Yena Lee
The past two years have been a time of painful awakening for Korea as the country witnessed a deeply polemic gender war previously unprecedented in Korean society. Within K-pop fandom, a series of fan-initiated hashtags such as #WeWantBTSFeedback has started publicizing and demanding feedback for issues of misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia in K-pop industry, specifically in the star text of different idols and idol groups. In this research, I will explore how the recent feminism revival in Korea has fostered a discourse on identity politics within K-pop fandom by examining […]
Katherine Latimer
Hi! My name is Katie and I’m majoring in Physics and Chemistry here at Cal. I am really excited about my research this summer because it combines those two subjects, which I love, as well as some math and computer science, which are also fun. My work falls under the scope of the Materials Project, a collaboration at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that runs quantum mechanical simulations of many different materials on remote supercomputers and publishes the resulting data online and free to the public. By calculating just a few […]
Lauren Kelly
My research project reimagines the overland journeys of pioneers in the 19th century United States. In our cultural memory, Western Expansion is often remembered as brave pioneers striking out West for adventure or livelihood; however, this view pushes Native Americans to the margins of the story. As pioneer families traveled and settled in the American West, they instigated settler colonialism, displacing and murdering Native American tribes around them. My research will inspect the colonial ethos carried by white settlers, and investigate how they enacted this destructive colonialism on the Native […]
Dylan Bush
Woven into the intricate fabric of Oaklands Latinx population is a community of Maya immigrants. Many arrived as refugees, escaping genocide during the Guatemalan Civil War, and in part because of this traumatic history and their indigenous identity, Maya individuals face unique challenges in accessing health care. While both Latinx and Mayan populations may perceive a lack of access, no existing research analyzes how these perceptions differ, allowing for the assumption that both groups face the same challenges. My research investigates the distinct challenges that the Maya perceive in accessing […]
Kevin Milyavskiy
This study explores the form and purpose of a political apology. It includes analyses of French presidential speeches regarding crimes the French state committed throughout its history both domestically and internationally, and how the presidents speak of them. The speech former French president Franois Hollande gave during his visit to Algeria in 2012 is one of the case studies. Hollandes visit received international attention because many anticipated that he would, on behalf of France, finally apologize to Algeria for 132 years of colonial rule and the 1954 Algerian War of […]
Tong Zhang
DNA transposable elements are mobile genetic elements that can move through out a host genome by the action of an encoded DNA transposase. The activity of several DNA transposases is significantly stimulated by DNA bending proteins, presumably promoting correct assembly of the transposase upon the DNA transposon ends (i.e. Mu transposase , RAG1/2, etc). While Drosophila P element transposase is well characterized, stimulation of the transposition reaction by DNA bending proteins has not been investigated. Here, I would like to investigate two Drosophila DNA bending proteins, HMGD and HMGZ, on […]
Franklyn Odhiambo
Matatus (matatu singular) are privately owned minibuses and buses that navigate within Kenyas major cities, mostly transporting passengers into, around, and out of towns such as Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. They are an integral sociocultural and economic mobilizer in Kenya, transporting thousands daily. The late 90s in Kenya saw a proliferation of graffiti writings and painting on these vehicles as they were decorated (mostly with hip hop figures) to attract more passengers. Today, a picture of Nairobi is incomplete without the flashy graffitied matatu in the background. Using Critical Discourse […]
Charlie Reid
In string theory we are interested in the set of world sheets swept out by strings moving through spacetime that satisfy certain equations of motion. This set, called a moduli space, is mysterious and complicated but it possess a lot of structure that is not apparent at first glance. I study this moduli space using a mathematical tool called K-theory which leads to studying an infinite dimensional cone in a space of rational functions. This cone is invariant under certain rotations of the space of rational functions. I study arbitrary […]
Jiaqian Zhu
Through this research, I want to find out how we should understand a social phenomenon of vehement linguistic violence on Chinas main social media sites as well as a newly-emerging netizen group keyboard warrior in the society. How does keyboard warriors collective action of expressing aggression against others produce a new form of youth culture or pop culture in contemporary China? Or does the Internet as a new medium offer a new possibility to wield violence beyond verbal communication and physical interaction? With a consideration of violent dictions on the […]
Dawei Liu
Huntingtons disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease resulting from accumulation of neurotoxic protein aggregates in the brain. The leading cause is the abnormal expansion of glutamine (polyQ) in the huntingtin protein (HTT). A major quest in this field is to develop strategies to clear the polyQ HTT aggregates. Autophagy is an essential pathway for cellular homeostasis by removing damaged proteins and organelles through the formation of autophagic membranes. The aim of my project is to manipulate autophagy to enhance the clearance of polyQ HTT aggregate. Specifically, I will design a […]