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 The Mary Wig Johnson
Senior Forum

Established through the generosity of the late beloved alumna and trustee Mary Wig
Johnson ’35, this forum honors her longstanding commitment to academic excellence
at Scripps College. Members of the Class of 2011 selected by their faculty will present
their thesis research to the larger Scripps community so that students, faculty and
staff will have the opportunity to learn about the first-rate work they have
accomplished. Scripps bases its strength on the interdisciplinary Core curriculum as a
foundation for focused research in liberal arts disciplines. Thus, each class is united in
a common intellectual experience, and the Mary Wig Johnson Senior Forum showcases
capstones of outstanding Class of 2011 students’ academic career.

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 A Sessions

9:30 A-session presenters check in with the Forum Clerk in the Humanities Courtyard

9:45-10:45 Session A1 Humanities Humanities 119

Moderator: Professor Tony Crowley

1. REBECCA DARUGAR
Humanities

Recognition and the Individual: An Analysis of the Formation of the Socially Constituted Individual

This thesis is an exploration of how the individual develops in society, and examines how social institutions function to control the ways
individuals develop, act, desire, love and live. Moreover, it shows how this discursive construction of the individual creates a precarious situation
for those involved. Applying these theories of recognition to the field of Gender & Women’s Studies, this thesis examines the dangers and
limitations that come with the legal acquisition of rights.

2. CLAIRE MULLEN
Humanities

Democracy Without Free Speech: A Study of Bolivia’s Anti-Racism Law

Most of the world knows little about Bolivia, a small Andean country currently undergoing major political and social changes as it attempts to
address legacies of oppression that remain from Spanish colonization. I examine the recently ratified “Anti-Racism Law” and what its
restrictions on absolute free speech in media mean for this fledgling democracy. I argue that freedom of speech is not as universally essential to
democratic government as we in the U.S. often believe.
Advisors: Marina Perez de Mendiola and Gina Lam

3. OLIVIA POWAR
Humanities

Pelo Malo, Pelo Bueno: Rethinking the Dominican Hair Salon

I question the Dominican salon's role in the creation of subject-positions and categories of race, nationality and gender. I explore how the
frequent usage of the loaded term "pelo bueno," which is part of a communal ritual experience, stems from an elite construction of
identity. Building on outsider's impressions of Dominican hair salon ritual, I challenge the inauthenticity of mimesis to reveal that "pelo bueno"
is both an expression of the individual and the community.
Advisor: Marina Pérez de Mendiola

4. COURTNEY WAI
Humanities

Human Rights or the Right to Humanitarian Intervention? The Politics of Aid and the Cochabamba Water Wars

This thesis explores some of the underlying problems embedded in today’s human rights framework, including its discourse, history, and
theoretical foundations. Specifically, this thesis argues that human rights are inseparable from power dynamics, as the 2000 Cochabamba Water
Wars demonstrates. By focusing on women’s roles in community water management, this thesis challenges the impacts of humanitarian
intervention by Western countries on local practices that have traditionally worked in their respective cultural and sociopolitical
frameworks. Advisors: Tony Crowley and Miguel Tinker Salas (PO)

5. CLARA TSCHUDI CAMPBELL

Humanities

Do Bodies Matter? Individual Will and the Materialization of Power in Butler and Kantor

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9:45-10:45 Session A2 Hispanic Studies Humanities 201

Moderator: Professor Jennifer Wood or Rita Alcalá

1. JESSICA ROSE GRUMMER-STRAWN

Anthropology and Spanish

La religiosidadmapuche moderna urbana (Modern Mapuche Urban Religiosity)

La tesis examina como la gente del grupo indígenamás grande en Chile sostiene y recrea su identidad mapuche dentro de laciudad. Revisa las
tradiciones religiosas y los cambios que ocurrencon los obstáculos de la ciudad. Usa la poesía moderna como una lentepara explorar la formación
de la identidad en relación a la religiosidad. Latesis propone que la identidad cambia continuamente perono pierde su autenticidad ni su
vinculación con la espiritualidadmapuche.
Advisors: Rita Cano Alcalá and Anthony Shenoda

2. ANDREA M. MOERER
Hispanic Studies and Media Studies

The “Familia Sagrada” and Other Myths: Symbols of Recognition in Fascist Propaganda Posters

This thesis explores some of Francisco Franco’s political ideologies during the Spanish Civil War and Postwar, through the analysis and
“reproduction” of original Spanish Civil War and postwar images. Concentrating on the fascist’s traditional ideology of the strong family union
or “familia sagrada”, this thesis discusses why this ideal is undermined in fascist propaganda imagery by analyzing the absence of key family
figures in illustrated posters and photography.
Advisor: Marina Pérez de Mendiola

3. IDALIA GABRIELOW
Hispanic Studies and Media Studies

Photographic Representation of the Latina Voice

Exploring representation and identity within the formal structures of language and photography, this multimedia installation features over thirty
black and white analog film photographs and thirty minutes of edited audio clips from interviews with ten women who identify as Latina, or as
heritage language learners or speakers at the Claremont Colleges. This project seeks to create a transformative context that brings attention to the
distinct and evolving relationship each woman holds to the Spanish language.
Advisor: Rita Alcalá

9:45-10:45 Session A3 Mathematics Humanities 105

Moderator: Professor Anie Chaderjian

1. CHRISTINE JU
Mathematics

Determining Overrepresentation of Gene Ontology Terms using the Hypergeometric Distribution

This thesis examines two different approaches that determine the overrepresentation of gene ontology (GO) terms by applying the
hypergeometric distribution. The term-for-term approach detects overrepresentation of GO terms individually; however, some terms are falsely
highlighted as being overrepresented due to the complex relationships between terms which lead to inaccurate biological interpretations. The
parent-child method addresses these issues by taking into account the relationships of GO terms with one another, allowing for more accurate
analyses.
Advisor: Jo Hardin

2. ERIN E. KRIKORIAN
Philosophy and Mathematics

Epistemic and Statistical Probability in the Monty Hall Fallacy

The Monty Hall Problem is a tricky probability puzzle that involves logical and statistical reasoning - and it is one that demonstrates how our
logical instincts may turn out to be incorrect in unexpected ways. The best answer to the MHP seems to be quite counterintuitive, but with the use
of Bayes' Theorem in support of available logical and statistical evidence one can find a clear way to represent and solve this fun problem.
Advisors: Anie Chaderjian and Charles Young

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3. JANET MOTA
Mathematics

Game Theory: A Study of Poker Models

This thesis will explore the concepts behind game theory used in poker models. We begin with an analysis of the Basic Endgame in poker (Cutler
1976) that will be the foundation for the other models we will examine. The poker model we analyze in detail is the Ace, King, Queen game
(Frier 2008) where only three cards are dealt to two players. We first examine this model with a single round of betting, then with two rounds.
Advisor: David Bachman

4. ELIN RAMSEY
Mathematics

Introduction to Value at Risk and a Comparison of Methods

Value at Risk is a valuable tool to measure risk. It was developed out of a need to regulate the financial market and to have a number that allows
for easy comparison between diverse portfolios. This paper looks at different ways to calculate Value at Risk. It then summarizes some variations
on VaR and comparisons and tests between the variations.
Advisor: Anie Chaderjian

5. MARIAM TEJEDA
Mathematics

A Study of Elliptic Curves with Applications to Cryptography

This Thesis is the study of the algebraic structure of elliptic curves and its applications to cryptography. We examine certain curves over finite
fields and discuss conjectures obtained through research.
Advisor: Winston Ou

