U2 conference accepts Huntington student’s paper
FOR RELEASE: Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Huntington, Ind.-Corey Palmer, a senior communication studies major at Huntington University, is an avid U2 fan who has parlayed his appreciation for the band into an academic endeavor. A scholarly paper he wrote, "Common Aspirations: Media Theory and U2's Zoo TV Tour," will be one of 42 presented at the first U2 academic conference, "U2: The Hype and the Feedback." "The conference is all about exploring, with academic rigor, what U2 has meant as a band," said Palmer of Sharpsville, Ind.
When Jonathan Krull, visiting professor of philosophy, told Palmer about the U2 conference, he decided to use U2 as the topic for his final paper in his mass communication class with Dr. Kevin Miller, associate professor of communication, and then to submit that paper to the conference's selection committee.
"Dr. Miller was very helpful in giving advice on how to write a professional, compelling abstract for the conference's selection committee," Palmer said, "which helped me get accepted."
His paper "seeks to illustrate how various media theorists anticipated the social, political and cultural challenges U2 addressed with their famous Zoo TV Tour of the early 90s."
Palmer looks forward to representing Huntington University at the conference during the weekend of Oct. 2-4 at North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C., in conjunction with the Raleigh stop of U2's international "360 degree" Tour.
