Luna Ramos
Instead of focusing on the interpersonal instances of transphobia, this project is curious about what circumstances allow for cultural shifts than transform the school experiences of transgender youth of color. By conducting interviews with transgender youth of color from the San Francisco Bay Area, this project is centered on a group that is often excluded and made invisible in academic work. Transgender youth and their allies are continually antagonized, even aside from quotidian bullying, increased risk for homelessness, and suicide. Legal protections do not translate to material safety for Trans […]
Le Sun
How do political parties influence online posting behavior? Previous research attributed an individual’s utility from posting online to two major channels: contribution to public knowledge and identity boosting. In this project, I will develop a model of demonization that analyzes how a political party, using posts on social media as signals, interacts with its supporters via these two channels. Using a set of state-sponsored posts and comments about the 2022 Ukraine-Russia Crisis from Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms, I will test how topic distributions of the comment […]
Tiger Schenkman
What can be said of love created under duress and continued into freedom? This question will guide my research into interracial couples who began seeing each other under slavery and continued through Abolition in Louisiana. My research will straddle the two periods immediately preceding and following Abolition, in order to pinpoint couples who weathered unsteady sociocultural and legal realities out of a commitment to their love. This project will therefore fill a lacuna of ambiguity in the study of interracial love during slavery; rather than focusing on legal history, I […]
Jordan Serrano-Guedea
First-generation college students (FGCS) experience many unique familial, cultural, social, and academic challenges as the first in the family to pursue a four-year degree. Previous research has found that these extra stressors may place FGCS at higher risk for mental health problems, lower retention rates, and lower graduation rates (House and Kolb, 2020). Yet, findings in the literature on the impacts of first-generation status on FGCS mental health are mixed, and no systematic review exists on this topic to reconcile the varied findings. This summer, I will expand upon this […]
Diana Ramirez
The livelihood of the Poblano community’s oral histories and traditions, “desde nuestros pueblos a los estados unidos” (from our pueblos to the U.S.), is telling of my community’s ancestral resistance. The survival of our heritage allows our families to build community and identity, a home in a country that rejects and displaces both our Mexican immigrant communities and ancestral knowledge and identities. My research project is a transborder study in which I will trace my Indigenous roots in Puebla, Mexico and construct a memoir of the oral histories of my […]
Deborah Qu
I am interested in studying strategies to increase the efficacy of cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy in which one alters thoughts about an event to modify one’s emotional response to that event. Cognitive reappraisal can be effective in down-regulating negative emotions in stressful, emotional situations. However, because cognitive reappraisal has been shown to deplete cognitive resources, implementing cognitive reappraisal can be difficult in emotional situations that are cognitively demanding. The project aims to study whether implementation intentions, a strategy known for its ability to automatize desired behaviors in goal […]
Tessa Mouw
In early January 2022, I arrived in Italy for the start of my semester abroad at the University of Bologna. While exploring Bologna, I discovered that I was living in what was the city’s Jewish ghetto in the Middle Ages. I was immediately intrigued and, upon conducting further research, was convinced that this important history should be the subject of a research project. This project will carefully construct and analyze a cohesive and holistic history of the Jewish community of Bologna during the Middle Ages. By using a variety of […]
Charlotte Mourad
What individual- and household-level interventions are most feasible for the mitigation of air pollution exposure in underserved and disproportionately impacted communities? This is a critically important question as exposure to ambient air pollution is a globally leading cause of adverse health and morbidity. Furthermore, underserved communities are limited economically, so it is important to co-develop feasible strategies for those with fewer resources. Centering on the needs of underserved populations in the Inland Empire, with potential global applications, this project will contextualize applications for air pollution emissions data in regions that […]
Ana Navidad Rayon
Undocumented students are an underrepresented group in higher education. One of their many challenges is having limited financial and academic opportunities as a result of their legal status. Institutions need to create intentional practices that expose undocumented students to resources and opportunities to dismantle inequalities in the college experience. This research study will seek to understand the degree to which community colleges assist undocumented students with navigating the education system by connecting them to opportunities and resources. I will also explore the extent to which undocumented students take advantage of […]
Davis Kedrosky
For two hundred years, the Hudson’s Bay Company exercised de facto colonial rule over most of central and western Canada. While many concessionary regions monopolizing extractive production have experienced negative developmental outcomes, Canada is one of the world’s most prosperous countries, and has a less negative record of native persecution. I seek to analyze whether this paradoxical result can be in part explained by the HBC’s competition with the French and several independent British firms during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which may have created “outside options” that increased […]