DSU Research Day

Dixie State University will celebrate and showcase student research at DSU’s Third-Annual Student Research Day.  Highlighting the full afternoon of events will be a keynote address delivered by Dr. Douglas D. Alder, former DSU president and Professor Emeritus of History, a formal welcome by DSU President Dr. Stephen D. Nadauld, and an awards ceremony following the presentations.

The keynote address will serve as the precursor for a full afternoon of presentations, both in poster and lecture form, to be given by students at Dixie State currently doing research on a variety of topics. The presentation portion of DSU’s Research Day will take place from 1-5 p.m., also in the Gardner Center Ballroom.

DSU’s Student Research Day was established in 2011 to celebrate and showcase student research. All Dixie State students were encouraged to present their scholarly and creative work. According to DSU Associate Professor of English Dr. Theda Wrede, who helped establish the annual event, undergraduate research is a cornerstone of the academic experience at any institution. Wrede noted that research is a learning tool that increases self-motivated learning and allows students to pursue more in depth their own academic interests. 

“Through our annual Research Day, undergraduate research moves more into the view of students and instructors alike and becomes an integral part of the educational experience the university offers,” Dr. Wrede said. “Our event encourages undergraduate research by exposing students and faculty to research done at DSU.

“Research Day fosters an academic climate beneficial to scholarly dialogues across the disciplines and it facilitates undergraduate research by offering an avenue for these exchanges,” Dr. Wrede added. “It also provides students an indispensable experience that, which can mean a distinction from other students that can land them a job or a place in graduate school.”

Dr. Alder’s keynote address will center around his involvement in undergraduate research as the Director of the Honors Program at Utah State University and his research endeavors as a student in Vienna, Austria, where he completed research for his doctoral dissertation on a Fulbright Fellowship. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Utah, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1966. Alder taught European History at USU from 1963 to 1986. He was then appointed as the 14th president of Dixie College, serving in that capacity until 1993. He remained at Dixie after his presidency, teaching history full-time until 1999. From 2002 to 2009, Alder returned to Dixie State as an adjunct professor. Since then he has been doing historical research and writing, including the completion of his book “A Century of Dixie State College of Utah,” which chronicled in detail the first 100 years of this institution.