9:45am-10:45pm Session A4 History Humanities 121

Moderator: Professor Julia Liss

1. AMY HILMAN
History and Jewish Studies

The Essential Questions of the Early Zionist Movement: Land, Labor, and Force

This thesis examines early Zionist thinking and argues that no blueprint existed for how the Zionist movement would fulfill its basic goal of
Jewish nationalism. Rather, some of the key decisions that the Zionist movement made were the result of fierce debate, which sheds light on the
complex nature of the movement and its often conflicting views about the goals of the movement and how to go about achieving them.
Advisors: Gary Gilbert and Andrew Aisenberg

2. JULIA E. MEBANE
History and Classics

Narratives of Conquest: Yosemite National Park and the American Construction of “Nature”

This thesis explores the early history of Yosemite National Park and its relationship to American conceptions of “nature.” It analyzes the travel
narratives published by soldiers involved in the military conquest of the Valley, members of the California Geological Survey, and the wealthy
tourists who visited the area. The thesis argues that early park visitors employed narratives of conquest in order to understand Yosemite and the
place of Americans within it.
Advisor: Julie Liss

3. LAURA NOLAN
History and American Studies

Storytelling, Dislocation, and Healing: Community-Led Responses to Displacement and Disaster, Katrina to the Present

This thesis investigates representations of Southeast Asian communities in the Gulf in the wake of Katrina and now the BP Oil Spill. It
deconstructs narratives about these events that obscure local voices and ongoing environmental justice concerns. This thesis resituates disaster in

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the context of systemic disenfranchisement, providing an alternative framework that centralizes the work of individuals and community based
organizations who are contesting displacement while forging their own definitions of resilience and recovery.
Advisors: Julia Liss, Matt Delmont, Rita Roberts

4. VICTORIA K. TUTTLE
History

Pictures, Projection, and Promises of Perfection: The Advertising Strategies of Wate-On, Ayds, and Metrecal, in LIFE
Magazine, 1955-69

This thesis explores the marketing techniques used by the weight-altering products Wate-On, Ayds, and Metrecal in one of mid-century
America’s most influential periodicals. It examines how the advertisements not only promised the consumer weight-gain/loss, but ultimate
desirability: perfection. This work looks at how these ads implicitly and explicitly indexed every “ideal” of mid-century American society,
constructing a literal and metaphorical image of perfection through the body.
Advisors: Julie Liss and Rita Roberts

5. KATHERINE WOMACK
History and Psychology

The Founding of Psychology: From the Treatment of the Insane to Experimental Psychology

Doctors and asylum proprietors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries paved the way for the official formation of Experimental Psychology in
1879. Publications of eighteenth century doctors and the insane asylum journals of the nineteenth century demonstrate the shift in the study of the
mind from philosophical to scientific in nature. At the end of the nineteenth century, Wilhelm Wundt merged philosophy, medicine and
physiology to form the field of experimental psychology.
Advisor: Jutta Sperling

6. SARAH QUINCY
History and Mathematical Economics

Sectionalism and Surpluses: Predicting Antebellum Congressional Tariff Voting Patterns

Tariffs were the primary source of government revenue before the American Civil War. Debates on tariff bills focused on government finance
and the need for continued protection of infant industries. This thesis analyzes the ways these issues interacted with political and economic
interest groups nationally and locally, and builds a model for the voting patterns of the two final tariff votes before the Civil War, providing a
microcosm of the tensions behind the South’s secession.
Advisors: Kerry Odell and Rita Roberts

9:45am-10:45pm Session A5 Physics / EEP (Environment, Economics, and Politics) Humanities 202
Moderator: Professor Scot Gould

1. MARISA G. FINN
Physics

Epsilon Aurigae: Spectroscopic Variability and the Search for an Explanation

Epsilon Aurigae is the primary star in a unique binary system with a mysterious secondary companion star. In this project, the unusual variability
of Epsilon Aurigae’s spectra is analyzed. The equivalent width of the H alpha absorption and emission lines are measured for change on long
timescales of months and years, and short timescales of minutes and hours. Variability is confirmed, and the implications for the scientific
community’s understanding of this system are explored.
Advisors: Stephen Naftilan, Phil Choi

2. CASSANDRA GAMM
Physics

Promoting Energy Conservation: a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Energy Efficient Technology, Conservation and Renewable
Energy at Scripps College.

This thesis examines the economic and environmental benefits of installing the following “green” technologies at Scripps College: Solar pool
heating, solar photovoltaic panels, and the replacement of current outdoor lights with compact fluorescent light bulbs or LEDs. If all of the

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profitable projects analyzed in this thesis were implemented, Scripps would lower its’ CO2 emissions by 587,370 lbs/yr and save $386,000 in
operating costs over 10 years.
Advisors: Scot Gould and Sam Tanenbaum

3. JULIE LAPIDUS
Environment, Economics, and Politics (Honors)

Designing a Solar Thermal Energy Storage System for Rural Communities in India

Undergraduate students from The Claremont Colleges and the Birla Institute of Technology (Ranchi, India) collaborated as part of the Global
Clinic Program at Harvey Mudd College to design a solar thermal energy storage system using low-grade heat for rural communities in India.
Lapidus led the experimental component to determine the optimal thermal properties of soil and researched sustainable design materials. It was
determined that increasing moisture content and compaction level of the soil improved the system’s efficiency.
Advisor: Anthony Bright

9:45am-10:45pm Session A6 English Humanities 204

Moderator: Professor Cheryl Walker

1. NATALIE M. SIPOS
English

Degenerates and Lunatics: Exploring Mental Illness in Jean Rhys’s Fiction

This thesis examines the psychological effects of patriarchal environments on the protagonists of Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight and Wide
Sargasso Sea. Specifically, it investigates the ways in which these women are viewed as “mad,” depressed, and alcoholic because of their refusal
to conform to patriarchal values, and argues that their resistance gives them a form of power by exposing the weaknesses of their societies.
Advisor: Gayle Greene

2. JESSICA BURRUS
English

Looking Through: Reading the Aesthetics of the Political in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and George Orwell’s
1984

Through an analysis of the common aesthetic techniques employed by John Steinbeck and George Orwell in what are considered to be effective
literary and political books, this thesis argues that works of political literature can be read as hybridized texts that combine the didactic with the
literary. This thesis highlights the way in which similarities in the depiction of the relationship between individual and collective emerge through
the comparison of different types of political fiction.
Advisor: Warren Liu

3. STEPHANIE N. KANG
Honors English

Law and Literature: The Intersection of Narratives in the Pursuit of Ethics and Equality

This thesis explores the potentiality of the literary imagination to influence legal and judicial thought. Too often our legal system is overly
objective, especially in controversial cases, and fails to directly address the fundamental question presented. Through a cross-examination of
landmark Supreme Court opinions with literary works that focus specifically on issues of race, I argue that fictional narratives can provide a more
rational (and empathetic) ruling that is pertinent to the case at hand.
Advisors: Cheryl Walker and Jay Martin

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9:45-10:45 Session A7 Latin American Studies Humanities 203
Moderator: Professor Marina Perez de Mendiola

1. SYLVIE BISHOP
Latin American Studies

Constructions of Women and Technologies of the Visual: Legacies of Dictatorship in Contemporary Argentina

