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 […]
Hussin Kordi
There are 50 million individuals suffering from hunger in the United States an absurdity when one considers the amount of food produced and wasted. Without accessible alternatives, North America and Europe waste nearly half of their excess consumable food. Despite an abundance of charity and emergency food services, the traditional hand-out model cannot seem to remedy the hunger epidemic. My research will examine nonprofit organizations in food security; I will examine how these organizations may contribute to more structurally transformative, long-term solutions in the communities they serve while simultaneously providing […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Julissa Muniz
Today California has the largest womens prison population of the nation, with a population size of 6,409. Between 1972 to 2010, the number of women in correctional facilities nationwide increased by approximately 646%, the fastest growing prison group of the nation. In spite of these alarming numbers, little is known about the prison subculture that exists within California’s women correctional facilities. My research seeks to expand the male dominated discourse of incarceration by exploring how racial systems of social control operate within California’s correctional facilities through in-depth ethnographic research. The […]
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 […]
Dayna Stimson
My research focuses on the growing recognition that the scientific study of consciousness is lacking in one crucial element: a rigorous methodology for examining the first-person, qualitative aspects of conscious states. While neuroimaging and computational cognition have greatly enhanced our knowledge of brain function, we are no closer to bridging the explanatory gap. That is, how does neuronal activity create the deeply complex, subjective, and personal world that each of us experiences? Though conventional scientific study does not currently recognize introspection as a valid method of inquiry, I will examine […]
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 […]
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 […]