Face Masks
Do Not Muddle Speech Perception
A Department of Modern Languages course sparked an opportunity for four CMU students to publish and present research at the 2021 Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium at Johns Hopkins University. Ananya Vasudev , a senior majoring in statistics and machine learning; Sophia Hill , a junior majoring in statistics and machine learning; and Anyah Stempien-Smith and Lindsay Zhang , both juniors majoring in psychology, examined how face masks affect speech perception. They found facial coverings did not have a significant impact on how native and non-native speakers perceive English speech.
Podcasting 101: Watching HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ Giant squids, blue men, crime fighting vigilantes and a podcast! Professor of English Kathy M. Newman is covering it all in her course “Watching HBO’s ‘Watchmen.’” The show addresses violence against African Americans, the legacy of the Vietnam war and even the wearing of masks — all topics which seemed newly relevant when Newman watched the series during the pandemic summer of 2020, amid Black Lives Matter protests that were erupting across the U.S. Newman’s class produced a podcast called “Tartans Watch the ‘Watchmen,’” an opportunity for critical reflection that served as an alternative to the traditional literary essay. After viewing the television series and learning visual analysis techniques, students in the class began to research everything from the music used in the show to its depictions of race and gender. The class was split into production groups to help create, design and market the podcast.
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YEAR IN REVIEW
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