Abbey White

For my research this summer I am participating in an archaeological excavation at the Classic Maya site of Chinikiha, Mexico. I am investigating gendered labor in the production and use of stone tools (lithics) in the Maya household by analyzing material remains There is a pervasive, but untested assumption that men were the producers and users of lithics, and as such, this is an area that has been underinvestigated in archeology. Looking critically at gendered labor will allow me to explore the effect that gender had on the Classic Maya […]

Tricia Ngoon

My research is about the efficacy of verbal retrieval practice, the act of verbally explaining or telling someone else about learned material. So much of academics is focused on studying or re-reading material when really, telling or explaining it to someone may be more beneficial for memory and comprehension. Along the lines of the testing effect, in which a student shows better memory for items that were tested as opposed to simply studied, verbal retrieval practice serves as a form of testing that may be in line with Transfer Appropriate […]

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 […]

Nicolas Ames

My project is a reassessment of current archaeological interpretive techniques through comparing two main focuses of artifact analysis. I will be looking at site interpretive resolution of more standard heavy-fraction analysis (focusing on items > 4mm in size) in relation to microdebris analysis (focusing on items > 2mm in size) to find out which method provides 1) the highest resolution of site area use, 2) efficiency/cost of use of the techniques. My goal is to determine whether more specialized techniques, such as microdebris analysis, provide enough of an interpretive edge […]

Cathy Dai

Dopaminergic projections from the midbrain to the striatum and prefrontal cortex are known to affect widespread brain processes, including reward, movement, cognitive control and working memory. Lower dopamine levels in the striatum are linked with higher body mass index, poorer decision making in relation to food choice and a skewed sense of healthiness of food items. I propose to investigate the role of dopamine in a working memory task and decision making on the food task and examine if a relationship exists between the two tasks. I will also investigate […]

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 […]

Ciara Williams

The written word has been used to comment on cultural trends and mindsets for centuries. My research focuses on the Beat and modern spoken word movements, seeing how the poets during those times commented on American bandwagon mentality. The Beat poets focused primarily on the post-World War II stoicism that was permeating through the American culture. The modern spoken word poets write about the modern hysteria to join multiple causes that span from global warming to ending world hunger. Both poetry movements seem to have qualms with how people do […]

Taqwa Hasan

This research project studies the impact of imprisonment on men living in occupied territories in the Middle East. First, I will assess the systematic incarceration of male children in the Middle East. Second, I will study the current employed and education levels of men who were incarcerated in their youth. Finally I will investigate the family dynamics and shifting gender roles within the nuclear families of youth who were imprisoned. This project seeks to address the importance of maintaining children rights in processes of incarceration and after release, while shedding […]

Justin Hauver

Friedrich Nietzsche spent much of his philosophy denying Being and replacing our conception of it with a notion of becoming. In sharp contrast Martin Heidegger produced a work titled Being and Time and saw the illumination of Being as the central task of philosophy. This tension is reproduced in the way each philosopher deals with the creation of art, yet there is a peculiar way in which the aesthetic philosophies of Nietzsche and Heidegger interact and seem to complement each other. My research is concerned with the connection between these […]

Christopher Andersen

Diarrhea and respiratory infection are the two leading causes of death among children in India. Hand hygiene is arguably among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent these diseases. In particular, alcohol-based hand sanitizer solutions are shown to be as or more efficacious as handwashing in preventing diarrheal and respiratory disease. Yet at present, information about hand sanitizer within the cultural and socio-economic contexts of developing nations is scarce. In response to this gap in knowledge, I will implement a study using qualitative focus groups and quantitative questionnaires to […]