2019: The Senior Thesis

The Senior Thesis Class of 2019

1

2

The Senior Thesis Class of 2019

3

4

Haverford students engage in creative and original thinking at levels usually reserved for graduate students.

This is best exemplified by the Senior Thesis — the capstone to Haverford students’ academic careers. Indeed, Haverford is one of the only institutions in the country that includes a senior project as part of every student’s academic program. That’s why there is no “Honors program” at Haverford: every student performs honors work in a mentored setting, working alongside worldrenowned faculty. The following are just a few examples of projects completed by members of the Class of 2019. They represent the depth of intellect and diversity of interests that define the liberal arts at Haverford.

Best,

Jess Lord Vice President & Dean of Admission and Financial Aid

5

6

HUMANITIES

7

THE HUMANITIES AT HAVERFORD INTELLECTUAL DISCOURSE AND CRITICAL INQUIRY Through vigorous inquiry and innovative practice, the Humanities at Haverford focus on the acquisition of strong interpretive, critical, and analytic skills. Student work ranges from learning the methodological and theoretical tools of a discipline; to the development of critically informed, independent, and creative interpretations of texts and history; to the analysis and creation of art.

Such study and growth leads them to become a deeply engaged citizens and agents of change in the larger world.

THEORY AND PRACTICE The Humanities at Haverford are highly interdisciplinary and place tremendous emphasis on an integration of curriculum, scholarship, and praxis. Haverford students have extraordinary opportunities to gain first-hand scholarly experiences. Humanities students at Haverford are: • • • • •

8

Conducting independent research on and off campus Collaborating with faculty on their scholarship Developing seminars and producing publications Curating exhibits in one of our six on-campus exhibition spaces Enjoying full access to an extraordinary Special Collections library of rare books, maps, and historical and scientific works

The Class of 2019 Thesis Projects in the Humanities

9

JHONEIDY JAVIER '19 HEADS TO CHINA ON PRINCETON IN ASIA FELLOWSHIP The comparative literature major will spend next year teaching English classes at Wuhan University of Technology.

Mandarin language study has been an important part of Jhoneidy Javier’s Haverford experience. The comparative literature major has devoted four years to it, including attending a language-intensive study abroad program at Capital Normal University in Beijing last fall and producing a senior thesis that includes analysis of the 1878 Chinese-language Zhang Changjia memoir Opium Talk. Now he will have another chance to use his Mandarin as the recipient of a Princeton in Asia (PiA) Fellowship.

As part of that program, Javier will spend the next year living on campus and teaching English to first-years and sophomores at Wuhan University of Technology, more than 700 miles south of the capital of the world’s most populous nation. He applied to the program—which funds travel, room, board, and a monthly stipend for fellows—because he wanted to gain teaching experience and to return to China to continue his own language and cultural studies there.

“There's a lot of valuable, pedagogical experience I can gain from teaching abroad,” he said. “I was placed in this location [Wuhan] specifically because the position allows for a lot of flexibility in how I can approach teaching and the topics I choose to discuss with the students.”

Javier is looking forward to immersing himself in the local community in Wuhan, as he did in Beijing during his semester abroad. (“After the initial culture shock, I was happily surprised that I had become so comfortable in such a new place,” he said.) He has been an integral part of the Haverford community, too, SURGE Mentorship Program, serving as the Students’ Council’s Officer of Multiculturalism, and helping to lead the Black Students League. He is also a member of the 2018–2019 Haverford cohort of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, which aims to diversify the faculty ranks of higher education by providing resources for underrepresented students to pursue their doctorates.

10

Joseph Mario Burkley Alejandro Religion: The Future Belongs to the Brave: Some Thoughts on the Fate of Decolonization in Religious Studies

Ethan David Emmert Religion: Conceptualizing Ancient and Contemporary Awakenings: An Analysis of Themes of Social Structures and Individualism in Ancient Gnosis, the New Age, and the Modern Day

Nina Ashley Angileri Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College: Classicizing Identity: The Alt-Right’s Co-Option of Archaeological Imagery with a Minor in Museum Studies at Bryn Mawr College

Ian Austin Fisher Linguistics: DP-Internal Only in English and Russian Computer Science: The Ergonomics of Faceted Execution

Marley Catherine Asplundh Linguistics: The Impact of Teacher Education and Experience on Curriculum and Pedagogy to Sustain Linguistic Diversity and Accessibility with a Minor in Educational Studies Mia Alexandra Sia Bernas Music: Viva to the Divas Christina Grace Bowen Religion: The Fighting Quakers: A New Vision for the Peace Testimony During World War I with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Paul Brucia Breitenfeld Classical Languages: Negotiating Allusions in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius with a Minor in Classical Culture and Society Rachel Elizabeth Brodie Romance Languages at Bryn Mawr College: Quand l’archiviste rencontre la performance: Sur La Robe blanche de Nathalie Léger with a Minor in Latin Dita Cavdarbasha English: Where They Begin David Aaron Constine Linguistics: On Explaining Opaque Sound Change: Potential Counterexamples to Phonetically Motivated Change and Their Consequences with Minors in Psychology and History at Bryn Mawr College Elizabeth Allegra Culp Russian at Bryn Mawr College: Bodies in Tension: An Interpretive Political History of the Pro-Kremlin Youth Organization Nashi Emily Dombrovskaya History of Art at Bryn Mawr College: The Nation’s Youth: Sovietization of Uzbek Life in the Photographs of Max Penson with a Minor in Museum Studies at Bryn Mawr College Lilian Hawley Domenick Spanish: Los discursos de autoridad y la construcción de la figura de la comadrona en Guatemala with Minors in Health Studies and Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies at Bryn Mawr College

Sophie Rose Frank Comparative Literature: I’ll Follow the Sun: Queer Alternatives to Postcolonial Sexual Violence in Beyala’s C’est le soleil qui m’a brûlée and Dennis-Benn’s Here Comes the Sun with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies and a Concentration in African and Africana Studies Christopher Joseph Gandolfo-Lucia English: The Language Stump: Language and Loss in Maggie Nelson’s Bluets Mathematics: Using Depth to Identify Fully Commutative Elements in the Symmetric Group Antonio Javier Gil English: “On the Dead Homies:” Kendrick Lamar’s Elegiac Ventriloquism with Minors in Spanish and Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies at Bryn Mawr College James Gisele English at Bryn Mawr College: Alchemies of Livable Tactility in Porpentine Charity Heartscape’s With Those We Love Alive with a Minor in Physics Zhongtian Guan Philosophy at Bryn Mawr College: Aristotle’s Music Education with a Minor in Mathematics Ashley Gabriela Guzman History of Art at Bryn Mawr College: Digital Editing, Narrative Construction, and the Filter: How History in RGB Creates Space for Dynamic Frameworks Nishat Tashnim Hossain Independent major in Visual Studies: Yours Virtually: Materiality and Intervention in Virtual Media with a Minor in Sociology Matthew Edward Jablonski English: Reassembling the West and the Orient in Mao II Leah Elizabeth Jarvik English: “Much Madness is Divinest Sense:” An Analysis of Theatricality and Madness in Hamlet Independent major in Theater at Bryn Mawr College: Performance of the solo play entitled Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan Jhoneidy Javier Comparative Literature: The Addict Within Divine Space: A Deconstruction of Opium Life Narratives Jarren David Jennings Linguistics: Untitled

Elana Rachel Kates Fine Arts: Collected Incorporated History of Art at Bryn Mawr College: German Aesthetics: Michel Majerus’ Expressions of German Identity in the Age of the Internet Mary Catherine Kearney-Brown English at Bryn Mawr College: “He Was There to Catch Me When I Leapt:” Postmemory and Second-Generation Witnessing in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Miles Charles Knecht English: I Miss You the Most When You’re Here: The Chronotope of Fantastic Mourning in American Gods Katerina Konradova Comparative Literature: Enforcing Utopia: Intersections of the Idée Fixe and Camusian Philosophy in Jorge Luis Borges’ “El Zahir” and Hassan Blasim’s “The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes” with a Minor in Arabic at Swarthmore College Peter B. Kurtz Comparative Literature: Picking the Lock: Historical Documentary Methods in Alessandro Manzoni’s I promessi sposi and Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno with a Minor in Italian and Italian Studies at Bryn Mawr College Jake Samuel Kwon Classical Languages: The Platonic Defense of Homeric Allegoresis in Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs Tina Khánh Vân Lê English: “I Was in a Familiar Place, the Place of Feeling Unfamiliar:” Multiplicity, Melancholy, and (Mis) recognition in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer with a Minor in Health Studies Olivia Charis Legaspi English: How to Become One With Your Borderline Personality Disorder: Stories with a Minor in Fine Arts Aurora Leigh Lewis English: The Importance of Irreverence: SlaughterhouseFive and Vonnegut’s Anti-War Message with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies Alexandra Mina Lin Comparative Literature: “A Lost Race Against Time and Memory:” The Unraveling of the Investigator’s Search for Origins in Laura Restrepo’s La novia oscura and Paul Auster’s City of Glass Charlie Finn Lynn Spanish: Rodolfo Walsh “no va a morir nunca:” La evolución política en la creación de un mito with a Concentration in Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies

Kevin Noah Medansky French and Francophone Studies: Performance of “Apnée ou le Dernier des militants” with Minors in Film and Media Studies at Swarthmore College and Environmental Studies and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Taylor Mae Murphy Fine Arts: I Desperately Need Melatonin with a Minor in Visual Studies Andrew V. Nguyen English: Graphic Remembrance: Recuperation and Absence in Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do (2017) with a Minor in Dance at Bryn Mawr College Jaime Marie Metzger Linguistics: Colonial Valley Zapotec Effects on Bilingual Spanish Spanish: Testamentos coloniales de resistencia zapoteca: “Nada más mi palabra” Abigail J. Miller Fine Arts: Harm and Healing: An Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures That Examine Human Interactions With Wildlife Hannah Lambert Misangyi English: “An Embrace in Death:” Psychic Resistance of the Symbolic Order as Freedom in Mrs. Dalloway with a Concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies Carmen Ana Nieto History of Art at Bryn Mawr College: Collecting and Exhibiting Mount Pleasant: Period Room Displays in Historic House Interiors at The Philadelphia Museum of Art with a Minor in Museum Studies at Bryn Mawr College

After his year in Wuhan, Javier aims to attend graduate school either for English or comparative literature, and he sees his PiA fellowship as laying a vital foundation for his eventual career as a professor.

“I definitely see this fellowship as preparation and training for grad school and beyond,” he said, “since it will be the first time I will teach in a classroom full time.”

Since 1898, PiA has fostered mutual appreciation and cultural understanding by connecting service-minded American graduates and Asian partner organizations through immersive work experiences that benefit local and global communities. Currently, PiA sponsors over 150 fellowships in 22 countries.

For Javier his fellowship is the latest step on a promising academic and professional path for which he has worked hard but didn’t even know he should aspire until relatively recently.

“I was the first of my immediate family to graduate from high school and will be the first to graduate from college,” he said. “I could not have imagined four years ago that I would be on this path of fellowships and graduate schools and higher education. Quite honestly, my entire academic experience has been a surrealist trip. … It's scary, but definitely more exciting than scary.”

Tess Bloomfield Oberholtzer English: “Such Loss Is No Loss:” Exploring Queer Poetics in H.D.’s Archive and “Eurydice” Tyler Edward Ogborn Comparative Literature: Cultural Evolution in Adaptation Metafilms: De-Doxifying the Cinema Machine in Le Mépris (1963) and Adaptation (2002) Tristan Jacobo Pepin Linguistics: Cognitive Linguistics and Its Connection(s) to Human Wayfinding Arielle Pinto Philosophy at Bryn Mawr College: Play and Socialization in Montaigne: Horsemanship, Carnival, and Conversation with a Minor in Spanish at Bryn Mawr College Kerry Mary Quigley English: Visuality, Textuality, and Queer Temporalities in Virginia Woolf ’s Orlando with a Concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies

11

Phillip Norman Reid English at Bryn Mawr College: Doing Human Differently: Decolonial Form(ations) in Toni Cade Bambara’s Gorilla, My Love, Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, Nalo Hopkinson’s Skin Folks, and Justin Torres’ We the Animals with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Maurice Rippel English: Beginning Again: History, Trauma, and Textual Transubstantiation in Derek Walcott’s Another Life with a Minor in Education at Bryn Mawr College

SEANNA VIECHWEG ’19 WINS AUGUSTUS TABER MURRAY FELLOWSHIP Seanna Viechweg ’19 is the winner of the 2020 Augustus Taber Murray Fellowship, which will help support her pursuit of an English Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. The fellowship, which was established in 1964 by two anonymous friends "in recognition of the scholarly attainments of Augustus Taber Murray, a distinguished alumnus of Haverford College of the Class of 1885,” is given each May to a senior or alum to help further their graduate study of English literature or philology, the classics, or German literature or philology.

Viechweg, a scholar of Caribbean literature, spent last year on a Fulbright Scholarship in Barbados, where she researched the relationship between Caribbean science fiction and the islands’ history at University of the West Indies, Cave Hill until COVID-19 cut that work short and sent her back to the States. This fall, she will start at UVA, where she plans to study African American, global Anglophone, and postcolonial literature.

Margaret Rose Qiuxue Sawyer Latin: Io and Trauma in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Rape and Transformation with a Minor in Psychology Isabella Madeleine Siegel Fine Arts: Exhibition of Multi-Media Photocollage Tapestries Representing Central and Eastern European Architecture and Artistic Cultures with a Minor in Visual Studies Eleni Alexandra Smitham Spanish: Las Parcelas de Norris Square: Examinando procesos de transculturación en la comunidad puertorriqueña de Filadelfia/Norris Square’s Las Parcelas: Examining Processes of Transculturation in Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican Community and International Studies at Bryn Mawr College with a Minor in Health Studies Maxim Sonin English: The Coding of the Woosters

She will be a part of the university’s first cohort of the Caribbean Literatures, Arts, and Cultures research cluster as an interdisciplinary doctoral fellow, which will give her access to enhanced research support, professional development, and workshops facilitated by the Greater Caribbean Studies Network at UVA.

Gabriela Cristina Soto-Canetti French and Francophone Studies: Post-mémoire dans l’Algérie post-coloniale: Représentations du traumatisme intergénérationnel et de l’identité chez Samir Toumi et Leïla Sebbar with a Minor in Health Studies

The Murray Fellowship—one of two different awards the College offers to seniors and alumni pursuing graduate study—supports education-related expenses, from tuition, fees, and supplies to research activities, professional development, or general living expenses.

Aaron Blaise Sterngass Classical Culture and Society and History: It’s Complicated: Relations Between Greek Settlers and Indigenous Sicilians at Megara Hyblaea, Syracuse, and Leontinoi in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries BCE

Viechweg credits her Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF), a national program dedicated to encouraging and preparing students of color for careers in academia, with teaching her the importance of applying for fellowships to further her research goals, and one of her mentors, Professor Maud McInerney, with pointing her toward the Murray in particular.

Seanna Joycelyn Viechweg English: “I’m a Long Way From Home:” Seeking Belonging in the Afterlives of Slavery in Octavia Butler’s Kindred with a Minor in Educational Studies

“Receiving the Murray Fellowship,” said Viechweg, “feels reassuring in knowing that, although I am no longer a student at Haverford, that as an institution, it still holds ways to support my professional endeavors.”

12

Cole Sansom English: “What the Hell Happened to Our Smart Jewish Kids?” Writing to Bridge Generational Divides in Philip Roth’s American Pastoral with a Minor in Film Studies at Bryn Mawr College

Michael Aaron Weber Religion: “With God’s People:” Individual Paths and Communal Belonging at an LGBTQ+ Church Ian Patrick Woodhouse English: William Wordsworth’s “The Prelude:” Beauty

and Fear in the Pedagogy of Nature Hangcheng Xu Film and Media Studies at Swarthmore College: A documentary film entitled A Letter to Be Finished with a Minor in Sociology Magdalena Kathleen Nofziger Yeakey Comparative Literature: “Los sujetos se diluyen:” The Narrative Process of Remembering in Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost and Jose Carlos Agüero’s Persona with a Minor in Spanish and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

MAURICE RIPPEL ’19 RECEIVES WATSON FELLOWSHIP AND A NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP Maurice Rippel ’19, an English major with a minor in educational studies, will start a joint Ph.D. program in African American studies and anthropology at Yale University in the fall after finishing his Watson Fellowship year, which he will spend exploring communities on four different continents through their barbershops The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship award will fund his project looking at the experience of Black boys who play basketball at elite athletic prep schools.

“I intend to produce an experimental ethnographic project where I work with these boys in their classes, attend their games, public practices and ‘media days,’ where they are subject to questioning by scouts and reporters from across the U.S,” says Rippel.

“I will shadow these boys on the recruiting trail to universities across the nation and overseas for developmental play. … My study takes a critical look at how this early specialization takes away from these boys' ability to ‘just be kids,’ how they navigate an overall exploitative racist, capitalist system, but how despite this, they form intimate relationships.”

Though his graduate studies are in fields outside of his undergraduate major, they were very much inspired by his course of study at Haverford. His interest in pursuing anthropology, for example, was inspired by a “Feminist Ethnography” class he took with Assistant Professor Juli Grigsby, his interest in a career in academia was nurtured by his Mellon Mays Undergraduate Advisor Maud McInerney, and his background in Black studies he credits to Associate Professor of English Asali Solomon.

“In anthropology, you're working closely with people whom sometimes can be coming from very different backgrounds than your own,” he said. “I think my Haverford education has impacted me to think critically about the work I'm doing, listen deeply to the people I'm working with, and more ethically engage with the communities I'm in.”

13

MARLEY ASPLUNDH Major: Linguistics Minor: Educational Studies

14

15

MARLEY ASPLUNDH

The Impact of Teacher Education and Experience on Curriculum and Pedagogy to Sustain Linguistic Diversity and Accessibility For Marley Asplundh ’19, the thesis project was an opportunity to put the studies for her linguistics major in conversation with what she learned for her education minor. The result was a fitting capstone to effectively close off four years of undergraduate studies that will continue to inform the recent graduate as she proceeds down her projected career track as a teacher.

The seeds of Asplundh’s thesis, “The Impact of Teacher Education and Experience on Curriculum and Pedagogy to Sustain Linguistic Diversity and Accessibility,” were sown early on in her time at Haverford.

“I took ‘Critical Issues in Education,’ a class that serves as an introduction to the Education Program and a survey of education as it has, does, and could exist in the United States, my sophomore year,” said Asplundh. “In it, we spent a day discussing topics surrounding linguistic diversity in a classroom setting.

That discussion opened my eyes to a major issue and was immediately a clear connection of my major and minor.”

Though the linguistics major found inspiration for her thesis in that early discussion of her two fields of interest, it took another year of incubation and a trip halfway around the world for it to be fully realized.

16

While studying abroad in Edinburgh, she took a course on Scots, a minority dialect spoken in Scotland.

A thesis topic became apparent to her, during the class’s discussion of linguistic discrimination—when a way of speaking is looked down on as being “wrong.”

“At one point he [the professor] even said, ‘If any American students in the room are trying to come up with a senior thesis project, there is an endless amount to be written about the discrimination of African American English in the U.S.,’” Aslpundh reflected.

“At that point I was in fact starting to think about potential thesis topics… so I added his suggestion right after class, thinking about how to frame it within a classroom manifestation.”

After returning to the U.S., Asplundh interrogated her topic by means of classroom observation in a Philadelphia public school. Through her research, she sought to note the detrimental effects that linguistic discrimination can have on learning. Her thesis showcases a more effective and accessible manner of teaching. These topics will be of continued interest to Asplundh outside of Haverford as she enters into Penn’s masters program in urban teaching this July.

“Before starting my thesis, I had hoped that I could use it as a chance to learn something that would support

my practice as a teacher and make me more aware and effective in my teaching,” she said. “My thesis process has helped to teach me about why it’s important to be thoughtful and intentional while I’m teaching.”

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

To conduct my thesis research, I spent three hours a week observing a sixth grade math teacher in a Philadelphia public school. She is a Bryn Mawr alumna, so she was not only enlightening to me as an experienced and intentional teacher, but she understood a lot about where I was coming from and thought about education in a lot of the same ways as I did.

At first, one of my note-taking focuses was on how the teacher used language in the classroom as a tool to help her students understand math. She is a white woman who speaks what is commonly referred to linguistically as Standard American English. Many of her students were black and spoke what is frequently called African American English or Latinx and spoke Spanish in addition to English. This difference in language use is common in urban public schools where a large majority of teachers are white and students are people of color. I learned through my observations that she made a conscious and careful effort to make the language she used meaningful to her students, defining words she used and giving analogies and examples. This practice helped them understand her while also providing tools that helped them talk about what they needed to thrive in school.

My takeaways were that successful communication in a classroom needs to be purposeful and explicit.

What are the implications for your thesis research?

There is a lot of research on language in the classroom, and my thesis is just a small part of that now.

