Jacqueline Forsyte
How do we imagine Queer and Transgender pasts? My project aims to investigate 19th century and early 20th century Queer and Transgender spaces in Los Angeles. I will be exploring the intersections of Decolonial and Queer theory to study the city of Los Angeles. I am exploring the Indigenous communities who preceded the city and understanding how their resistance to violence informs a Queer reading of the past. Using research on the colonization of the American West, I will begin by studying the formation of the city, then begin to […]
Robynne Lindsey
Washington, D.C. is arguably the nation’s largest hotspot for young adults seeking professional careers. College students who aspire to these positions are typically advised to develop their professional networks. My research question asks how young college-affiliated adults ages 18-25 perceive networking relationships, how they develop and maintain networking ties, and how effective those networks truly are in their career trajectory. First, I will investigate how college students interning in the city view and participate in social and/or digital networking. Next, I will interview Cal in the Capital Alumni in D.C. […]
Kaiji Gong
To judge whether an economic bubble would lead to a financial crash and to estimate the critical time of a crash are significant in financial areas. The Log-Periodic Power Law (LPPL) is an equation that describes how bubbles evolve and grow. By fitting the equation into a financial time series, it is possible to predict the event of a crash. The equation proves to be effective in predicting several financial crises, such as the one in 2008. My research will focus on extending the model to predict market behaviors after […]
Nada Hosking
Research related to prehistoric image-making is constructed around a patriarchal scientific tradition of discourse. In 2007, archaeologists once more imposed vulva symbolism on an abstract engraving on a rock at Abri Castanet, perpetuating the assumption that Upper Palaeolithic societies perceived the world through a similar cultural screen to our own. Using the so-called vulva engravings as an example, my project asks: How can contemporary patriarchal values that have been dominating the interpretation of pre-historic imagery be re-evaluated? My project culminates in a senior honors thesis that aims at re-examining the […]
Stephanie Fung
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was established in 2003 with the goal of trying those responsible for the horrors inflicted upon Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge between 1975-1979. Two of the original four Accused in Case 002 are currently being tried at this Khmer Rouge Tribunal, and as part of my research, I will be monitoring these trials at the ECCC on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. By observing these trials and interviewing experts on the ECCC and the Democratic Kampuchea period, I intend to examine […]
Tiffany Ku
If as many theorists of the genre argue, authenticity is essential to autobiography, what place, if any, does the literary occupy in it? By literary I mean all of the subjective qualities that interpretation introduces to any verbal description of reality. On the one hand, it seems impossible to depict a complete life without recourse to interpretation; on the other, the various effects of interpretation might be said to amount to distortions of the life depicted, rendering it inauthentic. At the core of Nietzsches philosophy is the “”famous insistence that […]
Kiara Covarrubias
The Chinese Exclusion Act is considered the most racist law in U.S. history; it entailed quarantining immigrants for up to two years on Angel Island, resulting in a collection of poetry carved by the detainees onto the walls of the detention barracks. Given the tumultuous history of immigration from south of the border, where is this poetry for Mexican and Central American immigrants? While immigration has been extensively studied through various academic perspectives, the literature from the immigrants themselves has largely remained untouched. By identifying the trajectory of literature by […]
Fikreselam Habebo
In 2009 the country witnessed a spate of suicides among foreign maids, and last year a 33-year-old Ethiopian woman [Dechesa] killed herself shortly after being filmed being beaten by a Lebanese man on a Beirut street. With increasing reports of immigrants and abuse of domestic workers in the Gulf countries, the conditions of these migrant women need to be closely studied. My research question asks: 1) How is domestic work in Beirut, Lebanon racialized and gendered and 2) How do Ethiopian domestic workers in Lebanon experience race? I will approach […]
Nicole Lang
My project explores the ways in which 3D, digital technology can assist in analyzing and teaching about lithic technologies, e.g. stone tools. Over the summer of 2013, I will experiment with different methods that allow me to reproduce accurate 3D models that will be included in an online digital reference dictionary. The methods I will be using are photography of Jordanian lithic material and computerized 3D modeling from the photographs to reproduce the models digitally. I will be working closely with my mentor, Lisa Maher, a Jordanian lithics expert, to […]
Soo Yeon Han
In todays culture, the east is often defined as archival and conservative, the west being its modern progressive counterpart. Nevertheless, the patriarchal dominance had significant influence in both hemispheres. Of the same nationality yet of contrasting environment, Korean and Korean American poets maintain similar yet different perspectives. How do contemporary Korean women poets express themselves differently from their mothers who suffered oppressions? Furthermore, how would the Americanized daughters of the Korean mothers develop similar thematic approaches as part of their poetics? As my senior thesis, I intend to analyze the […]