Disturbing trends of bodily manipulation and violence to the self—in the form of eating disorders and cosmetic surgery—exist today in
Argentina, especially among women. Through analysis of technologies of the visual including cinema, plastic surgery, and digital
communication, as well as notions of public image, I contend that the root of this tendency lies in the nation’s history of repressive dictatorships,
their relationship to colonial legacies of patriarchy and violence, and a related obsession with image.
Advisor: Marina Peréz de Mendiola

2. HANNA E. MCILVAINE
Latin American Studies

Lágrimas Negras: Contestation, Narration, and Performance of Afro-Cuban Identity in Hip-Hop Cubano

This thesis analyzes how and why hip-hop artists in Havana, Cuba have transformed a previously marginal subculture into a multi-faceted
movement rooted in cultivating critical thought and awareness of social issues in the Afro-Cuban community. Through an examination of songs,
lyrics, music videos, and interviews, this thesis argues that the hip-hop movement provides a vehicle for poor communities of Black Cuban youth
and women to become active participants in the construction of their identities.
Advisor: Cindy Forster

3. VICTORIA MOLINA-ESTOLANO
Latin American Studies

Sources of the Obesity Epidemic in Mexico and NAFTA’s Effects on Children’s Nutritional Habits

This thesis examines the sources behind the dramatic increase in obesity in Mexico in the last generation. It specifically argues that foreign direct
investment by United States processed food corporations, exacerbated by NAFTA making subsistence farming unprofitable for small farmers,
fueled high poverty rates and migration to urban areas; this working-class, displaced population does not have the option of purchasing healthy
food when processed food is so inexpensive in comparison.
Advisor: Miguel Tinker Salas

4. JILL MAHONEY
Latin American Studies

How the Implementation of Pro-Social Entertainment-Education Telenovelas Could Reduce Gender Violence, Sexism, and
Patriarchy in México

Mexico is plagued by machismo and gender violence. Entertainment-education telenovelas that focus on Mexico’s inequalities can challenge and
change the pervasive ideologies behind the gender paradigm. Telenovelas that glorify the exploitation of women send a dangerous message to the
audience - one that blithely accepts sexism as part of the national consciousness. However, the media could improve society, rather than destroy
it. Entertainment-education telenovelas, if implemented properly, will benefit México and the global community.
Advisor: Marina Perez de Mendiola

5. DELANEY NARDUCCI
Politics & International Relations

Deadly Alliances: A Comparative Historical Analysis of the United States’ Influence in the Southern Cone

This thesis is a comparative historical analysis of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay from 1959 until 1978. It demonstrates that despite the differences
in domestic histories, the longstanding influence of U.S. funding, intervention and anti-Communist policies during the 1960s created a political
climate in which the Southern Cone’s authoritarian regimes converged in the 1970s to implement tactics that systematically violated human
rights, produced unprecedented levels of violence, and nearly eradicated the political left in the region.
Advisor: Nancy Neiman Auerbach

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6:00am-11:00pm Session A8 Athletics Tiernan Field House

Ongoing poster exhibition of top Scripps athletes’ achievements:

1. LILLIAN BROWN, Cross Country/Track & Field

2. MAUREEN GOLAN, Cross Country
3. TEIJA MORTVEDT, Diving
4. KATIE CAMPBELL-MORRISON, Lacrosse
5. ALEXANDRA HSU, Tennis
6. CATHERINE CHONG, Track & Field
7. MADELEINE MILLER, Track & Field
8. RILEY GRIME, Track & Field
9. ARLYN MADSEN-BOND, Soccer
10. SARAH QUINCY, Water Polo

B Sessions

10:45 B-session presenters check in with the Forum Clerk in the Humanities Courtyard

11:00-12:00 Session B1 Music Balch Auditorium

Moderator: Professor Chuck Kamm

1. ASHLEY JONES
Music - Piano Performance

Improvisatory Fantasy in Western Art Music – Chopin and Bach

This thesis concluded in a senior recital of pieces from four significant musical eras, following the traditional notion of performing a Baroque
piece, a Sonata and other works from the Romantic or 20th Century. Both Chopin and Bach were masters of improvisation – and what takes
performers weeks, if not months, to perfect in retrospect, these composers were able to write on the spot. Chopin’s Nocturnes and Bach’s Toccata
are improvisatory in style, featuring spontaneous melodic material, trills, and chromatic motives.
Advisor: Hao Huang

2. SUMMER OLSEN
Music

Spain and Latin America in Musical Imagination

This recital explores musical conceptions of Spain by juxtaposing the portrayal of Spanish musical identity by Spanish and northern European
composers with the Spanish roots apparent in art music composed by Latin American composers. The music demonstrates how these composers
present national identity via the romanticization of the music of antiquity and regional folk music; in the case of the European composers by the
use of Spanish dance idioms, poetry, and romanticized Spanish subjects.
Advisor: Anne Harley

3. SAMANTHA STEITZ
Music - Piano Performance

Romantic Lyricism at the Piano – Granados and Schumann-Liszt

This thesis culminated in a performance of five works from four important historical and musical periods: the Baroque, the Classical, the
Romantic and the 20th Century. In preparation, background research focused on the Zeitgeist (spirit of the times) and lives of each composer in
order to better comprehend the worlds that such individuals were both shaped by and helped to create. These two pieces, Allegro de Concierto
and Widmung, are unified by an overarching sense of lyricism. Granados, who wrote decades after Liszt and Schumann, was inspired by his
Romantic comrades and composed pieces such as this one in response to Schumann’s lyricism and Liszt’s technical brava.
Advisor: Hao Huang

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11:00-12:00 Session B2 Dance Humanities 202
Moderator: Professor Ronnie Brosterman

1. ALYSSA T. MELLO
Interdisciplinary Performance and Media Studies

Techniques and Theoretical Discussion of “Not all Kids Are Afraid of Ghosts”

This thesis describes the concept, design, and completion of “Not All Kids Are Afraid of Ghosts,” a dance film that makes use of film, video, and
animation technologies to re-structure choreography and discuss theoretical ideas about spaces of hybrid reality/perception. The thesis, composed
of the short film and written essay, focuses on the various creative techniques used throughout the process and how they interact to create
meaning in the work.
Advisor: Ronnie Brosterman

2. JILL MAHONEY
Dance: Performance /Choreography Track

String Theory: A Choreographic Experiment of the Subconscious

String Theory is an eleven-minute contemporary ballet for five women that began without a driving force, theory, or concept. It explores
repetition and variations of a theme in a cyclical structure. The piece uses the complexity of the music’s rhythmical structure to generate the
movement illustrated by the quintet. This thesis describes my yearlong creative process and movement development and details my influences
and choreographic transformation over the course of the year.
Advisor: Ronnie Brosterman

3. FRANCES ANNE JOHNSON

Dance: Performance and Choreography

And she watches herself being watched: A Choreographic Exploration of the Dancer’s Relationship with the Mirror

This thesis, consisting of both a choreographed work and a written justification, examines the complicated relationship dancers have with the
mirror. While the mirror is a useful tool, it may lead to a number of problems, such as dependency on the mirror, obsessions with their bodies,
and disruptions to proper alignment. More broadly the piece explores the ways in which dancers are watched, and the ways in which dancers are
aware of these gazes upon them.
Advisor: Ronnie Brosterman

11:00-12:00 Session B3 Economics Humanities 201

Moderator: Professor Roberto Pedace

1. ANGELICA VARGAS
Economics and Foreign Languages

Do Remittances Affect Participation In Formal Financial Markets? A Case Study of Mexican Households

Using a combined dataset from the 2008 Mexican National Survey of Household Income and Expenses and the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de
Valores, this thesis analyzes the complex relationship between remittances and participation in formal financial institutions at the household level.
A host of household characteristics are included to capture the demand for financial services; furthermore, supply of banks is also incorporated.
The results of this study suggest a positive and significant correlation between remittance receipt and the likelihood of having both a bank
account and a credit card.