Linguistic discrimination is a huge issue in the U.S. because people often think there is a “right” and “wrong” way to speak, but any system of language that is understandable by other people in your community is considered valid by linguists. The more that people can understand that minority dialects are just as valid as standard varieties of languages, the less language will be able to be used as a racist, classist weapon.

Part of the reason I think it’s important to consider this issue on a school level is that I believe if more teachers were respectful of linguistic diversity, more people would learn to be respectful and accepting at a young age and help reduce discrimination. My specific research doesn’t necessarily do this in a way that other research has not, but I think this is something that will be improved when people are more aware of the issues of linguistic discrimination, so more research that exists on the topic the more awareness there can be.

Awards Magna Cum Laude High Honors in Linguistics

Activities Include Customs Person Committee Member in Customs Student Consultant for the Teaching and Learning Institute

17

PAUL BRUCIA BREITENFELD Major: Classical Languages

18

19

PAUL BRUCIA BREITENFELD Negotiating Allusions in the 'Metamorphoses' of Apuleius

For classical languages major Paul Brucia Breitenfeld ’19 (they/them), the thesis project was many things: an homage to their love for all things strange and exuberant; an anti-imperialist intervention into a racist, overdetermined history of classical studies; a rich foray into the many cultures that ring the Mediterranean sea; and an opportunity to consider what it means for a narrator to be turned into a literal ass—that’s a donkey, to be clear.

Believe it or not, this transmogrification is not what Breitenfeld wound up emphasizing in their reading.

Rather, they found Metamorphoses to be a fruitful site for identifying and studying anti-imperialist narratives because of the singular cultural position it occupies in the Roman empire.

“As a classicist, I have spent most of my academic career reading literature written in Rome for Romans, but Apuleius’ novel is neither of these things: it was Breitenfeld spent their senior year studying the written in Africa for a largely African audience,” said dense world of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, scouring the classical culture and society minor. “Its narrative it for cultural and textual references as a way of travels as well, taking readers on a journey from reparatively constructing a cultural history. eastern Greece to Rome itself.”

“I was really drawn to this text because it is a fairly This travel was poignant for Breitenfeld when they strange Latin work: it is an ancient novel written in were first encountering the novel during their study the second century CE by a North African author, abroad experience as part of the Intercollegiate full of adventure, witches, fairytales, cult ceremonies, Center for Classical Studies in Rome. “For me,” they and the sort of narrative games which are rarely seen said, “these aspects of the novel were particularly in literature before the modern era,” said Breitenfeld. interesting since I was myself in Rome at the time, “What is more, the novel’s main character and learning about the dynamics of imperialism and narrator, Lucius, spends most of the novel in the effects of Rome’s empire on Rome and on the places form of an ass, having transformed himself in a it subjugated.” magic accident.”

20

These dynamics became the basis for the reading of Metamorphoses that Breitenfeld would go on to produce. By tracking which cultural and textual allusions would have resonated with different audiences, they were able to identify how different tendrils of Roman imperialism shaped lives around the region.

“I wanted to understand how people might have understood this text differently based on their social standing in the Roman Empire at the time the novel was written,” they said. “So I decided to focus on the novel’s portrayal of the empire, using the interpretations of literary allusions––a key part of all Latin literature, but particularly of Apuleius’ works–– as my main source of textual evidence.”

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

Given that classics has had a long history of promoting racism and imperialism, it was really important to me that I challenge the preexisting assumptions of the discipline with my research and lens of analysis. I set out to amplify voices which classics routinely seeks to silence, particularly those in the ancient world who opposed and actively resisted Roman imperialism and notions of Roman cultural supremacy. I think my biggest takeaway is that it is the responsibility of researchers in my discipline to correct and challenge the lies our discipline helped to create and propagate. I think looking into social history and attempting to understand the experiences of those affected by

imperialism is one of the best ways to undermine the fictitious visions of the ancient world that classics promoted.

What are your plans for the future and did your thesis have anything to do helping to guide your future career path?

I’ve been accepted to Boston University’s Ph.D. program for classical studies, and I’ll begin in September. My thesis was one of my first experiences with long-term research in classics and the topic was something that continues to interest me. I applied to graduate school with the goal of continuing my research on Apuleius and imperialism.

Awards Society for Classical Studies Outstanding Student The William W. Baker Prize in Greek Honors in Classical Languages

Activities Include Customs Curling Club

21

OLIVIA LEGASPI Major: English

22

23

OLIVIA LEGASPI

How to Become One With Your Borderline Personality Disorder: Stories

If Olivia Legaspi ’19 learned anything from her senior thesis, its that writing educates both the reader and the writer. The English major, who minored in fine arts and concentrated in creative writing, wrote a thesis that took the form of a collection of short stories. Legaspi’s work, titled How to Become One With Your Borderline Personality Disorder, encapsulates contemporary issues and personal experience.

“It is a collection of two linked short stories about themes of mental illness, intimate relationships and disconnection, impulsivity and restlessness, and coping,” said Legaspi. “The stories feature two different women, Zoe and Tanya, who have never met but attend similar colleges only three towns away from each other and lead lives that are parallel in many ways.”

Legaspi drew inspiration for her writing from a wide breadth of sources. Stylistically, as a writer, she was influenced by James Joyce and Claudia Rankine, two authors of distinct contexts and interests. Personal background informed Legaspi’s writing as well.

“Tanya is explicitly diagnosed with BPD [Borderline 24

Personality Disorder] by a psychiatrist at her college, while Zoe copes with her struggles without the use of institutional systems,” said Legaspi. “My thesis work was inspired by my experiences living with this highly stigmatized disorder and attempting to cope with its symptoms within the institutional setting, as well as the recognition that we all struggle with mental illness on some level.”

Over the course of creating her thesis, Legaspi was able to understand more about who she is, while also receiving exposure to the greater project of authorship through a series of drafts and rewrites.

“I learned a lot about myself and what it takes to be a writer through this process,” she reflected. “My biggest takeaway is that writing about important things is very hard but ultimately worth it.”

Who is your thesis advisor?

My thesis advisor was Associate Professor Asali Solomon. Throughout the year, Professor Solomon gave me invaluable insights and guidance about the nature of fiction writing and the writing process.

Through many rounds of drafts, comments, and meetings, Professor Solomon helped me understand

what story I was trying to tell, what message existed within that story, and how best to convey that message. She also made many connections for me between the experiences of my characters and larger systems of oppression in the real world. For example, she helped me understand that the young women in my stories are struggling so much not only because of their psychology, but also because of their constant objectification by men and the indifference of their colleges towards their students.

Awards The Terry M. Kreiger 1969 Memorial Prize

Activities Include The Clerk

What are your plans for the future?

I spent the majority of my senior year planning to take a job offer with a marketing startup, but decided at the end of the year to focus full-time on my art and writing instead. The growth I experienced during the thesis process and the positive reaction that my work has received were big factors in this choice. I am currently working at an art supply store, and I plan to apply to interdisciplinary MFA programs for next year while training to become a tattoo artist.

Is there anything else you want to share?

My artist website is livlegaspi.com, and I encourage anyone interested in reading my thesis to reach out to me!

25

KEVIN MEDANSKY

Major: French and Francophone studies

26

27

KEVIN MEDANSKY Performance of Apnée ou le Dernier des militants When most people think of a senior thesis, an image is conjured up in their minds of a 40-page stack of paper, laminated and filled with academic observations. For his thesis, however, Kevin Medansky ’19 spent a year researching and writing on French drama, prior to his own staging of a one-man play in a second language, complete with an elaborate set and costume design.

The thespian’s thesis, however, contained more than a performance. In the fall, Medansky produced an analytical piece of writing in the style of a conventional thesis on, as he says, “contemporary dramaturgy and the history and development of the monologue.”

Following this, Medansky turned his efforts to surtitling the entire play in English. (A surtitle is The play Medansky selected was Apnée ou le Dernier a subtitle used in theater that is projected above des militants by Yves Reynaud. His performance was the stage for the audience to read.) Surtitles were a perfect opportunity for Medansky to incorporate his especially useful in Medansky’s case since many of the film and media studies minor, which he received from people who gathered to watch him perform weren’t Swarthmore College, into his French and Francophone French speakers. studies major. These two interests have never been mutually exclusive for Medansky. The recent graduate “That helped me hone in on a skill that we don’t often has enjoyed studying French film and theater in his teach and that I hadn’t really practiced too much: language courses, in addition to having a formative French-English translation,” he said, discussing the experience on the stage while abroad. surtitling process. “Now, I feel so much more confident in my abilities to switch freely between the two “After spending the spring of my junior year as a languages.” foreign exchange student at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University’s Institute of Theater Studies… I worked Though Medansky’s staging of the play is an with a theater company at the Avignon Festival,” said atypical thesis format, it still holds many valuable Medansky. “Theater has inspired my coursework, contributions. His performance and translation of which has pushed me to find related extracurricular Reynaud’s work are the first to surface in the U.S., and activities and jobs, which made the prospect of atop that Medansky provided an engrossing evening of performing this monologue in the original French so drama for the community. enticing.”

28

How did your thesis advisor help you develop your topic, conduct your research, and/or interpret your results?

So, Professor Koffi Anyinefa of the Haverford College Department of French and Francophone Studies is the advisor who has been with me since day one. He had coffee with me on a hot afternoon in Avignon and convinced me to take on this project, and he guided me throughout the entire process. We also brought in Professor Laila Swanson from the Swarthmore College Theater Department, who helped make our theoretical idea of a performance into a reality, with expert advice on staging and actually planning a theatrical performance. She also brought Emmanuelle Delpech—a lifelong actor who has often served as an external examiner for the Honors Theater program over at Swarthmore, and who will teach in the Bryn Mawr College French and Francophone Studies Department this fall—onto the advising team to help breathe life into the performance. She helped me develop my acting techniques, so that this wouldn’t just be an intellectual project; she helped me embody the character as a whole What are your plans for the future and does your thesis have anything to do helping to guide your future career path?

Starting in September, I’ll be pursuing a master’s in theater studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris!

Lucien Attoun, Yves Reynaud. Press conference after the staged reading of Regarde les femmes passer in Hérisson, 1981 © Guy Charoy

Awards Honors in French and Francophone Studies

Activities Include Kevin's Choice Movie Club, Founder and Co-President; 'Ford S-Chords; Office of Admission; Department of Athletics, Director of Visual Arts; Customs, Ambassador of Multicultural Awareness; Swarthmore College Wind Ensemble; Swarthmore College Jazz Band; Haverford College Radio; Smokin' Mic Comedy; The Baker's Cousin Comedy Troupe (Bryn Mawr); Bi-Co Orchestra

29

MAX SONIN

Majors: English and Computer Science

30

31

MAX SONIN The Coding of the Woosters

E

nglish and computer science may seem rooted in different aspects of the liberal arts, but in writing an English thesis, titled “The Coding of the Woosters,” Max Sonin ’19 sought to put the two studies in dialogue with each other.

“I was inspired by the works of Alexander Galloway and Roland Barthes as well as the prose of P. G. Wodehouse,” said Sonin. “Instead of going for statistical analysis, which is a great tool that has been used extensively to prove authorship and collect data about writing, I wanted to establish parallels between writing and coding that could lead to new analytical frames for writing.”

The attempt proved fruitful as Sonin was able to identify a recurring code in English comedy writer P.G. Wodehouse’s works. The English major’s efforts were an attempt to discern what makes Wodehouse funny in translation to non-English readers who miss the cultural

32

references that the author embeds in his work, a concern which was of personal interest to Sonin, who, coming from Moscow, first read Wodehouse in Russian.

Sonin’s code calls attention to a repetition of the manner in which problems are introduced and resolved in Wodehouse’s stories, and it delineates the functions certain characters repeatedly play in triggering the recurrent sequences.

Sonin was aided in their research by Visiting Professor of English Gabriel Sessions, whose assistance was invaluable to the senior.

“He was a great guide in fields of literary theory that I had little experience with—for example, in trans-Atlantic Readership,” said Sonin. “He also encouraged me to take risks and dive into analysis that I would have shied away from on my own.”

The risks appear to have been well worth it, as Sonin is looking forward to continuing their studies and expanding on their thesis postgraduation.

What are the implications of your thesis research?

My research is in conversation with previous academic work on P. G. Wodehouse, and I attempted to describe the underlying structure of Wodehouse that other critics have only touched upon previously. In greater theory, my research establishes a connection between writing and open source ideology as well as translation. In a global world it is important to study internationally successful projects because their success can be recreated and reproduced.

What are your plans for the future and does your thesis have anything to do with helping guide your future career path?

I am hoping to be able to continue my work on P. G. Wodehouse as well open source technology. I will be applying to Ph.D. programs next fall with the goal of rewriting my thesis into a monograph and then book.

33

SEANNA VIECHWEG Major: English

34

35

SEANNA VIECHWEG

"I'm a long way from home": Seeking Belonging in the Afterlives of Slavery in Octavia Butler's Kindred

For Seanna Viechweg ’19, her senior thesis, “I’m a long way from home”: Seeking Belonging in the Afterlives of Slavery in Octavia Butler’s Kindred,” was an opportunity for her personal and academic interests to complement each other.

Rather than researching a conventional piece of literature for her thesis, the English major was attracted to the prospect of writing on African American Science Fiction, which maintains an underrepresented presence in literary communities. Viechweg became invested in this topic after taking “The New Black Arts Movement: Expressive Culture After Black Nationalism” with Associate Professor of English Asali Solomon, who would later become her thesis advisor.

became the focus of my thesis topic given its embodiment of all these themes.”

Viechweg’s personal summer reading developed gradually into a multifaceted academic argument, becoming at one point a 100-page document of notes before being condensed into its finished form. It’s important to her, however, that these two manners of approaching a text never become entirely distinct from one another.

“My passion in Black sci fi and speculative fiction was forged through courses I deemed as ‘fun’— specifically Professor Solomon’s courses… as well as courses taken [during my semester] abroad in Barbados,” she said. “They were courses taken purely out of interest rather than my attempt to fulfill Haverford requirements or requirements related to the English major.”

“The summer after taking this course, I read Butler’s Kindred, as recommended by Professor Solomon,” she said. “Because I have always been drawn to writing about kinship, trauma, Dedication to what personally compels her intergenerational theory, slavery, and Black-being gave Viechweg a vital thrust to both produce in my Haverford career, Kindred ultimately her thesis and continue a pursuit of the similar

36

concepts following graduation. A recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, she’ll be heading to Barbados to investigate Caribbean sci-fi and speculative fiction.

“As an aspiring academic, I am leaving Haverford extremely grateful for pushing myself to take courses that eventually forged my passion in African American and Caribbean literature,” Viechweg reflected. “I believe all Haverford students should be pushed to take the courses that excite them as they figure out their academic interests.”

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

From working on my thesis, I learned how easy it is to feel overwhelmed or trapped by the process of research—in my case, I am referring to my 100-page Word document filled with notes from various theorists and scholars. Because I started my thesis during the summer of 2018 at the University of Chicago, I spent a lot of time consulting what others have said about Kindred, as well as theory related to slavery and Black sci fi. While I assumed the amount of research I performed provided me an advantage when starting the process of writing, my thesis advisor showed me that I needed to work on foregrounding my own voice which is feedback I intend to revisit as I revise my thesis, as well as approach future research projects.

What are the implications of your thesis research?

My thesis research can help other researchers and academics by demonstrating the importance of utilizing Black sci-fi as a way to engage with traumatic histories. Because science fiction as a field has previously been overwhelmingly white in both its content and writers, my thesis research demonstrates the value of studying Black sci-fi and speculative fiction as a way to grapple with identity politics, as well as the histories of marginalized communities in our contemporary moment.

Awards The Ian Walker 1950 Prize Fund in English Cum Laude Honors in English Fulbright

Activities Include Writer Center Tutor, The Marilou Allen Office of Service and Community Collaboration Staff Member, Co-Head of Ambassador on Multicultural Awareness Committee, Student Representative for Multicultural Scholars Program, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow

37

LENA YEAKEY

Major: Comparative Literature

38

39

LENA YEAKEY

"Los sujetos se diluyen:" The Narrative Process of Remembering in Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost and Jose Carlos Agüero's Persona

Lena Yeakey ’19 wrote a thesis that cut across continents and languages to argue something fundamental about memory. As a comparative literature major and Spanish minor, her thesis project found her analyzing two works of literature written in different languages—Sri Lanka-born writer Michael Ondaatje’s novel Anil’s Ghost, which was written in English, and Peruvian author Jose Carlos Agüero’s poetic memoir Persona, which was written in Spanish.

“My thesis was on public or collected memory in post-conflict situations, and the possibilities that these two books present for memory creation for people at the periphery of conflict,” she said. “Both of these books offer a prolonged look at the process of remembering, and the complicated social and emotional registers that can bring, in contrast to the product of a truth commission.”

Yeakey, who concentrated in peace, justice, and human rights, put these texts in conversation with one another because of the way they each detail the relationship between individual memory and state40

governed memorialization and transparency in the wake of civil war or internal conflict.

“Peru and Sri Lanka both had prolonged and complicated internal armed conflicts, which each resulted in official ‘truth-telling’ efforts,” said Yeakey. These conflicts and their subsequent reconciliation efforts have had a lasting impact on the contemporary cultures of Peru and Sri Lanka— the former of which Yeakey discovered during her semester abroad.

“I spent a semester studying in Lima, and I was really struck by the little ways that people expressed their connection to the conflict and the way it had shaped the city and their lives,” she said. “My thesis grew out of that question, of how people who weren’t technically ‘victims’ remember.”

Ultimately, Yeakey discovered a relationship between processes of remembering and the language people use to access and characterize them. By investigating the texts’ narrative structures and poetic rhythms, she uncovered the notion that the language used in the

aftermath of civil conflict fundamentally determines what is remembered about the conflict and how it is remembered.

“The major argument of my thesis was that poetic language allows us to access a different register of remembering,” said Yeakey. “Because this was a literature thesis, I explored that argument through the narrative style of each work, looking at how the structure of the text interacted with the ethical, political, or emotional substance of the plot.”

What are the implications for your thesis research?

Persona is a relatively new book—published in 2018—and there’s very little scholarship on it so far.

It’s a poetic memoir, not a novel, which made sideto-side structural comparisons with Anil’s Ghost, which is a novel, a little more complicated. They’re also obviously from very different countries and political contexts. Memory studies, particularly in Latin America, tend to be specific to the country/ region, so drawing literary and political parallels between two distinct regions was a relatively novel frame.

What are your plans for the future and does your thesis have anything to do with helping to guide your future career path?

Right now, I’m working as a paralegal at the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, on their Workplace Justice project. I’m planning on going to law school

within the next couple of years. Academically and professionally, I’m making a bit of a turn away from literature, but I think there are themes from my thesis that I’ll continue to focus on. In a broad, abstract sense, my thesis is about whose stories get told, and what justice in rhetoric, policy, and memory looks like. I see public interest advocacy is a concrete expression of those questions—who gets access to representation, which laws are enforced and against who. Law is shaped by how people’s stories get told.

Awards Honors in Comparative Literature

Activities Include 2018 Phonathon

41

42

NATURAL SCIENCES

43

SCIENCE AT HAVERFORD THE LEADING EDGE OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE IN THE SCIENCES Haverford, one of the leading producers of scientists in the US, is an extraordinary place to pursue the sciences as an undergraduate. Haverford students work closely with faculty in and out of the classroom, tackle cutting-edge problems and concepts, and truly learn to be scientists. From 24hour lab access, to opportunities for funded research on and off campus, to the senior thesis, our students find countless opportunities to engage with their scholarly work in an atmosphere of unsurpassed collaboration and mentorship.

THEORY AND PRACTICE This domain focuses on the physical and natural processes that are traditionally studied in scientific communities, such as Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics, and also interdisciplinary programs such as Neuroscience, Environmental Studies, and Health Studies.

Courses address questions of physical or natural processes and the mechanisms by which they occur. Natural Science students at Haverford are: • Conducting independent research on and off campus • Collaborating with faculty on their scholarship • Traveling to professional conferences and making global connections with scholars at the top of their fields • Publishing research results with world renowned scientists • Working on real world problems

44

The Class of 2019 Thesis Projects in the Natural Sciences

45

Kofi Kwakwa Acheampong Chemistry: Development of a Colorimetric Assay for Studying Acyl Carrier Protein-Protein Interactions with a Minor in Health Studies and a Concentration in Biochemistry Jordan Lawrence Acker Computer Science: Formal Verification of Recursive Programs Using Computational Induction with a Minor in Mathematics

FEVEN GEZAHEGN ’19 WINS CLEMENTINE COPE FELLOWSHIP When Feven Gezahegn ’19 was shopping for medical schools, her biggest concern was affordability.

“I had really loved the University of Virginia School of Medicine and wanted to go there, but financially it had not felt like the right decision,” said the biology major, who minored in health studies and concentrated in peace, justice, and human rights.

