GVSU Library Summer Scholars Program
The Monomyth Strikes Back
Over the summer of 2019 I had the opportunity to participate in undergraduate research at GVSU as part of the Library Summer Scholars Program.
The Monomyth, commonly referred to as The Hero’s Journey, examines the stages of the hero who goes on an adventure, faces a crisis, and returns victorious.
This narrative framework has relevance in a variety of fields, including marketing, narrative creation, classroom instruction, and literature analysis.
I was able to create a Subject Guide for the Library Website on the Monomyth that provides a comprehensive introduction to the topic and provided further resources.
Journey
Presentations
As a result of the COVID-19 stay-at-home order, the GVSU Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship office took their Student Scholars Day event virtual. As someone scheduled to present, I modified my powerpoint by altering some of the content and adding audio to each slide before uploading it to Youtube. In order to keep with the feel of a live presentation, I opted to use Youtube’s “Premiere” feature to schedule it to go live at the time I was supposed to present. In some ways it is a refinement of the poster and the previous presentation I gave at the 2019 Summer Scholars Showcase, but it does include information on some of the assignments and experiments I have been doing with the Monomyth.
The artwork used for the cover (and which is displayed in the top right of this page), “Journey,” was selected for display at the event. In keeping with the theme of my research, my message is the research journey is a Hero’s Journey. By entering the library, a GVSU student can begin the research process, finding themselves on the first step of what may be their hero’s journey. Anyone can start on the journey to research, they simply must answer the call.
This poster was created for the 2019 Inauguration Student Showcase. It was created in Adobe InDesign and was modeled after the Poster 2.0 format. The left hand column displays the core basics of the framework, while the right column gives a detailed overview of the stages of the Hero’s journey and its connections to my research process. The image featured in the center was created in Adobe Illustrator and is based on the common format of the Monomyth in a circle. I later presented this poster off-campus at the 2021 Michigan Academic Librarian Association’s conference.
During the 2019 Summer Scholars Showcase I gave an oral presentation on the monomyth. Building on the research of CUNY librarians, I related the monomyth to my own research process, matching it to each stage.
As an introduction to the monomyth it seems to pair well, creating a solid example of how the stages work together. The response was favorable; those who heard it related to the correlation between the monomyth and the research process.
I also presented this poster off-campus at the Michigan Academic Librarian Association’s 2021 Spring Conference as part of their poster session.
My conference program description: Through the Library Summer Scholars Program, I was able to create a LibGuide on the Monomyth, a narrative framework, as well as gain insight into the academic library field. The Monomyth, or Hero’s Journey, examines the stages of the hero who goes on an adventure, faces a crisis, and returns victorious. I connected this framework to my own research process on the topic and the experience of the program.