While most students were away during this past summer, Gianna Maiorino and other summer scholars spent their summers researching and working on campus. Along with her advisor, Dr. Laura Russell, Maiorino studied kindness.
Her inspiration came from a class she took with Dr. Russell entitled “Communicating Kindness.” Maiorino wanted to know how kindness is truly communicated and defined by Denison students.
Through twenty in-depth interviews, manual open-coding, analysis of data, and personal reflection, Maiorino found that “kindness is recognized through actions and gestures, and experienced as an embodied feeling.” She also points out that “reaching a point of true kindness with another person requires openness and vulnerability, as well as empathy and care under non-obligational conditions for both the giver and receiver of kindness.” Her use of reflexivity, or drawing from her own experiences, allowed her to become more connected with the analysis of her interview results. This semester, Maiorino is expanding her work in the area of kindness through a senior research project focusing on how kindness is communicated through party culture at Denison.
Gianna Maiorino described her experiences doing summer research as initially overwhelming, quickly exciting, and “overall one of the most valuable academic experiences” in her time at Denison. Through her relationship with Dr. Russell, Maiorino was able to put aside her initial fear of the research process, and instead become confident in her methods and researching abilities. “Dr. Russell described our relationship this summer as co-teaching and co-learning,” Maiorino said, “and we were able to have deep and rich conversations that would not have happened anywhere else.” One tip Maiorino learned from her experiences this summer is that “you have to be 100 percent passionate about your work.” That passion is what pushed her to trust herself and her process while researching this summer.