Hassan Ahamed Chemistry: Development of an In Vitro Assay to Evaluate Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Lin28:pre-Let-7 Interaction in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma with a Minor in Neuroscience and a Concentration in Biochemistry Maxwell Bradford Aifer Physics: Modeling the Dark Sector With the Equation of State and the Sound Speed

But then Gezahegn heard about a longstanding fellowship for graduate study that Haverford offers, the Clementine Cope Fellowship. She decided to apply to see if she could earn some money for medical school that would allow her to choose her university based on fit, culture, and program instead of price tag.

Tomas Maxwell Aramburu Chemistry: In Silico Identification of Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Lin28:pre-Let-7 Interaction in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma with a Minor in Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College and a Concentration in Biochemistry

The Cope was established in 1899 by and named for the granddaughter of a former member of the Haverford College Board of Managers, Thomas P. Cope. Unlike the College’s other similar fellowship, the Augustus Taber Murray Fellowship>, which supports the graduate study of those in a few particular fields (English, classics, German), the Cope assists "worthy and promising graduates of Haverford College in continuing their studies” in any field.

Jeremy Bennett Astesano Psychology: What Are You Looking At? How Race and Social Status Influence Gaze Direction, Duration, and Behavior with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies

Following graduation, Gezahegn spent a year as a Haverford House fellow working with the African Family Health Organization in West Philadelphia. She was one of two candidates selected for this year’s fellowship. She will use her funding to support her medical education at UVA--her “dream school”--starting this fall.

“In addition to Feven's strong preparation and readiness for graduate study, the committee appreciated how she framed her aspirations for a graduate degree as a means of effecting social change in her field,” said Jason Chan, fellowship and career advisor and assistant director of the Center for Career and Professional Advising, which manages the awards process. “She also had an impressive breadth and depth of related experiences during and after her time at Haverford.”

Gezahegn was thrilled to discover she’d been chosen as one of this year’s fellowship recipients. “It helped remove a huge pressure I was feeling going into my first year as a medical student,” she said.

The future doctor recently moved to Charlottesville, Va., and started classes. She thinks she might want to eventually study pediatrics, but for now, is simply excited to start her next chapter.

The fellowship, she said, “feels like a huge stamp of endorsement and validation that the committee believes in me as it has chosen to invest in my education.”

46

Patrick James Adams Physics: Dynamics of the Higgs Boson as the Inflaton Field

Yasmine Ikram Ayad Computer Science: Analyzing the COMPAS Algorithm in Criminal Defense Risk Assessment Jake Ogata Bernstein Geology at Bryn Mawr College: Classification of Sulfate and Phyllosilicate Geomorphology in Ius Chasma, Valles Marineris, Mars, Using CRISM and HiRISE with a Minor in Environmental Studies and a Concentration in Geochemistry at Bryn Mawr College Fiona Anne Berry Chemistry: Using N pro Autoprotease Fusion Technology to Express a Hydrogel-Forming Semenogelin I Peptide with a Minor in Health Studies and a Concentration in Biochemistry Gabriel Alan Braun Chemistry: Molecular Mechanism of Fibril Formation and pKa Determination of Histidine in a Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogel with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies and a Concentration in Biochemistry Emily Elizabeth Brown Chemistry: Development of a High Throughput Route for a Vapor Diffusion Metal Halide Perovskite Synthesis Leah Null Budson Mathematics: Which Centralizers of Even Burnside Subgroups Properly Contain Themselves? A Diagrammatic Proof with Minors in Economics and Italian and Italian Studies at Bryn Mawr College and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Emma Jacqueline Bullock Chemistry: The Utility of Using Silicone Wristbands as Passive Samplers in Honeybee Hives with a Minor in German and German Studies Arlene Elizabeth Casey Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College with a Minor in Educational Studies Austin Harry Castellanos Biology: Investigating the Effects of ComS Variants on Competence Induction in Streptococcus suis with a Minor in Health Studies Arthur Jing-Yu Chang Computer Science: Intersectionality and Fairness in Machine Learning with a Minor in Mathematics Ino Chough Biology: An Exploration Into the Involvement of DNA Repair Mechanisms in ODM in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with a Minor in Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College Samantha Chun-Ling Chu Mathematics: Approximating Shortest Path Trees and Minimum Spanning Trees with a Minor in Classical Culture and Society Cristian Francisco Clothier Geology at Bryn Mawr College Katherine Elizabeth Cook Biology: Investigating the Conversion of Fluorescent Markers via Oligonucleotide Directed Mutagenesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with a Minor in Neuroscience Charvanaa Dhoonmoon Chemistry: Rapid Characterization of Oil Residues in the Environment by Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies Renata Loeb DiDonato Chemistry: Genetic Analysis of Orphan Type II (Polyaromatic) Polyketide Synthase Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Expression in the Cyanobacterial Strain Gloeocapsa sp. with a Minor in Health Studies and a Concentration in Biochemistry Laura Ann Donahue Biology: Exploring the Effects of Temperature Variation on Thermal Stress Response in Nematostella vectensis with Minors in Environmental Studies and Political Science at Bryn Mawr College Sophia Eliza Drew Biology at Bryn Mawr College: Everything but the Carbon Sink: Cessation of N Enrichment Allows for Rapid Recovery of Carbon Cycling Processes in a New England Salt Marsh Spanish: El laberinto contaminado: El cambio climático y el futuro distópico de Homero Aridjis Hope Olivia Ebert Biology: Systems Optimization for Artificial Ecosystem Selection: Preparing to Study the Phyllosphere Microbiome of Arabidopsis thaliana Using Phenotypic and Metagenomic Analysis with a Minor in Environmental Studies and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Ojani Eguia Computer Science: History and Development of Reversible Architecture Charlotte Simpson Eisenberg Mathematics: Modeling the Opioid Overdose Crisis with a Concentration in Mathematical Economics Jacob Olson Ephron Biology: Investigating the Effects of Ocean Acidification on the Thermal Tolerance of Nematostella vectensis with a Minor in Environmental Studies and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Samuel Charles Epstein Chemistry: Probing Chain Sequestration in Carrier Proteins Using Raman Spectroscopy with a Concentration in Biochemistry Andrew David Evans Physics: Connecting Supermassive Black Hole Binaries to Pulsar Timing with Minors in Astronomy and Economics Ian Austin Fisher Computer Science: The Ergonomics of Faceted Execution Linguistics: DP-Internal Only in English and Russian Mairin Rose Fitzpatrick Mathematics: Mathematically Modeling the Western Honeybee Population Over Time With Respect to Colony Collapse Disorder: A Senior Bee-this with a Minor in Environmental Studies Benjamin Daveron Forde Mathematics: Infected: A Look at the Application of Epidemiological Models to John Oliver’s #makedonalddrumpfagain Campaign with a Minor in English at Bryn Mawr College and a Concentration in Mathematical Economics William Evans Fox Chemistry: Investigating the Degree of Water Exposure in a Hydrogel Peptide Using a Nitrile Probe with a Minor in Classical Culture and Society Benjamin Fairfax Frost Chemistry: Proteolysis of a Semenogelin-I Derived Peptide in Monomeric and Fibrillar States and the Role of a BCOR Mutation in Clonal Hematopoiesis in Acquired Aplastic Anemia with a Concentration in Biochemistry ChuHui Fu Chemistry: Construction of an Experimentally Validated Structural Ensemble for Nipah Virus Complex NTAIL-XD with a Minor in Mathematics Rebeckah Keiper Fussell Physics: Spots to Stripes and in Between: Navigating Pattern Formation Space Christopher Joseph Gandolfo-Lucia Mathematics: Using Depth to Identify Fully Commutative Elements in the Symmetric Group English: The Language Stump: Language and Loss in Maggie Nelson’s Bluets Feven Zeray Gezahegn Biology: Investigating the Genetic Control of Gastrulation in Anopheles gambiae and Drosophila melanogaster with a Minor in Health Studies and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Macy Merrick Goldbach Chemistry: Characterizing the Fe-NO Binding Strength in NonHeme Iron Nitrosyls With Differing Secondary Coordination Spheres with a Concentration in Biochemistry Noah Gabriel Grunberg Biology: Exploring a Cell Cycle Mediated Mechanism for Oligonucleotide Directed Mutagenesis (ODM) in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Younghee Hahn Biology: Optimizing Means to Investigate Putative “Immunity” Genes in Streptococcus pneumoniae with a Minor in Health Studies Cooro James Harris Chemistry: Investigation of the Performance of Iron-Based, NitrogenDoped Carbon Nanospheres as Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysts with a Minor in Japanese Language Abigail Athena Harrison Geology at Bryn Mawr College Sean Hashemi Biology: The Role of the Chaperone Grp94 in Myocilin-Associated Glaucoma Ryan Christopher Herlihy Computer Science: Enhancing Racket Programming Language Security via Faceted Execution Justin Thoma Hiemstra Mathematics: Markov Models and Improved Brute-Forcing Methods Russian at Bryn Mawr College: Encryption, Democracy, and the Peculiar Case of Russia’s Telegram Yuheng Huang Chemistry: Identifying Anthropogenic Bias in Synthetic Chemistry: Using Randomized Reactions for Better Explorations Thomas San Ie Chemistry: Elemental Substitution of Rare-Earth Free Vanadate Garnet Phosphors for Use in White-LED Lamps with a Minor in Music Danielle Rose Jacobsen Biology: Exploring PR and GR Polypeptide Expression and Toxicity in a Drosophila melanogaster Model of ALS and FTD with a Minor in Neuroscience and a Concentration in Biochemistry Jharna Jahnavi Biology: Investigating Wolbachia Transfection and Cytoplasmic Incompatibility in Invasive Insect Species with Minors in Neuroscience and Health Studies Xiwen Jia Chemistry: Development of an Automated Route to Mixed Metal Halide Perovskite Synthesis via Inverse Temperature Crystallization with a Minor in Health Studies and a Concentration in Scientific Computing Daniel Jason Joffe Biology: Investigating the Effects of (Z)-13-Methyltetra-4-Decenoic Acid on Multidrug Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria Nicholas Ryan John Chemistry: P-Nitro Phenylalanine as a Raman Probe of Hydrogen Bonding in Peptide Hydrogels and Other Systems

JUSTIN OTTER ’19 WINS FULBRIGHT AWARD Physics and astronomy double major Justin Otter '19 from Oakland, Calif., will spend next year conducting research at the Max Planck institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, is a collection of 66 high-precision dish antennas in the high desert of northern Chile that are used to observe electromagnetic radiation in the universe. Justin Otter ’19 has been working with data from ALMA at Haverford as part of his senior thesis, which measures the size of disks surrounding stars forming in the Orion Nebula. After his graduation, thanks to a Fulbright U.S. Student Research Award, he will continue exploring ALMA’s vast resources from a different lab across the Atlantic Ocean.

Otter will move to Heidelberg, Germany, for a year of research with Fabian Walter at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. That research will use data from ALMA’s Ultra Deep Field (UDF) survey, a highly sensitive radio image of a small area of the sky.

“This sensitivity means that the ALMA UDF can detect extremely faint and distant galaxies, which allows us to study how these galaxies, particularly their gas content, change over cosmic time,” said Otter. “Because this survey is extremely sensitive, it only covers a small area of sky, making it vulnerable to sampling bias. By combining this data set with others, I hope to gain an understanding of the large scale structure of the region in order to understand the bias of this survey.”

The Fulbright Award gives him an opportunity to continue his exploration of radio astronomy, which he began last summer at his job at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico and that he continued for his thesis research, under the guidance of an international expert in the field. Otter, who minored in mathematics at Haverford, has already been accepted to Ph.D. program in astrophysics at Johns Hopkins University, which he will begin after his Fulbright year, and he sees his upcoming research experience in Germany as important preparation.

“Having another year of research experience is extremely valuable before going to graduate school,” he said. “During my Fulbright I'll be able to explore my academic interests as well as learn new techniques and methods I could apply to future projects. Also, building international connections is especially important in a close-knit field like astronomy which relies heavily on collaboration.”

47

Sarah Sujin Kay Computer Science at Bryn Mawr College: Author Gender Classification From Blogs: A Comparative Analysis of N-Grams-Based Authorship Attribution Techniques with a Minor in Economics Anton Jay Riseman Kienzle Mathematics: The Binomial Logistic Model

GABRIEL BRAUN ’19 EARNS FULBRIGHT RESEARCH AWARD The chemistry major from Seattle will spend next year at Lund University in Sweden, conducting research with his longtime collaborator Sara Linse.

Gabriel Braun fell in love with Sweden during the two summers he spent conducting research at Lund University with his Haverford thesis advisor, Karin Åkerfeldt, and her Swedish collaborator, Sara Linse.

Happily, the chemistry major now gets to return to that Scandinavian nation—and Linse’s lab—thanks to a Fulbright U.S. Student Research Award.

“I will be researching β-amyloid peptides, the aggregation of which is implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Braun. “Specifically, I will be developing aggregation inhibitors, basing my work off of previous discoveries made by Professor Linse’s lab about the molecular process of this aggregation, with the goal of producing novel molecules to treat— or prevent—Alzheimer’s.”

Though the Fulbright U.S. Student program grants hundreds of study and research awards in 140 countries around the world, Braun will be one of only 10 recipients selected to go to Sweden. He is looking forward not only to returning to the lab there, but also—as a four-year member and two-year captain of the Haverford fencing team—to fencing with a local club in Lund.

“I’m looking forward to being able to continue my development as a fencer,” he said, “and I’m also excited to have the chance to interact with locals of all ages in a less formal setting through the sport.”

Eventually Braun plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry or biochemistry (the latter is his concentration at Haverford), and he sees his Fulbright year not only as an exciting opportunity to live and work abroad, but also as important preparation for his future.

“I will have the opportunity to conduct graduate-level research, trying to answer the exact sorts of questions that I’d like to work on in graduate school,” he said.

“Hopefully, my Fulbright experience prepares me for graduate school, while also giving me a better idea of what I want to look for in future lab experiences.”

48

Sabrina D. Kwak Biology: Determining the Nature of ​Wolbachia ​Localization in Host ​ Drosophila melanogaster with Minors in Global Asia and Health Studies Trevor Flynn Larner Mathematics: An Exploration of Nonparametric Regression with Minors in Statistics and Economics Wei Li Chemistry: Synthesis of Four-Coordinate Tripodal Tris(2(imidazolidin-2-ylideneamino)ethyl)amine and ESI-MS Assisted Exploration of Coordination Structure with a Concentration in Biochemistry Yilin Li Computer Science: Adversarial Examples Under Fairness Constraints Mathematics: Finite Element Methods for Differential Equations Yutong Li Computer Science: A General Framework for Proving Sauer-Shelah Type Lemmas Mathematics: Deformation of the Weyl Character Formula for Classical Lie Groups of Cartan Type D via Ice Models Yanhan Liu Mathematics: An Analysis of Data Fitting of the Baez and Kuang Model for Prostate Cancer Patients Under Intermittent Androgen Deprivation Therapy (IAD) with Minors in Statistics and Economics Liam Thompson Lynch Astrophysics: GravCalc: An Online Tool for Gravitational Wave Analysis Using Pulsar Timing with a Concentration in Scientific Computing Justin M. McHenry Computer Science: A New Direction for ADI with a Minor in Psychology at Bryn Mawr College Melissa Jean McLaughlin Biology at Bryn Mawr College: Effects of Invasive Phragmites australis on Soil Carbon Pools Reilly Parker Milburn Astronomy and Physics: Transiting Exoplanet Follow-Up Using Small Telescopes Gregory Matthew Morgan Computer Science: Grapheme to Phoneme Conversion: Using Input Strictly Local Finite State Transducers Jai Abhijit Nimgaonkar Computer Science: Re-Evaluation of the ProPublica Article on Machine Bias

Mercette Ohlwiler Biology: Intraspecies Competition in Streptococcus pneumoniae Mediated by Bacteriocin-Like Peptides with a Minor in Health Studies Zachary Ryo Oji Physics: Ion Induced Conductivity of TPPS4 Porphyrin Nanorods with a Minor in Spanish Justin Atsushi Otter Astronomy and Physics: Protoplanetary Disks in the Orion Nebula Cluster with a Minor in Mathematics Divesh Santosh Otwani Computer Science: Programmer-Controlled Readable Polyhedral Optimizations of syr2k Mathematics: Knot Theory: Close and Sharp Bounds on the Grid Index Ellysia Nicole Overton Biology: Exploring the Physiological Response of Phytoplankton to Bacterially Derived Marine Natural Products with a Minor in Environmental Studies Riddhi Mita Panchal Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College: A senior project entitled A Fractal Explanation of the Financial Crisis with a Minor in Economics and a Concentration in Mathematical Economics Sehyeok Park Computer Science: Iteration Based Performance Tuning of Matrix Vector Transpose Algorithm Economics: Performance of IMF Borrowers Against Future Banking Crises David Leonard Parker Computer Science: Scaling Faceted Execution in Racket Using Languages as Libraries Approach with a Minor in Psychology Jordanlee W. Parra Mathematics: El grupo symmetrico, algebras de lie, y la identidad de Jacobi with a Minor in Economics Samuel Holt Partee Computer Science: Trans-Resolution Model Parameter Optimization Using Artificial Intelligence Graham Charles Peet Biology: The Molecular and Circuit Mechanisms Underlying Simple Decision-Making and Learning in Larval Zebrafish with a Concentration in Biochemistry Catheline Le Phan Biology: Investigating a Novel D. melanogaster Model for PrionLike Transmission, Protein Aggregation, and Toxicity for AlphaSynuclein in Glia with Minors in Health Studies and Neuroscience Scott Black Pollara Biology: Chemically Mediated Control: Molecular and Physiological Impacts of Exposure to Bacteria-Derived Infochemicals Tetrabromopyrrole and 2-heptyl-4-quinolone on Emiliania huxleyi with a Minor in Global Asia and a Concentration in Biochemistry

Paige Powell Biology: The Effects of Ocean Acidification on Regeneration and Prey Capture in the Estuarine Sea Anemone Nematostella vectensis with a Minor in Environmental Studies Amanda-Lynn Quintero Computer Science: How Acquiring the “Perfect Match” Within Clothing Recommendation Systems Relies on Human Judgement: Literature Review Tristan David Reasor Biology: What Is the Role of ap2s1 in the Neural Circuit of Habituation in Zebrafish?

Stephen Thomas Ridings Chemistry: Characterization of Alkyne Vibrational Probes for Membrane Proteins Emma Westcott Robinson Biology: An Investigation Into Broadening the Applicability of Oligonucleotide-Directed Mutagenesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by Designing Selectable Markers and Using Two Oligonucleotides Simultaneously

Matthew Elliott Soulanille Computer Science: Building Languages With Racket with a Minor in Mathematics Nicholas Armig Sweeney Astrophysics: Halo Formation and Ultra-Light Axion Dark Matter with a Minor in Philosophy Ryan Evan Tetro Physics: Measuring Thermal and Athermal Interactions in Sedimenting Particles at High Péclet Numbers Hanae Joy Togami Biology: Antarctic Deep-Sea Coral Flabellum impensum Resistant to End-of-Century Ocean Warming During Larval Development with a Minor in Environmental Studies and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Noah Lo-Tien Tsao Chemistry: The In Silico Analysis of ANGPTL3 Rare Exonic Missense Variants and Its Application to Population Genetics with a Concentration in Biochemistry

Nathaniel Wheeler Rolfe Chemistry: Spectrophotometric Determination of Auxiliary Anion Binding Affinities to [Co(DIG3tren)]2+ A Cobalt Centered, Tripodal Ligand Complex with a Minor in Latin and a Concentration in Biochemistry

Gregory A. Van Aken Chemistry: Implementing an Actor-Based Computing System for High-Throughput Featurization of Protein Structures for Machine Learning with a Minor in Computer Science and a Concentration in Scientific Computing

Rina Sugihara Rosnow Biology: Exploring Human MYH9-Related Disorders Through Drosophila melanogaster Disease Models

Christopher Steve Villalta Computer Science: State Influence Calculations for Deep Q-Networks

Rebecca A. Seeley Chemistry: Synthesis and Characterization of Potential SmallMolecule Inhibitors of the Lin28:pre-Let-7 Interaction in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma with a Minor in Fine Arts and a Concentration in Biochemistry

Jonam David Walter Physics: Characterizing the Hindered Settling Function at Low Reynolds Number

Nina Katherine Shah Biology: Investigating the Effects of a Heat-Shock Protein on Poly-GA Aggregation and Toxicity in C9orf72-Associated ALS and FTD with a Minor in Neuroscience Rohan Vikram Shukla Computer Science: Foundations and Applications of Authorship Attribution Analysis with a Minor in Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College Cecilia Elisabeth Silberstein Environmental Studies and Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College: Monitoring Stream Health: Comparing Urbanness to Macroinvertebrate Health With Quantile Regression for Watershed Management Yash Bahadur Singh Biology: A Next-Generation Sequencing Assay for Rearrangements of the Antibody Heavy and Light Chain: Trials, Tribulations, and Implications for Autoimmunity Dylan Zachary Slack Computer Science: Expert-Assisted Transfer Reinforcement Learning Julia Devorah Byron Smith Chemistry: Synthesis of Phytanic Acid Isotopologues for High Resolution Mass Spectral Metabolite Analysis of Refsum Fibroblast Extracts

Kaiwei Wang Chemistry: Analytical Approaches for Analyzing Microplastics in the Marine Environment Stephanie Michaela Widzowski Geology at Bryn Mawr College: Science Communication and Learning in Museums with a Minor in Environmental Studies James R. Wu Physics: Iridescence of Dynamic Ocellated Pheasant Displays Yang Wu Chemistry: Expression and In Vitro Activity Assay of Ancient NonActinobacterial Ketosynthase: Chain Length Factors with a Concentration in Biochemistry TianMing Xu Computer Science: Real Time Ray Tracing and Computational Challenges with a Minor in Mathematics Matthew Asher Yacavone Mathematics: Cluster Variables, Path Posets, and Polynomial Invariants of Rational Knots with a Minor in Computer Science Leyu Yao Mathematics and Physics 3/2 Program in Engineering with California Institute of Technology

DANIELLE JACOBSEN '19 WINS FULBRIGHT RESEARCH AWARD The biology major from Sunnyvale, Calif., will spend next year at the University of Oslo in Norway, researching a toxic polypeptide associated with ALS and Frontotemporal Dementia in a cellular model.