2. REBECCA FRANK
Economics

The Effects of Using Price Incentives to Reduce Consumer Waste: A Case Study on The Motley Coffeehouse
 
This thesis measures two price structures—a tax and a rebate—used at the Motley Coffeehouse to incentivize customers to use refillable mugs
rather than to-go cups. I analyzed sales and demand and found the tax structure was more effective at changing consumer behavior, while not
decreasing demand for coffee beverages. To reduce waste, the externalities of disposable items must be paid for by the consumer and explicitly
communicated to them.
Advisor: Sean Flynn

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3. GUADALUPE DE LA CRUZ
Economics

Homogeneity in Hollywood: An Empirical Analysis on Measuring Gender and Racial Discrimination in Films at the Box
Office

This thesis uses traditional models of analyzing the financial success of U.S. films in order to investigate if there is any evidence of consumer
discrimination against women or non-white leads in films to explain the homogeneity of Hollywood films—namely the prevalence of white male
leads. The results of this analysis do not find substantial evidence to point to consumer discrimination as the source of this disparity.
Advisor: Roberto Pedace

11:00-12:00 Session B4 Chemistry Humanities 204

Moderator: Professor Scott Williams

1. JANISTA LEK
Chemistry

Effects of Methylation and Flanking Sequences on EcoRI DNA Sequence

 
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to analyze two naturally-occurring features of a DNA binding site: flanking sequences and
methylation. FTIR provides structural information about bond rotation, sugar structure, and helical form. We then applied mathematical functions
to our FTIR spectra to extract more accurate and quantitative data. Overall, this study characterized six DNA sequences, optimized FTIR
collection and analysis, and proposed a possible BI/BII infrared marker.
Advisor: Mary Hatcher-Skeers

2. WENDY LINDSEY
Chemistry

The Preparation of Chiral Thiophosphoramides as Ligands for Gold(I) Catalysis

Chiral thiophosphoramides show promise as ligands for gold(I)-catalyzed reactions. When chiral, these ligands increase the potential for
asymmetric induction to lead to enantiopure products, thereby increasing the synthetic utility of the pathway. Conditions for the preparation of
thiophosphoramides have been explored, and two thiophosphoramides were prepared from (R)-binaphthol. The results of these synthetic efforts,
as well as preliminary attempts to complex a thiophosphoramide with gold, will be discussed.
Advisor: Anna G. Wenzel

3. EVA D. PEARLSTONE
Chemistry

Separation and Quantitative Analysis of Particulate Amine Salts by Non-Suppressed Ion Chromatography

Amines have been detected in airborne particulates, but little quantitative work has been done on these harmful compounds. In this thesis, a
separation of 8 amine salts was performed by non-suppressed ion chromatography (IC). The calibration was used to determine the concentrations
of salts produced in smog chamber reactions at University of California-Riverside and analyzed via IC at the Claremont Colleges and was also
used to analyze cation content on filter samples from Logan, Utah.
Advisor: Kathleen Purvis-Roberts

4. NAOMI D. YONIS
Biochemistry

Methylation induced changes in phosphate conformation of the Cre binding site

We have determined the binding affinities of actinomycin D to the Cre binding site in three DNA sequences with varying flanking sequences and
their methylated counterparts. The phosphate backbone in BI and BII conformations were determined at each nucleotide step and analyzed with
respect to the binding affinities. Our results suggest that drug binding requires flexible backbone conformations, underscoring the importance of
local DNA structure and flexibility in gene control and drug action.
Advisor: Mary Hatcher-Skeers

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11:00-12:00 Session B5 Religious Studies Humanities 203
Moderator: Professor Andrew Jacobs

1. CATHERINE CAMPBELL-MORRISON
Religious studies

A Moral Call to Action: How the National Council of Churches,The Evangelical Envirionmental Network, and the
Ecofeminists Reframe Scoentofic Rhetoric to Give It Moral Traction

My thesis invesigates the rhetorical strategies The Nation Council of Churches, the Evangelical Environmental Network and three prominent
ecofeminists, Rachel Carson, Carolyn Merchant and Vandana Shive use to reframe scientific rhetoric to create new paradigms of enviromental
stewardship. I believe that scientific rhetoric has failed to inspire real policy change in American society because their rhetoric lacks moral
traction. These groups create new moral understanding of the environmental crisis that speak specifically to their spheres of influence.
Advisor: Andrew Jacobs.

2. NORA WRIGHT
Religious Studies

Beyond Words: The Remystification of the Divine through Dance, Silence and Theopoetics

This thesis challenges Classical Christian presentations of God based on exclusive and literalized metaphors. This piece explores the response of
three dissenting groups, who place their emphasis on an experiential theology, directly challenging the use of conventional language to describe
God. The Quaker practice of silent worship, Isadora Duncan’s dance form and Theopoetics each demand that religious structures enable an
experience of the Divine that is spontaneous, mysterious and deeply personal.
Advisor: Jerry Irish

11:00-12:00 Session B6 Foreign Languages / Linguistics Humanities 119

Moderator: Professor Jennifer Wood

1. JOCELYN PRICE
Foreign Languages: Spanish and French

Feminine Perspectives: Gender in the Post-colonial Literature of Senegal and Equatorial Guinea

This thesis explores themes of gender and postcoloniality in novels by four female authors: Bâ and Diome from Senegal, and Nsué Angüe and
Mekuy from Equatorial Guinea. It examines how their female protagonists critique and renegotiate their relationship to their society from
positions of triple-subalternity. It explores representations of the female body and how some authors unintentionally subvert female
empowerment by reproducing patriarchal views on sexuality. Lastly, it investigates issues of neocolonialism, modernity, and globalization.
Advisor: Jennifer Wood

2. TERESA A. JOHNSON
French Studies and Linguistics

Les études à l’étranger et le développement d’une L2: Une analyse de prononciation employant la théorie de l’exemplaire

This thesis examines some quantitative benefits of study abroad for second language acquisition under Exemplar Theory. An experiment
executed Fall 2010 tested participants for a change in pronunciation of five target phonemes in French. Results revealed that participants studying
in France improved their accents for two phonemes. This thesis suggests the statistically insignificant changes of the other three phonemes were
the consequences of time constraints and an exemplar effect on production of these sounds.
Advisor: Thierry Boucquey
 
 
3. CATHERINE S. CHONG
Linguistics and French Studies

Koi de 9?: Code Switching in French-English Bilingual Online Discourse

Code switching is a linguistic phenomenon found in conversations between multilingual speakers when interlocutors switch between two or more
languages. Previous research has investigated code switching in verbal conversations, but the area of computer mediated communication (CMC)
is largely unexplored. This thesis examines the code switches in instant messaging (IM) conversations of French-English bilinguals, discussing
the functions of code switching. The results also reveal attitudes towards bilingualism and code switching from the perspective of bilinguals.
Advisor: Thierry Boucquey

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4. KELSEY A. LANGILLE
Foreign Languages: Spanish and French

