Stephanie Shih
Linguists have studied text-setting and proposed metrical templates for mapping text to music; however, their pioneering works on the subject have neglected music outside the Western classical genre. My research will explore the influence of music on text in jazz bop swing, since the rhythmic and artistic nature of swing differs greatly from Western classical music. Through analyzing the coupling of the rhythms of spoken language and music, I will utilize the linguistic methods of templates, rules, and Optimality Theory to answer the question, “What is the rhythmic structure that […]
Scott Michael Coyle
Changes in cellular programming are often thought to be mediated by changes in regulation at the level of transcription. However, there is increasing evidence that changes in the regulation of translation may play an equally important role in the reprogramming process. In our lab, we have found that the transition from a vegetative to invasive physiology in the yeast S. cerevisiae requires a novel mode of regulation of translation. I recently identified a protein, Asc1, which is required for this transition and potentially acts directly at the level of translation. […]
Sudev Jay Sheth
Responding to an earlier work by ethnomusicologist Daniel M. Neuman entitled The Life of Music in North India (1980), my research topic aims at understanding how the life of music has evolved in the quarter-century since that seminal study was published. The creation of both public and private institutions of teaching, research, documentation, archiving, and performance have significantly increased since Neuman’s work. Accordingly, I will explore how they have impacted the life of music rather than accepting at the outset that they have played a favorable role. I will be […]
Erin Michelle Cooper
Marina Nasrin Sharifi
I am characterizing a set of Chlamydomonas insertional mutants defective in carotenoid biosynthesis using pigment analysis, genetic crosses, and TAIL-PCR to connect mutations in specific genes with specific blocks in carotenoid biosynthesis,with the goal of elucidating in detail one or more steps in the Chlamydomonas carotenoid biosynthesis pathway. A better understanding of this is not only important for the understanding of the process of photosynthesis in general, but also in the comparison of carotenoid biosynthesis in the model organism Chlamydomonas with that in higher plants, possibly revealing interesting evolutionary and […]
Stefanie Stella Como
Past research by Shelton, Richeson, and Salvatore (2005) has shown that minority group members feel less authentic interacting with people outside of their ethnic group than with their in-group. There are many reasons why people feel inauthentic during such interactions, but one likely part of the explanation is based on regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997). This theorizes that people interact with the world in two ways. People who are promotion focused gear themselves toward aspirations and gains; conversely, prevention focused people vigilantly avoid negative outcomes (Seibt & Forster, 2004). In […]
Gavin Alle Raders
Conflicts over the control of natural resources lie at the heart of wars, violence, and terrorism worldwide. Water is the most precious resource for over 800 million farmers in India who depend on the groundwater for their physical and cultural survival, and water has been held for millenia to be the common property of all beings, to be maintained and distributed democratically at the decentralized village level. Control over water was transferred to the state during British colonial rule, and today rain and groundwater is being privatized by multinational corporations […]
Christopher Cochran
A great deal of research has recently emerged regarding the concepts of agency, intentionality, and Free Will. In The Illusion of Conscious Will (2002), Dan Wegner asserts that people believe they cause their own actions in a way that is concurrent with the theory of Free Will (Wegner, 2002). I believe that a lay theory of agency varies by culture. I describe Americans understanding of agency as purposeful and Asians understanding as adaptive. My hypothesis is based on cross cultural research that shows that Asians and Americans have different understandings […]
Amanda Pojanamat
In developing capitalist countries such as Thailand, many women migrate every day from the rural areas to Bangkok in search of the better life. I would like to explore how their understandings of the good life are influenced by modern discourses and whether their constructions and reconstructions of these modern discourses contain resistance either to oppressive conditions in the rural areas or in the urban. Do their interpretations of modernity ultimately provide them with the discursive tools they need to improve the conditions of their lives? To answer these questions […]
Zoe Wilen Brent
The growing cooperative movement in Argentina, emerging out of the economic crisis of 2001, presents an interesting opportunity to study the ways in which the cooperative is modeled and understood in the context of a capitalist economy. For two months I will look at the model put forth by the four-star Hotel Bauen. Specifically, I will examine how the cooperative is understood and how that understanding is affecting and affected by the consumer tourist market to which it caters. To this end, I will conduct a series of interviews and […]