Danielle Jacobsen ’19 is passionate about researching neurodegenerative diseases. The biology major’s senior thesis investigates if the addition of a chaperone protein from yeast can reduce toxicity and disease symptoms in a Drosophila model with ALS or Frontotemporal Dementia. Next year she hopes to build on that research in Norway thanks to a Fulbright U.S. Student Award that will fund her work in Anne Simonsen’s lab in the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Oslo.

“The opportunity to continue my research in a new country with access to different tools is incredibly exciting,” said Jacobsen, a neuroscience minor who is concentrating in biochemistry. “I value the kind of learning that can be achieved through travel and studying abroad, and the Fulbright will allow me to engage with a new culture and community. I’m interested in Norway in particular due to the hub of cutting-edge neurodegenerative research that takes place there.”

In Simonsen’s lab, she will investigate a different toxic polypeptide associated with ALS and Frontotemporal Dementia than her thesis does.

“My goal is to see if autophagy, a process cells use to selectively degrade damaged organelles and aggregated proteins, can successfully clear protein aggregates associated with these neurodegenerative diseases,” she says.

Jacobsen will be one of only 12 student-research Fulbright recipients in Norway next year. She hopes to live in student housing at the university, and plans to take courses there in both biochemistry and Norwegian history. (The latter is of particular interest due to her Norwegian ancestry.)

While at Haverford, Jacobsen served as a Customs Person, and Admission Fellow, a biology peer tutor, and a writing tutor in the Mentoring and Student Teaching (MAST) program. She also co-founded the Meditation and Mindfulness Club and volunteered at a local hospice, something she hopes to continue to be able to do while living in Oslo.

“I appreciate all of the experience and support I have received at Haverford that has prepared me to conduct this independent research project abroad,” she said.

After she returns stateside, she plans to apply to M.D./ Ph.D dual-degree programs.

49

Ruiyi Yuan Biology: From Ocean to Neurodegenerative Disease Treatment: Drug Discovery From Marine Bacteria for Tauopathy Using Caenorhabditis elegans with Minors in Health Studies and Statistics David Wassie Zegeye Astronomy and Physics: Forecasting LSST’s Sensitivity to UltraLight Axions

TEAM OF FORDS CONTRIBUTES TO BEST-EVER PULSAR MEASUREMENTS A new paper by Professor and Chair of Physics and Astronomy Andrea Lommen, Reilly Milburn ’19, Sergio Montano ’21, and Jesse Zeldes ’22 measures pulsar timing made observable for the first time by NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER).

Studying the final frontier is no small step for mankind, but Professor and Chair of Physics and Astronomy Andrea Lommen and her students are making giant leaps look easy.

Lommen’s research focuses on neutron stars, an extraterrestrial state of matter that cannot be replicated on earth. Using a high-precision x-ray telescope called the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) that lives on the International Space Station, Lommen and her students were part of a group of international scientists who were able, for the first time ever, to measure the ratio of the mass to the radius of a neutron star. A recent paper, co-authored with Reilly Milburn ’19, Sergio Montano ’21, Jesse Zeldes ’22, and Haverford Research Associate Wynn Ho, is part of a suite of papers published in The Astrophysical Journal that announced the findings.

“A neutron star is basically a macroscopic nucleus,” said Lommen. “Neutron star material is so dense that one teaspoon of it would weigh as much as all of humanity. The paper that my group is a part of is part of a suite of papers that represents the first measurement of the ‘equation of state’ of neutron star material. In other words, the NICER team just made the first measurement of the pressure and density of neutron star material.”

Lommen leads the timing working group in NICER, a collection of researchers who are interested in what the cadence and length of neutron star pulses can reveal about the dense matter. This new publication is the first in a series about the impact of NICER data for the teams of scientists who use it.

Andrea Lommen in front of Strawbridge Observatory Professor Andrea Lommen leads the timing working group in NICER, a collection of researchers who are interested in what the cadence and length of neutron star pulses can reveal about the dense matter.

“These papers are a detailed analysis of the pulse shape, but they require excellent timing in order to best detect the pulse shape,” said Lommen, whose students analyzed the NASA data.

50

Cecilia Chenxi Zhou Chemistry: Synthesis of H1632 Analogues as Lin28:pre-Let-7 Small Molecule Inhibitors of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) with a Concentration in Biochemistry Sipeng Zhou Mathematics: A Geometric Illustration and an Application of Principal Component Analysis with Minors in Statistics and Japanese Language Zhechen Zhu Computer Science: A Study of Search Algorithms and Their Properties with a Minor in Economics

How does such astronomical data make its way back down to earth? The students’ analysis is performed via computer programming. The data was downloaded from the International Space Station and stored on a server at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The Haverford students transferred the data from Goddard and analyzed it using software that was written, in part, by the NICER science team and, in part, by the students themselves.

“We worked on maintaining and gathering data through the NICER pipeline--the complicated set of procedures through which voltages in detectors on the spacecraft are converted into times of arrivals which can be used for scientific purposes,” said Montano.

Montano and Zeldes began working on this project through summer internships in Lommen’s lab, building upon work begun by Milburn, who is now earning his Ph.D. in physics and astronomy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Being published in such a prestigious journal and a part of NASA’s large-scale research is no small feat, and the students look forward to continuing to grow as astrophysicists and researchers.

“It means a lot to us and it is amazing to be a part of this research project because of the exciting new insight that this will bring to the field of pulsar timing,” said Zeldes. “I would love to continue doing research in this field and am fascinated by the fact that we have a neutron star equation of state. This result is only a forebearer of many more exciting properties of neutron stars that could be observed by NICER in future years. I've loved working on the NICER team!”

For Lommen, teaching her students about the world of scientific publishing is an essential part of preparing the next generation of researchers for life beyond Haverford.

“I think it's really important for students to see what the publication process is like,” she said. “I tend to think of it as an endurance test. These manuscripts are scientific records and they need to be precise, complete, and they need to hold up to intense scrutiny. I also think it's really important for students to understand that, to put it bluntly, research doesn't matter until it's in the public record. You can do all sorts of cool things that are totally interesting and thoroughly excite you, but until they're published, nobody knows about them. Publication allows further results to be built upon your discoveries. Publication is what creates knowledge.”

Milburn also shares in his collaborator’s excitement.

“NASA is doing some really cool stuff to forward scientific discovery, and being a part of that discovery through our contribution to this publication truly is a dream come true,” he said. “NASA's space exploration missions within and outside our solar system have been an inspiration to me as an astronomer, and really got me interested in the field in the first place. Now when I wear all the NASA gear I've been accumulating over the years, I can say, ‘I worked with NASA!’ I think that is pretty rad.”

51

KOFI ACHEAMPONG Major: Chemistry

52

53

KOFI ACHEAMPONG

Development of a Colorimetric Assay for Studying Acyl Carrier Protein-Interactions

The senior thesis project opens up a world of research that is rife with the potential for learning in new and atypical ways. Just ask Kofi Acheampong ’19, who knows that, though the independence of research allows both for more informative results and more room for error, these two options aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.

The chemistry major was led to the topic of his thesis, titled “Development of a Colorimetric Assay for Studying Acyl Carrier Protein-Interactions,” by an accident he witnessed in an earlier research experience.

“You always hear hear how the greatest scientific discoveries are often fortuitous,” Acheampong said.

“The inspiration for my thesis work was a fortuitous discovery in a research course I took a semester before my senior year… One student accidentally missed an important step in our protocol, which led to results that gave us the necessary insight for my thesis.”

Acheampong, whose thesis was supervised by Assistant Professor Lou Charkoudian, took the

54

bait offered by the error, turning a minor mistake into a valuable fuel for his senior research. His thesis enables a development of the analysis of biochemical interactions which are of relevance to the pharmaceutical field.

In addition to the increased education in the field of biochemistry that Acheampong’s thesis provided, the recent graduate also feels that he has learned much about the process of research itself. To him, being able to call his own shots and operate based off the results was just as educational as the initial error that inspired his project.

“The research process can only be taught through experience and doing my thesis allowed me to have this experience,” he reflected. “I had had a few research experiences prior to thesis, but my thesis was the first experience where I had the opportunity to dictate the direction that the research took, and I cannot stress enough how invaluable it was for me.”

What are the implications for your thesis research?

Antibiotic resistance and a resulting increase in demand for new antibiotics are current problems that threaten health outcomes for the foreseeable future. Researchers are therefore looking into the manipulation of cellular machinery in microorganisms responsible for making previously naturally discovered drugs, such as penicillin, as a means of gaining access to new “unnatural� molecules with pharmaceutical relevance. To realize this, however, we first need to thoroughly understand the workings of these cellular machinery to inform their rational manipulation through bioengineering. My thesis work could help researchers in this regard because we have developed a practical tool that could be applied in a highthroughput manner, in more ways than one, to bring us closer to discovering new antibiotics and other pharmaceutically relevant compounds.

Awards The Colin F. MacKay Prize Honors in Chemistry

Activities Include Varsity Men's Soccer, Varsity indoor and outdoor track, Senior Class Gift Committee, Phonathon caller

What are your plans for the future?

After graduation, I will be working at the Perelman School of Medicine as a research specialist in the lab of Sydney Shaffer. My work will be centered around the lab’s central theme, which is to understand how differences between single-cells generate phenotypes, such as drug resistance, oncogenesis, differentiation, and invasion. I plan to be in this position for the next two years, after which I hope to matriculate in medical school.

55

HASSAN AHMED Major: Chemistry

56

57

HASSAN AHMED

Development of an In vitro Assay to Evaluate Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Lin28:pre-Let-7 Interaction in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma The senior thesis project exposed Hassan Ahamed ’19 to the real-world applications of chemistry as he engaged in a process of drug-discovery for one of the most deadly forms of cancer. Ahamed’s thesis, “Development of an In vitro Assay to Evaluate Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Lin28:pre-Let-7 Interaction in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma,” taught the graduate just as many valuable lessons about the process of research as it did about its deadly subject-matter.

Ahamed’s research contributes to the search for a pancreatic cancer cure. The recent graduate was motivated to investigate medicinal chemistry for his thesis following his junior-year experience in “SuperLab,” taught by Robert Broadup. The course exposed him to practically applied chemistry, as the class attempted to synthesize chemicals to produce drugs that might treat the disease known as leishmaniasis.

“Although the syntheses were not easy, and often failed, I enjoyed the experience of conducting impactful scientific work that was unprecedented and not pre-engineered to be successful,” Ahamed

58

said. “In some way, the failed reactions made me appreciate the science even more and increased my persistence to find the best synthetic route.”

From there, the transition from “SuperLab” to thesis research was relatively straightforward. Interested by what he saw in Broadup’s course, Ahamed asked the visiting assistant professor to be his advisor. He began work in Broadup’s pancreatic cancer early drug discovery lab the summer prior to his senior year. Since Ahamed’s research dealt with complex and still largely unsolved issues, there were naturally roadblocks along the way.

“Instead of lingering over minor setbacks, I used them to propel my search for alternative solutions,” Ahamed said. “My advisor’s constant ambitious and positive attitude nurtured an intense yet constructive and upbeat research environment.”

The relationship that developed between Ahamed and Broadup allowed for an atmosphere that both proactively guided the student while also offering him the freedom to confront and learn from the problems brought up by his investigation.

“Rob was always there to support, advise, and mentor me throughout my thesis research,” Ahamed reflected. “Most importantly however, he encouraged and valued my ideas and independent thinking to drive the work forward.”

treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients.

What are your plans for the future?

I enjoyed working on this project very much as it addressed my joint passions for research and What did you learn from working on your thesis? medicine. As I take on a research associate position Unquestionably, one of the greatest skills I have at the New York University Langone Neuroscience learnt from working on my thesis is how to Institute for the next two years, I feel confident that “troubleshoot” instead of despairing over unexpected my experience at Haverford has well equipped me to or undesirable results. In the real world, experiments conduct rigorous and ethical scientific research with are often unsuccessful the first time they are carried resilience and virtue. My hope is to eventually pursue out, and as scientists and researchers, it is important a career in medicine. to use failure to our advantage, to grow from it and see it as a powerful source of new ideas. This tool is crucial for thriving in the field of scientific research and I have had the opportunity to develop it at Haverford not only through my thesis work, but also from the chemistry and biochemistry “SuperLab” Activities Include courses that I took during my junior year.

Street Outreach Co-head What are the implications for your thesis research?

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers out there, and there has not been enough progress towards finding a cure in the past several decades.

Despite the small scale and limited resources that we have to pursue this project, I feel privileged to be able to contribute to the field through the advancement of the drug discovery process.

Hopefully, this work will, in some way, inform the development of specific drugs for the targeted

International Students' Association Co-head Haverford Badminton Club Co-head Coordinator and Tutor for MAST (Mentoring and Student Teaching) High School Science program Pre-Health Society Research Funded By

KINSC

59

TOMAS ARAMBURU Major: Chemistry Minor: Creative Writing Concentration: Biochemistry

60

61

TOMAS ARAMBURU

In silico identification of small molecule inhibitors of the Lin28:pre-Let-7 interaction in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma Developing pancreatic cancer therapeutics in an undergraduate thesis may seem a tall order, but chemistry major, creative writing minor (at Bryn Mawr), and biochemistry concentrator Tomas Aramburu ’19 did not shy away from the challenge.

When asked about the inspiration for the project, he expressed a deft understanding of the stakes of his work and its potential impacts and benefits.

“Big picture, the inspiration for this project is the design of novel pancreatic cancer therapeutics,” he said. “Pancreatic cancer is a devastating condition and remains incredibly hard to treat, as available therapies are often very debilitating. Ultimately, my project aims to use computational approaches to design drugs that can effectively treat pancreatic cancer while limiting off-target interactions.”

It makes sense, then, that Aramburu’s thesis is one undergirded by multiple forms of collaboration, both within his lab at Haverford and between this lab and the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. He is quick to give credit to each of these sources, noting that the project would not have been possible without each and every contributor.

“The project started with Raul Mostoslavsky and his lab at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer

62

Center,” he notes. “Last year, Bereket Gebregziabher ’18 and Jessica Koshinki ’18 launched a collaboration with the Mostoslavsky Lab. [Through this partnership] I learned that collaboration is an incredibly important asset,” he said. “A few times, our project hit obstacles without easy solutions. Luckily, we managed to find collaborators with the skillsets necessary to help us clear each new hurdle. Without the support of our collaborators, we would not have access to the tools that made this project possible. Cecilia Zhou ’19, Rebecca Seeley ’19, and Hassan Ahamed ’19 made it possible to have a project with so many moving parts.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with this amazing group.”

How did your thesis advisor help you develop your topic, conduct your research, and/or interpret your results?

Dr. Robert L. Broadrup advised my thesis. Dr. Broadrup was instrumental in organizing this project and setting up important collaborations. Our work has gone all the way to Istanbul, where Dr. Broadrup presented our research at Sabanci University. That, for us, was a significant opportunity because he found a new collaborator that brought fresh eyes and some truly pivotal insight into what we were doing. Dr. Broadrup’s connections have provided top-of-theline software tools and the expertise to overcome a number of challenges. He’s been extremely supportive of my computational work, even providing his office computer for my endeavors. In the lab, Dr. Broadrup directs the synthetic projects. I think we have a good setup: I focus on identifying promising molecules, Dr. Broadrup figures out how to make them. Furthermore, Dr. Broadrup has been an important mentor during my time at Haverford. I look forward to staying in touch and continuing to work on this project after graduation.

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

I learned quite a few new skills, particularly relevant to computational approaches to drug discovery. We can use computational tools to predict how a drug will behave. We can simulate the interactions of known inhibitors in the Lin28 protein [a protein pathway identified as a target for therapeutic approaches] and then use this understanding to design more potent compounds. But there is also a very practical side—we can predict properties, like toxicity and bioavailability, or determine whether a compound is synthetically feasible, before pouring any reagents into a flask.

The ability to make predictions, based purely on a compound’s structure, saves time and resources. The methods follow an easily reproducible workflow, amenable to drug design initiatives for other diseases.

Medicinal chemistry applies useful, multidisciplinary methods and I think our approach in this project outlines a realistic framework for an undergraduate research-oriented course.

What are your plans for the future?

Next year, I will be working at the Wistar Institute, applying computational and biochemistry approaches to a different drug-discovery project. My thesis has definitely prepared me for this upcoming experience as I will be using some of the same methods. I am excited to learn new techniques and contribute what I’ve learned so far. I’m not only passionate about the biochemistry of medicine, but also the clinical side.

While there is so much to learn through research, I think ultimately I’ll be going to medical school.

Awards Cum Laude Honors in Chemistry Research funded by:

KINSC

63

GABRIEL BRAUN

Major: Chemistry Minor: French and Francophone studies Concentration: Biochemistry

64

65

GABRIEL BRAUN

Molecular Mechanism of Fibril Formation and pKa Determination of Histidine in a Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogel

Chemistry major, biochemistry concentrator, and French and Francophone studies minor Gabriel Braun ’19 built his thesis on the work of nearly a generation of Haverford chemistry students.

He had been working in Professor of Chemistry Karin Åkerfeldt’s lab since the summer after his sophomore year, and his thesis work was a continuation of past theses from the Åkerfeldt lab, including investigations conducted by at least five previous lab members.

Braun explored peptide hydrogels with a specific eye towards biomedical applications.

This investigation ultimately evolved into two smaller projects: he studied how such hydrogels aggregate, forming a gel material, and he also studied a particular way of measuring acidity within these gels. In each case, Braun’s research built simultaneously upon the local genealogy he found in the Åkerfeldt lab and upon a larger cohort of researchers, both at Haverford and internationally.

“I’ve worked closely with collaborators for both of my projects,” he said. “My research into the 66

mechanism of aggregation is in collaboration with Professor Sara Linse at the University of Lund in Sweden, while my work on the pKa determination of histidine is in collaboration with Professor Casey Londergan here at Haverford.”

Braun’s work is evidence of a deeper partnership between the Åkerfeldt lab at Haverford and the Linse lab at Lund University. Åkerfeldt’s faculty page notes that she and Linse regularly send students back and forth between their labs, and Haverford alumnus Brett Pogostin ‘18 is currently doing research funded by a Fulbright Research Award at the University of Lund with Linse and her collaborator Ulf Olsson, after having spent the summer of 2017 working with Olsson. Braun will soon be following in Pogostin’s footsteps.

“I’ll be studying peptide aggregation (in the context of Alzheimer’s disease, rather than hydrogels) in Dr. Linse’s lab in Lund under a Fulbright Research Award,” said Braun. “After that, I’m planning on pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry or biochemistry. My decision to go to grad school has definitely been influenced by my

incredibly positive experience with my thesis work.”

What is your biggest takeaway from your thesis project?

One of the most important things I’ve learned from my thesis work is the importance of collaboration in scientific research. Another important takeaway from the thesis process is the importance of a growth mindset in research. With long-term research projects, you’ll inevitably run into failure; what determines the success of a project is not so much avoiding failure, but embracing it, learning from it, and using it to make your next attempt that much better.

What are the implications for your thesis research?

Both parts of my thesis represent new ways of studying hydrogels (materials that have numerous biomedical uses). We’ve taken the approach of trying to understand hydrogels from a biophysical standpoint, rather than a materials science standpoint. Hopefully, this work will inspire further research into hydrogels through a biophysical lens, allowing for the development and optimization of new hydrogels for biomedical uses.