Reescribir la identidad femenina: El silencio, lo fantástico y el arrobamiento pasional en las novelas de Carmen Martín
Gaite y Marguerite Duras (Rewriting the feminine identity: Silence, the Fantastic, and Rapture in the novels of Carmen
Martín Gaite and Marguerite Duras)

This thesis examines four novels by Carmen Martín Gaite and Marguerite Duras and investigates the power of silence, emotional rapture, and the
Fantastic within each novel to reinvent a powerful feminine identity, transforming symptoms of suppression into tools of liberation from a
suffocating social order. Additionally, it contextualizes the novels within the literary careers of these two formidable female authors as well as
within the wider historical context of mid-twentieth century Spain and France.
Advisor: Jennifer Wood

12:00-1:30 Scripps Community Luncheon - Elm Tree Lawn

12:10 President’s and Dean’s address - Elm Tree Lawn

C Sessions

1:15 C-session presenters check in with the Forum Clerk in the Humanities Courtyard

1:30-2:30 Session C1 Gender & Women’s Studies Humanities 119

Moderator: Professor Chris Guzaitis

1. JOSS GREENE
Gender & Women’s Studies and History

Irresponsibility, Deviance and ‘Bad Citizenship’: Interrogating Racial Hierarchy in Policy Discourse and HIV/AIDS
Representation

This thesis examines Newsweek coverage of people with HIV/AIDS from the 1980’s until 2006 and the parallels between the racial distinctions
and hierarchy of citizenship in Newsweek’s coverage and the racialized policy discourse around the War on Drugs, 1990’s welfare reform, and
21st century gay liberation. I argue that such a public health discourse fails to meet the health needs of low-income African Americans and
authorizes additional forms of racial surveillance, marginalization and regulation.
Advisors: Chris Guzaitis and Matt Delmont

2. ANDERS M. RENEE
Gender and Women’s Studies

I’m Not Gonna Grow Up, I’m a Queer Ass Kid: Queering Age, Time and Kinship in Intergenerational Relationships

This thesis explores how intergenerational relationships cause social anxiety due to their disruption of the heteronormative linear life narrative.
Through an analysis of Daddys and Boys in the BDSM community and Cougars and Cubs in pop culture, we can see how age performativity and
queering kinship provide access to queer temporality. In queer time the past does not dictate the present and the future is not a motivating factor
for choosing a sexual partner.
Advisor: Chris Guzaitis

3. LIIA C. RUDOLPH
Gender and Women Studies

From a Constant Battle to Life as Liia: An In-Depth Look at Confession, Embodiment, and Beauty in the Tumblr Weight
Loss Blogosphere

This thesis uses my personal experience as a weight lossblogger to examine the Tumblr weight loss blogging community. Specifically, theways
the female bloggers aid one another in their weight loss efforts and thegendered, heteronormative, beauty ideals they promote. Using theorists

14
likeSandra Bartky and Michel Foucault, I argue that the confessional, interactivenature of blogging creates a self-perpetuating cycle of diet
reinforcement and westernbeauty norms in ways I had not realized.
Advisors: Gayle Greene & Margaret Waller

4. VANESSA WILLIAMS-HALL
Gender/Women’s Studies and Theater

Freaks ‘R’ Us: The Performative Enactment of Identity Revealed in Freak Show Performance

This thesis examines two contemporary manifestations of the nineteenth-century circus freak show: the television talk show and the performance
work created by circus troupe, Circus Amok. Working to construct the identity category of the freak in society, both the historic and
contemporary freak show seeks to naturalize the identity of the freak as inherent and innate, while simultaneously revealing the performative,
socially constructed nature of all identity.
Advisor: Chris Guzaitis

1:30-2:30 Session C2 Psychology Humanities 204

Moderator: Professor Michael Spezio

1. PIA P. FAXON
Psychology and French Studies

Conflict Minerals and the Crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: the Role of Emotion in Ethical Consumer
Decision-Making

This thesis examines the psychological underpinnings of ethical consumption and the role of conflict minerals in perpetuating the Congolese
genocide. An empirical study investigated how the presentation of information (an individual narrative vs. statistics) influenced emotional
reactions and decisions to purchase “conflict-free” electronics products. The findings suggest that the initial decision to purchase “conflict-free”
products and the subsequent decision of how much more to pay for such products, are predicted by different types of emotions.
Advisors: Stacey Wood & Marie-Denise Shelton

2. ARLYN M. MADSEN-BOND
Psychology

Perceptions of Racial Microaggressions’ Impact on Undergraduate College Campuses

Racial microaggressions are daily interactions that either consciously or unconsciously communicate hostile slights. Microaggressions have been
shown to have a deleterious effect on targets of the aggression, including decreased academic performance and graduation rates. In the current
study, the effects of past experience with microaggressions (i.e., social distance from microaggressions) and beliefs that race does not influence
experience (i.e., colorblind racial attitudes) on perceptions of the impact of microaggressions on undergraduate college campuses were
investigated.
Advisors: Sheila Walker and Jennifer Groscup

3. RENY PARTAIN
Psychology & Art History

The Impact of Diabetes Summer Camps on the Mental and Emotional Health of Children and Adolescents with Type-1
Diabetes

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological effects in coping styles and self-efficacy of children and adolescents who attended a
diabetes summer camp. A series of analyses found that attendance significantly improved the mental health of participants. These findings
suggest that the particular environment established at the summer camp enabled participants to increase their perceived self-efficacy in part by
reducing the amount participants relied on negative coping styles.
Advisors: Judith LeMaster and Sheila Walker

4. HANNAH L. PICKAR
Psychology

Eating Attitudes, Body Image Dissatisfaction and Health-Related Concerns in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Despite previous attention to the general psychological health of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), little research has been done
on body image and eating attitudes in this population. Seventy-six participants with IBD answered questionnaires probing eating attitudes, body

15
image satisfaction and health-related concerns. Results indicated that while IBD patients had higher body image dissatisfaction and higher health-
related concerns, they did not have higher disordered eating attitudes.
Advisors: Stacey Wood and Alan Hartley

1:30-2:30 Session C3 Art History Humanities 203

Moderator: Professor Juliet Koss

1. KATHRYN K. HUNT
Art History

Goncharova and the End of Days: Reinterpreting Russian Visual Traditions, 1911-1914

This thesis examines how the Russian avant-garde artist Natalia Goncharova reworked artistic traditions such as the religious icon, the peasant
woodblock print, and the illuminated manuscript in works ranging from playful artistic commentary to apocalyptic cultural critique. Focusing
upon four works united by religious iconography, artistic style, and chronology, the thesis argues that the varied invocations of Russian visual
tradition carry multiple layers of meaning as cyphers of authority, assertions of identity, and religious metaphors.
Advisor: Juliet Koss

2. DANA ROME
Art History

Defining Modernity, Defending Tradition: The Paintings of Uemura Shoen, 1890-1943

This thesis examines the paintings of Uemura Shoen, a Japanese female painter who rose to fame during the Meiji period (1868-1912) for her
work in the newly developed genre of nihonga, “Japanese painting.” Working in the category of bijinga, "beautiful women," Shoen evolved
throughout her career from an artist interested in modernizing bijinga, to an artist working to preserve the imagery of traditional Japan.
Advisor: Bruce Coats

