Sottile presenting at the Song, Stage, and Screen musical theatre conference in Chicago in June 2025

While everyone was stuck at home during the 2020 COVID lockdowns, Emry Sottile was spending their days working on their research for the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program that was being held on Zoom at the time. What started as a jumpstart on their master’s thesis turned into Sottile’s career in academia and a pursuit of a PhD. 

Sottile graduated from Chapman University in 2020 with a double major: BFA in TV Writing and Production and a BA in History. Before starting their MA in War and Society the following year, Sottile heard about the SURF program during a travel course with Dr. Julye Bidmead. An eight-week program dedicated to constructing research related to their field of study seemed like a great opportunity for Sottile to start generating ideas for their MA thesis. “I thought the summer fellowship was going to be a really good way to end up exploring some of the things I was thinking about researching so I could get a headstart on my MA research and also have time to explore the things I was interested in,” said Sottile. They dedicated their SURF research to studying musicals and how war and history are represented in them.  

Although Sottile didn’t have the traditional SURF experience of being in-person, they expressed gratitude towards the Center of Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) for adapting to the circumstances. “I also appreciate the CUE still ensuring the program would run during the summer, despite the pandemic, and troubleshooting with us and the mentors with flexibility to give us the research experience…” said Sottile. They met with professors, creative directors, and actors of musicals via Zoom for their research. Sottile also discussed the important connections they made with mentors during SURF. While they previously did not have strong mentorship in theatre due to their history and film majors, SURF allowed Sottile to work with Dr. Jessica Sternfeld and build a strong mentorship that they still maintain today.  

SURF and CUE were able to help Sottile build skills that would be needed to be successful in graduate school. Time management, methods for conducting research, and being able to discuss research to a large audience were all skills that Sottile developed. “I felt that those working [at CUE], such as Dr. Bidmead during my time there, were helpful in not only making me aware of opportunities that existed I didn’t know about, but with the proper means to pursue them with individualized attention. Through organizing events like the Student Scholar Symposiums and the SURF symposium, the CUE gave accessible places to practice publicly presenting one’s research to lay audiences and other students/teachers, which has been invaluable…” said Sottile 

Sottile onsite at the Stranger Things-inspired sci-fi horror blockbuster live action role play, Hawkins (Grimmoire Productions 2025) for dissertation research

Sottile is currently a fourth-year PhD student at Northwestern University, where they have taken their research done during their SURF and master’s program and have continued to expand on it. Their SURF research on the musical Allegiance had been reworked and expanded into an article published in Studies in Musical Theatre in October 2024. Their research on Bandstand is also being reworked for future publication in the same journal. “It’s been really cool that two-thirds of my research that I got to do over the summer during SURF is now finally out there or going to be out there,” said Sottile. After finishing their PhD, Sottile hopes to stay in academia as a professor. 

Sottile’s SURF experience has stayed with them beyond their time at Chapman University, and their SURF research is now being published for other scholars to read and review. The SURF program is beneficial to students of all disciplines. If you want to learn more about SURF visit the SURF information page on the Center for Undergraduate Excellence website.