Awards The American Chemical Society Prize for Scholastic Achievement Phi Beta Kappa Society Summa Cum Laude High Honors in Chemistry Fulbright

Activities Include Varsity fencing Customs Peer Instruction Research funded by:

KINSC

67

EMMA BULLOCK Major: Chemistry Minor: German

68

69

EMMA BULLOCK

The Utility of Using Silicone Wristbands as Passive Samplers in Honeybee Hives

For chemistry major and German minor Emma Bullock ‘19, the thesis process was all about improvisation and re-evaluation.

Bullock’s thesis advisor was Associate Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Studies Helen White, who studies how the chemical composition of oil changes after an oil spill. Bullock’s project began the summer of 2018 as the continuation of an ongoing attempt by White’s lab to take the techniques that White uses to study oil and apply them to research into honeybee health. Although the two topics may seem entirely disparate, Bullock notes that the chemical compounds honeybees use to communicate are very similar to the ones that White studies in oil, meaning that the same instruments and techniques used to study oil spills can be efficaciously imported to the study of honeybees.

“The original idea behind this study was linking chemical signals from bees to their health state,” said the ACS-certified chemistry major. “Unfortunately, our sample size ended up being too small and the factors involved too complicated for us to feasibly carry out the originally conceptualized study.”

70

This meant Bullock needed to reimagine her project.

Reflecting on her thesis, she remarked on the centrality of such flexibility. “You need to constantly be stepping back, re-evaluating what you’re trying to accomplish, and shifting your goals when something turns out to be infeasible.”

This sense of academic agility allowed Bullock to find a new, successful way to use the techniques and instruments with which she began her project.

“We were able to create a solid method for using bands in hives and established the types of compounds they are able to identify in hives,” said Bullock.

Best of all, by moving the goalposts, Bullock simultaneously made progress on her initial project.

“This groundwork is necessary for the originally designed study to be realized in the future,” she said, recognizing that so many Haverford theses form a small part of a much larger genealogy of study. By beginning to work on this project, Bullock paved the way for future chemistry majors to study honeybee health using White’s methods for studying oil spills.

What is the title of your thesis? And what inspired your thesis work?

My thesis title is “The Utility of Using Silicone Wristbands as Passive Samplers in Honeybee Hives.”

This research was inspired by two key factors.

The first is the decline in honeybee health that has occurred over the past several decades, due to numerous factors including a rise in parasites, pathogens, pesticides, and herbicides. The second factor was the fact that current methods used to study the chemical ecology of honeybees are either complicated or extremely expensive. In this study, we wanted to see if we could develop a method for sampling the chemicals in the air of honeybee hives in a way that was both cheaper and contained no complicated mechanisms.

What are the implications for your thesis research?

How or why could this help other researchers or academics, if at all?

Hopefully, my thesis provides a foundation that will allow other researchers to perform statistical studies on honeybees, investigating honeybee health through their chemical ecology. Previously, these studies were hard to implement, because of how expensive the sampling devices were. These [silicone] bands are incredibly cheap. With the methods we developed, they could be used in a variety of honeybee studies, allowing researchers to sample larger numbers of hives at a much lower cost.

What are your plans for the future and does your thesis have anything to do helping to guide your future career path?

This upcoming year I will be working at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. The lab I will be working in deals with carbon monoxide cycling in freshwater lakes.

So while I won’t be doing anything that relates directly to honeybee research, my thesis has helped prepare me for doing other forms of environmental research, specifically due to the analytical chemistry techniques I have learned. I hope to eventually get my PhD in biogeochemistry and do research on the impact of climate change on agricultural practices.

Awards The George Pierce 1903 Prize in Chemistry Phi Beta Kappa Society Magna Cum Laude High Honors in Chemistry

Activities Include Counterpoint A Capella Research funded by:

KINSC

71

SOPHIE DREW

Majors: Biology & Spanish

72

73

SOPHIE DREW

Everything but the carbon sink: Cessation of N enrichment allows for rapid recovery of carbon cycling processes in a New England salt marsh A double major in biology and Spanish may sound like a balancing act between disparate interests, but Sophie Drew ‘19 unites these two fields through a common interest in ecological activism.

Drew’s biology thesis, which she wrote for her major at Bryn Mawr, “Everything but the carbon sink: Cessation of N enrichment allows for rapid recovery of carbon cycling processes in a New England salt marsh,” is the culmination of two summers of research with the TIDE project in Rowley, Massachusetts. While working with TIDE, Drew attempted to locate the long-term effects of nitrateenrichment on the carbon cycle in salt marshes.

The driving force of the TIDE project is a concern over humanity’s impact on natural environments, an anxiety that is echoed by the basis of Drew’s Spanish thesis, titled “El laberinto contaminado: El cambio climático y el futuro distópico de Homero Aridjis.”

“My junior year I took Graciela’s Green Latin America class, and we read ¿En quién piensas cuando haces el amor?, an eco-dystopian novel

by Mexican author and environmental activist Homero Aridjis,” Drew said. “When we were 74

asked to brainstorm possible thesis topics in senior seminar, the novel resurfaced in my mind. I found out that the book had a ‘twin,’ called La leyenda de los soles, and decided I would write about how these two novels communicate climate change and environmental disaster.”

Both Drew’s theses attempt to take a crucial step forward in their respective fields through a recognition and a confrontation of the issue of climate change. Though the discussion is one regularly had in the field of biology, Drew notes an asymmetry when it comes to literary and language studies.

“There is not a whole lot written about Homero Aridjis’ novels, especially from an ecocritical perspective,” she observed. “Its odd given how prominent a figure he is in the world of environmental activism.”

Drew’s theses’ in Spanish and biology both propose reinvigorating ways to both view and restore the world we inhabit.

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

What is your biggest takeaway from the project?

Both theses forced me to learn new skills on the fly, whether it was rewiring a frighteningly expensive piece of field equipment or expressing my thoughts on postmodernist theory in Spanish. I learned the value of “fake it ’til you make it”, and the value of reaching out for guidance when I needed it.

What are the implications for your thesis research?

My bio research is part of the first major experiment looking at carbon cycling recovery in salt marshes after nitrogen enrichment. The results were promising, and there’s a lot more work to be done to determine whether the recovery we saw is lasting and sufficient to restore carbon sink function in threatened salt marshes.

What are your plans for the future and does your thesis have anything to do helping to guide your future career path?

This summer I have a remote sensing and plant physiology research internship at the Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island. After that I’ll start a job as a lab technician in a soil biogeochemistry lab at Virginia Tech. I’ll be working in an agricultural system rather than a marsh, but the fieldwork skills I’ve developed will transfer well. The process of writing both theses also strengthened my written and oral communication skills, which I’ll definitely need in the future.

Sweeney Creek, one of the TIDE Project field sites

Awards Cum Laude Honors in Biology at BMC and Spanish

Activities Include Women's Cross Country and Track, ETHOS Food Initiative, Food Systems Working Group

75

SAM EPSTEIN

Major: Chemistry Concentration: Biochemistry

76

77

SAM EPSTEIN

Probing Chain Sequestration in Carrier Proteins Using Raman Spectroscopy

For Sam Epstein ‘19, his senior thesis was an opportunity for the chemistry major with a biochemistry concentration to cap four years of lab experience in a project that was published in science journal Nature Communications—an extraordinary feat for an undergraduate.

weekly meeting where I would frequently present my research progress and ask other students in our lab for help troubleshooting or planning next steps of our research.”

The biochemical process at the heart of Epstein’s work, which received an Honorable Mention at the Epstein’s thesis, “Probing Chain Sequestration 2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, in Carrier Proteins Using Raman Spectroscopy,” has implications for the field of pharmacology, and pioneered an innovative and more affordable manner his work points towards a more sustainable means of to analyze acyl carrier proteins, molecules so difficult producing antibiotics. to trace that the full nuances of their structure and interaction with each other have eluded scientists.

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

“I independently designed, conducted, and analyzed The goal of my project was to attach a site-specific the results of my own experiments.” said Epstein.

Raman-active probe to the acyl carrier protein (ACP) The senior, who is on his way to NYU for a Ph.D. in in place of its natural substrate to effectively report chemistry this fall, was also happy to acknowledge on whether it is sequestered within the protein’s the assistance he received on the way towards his hydrophobic cavity. This technique would provide achievement. a quick method for resolving structural information about the ACP and is crucial for elucidating “My thesis advisor was [Assistant Professor] Lou protein-substrate interactions. I independently Charkoudian,” said Epstein. “We would meet often designed, conducted, and analyzed the results of to help guide the direction of my future experiments my own experiments. I learned how to express and lab progress. Additionally, our lab group has a and purify proteins, perform chemoenzymatic

78

reactions to attach a probe to the ACP, and use Raman spectroscopy to analyze how the probe can be leveraged to report on its own electrostatic environment. As a Biochemistry Superlab teaching assistant, I also trained my peers to perform these methods. I not only attained my goal of completing the proof-of-concept experiment to validate our proposed novel method but I also expanded the scope of our analysis to incorporate probes of different sizes and include “novel ACPs,� for which their structure had never previously been characterized by any technique. I also incorporated site-directed mutagenesis into this work to gain a better understanding of which parts of the protein govern the chain sequestration mechanism.

What are the implications for your thesis research?

As ACPs are central to polyketide biosynthesis, a clear implication of this work is to facilitate the engineering of the biological systems that are used to produce complex molecules, including pharmaceuticals. This new technique, when published, will introduce a new method for producing data on chain sequestration and protein conformation that is less resource, sample and time intensive than conventional methods.

Awards High Honors in Chemistry National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

Activities Include Residential Life Committee (cohead), Haverford College Democrats (cohead) Research Funded By

KINSC

79

MAIRIN FITZPATRICK Major: Mathematics Minor: Environmental Studies

80

81

MAIRIN FITZPATRICK Mathematically Modeling the Western Honeybee Population Over Time With Respect To Colony Collapse Disorder: A Senior Bee-this

W

hen deciding on a topic for her thesis, mathematics major and environmental studies minor Mairin Fitzpatrick ‘19 knew that the modeling tools of mathematics could be fruitfully used to study any number of environmental issues. She just had to pick one.

She sharpened her search by emphasizing contemporary relevance and urgency, settling on an investigation of Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees. In her view, this decision split the difference between her criteria.

“Colony Collapse Disorder is currently both a huge environmental problem and a really interesting phenomenon,” she said. “There is very little research within the mathematical community on honeybees.”

Because of this dearth of pre-existing studies, exploring Colony Collapse Disorder allowed her to develop new, mathematical perspectives on a pressing environmental issue.

Who was your thesis advisor? And how did they help you develop your thesis topic, conduct your research, and/or interpret your results?

82

My advisor was Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Rob Manning. From the beginning, Rob was extremely supportive of my decision to study honeybees and expressed a genuine interest in learning more about them in order to guide me in my research. He was great at asking questions that got me to think about the research in a different way and he was always full of suggestions as to how I could further my research every time I got stuck or felt like I hit a dead-end.

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

What is your biggest takeaway from the project?

I learned to not always take academic papers at face value. I spent the entire year studying primarily one mathematical paper, and the first time I read it I kind of just blindly agreed with everything the authors said.

But, every time I read the paper after that, and as I did my own research on honeybees, I only had more questions. I learned that it is important to be critical of academic papers and that no one source is perfect.

What are your plans for the future and does your thesis have anything to do helping to guide your future career path?

I am about to start a career in Operations Research where I will do some mathematical modeling and programming. This career path is, unfortunately, not bee-related, but working on this thesis did give me the opportunity to strengthen my programming skills and to work with a more complicated model that I wouldn’t have even seen in my regular elective courses. It was a valuable experience that I was able to discuss in my job interviews, and maybe I’ll have the opportunity to do math for the sake of bettering the environment again someday!

Activities Include Haverford Libraries student worker Course Assistant for the Math Department, and lover of Haverford a-cappella

83

JHARNA JAHNAVI

Major: Biology Minors: Neuroscience, Health Studies

84

85

JHARNA JAHNAVI

Investigating Wolbachia Transfection and Cytoplasmic Incompatibility in Invasive Insect Species

You may not know it, but your fruit is in danger.

Luckily for you, however, Jharna Jahnavi ’19 is on the case. The biology major’s thesis, “Investigating Wolbachia Transfection and Cytoplasmic Incompatibility in Invasive Insect Species,” examined a non-toxic method of controlling the population of the Drosophila suzukii.

D. suzukii pose a threat to the agricultural industry by attacking fruit at a much earlier stage than their standard fruit-fly counterparts. Jahnavi’s thesis studies a potential method of combating this through the injection of Wolbachia bacteria into the insects. Ideally, the biological traits of the bacteria would enable widespread infection and a reduced population of flies.

“Beyond the many technical skills, science communication, presentation and critical thinking skills I developed from working on my thesis, I also truly learned how to do independent research,” said Jahnavi, who graduated from her department with high honors. “The process of creating something not simply for a credit or grade, but for my own interest and passion was incredibly self-fulfilling and part of why I want to continue engaging with research in the future.”

86

Jahnavi’s independence appears to originate from a top-down involvement in the steps of her investigation. From catching flies on campus to carrying out a complicated injection of the insects’ embryos, she was the primary actor.

Jahnavi, who also minored in neuroscience and health studies, wasn’t entirely alone, however, as her thesis was advised by Associate Professor Rachel Hoang. She also received feedback from classmates along the way.

“The biology thesis at Haverford has around four seniors assigned to particular lab,” she said. “I really enjoyed working alongside my peers and learning collaboration skills, as well as taking an interest in their projects’ development and progress throughout the year.”

The balance between independent thinking and collaborative work appears to be at the center of research for Jahnavi. Such a dichotomy reflects her dual-observation that her thesis is both a reflection on her time in the community of the biology department and a promise of what she’ll be able to accomplish individually post-graduation.

“I think overall my biggest takeaway was truly feeling that I had accomplished an incredible amount throughout my undergrad career,” Jahnavi reflected.

was successfully infecting my flies after many many trials of injections! This strain of flies can be used to establish a lab line of flies for further behavioral testing.

“The thesis was simply a capstone to all that work, but it really tied it all together to make me feel prepared and ready to not only leave Haverford, but also take on the challenges of independent, creative work involving problem solving, critical thinking, and continued curiosity.”

What are your plans for the future?

I am working as a research assistant in for a few years before applying to medical school…. I think that while my career goals are in medicine, conducting research in an issue that is more based in environmentalism was really powerful and exciting for me as I was aware How did your thesis advisor help you develop your that I would not be engaging in this type of research topic, conduct your research, and/or interpret your in the future. I enjoyed the opportunity to explore results? research in a topic that is new and unique to me, and I Rachel Hoang was an incredible advisor. She really greatly value that exposure. helped me develop my research to be based on prior work but truly unique as well, and I think this was critical in helping my sense of ownership and investment in the work. Rachel was instrumental in helping me conduct the research, as well as Awards interpreting my results and helping me brainstorm The Ariel G. Loewy Prize for Senior ways of troubleshooting when things went wrong.

Research in Biology Overall though, regardless of the technical support The Martin Foss Award and help, Rachel was an incredible advisor helping me Cum Laude develop my independent research skills, mentoring High Honors in Biology me, as well as encouraging and reassuring me. I truly feel that I developed a lot as a senior and am Activities Include now prepared to take on the challenges of working Admission Tour Guide, Host, and independently in the future, as well as the dedication required to do research work.

Senior Interviewer Tri-Co Social Justice SRP What are the implications of your thesis research?

Customs AMA I was very excited to have results for my thesis. Most Afreen Dance Group of my results enable our lab to continue research, and Co-head of The Spectrum I hope they will help further students develop their The South-Asian Society own thesis topics and delve deeper. My biggest result

87

REILLY MILBURN

Majors: Physics and Astronomy

88

89

REILLY MILBURN

Transiting Exoplanet Follow-Up Using Small Telescopes Senior thesis research took physics and astronomy double major Reilly Milburn ’19 out of this world. By studying planets in other solar systems and the tools used to observe them, Milburn gained an intimate perspective on the daily kinematics of our cosmos.

been reported,” said Milburn. “For my thesis, we wanted to see if we could do this follow-up work with Haverford’s modestly sized 16-inch-diameter reflecting telescope.”

This question of whether or not Haverford’s Milburn’s project, although dense and technical observatory could support such follow-up work in realization, has a simple and elegant conceit. It actually became the central investigation of Milburn’s begins with astronomical objects known as transiting thesis. He arrived at this guiding question with the exoplanets. help of Jessie Christiansen of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute.

“Exoplanets are planets that exist outside of our own solar system—that is, they orbit stars that are not “The summer before my senior year, I had the our Sun,” said Milburn. “A transiting exoplanet is a privilege of meeting exoplanet researcher Jessie special type of exoplanet that passes directly through Christiansen when she gave a talk about how citizen our line of sight to a star.” science can be used to assist exoplanet detection,” said Milburn.

When these transiting exoplanets pass in front of stars, astronomers can measure a decrease in the Christiansen’s invocation of citizen science— star’s brightness. This measurement can then be used scientific research conducted by amateur scientists to track the exoplanet in a process called “following with relatively common equipment—led Milburn up.” to be curious about what kinds of astronomical tools are actually necessary for exoplanet research.

“When we ‘follow up’ on an exoplanet, it simply Under the tutelage of his thesis advisor, Associate means we are confirming from previous observations Professor of Physics and Astronomy Karen Masters, that an exoplanet does exist somewhere it has already Milburn explored this question by determining what

90

types of transiting exoplanets can be detected from Haverford’s observatory.

“What we found is that Haverford should be able to detect large exoplanets orbiting bright stars,” said Milburn. “It’s super exciting that such groundbreaking research can be done in the observatory on campus.”

thesis than I initially thought. As I continue to work in astronomy, I certainly won’t take clear skies for granted.

What are your plans for the future and does your thesis have anything to do with guiding your future career path?

I have accepted an offer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to pursue my Ph.D. in their physics and astronomy department, starting in the What did you learn from working on your thesis? fall. I hope to continue exoplanet research in the near I feel like I have learned a great deal from my thesis future as part of my Ph.D. The thesis allowed me to work. Being that no Haverford professor specializes explore exoplanets in great depth, and I am definitely in exoplanet research themselves, it felt even more excited to learn more about them. I very much so like an independent research project. I was able to enjoyed being able to take my own astronomical data get lots of hands on experience with the astronomical for the thesis, and I hope to continue hands-on work instruments and software Haverford has to offer, with astronomical instruments in the future. especially the 16-inch telescope and the CCD camera. Having completed the thesis, I definitely feel comfortable operating a telescope and taking my own images.

Awards The Louis B. Green Prize in Physics and Astronomy What is your biggest takeaway from the project?

Honors in Astronomy I would say the biggest takeaway for me was learning about all the challenges that come with taking Activities Include exoplanet data, as well as astronomical observations Co-Head of Haverford's generally. Some challenges we were able to tackle Public Observing Program by the end of the year, such as getting the dome to Member of Walter Smith's Physics Band move properly, or pointing the telescope correctly.

However, some challenges are simply unavoidable.

The weather proved to be a bigger obstacle to this

91

CECI SILBERSTEIN Majors: Environmental Studies and Mathematics

92

93

CECI SILBERSTEIN

Monitoring Stream Health: Comparing Urbanness to Macroinvertebrate Health With Quantile Regression for Watershed Managements Ceci Silberstein ’19 is the first Haverford student to graduate with a major from the newly-minted BiCollege Department of Environmental Studies. The department, which previously only offered a minor, was able to expand to a major after years of work from faculty, administration, and students. (Search committee representatives Kaitlin Reese ’20 and Ashley Boyette BMC ’20 were instrumental in bringing this major to life.)

of these partnerships. Professor Donnay also helped me balance the Water Department’s interest with the expectations for a ‘math thesis’ at Bryn Mawr—your typical water-resource management paper wouldn’t include a mathematical proof!”

Specifically, Silberstein studied how statistical methods can be used to track the effectiveness of tools that measure the holistic healthfulness of a waterway.

“My project was a small piece in an ongoing effort by As if being the first Haverford major weren’t enough, the Philadelphia Water Department to test the efficacy Silberstein also majored in mathematics at Bryn Mawr of an existing stream health monitoring strategy on and wrote a joint mathematics-environmental studies Philadelphia streams,” said Silberstein. “We learned thesis by using statistical tools to study the biological that there’s a way to go as far as collecting and health of streams. organizing relevant data before it is possible to fully Silberstein was guided in this singular undertaking implement this tool.”

by Bryn Mawr Mathematics Professor Victor Donnay, Part of this difficulty comes from the environments in who also carries an affiliation with the environmental which these waterways exist: as portions of an urban studies department. As a liaison between the two ecosystem, these streams are susceptible to all sorts of departments in which Silberstein studied, Donnay was biological factors. Because of this, Silberstein’s work able to help her identify a project that simultaneously hinged on being able to conglomerate measurements satisfied the requirements of both departments’ thesis of these factors into one workable mathematical projects by partnering Silberstein with the Philadelphia structure.