3. CLAIRE VINSON
Art History

Ed Ruscha: Artist Identity, Critical Reception, and Meditations on American Life

This thesis examines the career of artist Ed Ruscha with an emphasis on the 1960s and 1970s. Focusing on Ruscha's interactions with fellow
artists, critics, curators, institutions, and some of his key works, this thesis argues that the critical reception of Ruscha's work reflects how
assumptions were made about him and his milieu; really, his art represents meditations on perceptual experiences and American life through his
use of imagery inspired by the Los Angeles landscape.
Advisor: Kathleen Howe

1:30-2:30 Session C4 Anthropology Humanities 202

Moderator: Professor Lara Deeb

1. ASUMI OHGUSHI
Anthropology

The Omnivore’s Advantage: Food Fights and Fad Diets of Plio-Pleistocene Hominids

This thesis explores the transition of hominids during the Plio-Pleistocene to a diet containing significant amounts of animal foods and tool-
processed plant foods. By discussing the modern and historical contexts from which we examine prehistory, and the various scientific approaches
that have been taken to reconstruct the diet of this period, this thesis evaluates the validity of many of the popular ideas regarding ideal human
diet as a product of the past.
Advisor: Lara Deeb

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2. BRIGID M. A. MEINTS
Anthropology and Gender & Women’s Studies

Re-Thinking Domesticity: A Sociocultural Evolution of Quilting in the Lives of American Women

This thesis investigates the practice of quilting in the past and present as a political, social, artistic, and creative outlet through which women
express agency. Through the themes of gift-giving, community building, and social activism that are found in ethnographic accounts of quilters
today and discovered in the historical archive of quilts, this thesis argues that quilting can be seen as a form of re-invented domesticity that gives
women authority over their work.
Advisors: Lara Deeb and Chris Guzaitis

3. DANA ADELE JENSEN

Anthropology (HEP-track)

The Caucasoid Mummies of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, China: From Prehistory to Present

The Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, China is host to dozens of impeccably preserved Caucasoid mummies from the first and second millennia BCE.
This thesis analyzes our understanding of the mummies' remains, their semi-nomadic lifeways, and their place in Chinese (pre)history. I situate
these finds in sociopolitically precarious modern Xinjiang, and use the mummies' past and present to demonstrate that Xinjiang has been a site of
cultural and ethnic fluidity for the past 4000 years.
Advisor: Professor Miller

4. SEAN MAIA SVOBODA

Socio-Cultural Anthropology

American Warrior: A Multi-cited Ethnography of Military Acculturation

This thesis examines the centrality of the ‘warrior’ soldier to American ideologies of war in the post-9/11 era. Drawing on ethnographic research
with soldiers, military training documents and popular culture texts, this thesis argues that the revitalization of a ‘warrior’ ethos in the occupation
of Iraq and Afghanistan attempts to fix moral, nationalist, and cultural paradigms that glorify the American ‘obligation’ to war, concealing from
view the disparate human costs of war.
Advisor: Lara Deeb

1:30-2:30 Session C5 Biology I Humanities 201

Moderator: Professors Zhaohua Irene Tang & Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert

1. BREANNA PERLMUTTER
Neuroscience

The effects of a dopamine receptor antagonist on own-song behavioral preference and neural activity in male zebra finch

In order to develop proper speech, babies must discriminate between the various sounds produced by their parents and later mimic those sounds.
Songbirds learn their vocalizations by similar mechanisms and therefore provide a useful model for studying this complex behavior. My thesis
explored the role of a particular chemical (dopamine) in the possible neural processes by which the brain can discriminate between behaviorally
relevant sounds.
Advisor: Melissa Coleman

2. JAMIE P. TREADWAY
Neuroscience: Cellular and Molecular

The Role of Dopamine in Auditory Processing in Female Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

Female zebra finches offer a useful model for investigating auditory processing of vocal communication. This study investigated the role of the
NCM in auditory processing of conspecific songs and how these processes are subject to modulation via dopaminergic incentive and reward
systems. I delivered dopamine or dopamine antagonist to the brain of a female zebra finch and measured NCM neural activity. Dopamine
injection changed the neural discriminability between mate and non-mate songs.
Advisor: Melissa Coleman)

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3. JEAN KANG
Biology

A Chemical Genomics Approach to Investigating the Biological Effects of Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated
Hydroxytoulene (BHT)

BHA and BHT are antioxidants used to maintain the quality food products and it is crucial to investigate the effects of these active agents. A
general systematic screen of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe haploid deletion mutant library was used to study targeted cellular pathways.
Sensitive strains were found to be involved in chromatin remodeling indicating that these genes may be necessary for gene regulation when
exposed to oxidative stress elicited by BHA and BHT.
Advisor: Irene Tang

4. EMILY DEYOE
Human Biology

Training on a Rocker-board with vibrations: Improving Balance and Decreasing chance of injury

Japan’s schools try to remedy frequent elderly falls by teaching children to unicycle, encouraging them to establish fundamental balancing skills,
lessening the effect of future injury. We demonstrate that vertical vibration benefits the development of skill in balancing. The vibration-induced
benefit of rocker board balancing is not related to the physical effects of vertical vibration. Learning to balance a rocker board with vibration
results in the nervous system development of strategies for controlling balance.
Advisor: John Milton

5. CAMERON KEAST BAKER

Biochemistry

The Manipulation of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus to Produce a Vaccine Candidate for Rotavirus

Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea disease in infants and young children. The viral vector system was used to make an inexpensive
and time-efficient vaccine. In this method, immunogenic epitope sequences were inserted into the coat protein of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus,
which was inserted into a plasmid that was delivered by Agrobacterium tumefaciens into Nicotiana benthamiana plants. New extraction
techniques were tested and rotavirus epitope 14 was successfully extracted for the first time.
Advisor: Larry Grill

1:30-2:30 Session C6 Politics of Criminal Justice Humanities 121

Moderator: Professor Nancy Neiman Auerbach

1. HANNAH PETER
Politics and International Relations

The Paradox of Federal Funding For Gang Intervention Programs: a Case Study of Homeboy Industries

This thesis compares Homeboy Industries, a model gang intervention program, to organizations funded by the federal government to address the
“gang problem.” The political frameworks of these organizations were analyzed to demonstrate the limits of a “common sense” approach to
reducing gang violence. It argues that the very features which make Homeboy Industries operationally effective, are the features which limit
their ability to secure federal funding.
Advisor: Thomas Kim

2. RILEY E. GRIME
Politics and International Relations

Prison Rehabilitation Programs’ Role in Social Control: Understanding Cultivating Dreams’s Strategies of Resistance

This thesis explores the goals of various prison rehabilitation programs. It argues that the ‘rehabilitative’ work done by many prison rehabilitation
programs contributes to the ultimate goal of the prison system to control populations that might pose a political threat to the ruling elite. It then
uses Cultivating Dreams as a case study to argue that while this program does attempt to resist this goal, it also remains subject to it in some
ways.
Advisor: Nancy Neiman Auerbach

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3. MADDEN ROWELL
Human Biology

Food for Thought: Food justice education as a means of health promotion and community building in reentry programs for
women on parole

This thesis serves as a case study of a Food Justice initiative that was implemented at Crossroads, a reentry program for women on parole. In-
depth interviews with ten program participants were used to understand the role of food in prison and to evaluate the outcomes of the program.
Interviews revealed that prison food was damaging to participants’ mental and physical health. The program was considered effective in
reintroducing healthy eating habits and creating community.
Advisor: Newt Copp and Nancy Neiman Auerbach

