Robb Conrad Lauzon, PhD



Scholarship



Since entering grad school, my research interests have followed a tortuous path. The metaphor of path is probably the most appropriate considering a significant part of my research interests while doing my dissertation work was on the role of walking in reading memorial spaces. Recently, I have benefited from hindsight and have been able to recognize that there is a thread that has connected many of my projects: civic deliberation. Carefully pulling this thread and following it into my future endeavors has been very productive and motivates me during my daily involvement with my research.



FEATURED PROJECTS



1.



Winter Park sunshine Project



When I began my work at University of Central Florida as a postdoctoral scholar, I was tasked with understanding the diffusion of winterparksunshine.org using Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory. This eventually led me to research information-seeking behaviors and a whole host of associated literature aimed at accomplishing a very practical mission: drive more users to the website and encourage civic engagement. Along with researching this project, I also serve as the project's director. Currently, we are testing out the visualization of data on the website using a timeline to help citizens follow contentious land use issues. It is our hope that this instrument will help foster civic literacy by introducing citizens to important government documents.



2.



Memorial to the victims of Communism



I began my research on the Memorial to the Victims of Communism back in April 2015. At this time, the project was hotly contested and facing increased scrutiny from activists across Canada. Eventually, this project was scrapped when Justin Trudeau's Liberal government took over in November 2015. The debate around this project inevitably became the subject of my dissertation research. Using government documents and intensive interviews, my dissertation attempts to understand various readings of this memorial as a physical object within Ottawa and a commemorative gesture on the Nation's psyche.



3.



the statue of liberty



During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself stuck at home with a stack of books on the Statue of Liberty. Although I had always had an interest in the statue, it was requests from local Jewish Community Centers in Northern New Jersey that had reinvigorated my studies on the statue. When the world went into lockdown, I found myself without a way to continue research at my field site located across the border in Canada. I also had a rich collection of source material that I was using for public lectures on the statue. I began visiting the statue from a far and reflecting on its position in the New York Harbor. This brought me to a body of literature about lighthouses and the statue's early role as a lighthouse in the harbor. Today, I continue my research on the Statue of Liberty and its role as a beacon in popular culture in the 21st century.