Water Department.

“Professor Donnay has formed many partnerships with “We were able to take the existing data on different organizations around the city for praxis courses at Bryn characteristics describing the ‘urbanness’ of a Mawr—courses that teach applied math in the context watershed and synthesize them into a single gradient,” of real-world projects,” she said. “My project with the she said. “We also used GIS [geographic information Philadelphia Water Department stemmed from one system] software to plug the existing data into the 94

U.S. Geological Survey’s more wide-reaching Stream Stats database to collect data on additional watershed characteristics and develop an ‘alternate urbanness’ gradient.”

Ultimately, Silberstein’s work set the stage for future iterations of this project. By honing the statistical tools used for the study, she has primed the Water Department to expand the project’s scope and effectiveness.

“The next step for the water department is pairing these gradients with biological data,” she said. “This will be a challenge because that data needs to be consolidated, cleaned up, and then processed into a gradient, but it was encouraging to see that learning a little bit of technology can enable a wide array of data for hundreds of sites to be synthesized into a useful tool.”

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

I got the chance to learn about ecology, statistics, and resource management from the perspective of water managers. Our partners at the Water Department sent over some of the existing literature on the statistical tool they are developing, and from there we explored some of the underlying math and history.

It was interesting to see how the same biological health indicators that you can look at pretty much anywhere in the country need to be scaled differently to differentiate sites in highly urban areas. It was also interesting to see that landscape “urbanness” in the context of the biological health of streams can be boiled down to the same widely available characteristics in many urban areas. This gives hope for future information sharing and resource sharing among urban water departments across the country!

What are your plans for the future and did your thesis have anything to do with helping to guide your future career path?

I will be working for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society through the Haverford House fellowship.

The Philadelphia Water Department has a growing program to address stormwater management through strategic greenspace. Many of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s gardens support their irrigation with rainwater. There are lots of little overlaps in the organizations’ goals, resources, and bureaucracies and I am looking forward to exploring the same issues of organism health, water management, and public health from different angles in the coming year. My thesis dealt with synthesizing different numerical ways of describing one taxanomic group’s health, but there are lots of different ways of talking about health, and there are lots of ways organisms are deeply intertwined across an ecosystem, so I will be taking these quantitative skills with me and learning about new layers and techniques as I learn more about Philadelphia’s particular ecological, infrastructural, and public health challenges and hone in on my own interests and niche.

Awards Environmental Engagement Award Haverford House Fellowship

95

DYLAN SLACK

Major: Computer Science

96

97

DYLAN SLACK

Expert Assisted Transfer Reinforcement Learning Computer science is a constantly growing area of study, and Dylan Slack’s thesis in the department takes an exploratory step into the vast and emergent territory of machine learning. Slack’s thesis, “Expert Assisted Transfer Reinforcement Learning,” attempts to apply the work of machine learning, which is concerned with the decision-making processes of computational models, in service of human application.

“Part of the mandate in the CS department is that the thesis can be read by anyone with the background given in the CS curriculum,” said Slack. “I learned how to balance relevant background with forward looking results and experiments. It was difficult but interesting to figure out how to strike a good balance between the two.”

Slack’s work will be of continued relevance, not just His thesis advisor was Assistant Professor of Computer to the computer science community, but to his future Science Sorelle Friedler. “We’re both interested in how work as well, he will be pursuing a Ph.D. in computer machine learning models can better interface with science at UC Irvine starting this fall. people,” said Slack, “both in the sense of how usable they are and how well people can understand the How did your advisor help you develop your thesis motivations behind their decisions.” topic, conduct your research, and/or interpret your results?

Machine learning models learn to solve problems [Sorelle and I] thought it would be interesting to through repeated interactions which garner data develop a method to allow a human expert to interpret that in turn reinforms the model’s decision making the knowledge moved from one environment to process. Slack’s thesis handles Transfer Learning in another and edit it to better suit another environment. particular, which he said “deals with how we can use This method is applied in the case of “deep a model trained in one environment to achieve better reinforcement learning,” which uses models called performance in another.” neural networks. These type of models have been really successful for things like video games. When Computer science research necessitates you see in the headline “AI beats human at X game,” a communication among peers in order to produce lot of the time it’s a model that uses a neural network. I the most effective outcomes in the future, and Slack’s came up with a couple simple toy scenarios and found thesis is notably in dialogue with the greater CS that the method I developed worked pretty well in community and its work. achieving better performance across environments.

98

Illustration of 3D Mountain Car

What are the implications for your thesis research?

Methods in machine learning for the most part don’t pull from the advice of human experts. I think my thesis indicates that more work is needed in the areas of incorporating domain expertise in more significant ways in machine learning models. Because my work was exploratory, hopefully in the future people can find more robust real-world applications. I’ll be working on a more robust application to chemicalreaction exploration over the summer.

Awards Magna Cum Laude High Honors in Computer Science

Activities Include Varsity Lacrosse Computer Science Research

99

NICK SWEENEY Major: Astrophysics

100

101

NICK SWEENEY

Halo Formation and Ultra-light Axion Dark Matter

Though we can’t see dark matter, a phenomenon described by Nick Sweeney ’19 as “the mysterious material that comprises over 80 percent of matter in the universe,” the astrophysics major found that the subject still encouraged plenty of observations.

“I wrote a computer code in the Python programming language that computes both the ‘clumpiness’ of galaxy clusters during different epochs of the universe, as well as how tightly packed each galaxy is,” said Sweeney.

For his senior thesis, titled “Halo Formation and Ultra-light Axion Dark Matter,” Sweeney analyzed and compared the varying models which are used to conceptualize this invisible substance.

The senior’s application of his programming to the pre-existing forms of modeling enabled him to achieve a new way of testing the models, a research achievement which helped provide him with the opportunity of presenting at the American Astronomical Society’s meeting at Seattle this past January.

“My thesis enabled me to engage with the competing models for dark matter, and I found this very rewarding,” said Sweeney, who was guided through his research both by his advisor, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Daniel Grin, and by his experience engaging in similar research in 2018 through the KINSC Summer Scholars program at Haverford.

The amount of time Sweeney dedicated towards his research enabled him to both analyze a series of preestablished models for dark matter and engineer his own code.

102

“These opportunities helped me become a better communicator of my work and to share my results with professionals in the field of dark matter, as well as students interested in learning about this field,” he said speaking on the experience.

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

I learned how applying various different models for dark matter affects the distribution of galaxies in the universe. One particular model posits that theoretical particles, known as axions, are the fundamental

constituents of dark matter. This model became the central focus of my inquiry. I enjoyed learning the particle physics background of axions, as well as their hypothesized influence on large-scale structure in the cosmos. In the larger picture, perhaps my biggest takeaway was learning that progress in scientific research is non-linear. There were often weeks when I would make little to no progress, as well as days when I was able to make major breakthroughs on several of the plots central to my thesis.

What are the implications of your thesis research?

My research is impactful because I made both of these kinds of computations for the axion dark matter model. To my knowledge, this model has not been thoroughly tested in this way before.

My work is primarily theoretical, but it can also be cross-checked observationally. Thus, my work is potentially helpful to astrophysicists who observationally measure the “clumpiness� of galaxy clusters and their individual densities.

Awards Phi Beta Kappa Society Magna Cum Laude High Honors in Astrophysics

Activities Include Haverford Men's Tennis (4 years, cocaptain 2018-19); Mock Trial (Attorney 2015-16); Haverford Law Review (Editorial board member 2018-19); HC Strength and Conditioning Committee (2018-19).

Research funded by:

KINSC

103

104

SOCIAL SCIENCES

105

SOCIAL SCIENCE AT HAVERFORD RESEARCH-BASED LEARNING, INTELLECTUAL EXCHANGE, AND ISSUES THAT MATTER

Haverford faculty are deeply engaged in the scholarly work of their fields for the benefit of Haverford students. The core of the classroom experience at Haverford is learning from and engaging with your professors' direct research and scholarship, and having the opportunity to be an active, vital participant in every class you take. This foundation makes Haverford the perfect place to study the Social Sciences.

THEORY AND PRACTICE

The Social Sciences at Haverford are distinctive in the interdisciplinary approach taken by our faculty, the emphasis on and opportunity for praxis, and institutional support provided by the Academic Centers, most notably the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship. Social Sciences students at Haverford are: • Conducting independent research on and off campus • Collaborating with faculty on their scholarship • Conducting field work — both independently and as part of formal classes, particularly utilizing the greater Philadelphia area • Attending conferences and colloquia, and putting together conferences on campus to further explore topics and issues • Participating in self-designed summer internships around the world, funded by the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship • Our emphasis on real world applications of scholarly theory and a sense of responsibility to the wider world mean Haverford students participate in active research that will have a real impact.

Many students in the social sciences find work in think tanks, policy-research organizations, and political campaigns that enable them to draw from their thesis experiences and research.

106

The Class of 2019 Thesis Projects in the Social Sciences

107

Vaidehi Agarwalla Sociology: “Top Down” Revolutions: Group Mobilization in the Success of Soviet-Era Democratic Independence Movements with Minors in Greek and Statistics Raquel Michelle Aguayo Psychology: “Well, It Depends on the Context:”A Situational Success Model for the Enhancement of Music Media Appeal and Success with a Minor in Neuroscience

TALIA SCOTT ’19 LAUNCHES FUND SUPPORTING BLACK WOMEN APPLYING TO LAW SCHOOL Inspired to increase the number of Black women lawyers and motivated by the prohibitively high costs associated with law school applications, the aspiring lawyer created the Legally BLK Fund, which has raised over $14,000 in one month.

Talia Scott ’19 has long wanted to be a lawyer and has worked doggedly to make that dream come true. At Haverford, the political science major wrote her thesis on the emergence of an American prosecutorial reform movement while interning in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. She commuted weekly to New York City during her senior year to intern for 300 Entertainment Director of Business and Legal Affairs Danielle Logan ’12.

And currently, she works as a banking and credit paralegal at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where she has also taken on pro bono immigration work. But as she prepared to apply to law school, Scott discovered just how expensive the next steps on her professional journey could be. “[The] costs became a financial burden and an additional source of stress, and I even accumulated credit card debt to fund my goal of applying to law school,” she said.

“When reflecting on the costs and how much money I spent, I thought about how, if the financial costs of the application process were a barrier for me, they were probably a barrier for other young Black women as well.”

Scott was frustrated with how costly it was to prepare for and take the LSAT and how inaccessible that made applying to law school feel to a first-generation college graduate. She was also disappointed to learn how few attorneys like her exist in America, where only 5% of lawyers are Black and only 2% are Black women.

“As I thought about the lack of representation in law, I constantly thought about these percentages, as well as the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, which had taken an emotional toll on me,” she said. “In light of the continued injustice and questions regarding whether their killers will be held accountable and if the district attorney[s] would bring the appropriate charges, I thought about the need for more Black attorneys, especially Black women in law.”

So Scott created the Legally BLK Fund. (Its name is a nod to the Reese Witherspoon movie Legally Blonde, one of her favorites.) She initially had a modest goal: to raise $5,000 to support the costs associated with applying to law school for five Black women. She got to work quickly, launching the fund via her Instagram account and collecting money via Venmo and the I Have a Dream Foundation only one day after she first hatched the idea.

108

Simon Estep Balukonis Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Neoliberal Nights: Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Dance Music and Club Culture in Chicago Jane Rose Bary Political Science: Unchartered Territory: Assessing Parental Involvement in New York City’s Charter Schools Louise Grace Slabaugh Bednarik Political Science: The Relationship Between Gentrification and Community Control, Organizational Goals, and Political Framing in Community Land Trusts with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Claire Elizabeth Burdick Psychology: It’s Not Just Black and White: Effects of Social Status and Race on Visual Attention, Own-Race Bias, and Employment Discrimination with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Michael Patrick Carr Jr. Political Science: Lessons From University City: Re-Imagining How Communities, Anchor Institutions, and Cities Can Drive Equitable Development Outcomes Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Brewing a Neighborhood for the Creative Class: Placemaking, Branding, and Gentrification in Brewerytown, Philadelphia Rebecca Mu Jie Chang Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Searching for Belonging in Ethnic Identity: Young Second-Generation Chinese-Peruvians in Lima, Peru with a Minor in Spanish Alexander Simon Clark Economics: It’s Not Just Black and White: Testing for Racial Discrimination and Own-Race Bias Among NFL Officials with a Minor in Health Studies

Opal Rose Slabaugh Bednarik Political Science: Investigating the Social Outcomes of Community Infrastructure: A Case Study of Philadelphia Community Infrastructure Investments and Linear Reuse Parks with a Minor in Educational Studies

Benjamin Timothy Clark Economics: Keeping Fans in the Game: An Examination of How Competitive Balance in Major League Baseball Affects Fan Attendance with a Minor in International Studies at Bryn Mawr College

Daniel David Bendelac Political Science: Right-Wing Populism in Southern Europe: The Spanish Anomaly?

Bess Eleanor Pastan Cohen Sociology at Bryn Mawr College with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Reiss Martin Berger Economics: Corporate Sponsorship in Professional Soccer: Does It Pay to Support a Winner?

Zachary Atticus Cohen Economics: School Funding and K–12 Public Education in the United States: The Role of Expenditures in Promoting Student Achievement

Julia Blake Political Science: Representative Bureaucracy Theory and Civil Rights Enforcement: Analyzing the Impact of Institutional Leadership on Title IX Compliance Robert Nicholas Borek Political Science: The Ethics of Nudging Civic Virtue with a Minor in Arabic at Swarthmore College Jason Luis Bravo International Studies at Bryn Mawr College: Ecuador’s Blueprint for Economic Development: An Investigation of Dollarization Under the Rafael Correa Administration with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies Julian G. Bright Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Mega Projects as Catalysts of Gentrification in the Nation’s Capital: An Exploration of the District’s Black-White Residential Divide John Henry Brower History: Reading Peasant Voices Through Environmental Violence: The 1641 Irish Rebellion with Minors in Environmental Studies and Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies at Bryn Mawr College Kelly Aust Brown Economics: NAFTA’s Impact on Local Labor Markets in Mexico with a Minor in Neuroscience

Noah Eagle Connors Sociology: Instagram vs. Reality: Conceptions of Authenticity Among Instagram’s Micro-Influencers with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Alexandra Margaret Corcoran Political Science: Mobilizing Medicaid: Understanding Advocacy Group Action at the State Level and Spanish at Bryn Mawr College Andrew James Cornell History: War Psychoses: Composition, Ideology, and Reception of the Music of Alban Berg From 1912 to 1935 Abigael Crowley Political Science: Exploring China and Russia’s Delegation to Cyber Proxies Dayana Rachel Davila Portillo Psychology: Postpartum Anxiety Behavior in Female Syrian Hamsters: The Roles of Hormone Withdrawal and Oxytocin Receptor Activity in the Dorsal Raphe Nucleus with a Minor in Health Studies Stephen N. DeLeo Political Science: Partners in Conflict: The Mechanisms Explaining U.S. Proxy Group Selection

Carol Lee Kongo Diallo Sociology at Bryn Mawr College: Resisting in Plain Sight: Empowerment, Social Change, and Everyday Resistance in the Natural Hair Movement with a Minor in Spanish Aditya Paul Dias Economics: Guilt and Generosity: An Experimental Approach to Maximizing Donations with a Minor in Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College Shaquana Renee Drury History: Manly Honor or Reckless Violence? The Culture of Boxing in 18th-Century London Ryan Nicholas Dukarm Economics: Does Running Fast Lead to Thinking Fast? Evidence From the NFL Combine and NFL Draft with a Minor in Statistics Luke Austin Duris Economics: Performance Compensation: How Are NBA Collective Bargaining Agreements and Players’ Union Movements Improving Players’ Compensation for Their Performance?

Andrew James Eaddy Political Science: Innovation in Terrorist Financing: Interrogating Varying Levels of Cryptocurrency Adoption in al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Islamic State with a Concentration in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Charles Mosby Frindt Political Science: The Power of Ideas: How Intellectuals and the Ideologies They Market Can Realign American Politics with a Minor in Linguistics Joshua Leonard Damrad Frye Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College: The Breaking Point: Land Use and Sustainability in the Mayan City of Caracol Kahlil Garnes Economics: The Monetary and Social Opportunity Cost of Entering the NBA Draft Directly From High School Versus Completing One Year of College Before Entering the Draft Dylan Russell Gearinger Psychology: Examining the Relationship Between ΔFosB in the Nucleus Accumbens and Anxiety Following Hormone-Simulated Pregnancy with a Minor in Neuroscience Eitan Geller-Montague Political Science: Rivals and Partners: Explaining the Dynamic Nature of Israel-Palestinian Authority Security Cooperation with a Minor in Economics and a Concentration in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Alison Gibbons Psychology: Towards a Neurobiology of Peripartum Mood Disorders: ΔFosB Induction in the Nucleus Accumbens Following a HormoneSimulated Pregnancy with a Minor in Neuroscience Quinn Tree Glabicki Political Science: Satirical Subversion for Participatory Politics: Authoritarian Drift, the Two-Tailed Dog Party, and Political Cynicism

Christopher Joseph Glazer Economics: Are Consumers Rational? A Look at NBA Teams’ End of Game Shot Selection with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies Maëlys Josephine Glück Political Science at Bryn Mawr College: Outsourcing Genocide: On Domestic Security and Centrifugal Forces in Myanmar Christopher Douglas Goings Economics: Federal Credit Market Intervention as Fiscal Policy: Federal Credit and Its Impact on Commercial Bank Lending and Liquidity, 1976–2018 with a Minor in Global Asia Micaela Leah Gold History: Converging Identities: The Creation of Argentine Sephardim in the Early 20th Century with a Minor in Spanish and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Kyle Jason Goldfarb International Studies at Bryn Mawr College with a Minor in History of Art at Bryn Mawr College Olivia Eileen Graziano Political Science: Which Women’s Rights? A Comparative Analysis of Gender-Based Asylum Claims in U.S. Federal Courts with a Minor in History of Art at Bryn Mawr College and a Concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies Amanda Jeanne Grolig Sociology: Restorative Justice Education and Masculinity: Three Interactional Resources Gained in a Prison Context with a Minor in Spanish and a Concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies Isabella Gross Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Transforming Khayelitsha: Space, Security, and Problems of Structural Reform in Cape Town, South Africa with a Minor in Environmental Studies Madeline Celia Guth Political Science: Addressing Unintendedness: An Analysis of LARCFocused Initiatives to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy Among LowIncome Women with Minors in Chinese Language, Statistics, and Health Studies Gabriel Halperin-Goldstein Sociology: The New War on Drugs: How Biomedicine and Science Have Disguised the Value Conflict Over Harm Reduction with Minors in Health Studies and Economics Sarah Low Haviland Political Science: Rationales for State Proxy Shifts in Conflict with a Concentration in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies ShuMin He Anthropology: Memorialization of the Underrepresented: The Tacoma Chinese Reconciliation Park Emily Sonia Levine Herzfeld Political Science: Excessive Force and Barriers to Justice in the Courts: How and Why Liability Fails with a Minor in French and Francophone Studies

But with hundreds of likes and thousands of views on her post in just three days—including a repost from Insecure star Amanda Seales—she already raised twice her goal amount.

“The moment the fund reached $5,000, I sat in my apartment and cried for a few minutes,” she said. “I was in shock and overwhelmed by all the support and words of encouragement. By then, I received a few hundred messages of support from family, friends, Haverford students, and alumni. However, I was truly moved by the messages and emails from young Black women all across the country who were thanking me, telling me that they would apply to the fund and telling me that they were so grateful that someone thought of supporting young Black women in this way. Reading those messages was the confirmation that I needed. It proved that I was onto something bigger than me and my personal journey.”

Scott’s fundraising is unique among efforts designed to increase representation in the legal field because it’s not a recruiting or financial aid project. As a law school applicant herself, Scott knows the “hidden” outlays aspiring lawyers need to make before ever setting foot on campus—she, herself, said she spent more than $5,000 preparing for and taking the LSAT because scores are such an important factor in law school admission decisions—and she suspected they contributed to the low representation of people who look like her in the legal profession.

“In order to increase the percentage of Black people and Black women in law, we would have to reduce some of the barriers to even getting into law school, which starts at the pre-law or application process,” she said.

Since June 18, the Legally BLK Fund has raised more than $14,400, which Scott says will support 10 Black women on their journeys to law school. She has had more than 100 applicants for funding, though, so she is now committing to raise $30,000 to be able to back more of them. Scott has also decided to expand her project’s scope by pairing each recipient with a mentor and by planning to offer additional support, such as pre-law webinars and classes, law school admissions coaching, professional development opportunities, and grants and scholarships for current law school students.

“The goal is to have a network and community of women who receive support from the Legally BLK Fund and are successful in their law school journey and beyond,” she said.