1:30-2:30 Session C7 Classics / Theater Humanities 105

Moderator: Professors Ellen Finkelpearl, David Roselli, & Susan Castagnetto

1. BRIANNA A. KRUMWEIDE
Classics

The Emergence of Cultural Categorization in Fifth Century Athens

Incorporating theory from Edward Saïd, Homi Bhabha, and Raymond Williams, this thesis analyzes the Athenian construction and portrayal of
Persia and Egypt through drama, history, and cultural materials. This analysis reveals the intricacies of these cross-cultural relationships and
situates the Greek-barbarian antithesis that often dominates scholarly discussion within a network of diverse Athenian views of Persia and Egypt.
Such perspectives include denigration, exoticism, assimilation, and differentiation, which together illustrate the emerging practice of cultural
categorization.
Advisor: David Kawalko Roselli

2. JULIA E. MEBANE
History and Classical Languages

Ideologies of Agricultural Production in Archaic Greece: From Homer to Solon

This thesis explores ideologies that arose in relation to agricultural production during the Archaic period in Greece. It analyzes how the oral
poetry of Homer and Hesiod, as well as the tradition of Solon the lawgiver, provided a means of negotiating power relations between elite
landholders and the laboring force employed on their estates. While agricultural production remained in control of the elite, it was a frequently
challenged system of social and economic hierarchy.
Advisor: David Roselli

3. ANNIE FREITAS
Theater

The Othello Project: Contextualizing Individual Actions and Empowering Incarcerated Youth Through Theater

The Othello Project is a program developed for incarcerated youth at Camp Afflerbaugh-Paige in La Verne, Ca. The intention of the project was
to create a theater piece that incorporates the experiences of incarcerated youth as they relate to the themes of Othello by William Shakespeare.
This project aimed to introduce youth to Shakespeare’s work and provide a safe space for students to explore their own lives and relationships to
love, jealousy, betrayal and death.
Advisors: Art Horowitz, Joyce Lu, and Sue Castagnetto

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 D Sessions

2:30 D-session presenters check in with the Forum Clerk in the Humanities Courtyard

2:45-3:45 Session D1 Art Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery

Moderator: Professor Susan Rankaitis

3:00 Brief presentations by artists about and in front of their art work:

1. ISABEL ANDERSON
Art

Pathos

The definition of pathos in the Oxford English Dictionary is: “A quality which evokes pity, sadness, or tenderness; the power of exciting pity;
affecting character or influence.”
Advisor: Susan Rankaitis

2. BAILEY BUSCH
Art

Delicate in Bold

"Delicate in Bold" explores the developmental rudiments, imaginative intentions, and symbolism of childhood's magnetic draw to construct and
inhabit an enclosed fort. The traditional, innocent mode of construction is reimagined with a transparent structure topped with over six hundred
feet of intricately choreographed beading. This adult interpretation of a small unique environment presents a discourse on the interplay of
exposure, limitation and access. The experience is shifted from earlier in life when the enclosure would have been created through the opportune
assembly of kitchen chairs and blankets.
Advisor: Susan Rankaitis

SUZANNE E. CALKINS
Art

Vespertine

This series of drawings and paintings explores the theme of wandering in solitude through ambiguous landscapes of darkness. Fluctuating
between abstract and figurative forms, these nocturnal landscapes serve as introverted portraits of an emotional or psychological space that slips
between dreams and memories. The resulting images are familiar but not quite grounded in reality.
Advisor: Susan Rankaitis

3. CANDACE KITA
Art

Make Manifest: Community, Conversation, and Kimbo 95

Make Manifest actively serves Scripps’ Asian American Student Union (AASU) by refurbishing a community space in Kimberly Hall and
reimagining the potential of dialogue and exchange within it. A student-led political organization for self-identified Asian American women,
AASU has a tenuous history shaped by confrontation and instability. This project intertwines creative workshops, social organizing, and critical
conversations in Kimberly 95 as methods to effectively support and strengthen the Asian American community on campus.
Advisor: Susan Rankaitis and Elana Mann

4. SHAYNA FRIEDMAN
Art

What Remains: evolution of an aging suburbia and the need for a preserved history

This thesis examines suburban retirement communities of the Inland Empire and the evolution of an aging suburbia. The duo-component art piece
investigates the connection between the land and the inhabitants who live there. Specifically exploring the eerily homogenous, yet transient
suburban nature of these spaces while contextualizing them as a refuge for aging occupants, What Remains utilizes both photography and a
topographic book installation to demand a need for a preserved history in these concentrated landscapes.
Advisor: Susan Rankaitis

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5. JORDAN KOPSTEIN
Art

Windowscapes: a tour through New York and Tokyo

Windowscapes is a series of photographs of fashion window displays in two of the world's fashion capitals, New York City and Tokyo. The
project displays a new side of the fashion industry by mapping out the cities in terms of their neighborhood stores and shopping. New York and
Tokyo's diverse suburbs are characterized by their economic stability and culture. The photographs and maps function as a tour through
Manhattan and Tokyo real estate.
Advisor: Nancy Macko

2:45-3:45 Session D2 Intercollegiate Media Studies Humanities 119

Moderator: Professor T. Kim-Trang Tran

1. REBECCA KARPOVSKY
Media Studies

Fantastische!: A Multimedia Queer Burlesque

This thesis examines performance of sex and gender through a media lens, incorporating a physical space, a cyber space, and a short video. It
functions as part of a larger collective, The Lipschtick Collective, which explores queer identities. The Lipschtick Collective creates space in
visual media and performance for the unheard and the outspoken. Fantastische! is about challenging assumptions, incorporating relevant critical
theory, and interrogating expectations. It is about bodylove. It is about love.
Advisor: Nancy Macko

ALICIA ARIEL ROY

German Studies & Media Studies

“Ich werfe kein Bombe. Ich mache Filme”: The Red Army Faction, the Personal as Political, and Mastering the Past in
German Cinema

This thesis looks at the historical, cultural, and social context of West Germany in the 1970s as a time of strong generational conflict and political
protest. Various cinematic representations of the Red Army Faction terrorist group from the 1970s to the 2000s are examined to demonstrate
continuities in the thematic concerns of German cinema through the years. Feminist filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta’s work as part of the New
German Cinema movement is also a focus.
Advisors: Roswitha Burwick and James Morrison

3. ALEXANDRA (ALLE) T. HSU

Media Studies

Women: Cultural Revolution to Capitalist Revolution

This film studies the experiences of being a woman from Shanghai through a series of interviews with women who lived through different
periods of China’s development: from the Cultural Revolution to the New Capitalist China. The women interviewed include a student,
government worker, entrepreneur, business executives, and a professor. Issues explored include marriage, education, and jobs. This thesis argues
that while women have made great strides with emancipation, there are still obstacles they face in China.
Advisors: T. Kim-Trang Tran and Ming-Yuen Ma

2:45-3:45 Session D3 French Studies Humanities 204

Moderator: Professor Thierry Boucquey

1. MELISSA COBER
French Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies

Le Corps menteur: Herculine Barbin et l’ambiguïté sexuelle dans la France du 19e siècle

This thesis is a close reading of Herculine Barbin’s memoirs, a French hermaphrodite during the 19th century. It examines Barbin’s navigation of
traditional non-fictional genres in his/her construction of a cohesive “hermaphroditic” identity. It studies medical representations of the
hermaphrodite in relation to notions of French citizenship and legal status. Finally, this thesis discusses the romantic androgyne, analyzing the
intersection of hermaphroditic and androgynous discourses in so far as they influence Barbin’s self-understanding and self-representation.
Advisors: Nathalie Rachlin and Peggy Waller

