Master’s student Allison Rollins attended “Music, Research, and Activism II: Solidarities and Urgencies”, an international conference held at the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland, from May 14–16, 2025. As an interdisciplinary conference, it was a prime opportunity for Rollins to gain connections in other career fields.

“In every presentation I attended, I saw connections between my field and others, and I think it’s incredibly important for us to transcend disciplinary boundaries to make real change in the world around us,” Rollins said.

Rollins presented her paper, “Singing a ‘Butchered Tongue’: The Irish Language and Hozier’s Unreal Unearth.” Rollins’s paper was able to go in depth on the impacts of trending and popular music. Hozier’s music has received major attention with him reaching his first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with his song Too Sweet. The presentation discussed the potential for music to work as a teaching element with its socio-political value having a huge potential influence on indigenous/endangered languages.

Rollins presented to a collective of scholars from a variety of fields including sociology, translation studies, musicology, psychology, and even cultural studies. The conference provided diverse possibilities to form novel connections while revealing a fresh perspective in relation to the field of information studies. Over the course of the weekend Rollins had the opportunity to form these professional bonds that has proven these fields of study can have moments of being beneficially intertwined.

Even though Rollins doesn’t explicitly investigate information studies in the paper she presented, there are still indications that connect the paper to the implications of diverse media in indigenous/endangered languages. The viewing of Rollins’s paper by a wide range of outlooks was a fundamental part of her international experience. Through this Rollins was able to explore the benefits of international travel in tandem with her involvement in the conference.

“The most memorable part of traveling to Finland for me was taking a half-day trip by ferry to Suomenlinna,” Rollins said. “I got up really early so that I could relax with a cup of coffee at the port before wandering and sightseeing on the islands—it was a very peaceful experience.”