To that end, Scott is in the process of turning her fund into a 501c3 nonprofit thanks to guidance from Vincent Indelicato ’03 and his firm, Proskauer Rose LLP. Danielle Logan ’12, the mentor who supervised her 300 Entertainment internship, is her first official Board member. Though Scott is busy with her job at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and her own law school applications for next year, she is committed to growing the Legally BLK Fund into a sustainable, long-term entity that will continue as she pursues her own legal career.

“What started as an idea is now my passion project and one of the reasons why I am excited to start my day in the morning,” she said. “... I hope this fund and the subsequent nonprofit creates a long-lasting pipeline for young Black women who want to enter the legal profession. The goal is to raise that 2%, and I think we’re on our way to doing that!”

For more information, email talia@legallyblkfund.org or follow the fund's Instagram account.

109

OPEN HOUSE TEAM BUILDS OPEN-SOURCE ARCHITECTURE Austin Huber ’19 and Nicky Rhodes ’19 are taking advantage of the burgeoning makerspace movement to build a sustainable, open-source design platform that allows customers to fully personalize their spaces.

Growth and structure of cities majors Austin Huber ’19 and Nicky Rhodes ’19 have a vision: they want to fundamentally change how people imagine furniture and housing. As one of the two student groups in last year’s Haverford Innovations Program (HIP) Summer Incubator—a VCAM-centered program in its second year that provides funding to students with entrepreneurial ideas—Rhodes and Huber created Open House, an opensource, modular design program intended to increase access to customizable, sustainable structures, from furniture to buildings.

“Open House is a collaborative design system that employs accessible fabrication technologies to produce sustainable building modules for creative and versatile structures,” said Huber.

The premise is simple: the pair has created a series of digital templates for assemblable, modular building blocks. Customers can download these templates, edit them, take them to a local makerspace—increasingly common community studios featuring 3D-printers and CNC-routers—and use the templates to cut the necessary building components from plywood. They can then take these components home and assemble them with nothing but a rubber mallet into the structures of their dreams.

All of Open House is made possible by these makerspaces and the degree of personalization and access that they grant customers. Rhodes and Huber recognize this and conceived of Open House as a radical way to use these makerspaces to give people and communities agency over how their furniture is sourced and designed—ultimately allowing people to truly make the spaces they inhabit.

“Shaped by today’s culture of connectivity, Open House harnesses recent revolutions in communication, design, and production, manifested in widespread accessibility to makerspaces and collaborative online idea-sharing platforms,” said Rhodes. “We seek to leverage this phenomenon to generate an ethical building system that empowers individuals and communities, stimulates imaginative design, and addresses our environmental reality.”

In particular, the HIP Innovation Incubator allowed the Open House team to make full usage of VCAM and its Maker Arts Space to prototype their designs and understand what it would be like for a customer to go through the process of constructing Open House furniture from start to finish. They were aided in this endeavor by HIP Program Manager Shayna Nickel and VCAM Maker Arts Space Technician Kent Watson.

110

William Rayne Herzog Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Employing Neighbors: Evaluating the Potential of Anchor Employment Initiatives to Build a Middle Class in Philadelphia

Anna Elisabeth Kullnigg Economics: The Online Clinic: Using Google Trends to Measure the Effect of Abortion Restrictions on Illegal Abortion Rates with Minors in Health Studies and Philosophy

Sophia Quinn Hess Political Science: Getting Off Track: A Policy Analysis of Initiatives to Increase Socioeconomic and Racial Integration Through Ability Tracking Reforms in K–12 Public Education with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Kofi Kwakwa International Studies at Bryn Mawr College with a Minor in History at Bryn Mawr

Rebecca Fiona Peck Hickey History: The Harried Housewife and the Happiness Pill: The Consequences of Gendered Pharmaceutical Advertisements in MidCentury America with a Minor in Museum Studies at Bryn Mawr College Robert Austin Huber Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Roads to Rails: Spatial Expressions of Suburban (Auto)Mobility, 1900–1920

Ethan Lee-Tyson Economics: Measuring Managers: Using Major League Baseball as a Lens Stephen Albert Lehman History: Utopian Visions, Apocalyptic Dreams, and Indigenous Reactions: Feather Art and the Construction of a New Colonial Culture in 16th-Century Michoacán with a Minor in Spanish

Noah Jacobson-Carroll History at Swarthmore College: Radical Potential and Contradictions of Excess in Industrial Music

Kaley Marie Liang Political Science: Slaying Skid Row: Finding a Solution That Works for Both the Homeless and Housed Communities in Los Angeles, California with a Minor in Economics

Shilin Jog Anthropology: Catching Fish Versus Watching Dolphins: The Changing Socioeconomics of the Pagi Community in South Goa, India

Jiaxin Lin Anthropology and German and German Studies: Memory Politics and National Identity Formation: Problematizing German Erinnerungskultur

Miranda Odessa Johnson History: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Theater of Empire, 1838–1860

Andrew Bates Linden History: Sheng Shicai’s Attempts to Retain Power on the RussoChinese Borderland From 1933 to 1944

Yitzchok Kahan Political Science: The Herd or the Shepherd? Understanding and Comparing the Effects of Exposure to Norms and Leader Positions on the Political Attitudes in Social Groups with a Minor in Economics Nicolas Carey Kaplan Political Science: Civil Wars, Peace Accords, and Democracy: A Case Study of Democratization Efforts in Guatemala and El Salvador in Post Conflict Environments with a Minor in Spanish Batia J. Katz Economics: Parenthood, Partnership, and Pay: The Effect of Family Responsibility on the Gender Wage Gap in Science and Engineering Max Jared Kauderer Economics: How Equitable Is Direct Trade? Exploring Markets and Innovation in the Global Coffee Value Chain Evan Andrés Klasky Political Science: Adapting to Survive: Regime Transformation in Venezuela with Concentrations in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights and Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Studies Hannah Rose Krapes Economics: Understanding the Relationship Between Competitive Pressure, Performance, and Gender Through the Lens of Professional Tennis with Minors in Statistics and Health Studies Maximilian Eisenberg Krieg Economics: Repayment and Religion: The Impact of Religiosity on 90+ Day Mortgage Delinquency with a Minor in Statistics

Alexander Y. Liu International Studies at Bryn Mawr College with a Minor in Economics Stephanie Lukez Anthropology: Gentrification and Education: Modern Day Segregation in Strawberry Mansion with a Minor in Economics Ethan James Cano Lyne Political Science: What Can Be Done to Strengthen the Right to Counsel in the United States? A Policy Analysis with Minors in Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College and Environmental Studies Han Zhong Mahle Political Science: Hospitals Without Borders: How Bangalore’s Medical Tourism Sector Fueled the Multinational Aspirations of Hospital Chains Grace Annika Mathis Political Science: Africa’s New Green Revolution: Smallholder Farmers as the Solution to Food Insecurity in the Case of Kenya with a Minor in Environmental Studies and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Tomas Alejandro Manuel Ebro Matias Economics: To One’s Art’s Content: Pricing Models for Valuations of High-Value Paintings at Auctions with a Minor in Film and Media Studies at Swarthmore College Daniel Frank Mayo Psychology: The Role of Microaggressions and Mentorship on College Student Identity Integration with a Minor in Health Studies

Tyler Covi McCarthy Political Science: Mayoral Control: An Opportunity to Achieve Education and Institutional Reform in Urban School Districts? with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Joshua Glen Moskovitz Economics: Choice, Traits, and Leadership: The Effect of Decision-Making Strategy on Effective Leadership Qualities with a Minor in Psychology and a Concentration in Mathematical Economics Kirsten Loretta Mullin Political Science: What Explains the Variation in Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Allegations in UN Peacekeeping Missions? A Case Study on Mali and the Central African Republic with a Minor in Economics Tamsin Myers Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College: The Baptists of Arch Street: Paleopathology as a Window Into Lived Experience in 19th-Century Philadelphia Anna Marie Neuheardt Economics: Psychiatric Professionals in the Emergency Room: Do Psychiatric Professionals Affect Efficiency and Thoroughness of Care for Psychiatric Patients in U.S. Emergency Rooms? with a Minor in Statistics David Chase Newman Economics: Delayed Rewards and Dynamic States in the Multi-Armed Bandit Problem with a Minor in Statistics Rob Roy McLallen IV Economics: A Study of Moral Hazard: Evidence From NFL Free Agency Lillian Mason McNulty Political Science: Protecting the Right to Choose: Considering the Relationship Between the State and Female Autonomy Through the Lens of Legalizing Commercial, Gestational Surrogacy Agreements with a Minor in Economics Liubov Mendelevich Anthropology: A Short Film Entitled Queering the Park and The Anatomy of Queering the Park: How an Ethnographic Film About a Queer Skateboarder in New York City Gets Made with a Minor in Fine Arts Georgia Rae Meyer Psychology: “It’s Not a Music Lesson, It’s a Life Lesson”—Music Therapy in the Classroom: Facilitating Connection and Cooperation Elizabeth Price Miller Psychology: Interactions of Race and Social Status in Visual Attention, Memory, and Perceptions with a Minor in Neuroscience Tate W. Miner Psychology: Social Dominance Orientation in Young Adulthood: A Narrative Approach Nicholas Kubisch Montgomery Political Science: The Root Causes of Migration, Impacts of U.S. Immigration Policy, and the Role of Central American Governments on Streams of Migration: A Case Study of Guatemala with a Minor in Spanish

Vanessa Morales Anthropology: Chismosxs A Través De Las Fronteras: Exploring Chisme as a Vehicle of Intimacy in My Transnational Family with a Minor in Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies at Bryn Mawr College Bradford Hampsey Morbeck Anthropology: “That’s Why I Always Come Back Here:” Cosmopolitanism, Belonging, and Touristic Spaces in Post-Apartheid Windhoek with a Minor in German and German Studies Tai Dang Duc Nguyen Economics: Home Sharing in New York City: Impact on Hotel, Rental, and Welfare with Minors in Statistics and Chinese Language Xueting Ni Psychology: Ethnocultural Patterns in Social Support Mismatch: Links With Relationship Satisfaction and Well-Being with a Minor in Economics Moeka Noda Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Competition and Cooperation Among Declining Regional Cities: The Survival of Aging Japan with a Minor in Visual Studies Tania Isabel Ortega Anthropology: Creando lazos: Exploring a Pedagogy of Cariño Within Puentes Hacia el Futuro and a Broader Migrant Rights Movement with a Minor in Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies at Bryn Mawr College Emily O’Sullivan Psychology: Blocking Oxytocin Receptors in the Dorsal Raphe Nucleus of Syrian Hamsters Following a Hormone-Simulated Pregnancy with a Minor in Neuroscience Maria Agustina Padrón Psychology: The Future of Chronic Pain Management: The Importance of Education and an Interdisciplinary Individualized Patient-Centered Approach Paloma Marie Paez-Coombe History: “Arbitrary, Capricious, and Without Reasonable Relation to Any Purpose:” Pérez v. Sharp, Miscegenation Law, and the Interracial Consciousness of Post-War Los Angeles with a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Sehyeok Park Economics: Performance of IMF Borrowers Against Future Banking Crises Computer Science: Iteration Based Performance Tuning of Matrix Vector Transpose Algorithm Nicholas Andrew Perez Economics: Star Power: The Effects of Superstar Athlete (Amenity) Movement on Local Economies Thomas Walter Phillips Economics: Uncertainty in the Hiring Process: The Effect of College Baseball Playoff Performance on the MLB Draft Natalie Marie Pisch Psychology: Blocking Oxytocin Receptors in the Dorsal Raphe Nucleus of Syrian Hamsters with Minors in Neuroscience and Economics

“This year, the Open House team, with a focus on modularity, embraced the opportunity in using the Maker Arts Space to engage in designing and constructing a fabricated product,” said Nickel. “The team embraced the opportunity of working within VCAM, collaborating with the Maker Arts Space and the Hurford Center to produce an installation of their work in a VCAM Create Space and elsewhere in the building.”

The fundamental premise of Open House hinges on its basic design unit—the boxel.

“The boxel is a building block for the Information Age, as it has both physical and digital counterparts,” said Huber.

“With countless applications and reconfigurations, the physical boxel is made entirely of plywood components cut by a CNC-router, a standard machine at many makerspaces,” he continued. “The online Repository contains a virtual representation of each module that can be browsed, shared, edited, and fabricated with the click of a mouse.”

The boxel allows for Open House’s integral modularity: it can be customized to different shapes and sizes and fitted with different types of shelving and lighting fixtures to meet the needs of any individual or space.

The modular "boxel" showcased in an exhibit as bookshelves, platforms, seats, and desks An exhibition in VCAM, Unboxed, showcases Open House’s building system and demonstrates various uses of the boxel through models and full-scale installation. Photo by Patrick Montero Open House is not the first collaboration between Huber and Rhodes. During the 2017-2018 academic year, the pair was awarded funding to design a bike shelter/blue bus stop by the North Dorms. They emphasized sustainability and Quaker craftsmanship in their design, and the pair now cite the experience of designing and building the structure as one of the most formative ways Haverford prepared them to launch Open House.

“At the end of our sophomore year, Austin and I received funding and institutional support to design and lead the construction of the new North Dorms Bus Stop & Bike Shelter,” said Rhodes. “This experience proved to me that Haverford sincerely cares about students learning in extraordinarily deep and integrative ways, and that the College has a profound trust in us to achieve our goals, no matter how ambitious.

“I feel that completing the North Dorms Bus Stop through the Facilities Fund was the most valuable experience I had at Haverford,” added Huber. “The yearlong design and construction process exposed us to many of the realities that we will face in our careers.”

Open House is a particularly special project because of the way it fundamentally relies on a traditional Haverfordian sense of community, while simultaneously showcasing how VCAM—one of Haverford’s newest facilities—has expanded the ways that Haverford students can come together to work on large-scale, visionary projects. To Nickel, this is what HIP is all about—fostering community through innovation and innovation through community.

“Working with Haverford students and the supporting community, including staff, faculty, and alumni is such a pleasure,” said Nickel. “Teams that come into the Incubator are driven, focused, and eager to dive into work and learning.”

111

Simon August Poser Political Science: International Courts and Peacetime Espionage: A Study of State Behavior Diane Soraja Previlon Economics: Is Streaming the Hail Mary of the Music Industry? The Impact of Music Streaming Services on Piracy and Streaming with a Minor in Psychology

ALEXANDRA CORCORAN '19 EARNS FULBRIGHT AWARD The political science and Spanish double major is the sole recipient of the University College Dublin Taught Master’s Program Award, which she’ll use to study philosophy and public affairs.

The prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants hundreds of study and research awards at universities in 140 countries around the globe. But it has only one spot available via its partnership with University College Dublin in Ireland. Next year it will be given to Haverford’s Alexandra Corcoran ’19.

The political science and Spanish double major will use her Fulbright award to pursue a one-year interdisciplinary master’s in philosophy and public affairs at University College Dublin. Corcoran was drawn to the program because it includes the study of many of her social science interests and uses them to explore foundational questions in public policy formulation.

Nicholas Abraham Rhodes Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College: Pipe Dreams and Other Such Structures: Technology, Space, and Power in Utopian Urbanism From 1888 to 2018 Matthew Luther Ridley History: I Beg Your Pardon, Please Part These Pages: Why the Black Magazine Needed Harlem’s Literary Scene with a Concentration in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Studies Heather Ayumi Robinson Psychology: Find the Silver Lining or Ignore the Cloud? Differences Between Emotion Regulation Strategies in Depression with Minors in Neuroscience and Dance at Bryn Mawr College Theodora Annabel Maloney Rodine Anthropology: Staging Interventions: Limitations and Advantages of Performance as Research with a Minor in Environmental Studies and a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Naomi Rufino Economics: Exploring the Impact of Sanctuary Policies on Hispanic WIC Enrollment with a Minor in Psychology

“This Fulbright will really help me think about the intersection of public policy and citizenship—something that I touch on a little bit in my [political science senior] thesis… and a topic that I hope to continue exploring in my professional career,” said Corcoran, whose thesis is focused on state-level health and legal-advocacy groups and their mobilization of low-income citizens around Medicaid-reform proposals.

Katharine Emily Safter Political Science: A Framework for Accounting for Latino Immigrant Integration: The Case Study of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in New York City with a Minor in Educational Studies

Corcoran was inspired to apply for the Fulbright to continue her studies overseas after an “amazing experience” during her semester abroad at the University of Havana in Cuba. And she was pleased to discover a program that was able to accommodate her wide-ranging academic interests as well as a policy focus, since she plans to eventually work in the public sector.

Ellen Schoder History: “Confinement as the Instrument of Conversion:” Insanity, Criminality, and Solitude in Early 19th-Century Philadelphia

“Living in Cuba made me think about what problems can and cannot be addressed through social programs,” she said. “I'm excited to get another international perspective on the welfare state.”

A resident of Quaker House on campus, Corcoran is looking forward to getting to know Dublin’s Quaker community and to volunteering with a local program that connects homeless people to support services. Between those commitments and a full slate of coursework, she has a busy year ahead of her, but she also plans to carve out time to get to know her new city and the surrounding country.

“In Ireland,” she said, “I'm looking forward to taking some hikes along the coast and drinking lots of tea!”

112

S. Matey Scheiner Psychology at Bryn Mawr College

Max David Schwartz Economics: The Determinants of Household Solar Photovoltaic Adoption in the United States with a Minor in Environmental Studies

Elisa Ming-Chuan Sheen Psychology: Does Attentional Control Efficacy Depend on Depression Symptom Severity? with Minors in Economics and Neuroscience Qwajarik Sabre Sims Economics: The Evolution of Pace’s Role in NBA Revenue Generation: Analyzing the Effects of One of the NBA’s Most Trending Components Achint Kaur Singh Psychology: The Hormonal and Molecular Underpinnings of Peripartum Mood Disorders: The Effect of Ovarian Hormones and ΔFosB Accumulation in the Nucleus Accumbens on Anxious Behavior in Mice Following a Hormone-Simulated Pregnancy Leslie W. Hubert Skertchly Casillas Economics: The Effects of Seguro Popular on the Use of Preventive Health Services for Mexican Adults with a Minor in Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies at Bryn Mawr College Rachel Donna Sliwinski Psychology: The Interactions of Emotion Regulation and Attention Across the Spectrum of Depressive Severity with a Minor in Neuroscience Nathan Davor Sokolic Sociology: The Student Affairs “Edge” in Colleges and Universities Maryanna Margaret Solecki Economics: The Effect of Major U.S. Sporting Events on Sex Crimes: Evidence From Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle Madison Brooke Sultan Economics: Baby, I Can See Your Halo: How the Halo Effect, Loss Aversion, and Strategic Attribute Disclosure Neglect Can Inform Negative Advertising with Minors in Statistics and Psychology Sarah Catherine Svetec Psychology: Healthcare Price Transparency and Trust in the PatientPhysician Relationship with a Minor in Health Studies Elom Kobla Tettey-Tamaklo Political Science: Ajaja Gbara Eni: Exploring Citizen Rebellion in PostColonial Nigeria with a Concentration in African and Africana Studies Garret Daniel Trucksess Political Science: Blockchain-Based Electronic Voting: A New Approach to Elections in Florida

Joseph F. Scibelli Jr. Economics: Boom or Bust: Strategic Information Transmission in the NBA Draft with a Minor in Global Asia and a Concentration in Mathematical Economics

Jared Michael Whitmore Turner Political Science: Waxing and Waning Power: How the Fight for Central Intelligence Agency Power, From 1946 to 2008, Illustrates the Ongoing Separation of Powers Battle Between the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch

Talia Niasia Scott Political Science: The Emergence of a Prosecutorial Reform Movement with Concentrations in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights and African and Africana Studies

Alissa Andrea Valentine Psychology: ΔFosB and the Nucleus Accumbens: Explanations for Peripartum Mood Disorders with Minors in Neuroscience and Health Studies

Liana Shallenberg Psychology: Do You Believe You Can Change Your Prejudice? with a Minor in Chinese Language

Daobo Wang Political Science: Dancing With Uncertainties: Why and How Queer Civil Society in China Stays “In the Closet” to Survive Under Authoritarianism German and German Studie

Allison Mary Weiner Anthropology: Redefining Artistic Legitimacy: An Ethnographic Inquiry Into Urban Art in Rome, Italy with a Minor in Health Studies Alejandro Wences Political Science: The United States and Coercive Ejection: The Obligation of the U.S. to Expatriates in Mexico and Its Democratic Assumptions with a Minor in Educational Studies Sydney E. West Psychology: The Influence of Vocal Pitch on Recognition Memory Hannah Wild Psychology: Blocking Oxytocin Receptors in the Dorsal Raphe Nucleus May Attenuate Anxiety Behaviors in the Female Syrian Hamster Following a Hormone-Simulated Pregnancy with a Minor in Neuroscience Miguel Joseph Wise History: Building Mexico’s “Enormous Show Window:” The 1961 National Border Program and the Construction of an International Stage for a New Mexicanidad on Mexico’s Northern Border with a Minor in Spanish Rachel L. Wolfson Sociology: Boutique Fitness Studios Become a One-Stop Shop for the Modern Healthy Woman: A Study of the Reproduction of Gender Through Exercise with a Minor in History of Art at Bryn Mawr College Wei Zhu Sociology: The Economic Foundations of Democratization: The Case of Taiwan and Implications for China with a Minor in Statistics Jillian Claire Zimmerman Political Science: The Assimilation of Italian Americans Into an American White Race Over an Italian One with a Minor in Japanese Language

113

REBECCA CHANG

Major: Growth and Structure of Cities Minor: Spanish

114

115

REBECCA CHANG

Searching for Belonging in Ethnic Identity: Young Second-Generation ChinesePeruvians in Lima, Peru For Rebecca Chang ‘19, a growth and structure of cities major with a minor in Spanish, her senior thesis was an opportunity to explore personal interests over an extended duration of time in an independent academic framework. Chang’s thesis, titled “Searching for Belonging in Ethnic Identity: Young SecondGeneration Chinese-Peruvians in Lima, Peru,” partially grew out of her time studying abroad in Lima, among a variety of other experiences.

