Louis Kang

Transistors are the most fundamental building blocks of modern electronic devices. They perform various functions that range from logic operations to voltage regulations. Since their creation, researchers in the field have devoted significant effort to shrinking down the size of transistors, as transistor scaling provides many desirable benefits, including cost reduction and higher computational power per chip. However, the minimum feature size of modern transistors is already in the nano-scale range, and we are approaching a scaling limit that cannot be overcome with conventional transistor designs. Exploratory research is needed […]

Fele Uperesa

Samoans have often been associated with the bulk and athleticism of professional football players, but that reputation has undergone a drastic change paralleling the transition in traditional diets. The term nutritional transition denotes a shift in dietary consumption and energy expenditure linked to a growing epidemic of obesity-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). American Samoa, a trust territory, and Samoa, an independent nation-state, have both experienced significant changes in consumption practices. Emerging research attributes this nutritional transition to economic development and the waning availability of traditional food staples. Trade policy not only […]

Reem Jubran

The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 enforced dislocation and fragmentation upon the Palestinian people. Nevertheless, while the old may have died, dense history and culture has been passed on to the youth by way of oral history. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has dramatically transformed in the past 60 years, leaving the physically divided Palestinians today with an indefinable identity: do you consider yourself Arab, Arab-Israeli, Palestinian-Arab, or just Palestinian? Reem will create an artistically compiled short film that will capture a collection of voices and stories unique to […]

Dennis Velasquez

Dennis research seeks to expand the exploration of transculturation through an in-depth analysis of three vastly unrelated literary works that nonetheless contend with English Linguistic Imperialism, and reveal strikingly comparable strategies that defy it. Focusing on canonical texts by eighteenth century Scottish, nineteenth century Pequot Native American, and twentieth century Chicano authors, he will conduct a comparative study of strategies of literary subversion of English Linguistic Imperialism across disparate time periods, ethnicities, and geographic locations. He plans to investigate the distinct internal discourses of The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, A […]

Samuel Diener

Samuel will investigate ways in which English writers of the 18th century, particularly Daniel Defoe, used accounts of piracy to question standard presuppositions about the emerging nation-state and promote Enlightenment ideas about government. As stateless individuals who lived and worked together, pirates were forced to create their own independent societies aboard ship and on land. Defoe used these pirate communities to experiment with ideas of statehood, freedom, property rights, and criminal acts, and to provide a comparison with the European nation-states which questioned the legitimacy of the colonial enterprise. In […]

Naphtalie Jeanty

The goal of Napthalie’s project is to see if male-identified homosociality or male-to-male sexual relations within black communities is something that can be traced among men in their gendered spheres of work during the 19th century through archaeology. She will participate in an excavation in Fort Davis, Texas, where Buffalo Soldiers were stationed from 1867 to 1891. She will be looking at primary documents and artifacts to see if any material evidence of bonds/relationships or sexual relationships among the African American soldiers can be found. Ultimately, evidence of these sorts […]

Bridget MacDonald

Children acquire complex knowledge about the world despite severely limited evidence available to them. While both children and adults use learned biases as a useful learning mechanism, children’s relatively small amount of prior knowledge results in fewer constraints on their hypothesis space as well as more open-minded approaches when considering possible causal relations. The prefrontal cortex of the brain is home to most executive functions that govern learning, yet the frontal lobes are the last area of the brain to fully develop. The eventual maturation of the prefrontal cortex builds […]

Matthew Phillip Kirschenbaum

Some are daily watchers, some click on a faulty URL, some start browsing during their pre-teens: most adults have seen pornography, and it is here to stay. After Porno Chic during the 1970s-1980s in which pornography was viewed in theaters, VHS pushed porn into the bedroom in the 1990s, provoking gay men to find private sexual outlets. Internet access has exacerbated this tendency, and at present, gay men in the United States encounter discourses of sexuality and H.I.V. through stigmatization and repression. For them, pornography is a social institution through […]

Jennifer Fei

Jennifer’s research will explore the impact of current International Rescue Committee (IRC) Resettlement Programs on female economic empowerment. Her working hypothesis is that the empowerment effect of the IRC on refugee women will vary depending on cultural norms, resettlement program type, and resulting employment. She will study female refugee populations lived experiences and the development of the IRC Economic Empowerment program development in New York City through regional and headquarters offices. She will focus on how IRC programs later affect refugee women’s perception of family life, self-sufficiency, and personal autonomy […]

Destiny Dixon

Destinys research aims to investigate the history of Black owned businesses in Compton, West Oakland, and West Berkeley. She will focus on the ways in which a strong Black economy influenced Black solidarity culturally, socially, and politically. While exploring the different types of businesses African Americans owned, Destiny’s research will reveal a new glimpse into what the 1980s drug and gang epidemic destroyed. By examining archival records as well as conducting interviews with current and former business owners and their families, Destiny’s work will offer a richer narrative to Black […]