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2. MIRIAM T. KENNELLY
French Studies

L’excision: Le défi de l’éradication

This thesis examines female genital cutting (“excision”) in Africa, focusing on the importance of cultural sensitivity when discussing this
controversial and complex subject. This work presents the different types of operations performed, the reasons behind excision’s perpetuation,
and clashes between African and Western feminists in the struggle to eradicate the practice. This thesis argues that changes imperative to the
eradication of the practice can only be made with African women’s involvement and leadership.
Advisor: Marie-Denise Shelton

3. SARAH SMILKSTEIN
Politics/InternationalRelations and French Studies

Petit à petit l’oiseau fait son nid: La démocratisation au Mali et au Niger depuis 1987

Que peut expliquer la grande différence politique entre deux pays très similaires: le Mali et le Niger? Ces deux pays ont émergé de la dictature en
même temps, mais le Mali est connu comme un grand succès démocratique tandis que le Niger a vécu quatre corps d'état. Cette thèse utilise la
société civile, surtout les groupes religieux et les médias pour explorer cette divergence et pour examiner sa signification pour la démocratie
africaine plus généralement.
Advisor: Fazia Aitel

4. LAUREN RETTIG
Politics & International Relations and French Studies

Negotiating Cajun Culture Amidst Commodification: A Critical Analysis of “Common Sense”

This thesis undertakes an empirically-grounded yet theoretically-based study of Cajun identity formation as it occurs through the process of
commodification of Cajun culture, primarily post-World War II. Exploring theories regarding identity, hegemony, and semiotic processes, this
thesis offers a nuanced understanding of social group agency set against structural relations of power. This thesis encourages critical thought
regarding what qualifies as “authentic” and questions the basis of the “common sense” which informs varying discourses.
Advisor: Mark Golub

2:45-3:45 Session D4 Biology II Humanities 201

Moderator: Professors Zhaohua Irene Tang & Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert

1. DEVIN ADAIR
Neuroscience

Event-Related Potentials in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Populations

Using EEG recordings of event-related potential, this thesis investigated cognitive-deficit indicators arising from mild traumatic brain injury and
post-traumatic stress disorder in individuals with both conditions, and used these neural responses to develop quantitative indicators of the
conditions. Applying machine-learning techniques, this approach found diagnostics for the combined conditions, and provides the first-ever
demonstration of differential cognitive attentional processes for the combined conditions. This may point to the way to an inexpensive battlefield
diagnostic.
Advisor: Michael Spezio

2. ELIZABETH MEIER
Biology

Single alanine substitution for a conserved proline within Saccharomyces cerevisiae Prp43
C-terminus may enhance binding with spliceosomal and ribosome biogenesis factors

Saccharomyces cerevisiae DEAH/RHA helicase Prp43 is necessary for pre-mRNA splicing and ribosome biogenesis. To identify direct Prp43
binding partners and analyze the effects of a single proline to alanine substitution (P715A), his-Pfa1/Prp45/Gbp2 bound to Ni-NTA agarose beads
were incubated with wt/P715A Prp43 protein extracts. An anti-Prp43 immunoblot revealed enhanced P715A Prp43 and his-Pfa1/Prp45 binding
relative to wt Prp43. These results suggest an important C-terminal hydrophobic amino acid and potential direct binding between
Pfa1/Prp45/Gbp2 and Prp43.
Advisor: Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert

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3. CATHERINE GILBERT
Molecular Biology

Cell cycle and cell wall biosynthesis pathway involvement in the protective cellular response to BHA in Saccharomyces
cerevisiae

BHA is a common food additive yet little is known about how it interacts with cells. Using a chemo-genomic approach in a S. cerevisiae deletion
library, kinases involved in cell cycle control and cell wall biosynthesis indicated roles in a protective cellular response. Morphological assays
revealed aberrant phenotypes in four of these deletion strains however only two strains, ∆bck1 and ∆ire1, maintained their sensitivity to BHA in
the presence of an osmotic stabilizer.
Advisor: Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert

4. KELSEY A. SCHMIDT
Biology

The effects of varying levels of CHD1 on recovery of transcription, mitotic chromosome structure, and the allele
brownDominant

Previously research shows that the chromatin remodeler CHD1 is essential for the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells in mice. Others studies
also suggest that CHD1 plays an important role in regulating the dynamic chromatin environment. My results indicate that CHD1 is not essential
for mitotic chromosomes structure in larval neuroblasts, is necessary for recovery after transcriptional stress, and CHD1 may play a role in
regulating the expression of the position effect variegation allele brownDominant .
Advisor: Jennifer Armstrong

2:45-3:45 Session D5 Philosophy Humanities 121

Moderator: Professor Rivka Weinberg

1. KATHERINE SKLAR
Philosophy

Secession or Repression: Justifying Secession in Accordance with Liberal Political Theory

Liberal political theory maintains that governmental legitimacy is derived in some way through the consent of the governed, and values the right
to political self-determination. Secession, essentially the removal of consent and a reflection of political self-determination, provides an
interesting problem for liberal theory: sometimes secession is seen as valid, and sometimes not. Through examining two central theories of
secession, this thesis attempts to determine when secession is justified.
Advisor: Rivka Weinberg

2. ERIN E. KRIKORIAN
Philosophy and Mathematics

Epistemic and Statistical Probability in the Monty Hall Fallacy

The Monty Hall Problem is a tricky probability puzzle that involves logical and statistical reasoning - and it is one that demonstrates how our
logical instincts may turn out to be incorrect in unexpected ways. The best answer to the MHP seems to be quite counterintuitive, but with the use
of Bayes' Theorem in support of available logical and statistical evidence one can find a clear way to represent and solve this fun problem.
Advisors: Anie Chaderjian and Charles Young

3:30-5:00 Scripps Tea “Celebrating Our Seniors” Seal Court

5:00-6:00 Seniors vs. Faculty / Staff Soccer Game Tiernan Field

Seniors Team:
Courtney Wai (Captain), Arlyn Madsen-Bond, Madden Rowell, Riley Grime, Delaney Narducci, Anna
Fiastro, Michael Codini, Olivia Powar, Carly London, Eugenie Hong, Tess Sadowsky, Others TBA

23
 Faculty/Staff team:
Tony Crowley (Coach/Captain), Dean Amy Marcus-Newhall, Dean Bekki Lee, Nancy Neiman-
Auerbach, Kimberly Drake, Nathalie Rachlin, Chuck Kamm, Thierry Boucquey, Roberto Pedace,
Hector, Andrew Long. Others TBA

Referee: TBA

Play-by-play Commentator: Jennifer Phillips

6:30 Student (Seniors) - Faculty Mixer Hampton Room

A special thank you to the Organizing Committee and other contributors: President Bettison-Varga, Dean Marcus-
Newhall, Dean Lee, Maureen McCluney, Mary Bartlett, Matt Hutaff, Terry Young, Becky Ballinger, Kathy Castro,
Cynthia Dwyer, Eleana Zeits, Roswitha Burwick, Suzanne Zetterberg, Staci Buchwald, Tony Crowley, Tamsen
Burke, Socorro Chavez, Marla Love, Tina Brooks, Laura Stratton, Marge Kligerman, Rob Van Riel, Ron Friedman,
Susan Kullmann, Christina Kelly, Chelsea Carlson, Jackie Wijaya, Felicia Palmer, Hillary Shipps, India Mullady,
Courtney Wai, and Thierry Boucquey

24