, 2021 at fairfield.edu/symposium.