Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Irene Steves

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Stomatopods, also known as mantis shrimp, are some of the coolest marine crustaceans. They are powerful predators (for their size, at least) and are concentrated in tropical waters all over the world. The stomatopod rostrum, a segment of exoskeleton near the eyes, ranges from a simple triangular shape to something that looks more like a crown or the curved top of a palace. This summer, Irene will be looking into the evolutionary motivations of stomatopod rostrum variation. She plans to determine the function of the rostrum and the reasons for […]

Armen Davoudian

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The Waste Land is a metapoem that doubts whether it is a poem: a paradoxical achievement of expression through expressing an inability to express. This antithetical way of writing poetry makes new relations among different tropes possible. For instance, iron–which normally either precludes or retrospectively denies pathos–can become elegy as Eliot complains that he cannot sing, thereby singing. Armen senses a similar concern in Eliot’s other poetry, and he wonders, for example, whether the many paradoxes in Four Quartets can be explained in terms of this argument. He also wants […]

Kimberly Salyers

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Extensive work has been done on the civic centers of Classic Maya culture. However, archaeological study of Maya commoners has been scarce until recent years. Kimberly’s research will focus on the artifacts uncovered in an excavated household at Chinikih, Mexico. Through a catchment analysis using GIS mapping, she will assess the economic resource basis for settlement. A catchment is the zone from which residents of a place drew their resources. This research will allow Kimberly to consider Chinikih within a larger context: she will look at the relation of commoner […]

Nicholas Calderon

Nicholas Calderon’s project, Campesinos Voice the Discourse of Fair Trade, will take place in the Altiplano region of Bolivia, where he will investigate the degree to which Fairtrades purported benefits are met. He will examine the extent of grower knowledge regarding Fairtrade entitlements, and their use of the Fairtrade social premium. His methods will combine an examination of discourses about the benefits of Fairtrade, digitally interactive participant observation, and interviews conducted with small-scale growers (those producing less than 2 hectares). The significance of this research is to enlarge the consumers […]

Danica Rodarmel

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Current Bio: Previously an Equal Justice Works fellow at Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights working on bail reform and bail bonds issues. In Jan. 2020, Danica became the Policy Director of State Legislative Affairs at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. Haas Scholars Project: Among Dreams illuminates the collective, un-fixed identities of incarcerated individuals in the Bay Area by interweaving dream narratives and personal histories. The project will culminate in two publications: one book devoted to the inmates work and another devoted to Danica’s experiences with familial incarceration and prison […]

Godwin (Ife) Aka

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Haas Scholar Program: The struggle of the Niger Delta people has been widely documented. The years of oil spills, unequal distribution of oil wealth, and marginalization of the people of this region both by the Nigerian state and the multinational oil companies, is known very well to those interested in this area. Because of the documentation of these conditions, academics who study this region often attribute the uprising that have emerged in the Niger Delta to some form of deprivation without studying these movements. My research explores why the Ogoni […]

Barira Rashid

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Since the fall of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, street art has become the most widespread form of political expression in Egypt since the Egyptian Revolution began on January 25th, 2011. As a means to proclaim the goals of the revolution and mock the military regime in power, Barira will further explore how political graffiti and street art have come to signify a powerful form of expression of social justice in the ongoing movement. Barira will travel to Cairo to document political graffiti and street art through photography and video, interview underground […]

Humberto Ortiz

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Humbertos project will examine how Latino/a undocumented migrant youth negotiate migrant illegality in their everyday lives through relationships of love, kinship, and companionship. While a growing literature has examined how this population navigates public contexts of higher education and civic engagement, no scholarship has analyzed how these youth negotiate their undocumented status in their private, personal lives. In order to investigate how undocumented young adults develop unique attitudes, beliefs, and experiences with respect to friendships, dating, and marriage, I will interview 20 self-identified Latina/o undocumented young adults from the Bay […]

Kristen Norman

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In an effort to narrow the gap in gender equality and improve public health, microfinance institutions are increasingly creating products for women in developing countries. Experts caution against assuming that women’s empowerment is an automatic outcome of microfinance, and call for accompanying soft services such as health education, literacy training, and discussion groups on domestic violence. Organizations offering such services have had great results. However, the majority of micro lending institutions are for-profit entities uninterested in offering these expensive social services. Kristen’s project investigates the dynamics of group lending and […]

Gabriela Monico

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An estimated 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants live in the U.S. 2.1 million youth may attempt to legalize through the DREAM Act, if enacted. An activist movement led by eligible youth has mobilized around this legislation, which has given rise to a narrative that casts eligible youth as deserving, othering the 67% that would not qualify. Through interviews and participant observation of two support groups, Rising Immigrant Scholars through Education and 67 Sueos, Gabriela will explore how the DREAM Act narrative has triggered a divergent process of oppositional consciousness among ineligible […]