Julia Uyttewaal
There are over 18,000 NGOs operating in Haiti, many of which provide overlapping services in the same regions without collaboration. Recent academic debates have pitted NGOs against the Haitian state, claiming that the multiplicity and fragmentation of NGOs prevents any sort of uniform policy from being implemented and thus further undercuts the legitimacy and accountability of the Haitian state (Etienne 1997). My research project will attempt to challenge this dualistic framework by conducting participant observation with the Cap-Haitien Health Network, an organization that coordinates the operations of over seventy health […]
Robert Saxton
The Anaphase Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C) is an essential protein that allows cells to divide in a timely and proper manner. Inhibition of the APC/C prevents proper cell division, making it a protein of interest for cancer therapies. While many targets of the APC have been identified, its full spectrum of substrates is not yet characterized. In this project, I will be studying the interaction between the APC and a proposed novel substrate, KIF20A, a motor protein that is also essential for cell division, and which is also of interest in […]
Graham Haught
Jhoole, a textile production NGO based in Madhya Pradesh, India, formed in 2008 through a dialogical need from sari weavers that were working under indentured conditions. Since its formation in 2008, Jhoole has provided collective ownership, secured creative freedom over design/production, implemented sustainable agricultural practices, and supplied living wages to these female artisans. However, in March 2012 after reading Marx, Hannah Warren, the founder and Executive Director of Jhoole, un-incorporated Jhoole in an effort to dismantle institutional hierarchies that limited the extent to which local stakeholders were able to direct […]
Alyson Cook
The vertebrate skeleton has undergone extensive evolutionary adaption to a wide variety of environments. The precise molecular mechanisms that led to this vast variation are not fully understood. The three spine stickleback fish provides a model organism in which to study these mechanisms. Populations of stickleback colonized newly formed freshwater lakes and streams at the end of the last ice age and repeatedly evolved numerous skeletal adaptations, including lengthening of certain groups of bones. My project will investigate possible genetic and developmental mechanisms that led to this observed variation in […]
Lisa Levin
Part creative writing, part auto-ethnography, part literary analysis — my project examines how war blurs distinctions between national and individual identity, the ways in which this complicates family bonds, and how both of these issues haunt future generations. My research focuses on the memoir as a genre of historical narrative, specifically of the Jewish diaspora and the Japanese experience in the Second World War and its aftermath. My goal is to relate these seemingly disparate stories to one another, and to ultimately bridge both sides of my own Jewish-American and […]
Anthony Ransford
Quantum information processing promises to increase computer power on a scale not yet seen in the industry. With less than a hundred quantum mechanical bits physical systems that are beyond the scope of current computers could be investigated. One method of quantum information processing is using laser cooled ions trapped in electromagnetic fields. The ions must remain sufficiently undisturbed long enough to make calculations. In practice strong heating of the laser cooled ions hinder this. The source of this heating can be traced to electric fields which are five orders […]
Rochelle Valdez
Since 2002 the Philippine government has labeled numerous leftist Filipino parties as terrorists, using the Global War on Terror (GWOT) as a political tool to delegitimize opposing parties. Despite imprisonment, torture and killings, Filipino activists continue their struggle for national democracy. This project, contributing to a Peace & Conflict honors thesis, examines their resiliency: how do Filipino activists strategize despite state intimidation? Using the framework of political legitimacy, I will compare the National Democratic Front of thePhilippines (NDFP) and BAYAN, two leftist organizations. The former operates through political exiles in […]
Jacqueline Lee
Delayed puberty is a reproductive strategy seen only in a few species of seasonally breeding birds. These birds go through puberty several years after reaching adult size unlike most birds that experience puberty right as adult size is reached. Little is known about the mechanism behind puberty, and even less is known about delayed puberty. To investigate why some species of bird experience delayed puberty, my project involves observing neuronal cell populations of two important reproductive hormones in the brains of California Gulls and Western Gulls, two species that display […]
Andrew Hwang
Nitric oxide (NO) is a toxic by-product of fossil fuel combustion known to cause lung infection and respiratory allergies. The catalytic reduction of NO by H2 over noble metal catalysts (e.g. platinum, rhodium, and palladium) is an effective means to remove this environmental toxin; however, the reaction mechanism is poorly understood. We aim to develop a set of elementary reaction steps describing the reaction pathway by measuring steady-state reaction rates. We plan to measure isotopic exchange rates and kinetic isotope effects and perform in situ infrared spectroscopy to evaluate the […]
Sarah Covington
From Homers Odyssey to Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment, the average American high school graduate has at least encountered a work of foreign literature in translation. Yet those students have not likely read the same translations of the works. Where the original language text is fixed, translations can differ wildly. Whats more, there are both British and American versions of Harry Potter; because of cultural differences from one English speaking country to another, there are translations of a book from one language to the same language. How much then, does culture […]