“Much of this project was inspired by my own upbringing,” said Chang. “As part of a family with complex histories of migration—my greatgrandparents migrated from China to Malaysia, and after many generations, my parents moved from Malaysia to the U.S.—the topic of ethnic identity has been ever-present in my own experiences and curiosities.”

passions, interests, and experiences to the table,” she said.

The Cities major interlaced an array of background research with structured analysis. She incorporated interviews with second-generation Chinese-Peruvians and anthropological research in order to present her project.

Chang’s dedication to her personal passions, evident in the thesis, extend beyond her academic engagements.

Throughout her stay at Haverford, she participated in the Customs program and is a co-founder of the PanAsian Resource Center. As a result, Chang’s thesis is an effective verbalization of what she’s accomplished while at Haverford.

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

What is your biggest takeaway from the project?

Chang attributes the opportunity to pursue personal Through my main methodology of ethnographic desires in writing her thesis to the Cities department at fieldwork, I conducted qualitative interviews Bryn Mawr College. with young second-generation Chinese-Peruvians in addition to meeting general members of the “I have always felt incredibly lucky to be part of the community and learning more about landmarks, Cities department where in my experience, there experiences, and histories. In my data analysis, the is such a strong emphasis on bringing your own themes of family, language, and heritage schools served

116

as the three major dimensions in which I analyzed my participants’ experiences. In order to frame their stories, I supplement my ethnographic research with historical and spatial analyses from researchers specializing in the Chinese-Peruvian community, the Chinese diaspora, youth ethnic identity development, sociolinguistics, and ethnic enclaves.

What are the implications of your thesis research?

How or why could this help other researchers or academics, if at all?

While my thesis research focuses specifically on a small subset of individuals – second-generation ChinesePeruvians – I believe that many of my research findings can be extrapolated to other future research on identity, youth development, and migration studies.

As a second-generation migrant myself, I identified very much with many of the experiences and trends brought up by my participants, while there were

certainly differences in the context. For instance, in Chinese ethnic enclaves in New York City, where I was brought up, heritage schools only taught language during the weekends, while in the case of Lima, the two major schools were full-time private schools.

Awards Stephen G. Cary 1937 Award Magna Cum Laude

Activities Include Customs, Pan-Asian Resource Center (Cofounder, Co-head, Senior adviser), Admissions Office, Hurford Center Seminar Fellow, Mentoring & Student Teaching (MAST), Class of 2019 Representative to the Board of Managers

117

ALEXANDRA CORCORAN Major: Political Science

118

119

ALEXANDRA CORCORAN Mobilizing Medicaid: Understanding Advocacy Group Action at the State Level

In an academic setting, research can mean almost anything, from interviewing subjects to analyzing datasets or reading theoretical arguments. For political science major Alexandra Corcoran ’19, though, researching for her thesis involved a little bit of everything.

For Corcoran’s thesis, “Mobilizing Medicaid: Understanding Advocacy Group Action at the State Level,” she compared Medicaid policy, reform, and advocacy group responses in the southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky. In order to conduct this comparison, she needed to work fluently with multiple research methods: by its conclusion, her project had involved revisiting theoretical texts, traveling to Kentucky and Alabama thanks to Center for Peace and Global Citizenship funding to interview healthcare advocates, combing through hundreds of citizen responses to reform proposals in each state, and correlating the impacts of individual actions with the impacts of group actions regarding Medicaid policy.

For many, this breadth of research could be intimidating, but for Corcoran it was the 120

continuation of the work she had been doing for her entire Haverford career. Several of the theories she used are ideas she first learned in courses she took with Associate Professor of Political Science Zachary Oberfield (who would become her thesis advisor), and she first began thinking critically about Medicaid reform during two summers she spent interning at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families (CCF).

Ultimately, it was this experience with CCF that pushed Corcoran to study Medicaid reform. “I was struck by the citizen engagement and pushback when different states attempted to cut benefits or add new restrictions to their Medicaid programs and wanted to understand when and how the citizens got involved,” she said. “This interest led me to more general questions about advocacy groups and their work mobilizing low-income folks.”

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

I think one of the biggest things I learned was just how iterative the research process is. With my thesis, there were several times, both when I was writing my lit review and examining evidence, that my

findings took me in an unexpected direction and I had to go back and re-adjust the whole project!

For example, while I set out to write a thesis about individual participation, as I read more, it became clear that the key to participation was advocacy group mobilization, so I had to adapt and focus my question more on advocacy group action. In another instance, after I read and coded hundreds of comments that people submitted on the proposed reforms in all three states, I found that this data spoke more to individual-level factors than group factors, so didn’t really prove what I was hoping it would. After my first draft, I had to move all of this analysis and reconfigure a lot of my argument.

What are the implications of your thesis research?

One of the main findings of this thesis is that the individual-level feedback effects of policy interact with group-level effects by shaping the assumptions that advocacy groups make about the populations that they serve. In other words, while it is well established that a public program can affect a citizen’s propensity to participate in politics, my findings suggest that these individual effects change advocacy groups’ calculations about when and how to act.

going to have to start working on my masters’ thesis, and I am hoping that the skills I learned from my Haverford thesis will help me there! I plan to write about the intersection of health policy, political participation, and citizenship. After my year in Dublin, I would like to work in the public sector thinking about how health policies can better serve low-income women and children—everything I learned about both health policy and the research process in my thesis will lay a good foundation for this work.

Awards The Herman M. Somers Prize in Political Science Phi Beta Kappa Society Magna Cum Laude High Honors in Political Science Fulbright

Activities Include Peer Awareness Facilitator, Writing Center Peer Tutor, Quaker House, Haverford Votes Research Funded By

What are your plans for the future?

Next year, I will be pursuing my masters’ in philosophy and public affairs at University College Dublin with Fulbright fellowship. Pretty soon, I am 121

ALISON GIBBONS Major: Psychology Minor: Neuroscience

122

123

ALISON GIBBONS

Towards and Neurobiology of Peripartum Mood Disorders: ∆FosB Induction in the Nucleaus Accumbens Following a Hormone-Stimulated Pregnancy After four years of hitting the books, the senior thesis project finally gave Alison Gibbons ’19 the opportunity to touch a brain. The psychology major’s thesis, “Towards a Neurobiology of Peripartum Mood Disorders: DeltaFosB Induction in the Nucleus Accumbens Following a Hormone-Simulated Pregnancy,” was closely interwoven with neuroscience, Gibbons’ minor.

Gibbons’ investigation was developed with her thesis advisor, Assistant Professor Laura Been. Building off the work of previous graduates from Been’s lab, Gibbons and her thesis group sought to discern the effects of ovarian hormones the molecule DeltaFosB and a relationship between this interaction and anxiety behaviors.

“The aim of our project was to understand if reducing the expression of DeltaFosB in the nucleus accumbens would induce anxiety behaviors following a hormonesimulated pregnancy,” she said. “Our model organism was a standard laboratory mouse. The project began by injecting a virus containing a protein that blocked the accumulation of DeltaFosB into the nucleus accumbens of half of our sample, while injecting a control virus into the other half.”

124

The next step of the process simulated pregnancy in the lab’s subjects. The extended duration of the research gave Gibbons several opportunities to get to know the mice better through an inspection of their brains.

“There is something about looking at a brain during surgery and then examining the tissue following behavior testing that allowed me to understand neuroanatomy better than I had before,” Gibbons said. “We were responsible for locating regions in the brain via microscopic examination of the tissue, an experience that you do not get in your basic neuroscience and psychology classes” Exposure to these surgical practices allowed Gibbons, who plans to go to medical school and to eventually pursue a career in either neurology or psychiatry, to manifest her prior neurological knowledge in a form not readily available to most undergraduate students in her field.

“This was my first real wet-lab experience, and, as students, we were responsible for every aspect of the research project,” she said. “This research was graduate-level work—when I would tell interviewers what I was doing for thesis, they were shocked by how much students were able to do in the lab.”

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

It taught me the patience that is required to be a real scientist. We had a few major setbacks during our experiment; our mice were not very resilient, leading to a high casualty rate, and one of our main immunofluorescent stains did not work. Both of these lead to a weak statistical power, and extra time in lab brainstorming. With that being said, this is how science is, and it is important to learn how to deal with issues as they come up and be able to roll with the punches.

My biggest takeaway from the project was learning to develop and subsequently answer a research question. In psych and neuro classes at Haverford, we are often asked to describe an experiment to answer a given question, which includes considering a model that would be sufficient to use, controlling for confounding variables that may conflict with results, operationally defining the theoretical variable of interest, determining how we would analyze the data that we received and finally, reporting that data to the public. Some aspect of this idea was touched on in every class that I took in my major, but through thesis I got to put all of these pieces together. I started with a question: what causes anxiety behaviors following pregnancy. This topic is understudied, but hugely important due to the impact of postpartum anxiety on both the mother and the child. After further exploration, it seems that ovarian hormone fluctuations associated with pregnancy contribute to this disorder.

Even deeper, a specific brain region, the nucleus accumbens, contains neurons that are implicated in mood and are sensitive to ovarian hormones—these neurons are constantly undergoing plastic change, which is associated with changes in mood and behavior. Therefore, plastic change correlated with hormonal fluctuations in this area could contribute to postpartum anxiety. The way to study this was then to look at factors associated with this plastic change, one of which is DeltaFosB. To look at both of these factors, we had to simulate pregnancy and block DeltaFosB. To control for confounding variables we removed the animals ovaries, their indigenous source of ovarian hormones, which assured all animals were receiving identical hormonal treatments up until our experiment. To operationally define our behavior, anxiety, we used an empirically supported assay, the elevated plus maze. We then analyzed the data, and wrote a full report about our findings and their implications.

Awards The David Olton 1964 Award for Student Achievement in Psychology Phi Beta Kappa Society Magna Cum Laude High Honors in Psychology

Activities Women's Lacrosse

125

CHRIS GOINGS Major: Economics Minor: Global Asia

126

127

CHRIS GOINGS

Federal Credit Market Intervention as Fiscal Policy: Federal Credit and Its Impact on Commercial Bank Lending and Liquidity, 1976-2018

For his thesis, Chris Goings ’19 pulled research and advice from a wide range of sources, materializing years of classroom experience. The economics major’s thesis, “Federal Credit Market Intervention as Fiscal Policy: Federal Credit and its Impact on Commercial Banking and Liquidity, 1976-2018,” grapples with economic concerns that are both current and pressing.

The finished project was a fusion of economic literature reviews and a dataset constructed through Goings’ use of Python and other coding tools. By incorporating his own skills into the project, Goings was able to further the discussion on his topic.

“This thesis demonstrates empirical evidence of the effect of federal credit programs on commercial bank lending and liquidity,” he said. “It builds on monetary and fiscal policy literature supporting a bank lending channel of these policies, respectively.”

In order to do accomplish this, Goings relied on the solid economic backbone given to him by his classes.

His thesis advisors, Assistant Professor Saleha Jilani and Visiting Assistant Professor Eric Gaus, also aided him along the way.

128

“Jilani’s ‘Junior Research Seminar: Advanced Topics in International Trade’ during my junior year provided a foundation for economic literature reviews,” Goings recounted. “Gaus provided invaluable feedback on my data work and empirical development, building on the empirical foundation he gave me in our ‘Econometrics’ course. I began research on this topic in [Visiting Associate] Professor Olivero’s ‘Fiscal Policy and the Macroeconomy’ course.”

His thesis is a true encapsulation of his time in the Haverford Economics Department. Though his writing of it has concluded, its subject will remain close in his mind as he moves on to his employment at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

I learned the process through which academic literature is synthesized and additional arguments are added on. My biggest takeaway is the ability to place my in the perspective of a journal article and understand how and why an economist is demonstrating evidence of their research topic.

Another takeaway is my knowledge of the use of data in empirical economic literature and policy. For

my research, I used Python, SQL, and STATA for data storage, graphing, and statistical analysis. My data was contained in releases from the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Without these tools, I would not have been able to construct my dataset in accordance with the data’s own accounting definitions.

Is there anything else you want to share?

The Economics Department’s “Senior Research Seminar” (our thesis course) facilitates an invaluable opportunity for peer feedback. I would encourage anyone interested in economics at Haverford to read any of the theses written during the year, on topics from environmental policy, labor economics, behavioral economics, trade, and international economics.

Awards The Holland Hunter 1943 Economics Department Thesis Prize

Activities Include Men's Outdoor Track and Field Men's Cross Country

129

MADELINE GUTH

Major: Political Science Minors: Chinese, Statistcs, and Health Studies

130

131

MADELINE GUTH

Addressing Unintendedness: An Analysis of LARC-focussed Initiatives to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy Among Low-Income Women In the classroom, political science major Madeline Guth ’19 did a little bit of everything. While securing minors in statistics, Chinese, and health studies, she developed a holistic perspective on each of these disciplines. It should come as no surprise, then, that her thesis quickly became a data-heavy project that used the tools of political science and statistics to study an issue of public health.

“The question that my thesis attempts to answer is how state policymakers can best allocate public family-planning dollars to decrease rates of unintended pregnancy among low-income women,” said Guth. “I evaluated two policy alternatives that involve the funding of long-acting reversible contraception (i.e., IUDs and the contraceptive implant): the Contraceptive CHOICE Project and the Colorado Family Planning Initiative.”

and taught her how to explore the nuances of public health from a policy perspective.

“Through these experiences, I knew that I wanted to write my thesis on an area of reproductive-health policy,” she said. “The high rates of unintended pregnancy in the U.S. and the dramatic inequities in these rates by income inspired me to take on this issue in my thesis.”

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

I think my biggest takeaway is the importance of balancing precision with nuance in policy analysis work. Attempting to achieve this balance was one of the most difficult parts of the thesis process for me. Research on topics like reproductive health and economic inequities requires a great deal of nuance. My work in the interdisciplinary health studies minor pushed me to explore nuances in For much of her political science studies, Guth had health inequity and policy in ways that were crucial been interested in the ways that public policies can for my thesis. For example, while four of my criteria both irritate and assuage social inequities. The health (cost, effectiveness, implementation feasibility, and studies program and a summer internship with the political feasibility) are standard to policy analyses, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation exposed her considering reproductive autonomy introduced an to the vast inequalities that exist in public health additional level of nuance that I thought important 132

due to the history of coercive methods employed to control the reproduction of low-income women and women of color in the United States. At the same time, though, policy analysis needs to be precise, and sometimes that goal can be at odds with nuance. A policy analysis is not useful if it doesn’t result in a set of clear recommendations.

What are your plans for the future and has the thesis process helped guide your future career path?

In June, I’ll join the Kaiser Family Foundation in D.C. as a research assistant for their Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. I look forward to extending my interest in health-policy research professionally. My thesis process was crucial to helping me determine that I wanted a job focusing on research into health inequities and policy, and I think that it also gave me skills that prepared me better for this field. Research from the Kaiser Family Foundation is cited in my thesis numerous times, and it is so exciting to know that I will be a part of their research soon!

Awards The Emerson L. Darnell 1940 Prize Phi Beta Kappa Society Magna Cum Laude High Honors in Political Science

Activities Include Customs Co-head Students' Council

133

GABRIEL HALPERINGOLDSTEIN Major: Sociology

134

135

GABRIEL HALPERIN-GOLDSTEIN The New War on Drugs : How Biomedicine and Science Have Disguised the Value Conflict Over Harm Reduction Distilling his volunteer work into his sociology thesis, Gabriel Halperin-Goldstein wrote on the implications of employing scientific evidence to establish political policies. The senior paid specific attention to the effect that this phenomenon has on the perception and treatment of drug users.

Halperin-Goldstein was inspired to pursue this topic following his participation in the Fall 2018 course, Community Engagement and Social Responsibility, taught by Anne Montgomery, a Visiting Professor of Health Studies.

The class put students in contact with local community engagement opportunities and allowed him to volunteer for SOL collective a Philadelphia group who seeks to alleviate the city’s drug epidemic through “harm reduction” policies, such as the establishment of safe-injection sites, described by Halperin-Goldstein as “places where people go to inject drugs while under the supervision of medical personnel that will intervene.”

136

“This class got me very interested in alternative models of medical treatment that treat the patient’s experience instead of the disease,” said HalperinGoldstein, who, under the guidance his thesis advisor, Professor and Chair of Sociology Matt Mckeever, was able to transfer his experience with activism into thesis research. “I used the political conflict over safe injection sites right now as a case study.”

From this groundwork, he was able to finalize his thesis, titled “The New War on Drugs: How Science and Biomedicine Disguise the Value Conflict Over Harm Reduction.” The senior argued for the potential benefits were health policy-makers to “re-center the discussion to be about values instead of science.”

Continuing down this avenue of activism in Health Policy, Halperin-Goldstein will spend the next year as a Haverford House Fellow working at the Center for Hunger Free Communities.

What did you learn from working on your thesis?

What is your biggest takeaway from the project?

These are some of my major takeaways: 1) Even when policymakers advocate for “sciencebased policy”, they often selectively choose evidence that aligns with their own fundamental values.

2) People often claim that the introduction of biomedicine and science into drug policy has removed moral considerations from policy, however this is not the case. The medical industry relies upon notions of values when implementing health policy – just like the criminal justice industry – and many of the values that justified the War on Drugs are still being used to justify the government’s decision to not implement a safe injection site.

Awards Haverford House Fellowship

Activities Include The Marilou Allen Office of Service and Community Collaboration Staff Member Captain of Big Donkey Ultimate, the Open Ultimate Frisbee team

What are the implications of your thesis research?

Health policy would be more effective if stakeholders could re-center the discussion to be about values instead of science. This includes both advocates for safe injection sites, who often appeal to scientific studies instead of values pertaining to social justice and human rights, and advocates against safe injection sites, who often harbor values of individualism that stigmatize drug users but deny that they do so. Furthermore, my research highlights the importance of giving people who use drugs, and in general populations that are considered to be “sick”, a forum for social organization and political advocacy.

137

SOPHIE HESS

Major: Political Science Concentration: Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

138

139

SOPHIE HESS Getting Off Track: A Policy Analysis of Initiatives to Increase Socioeconomic and Racial Integration Through Ability Tracking Reforms in K-12 Public Education Sophie Hess ’19 understands that educational policies have long-term, large-scale impacts on people’s lives. As a political science major who has attended both public and private schools, she is familiar with the myriad ways that policies can affect student populations.

“I have always been interested in equity-minded education reforms, particularly in terms of finance and integration,” said Hess. “My love for kids, interest in equity-minded reforms, and various experiences with education systems made an education policy thesis my natural choice.”

performance in the classroom: students who perform similarly are grouped together for their classes, which can amount to sorting students along racial and economic lines. By dividing students in these ways, school districts often end up restricting the opportunities available to marginalized students. For her thesis, Hess studied the ways that these policies produce inequity in educational systems.

“As racial and socioeconomic subgroups are stratified between high and low tracks, curriculum, resources, and expectations differ,” she said. “These differences ultimately lead to outcome differences and contribute to the academic achievement gap ever-persistent For her thesis, Hess needed to hone in on a specific in the United States, reinforcing and supporting type of policy in order to analyze its impacts. As a systems of oppression that keep various demographic peace, justice, and human rights concentrator, she subgroups in poverty and underserved.” wanted to study policies that have discriminatory and This is not the first time Hess’s Haverford education marginalizing effects on students and school districts. has brought her to study the subtle ways that “I settled on policies that eliminate ability tracking as educational policies can disenfranchise marginalized a means to integrate classrooms,” she said. students.

Ability tracking, also known as ability grouping, is the process of clustering students based on their

140

“I wrote my final paper in my first-year writing seminar on property tax dependence and education

and the harmful outcomes that dependence creates, so to take my Haverford education full circle with a related thesis was very rewarding,� said Hess.

What are your plans for the future and did your thesis help guide your future career path?

In August I will be moving back to Boston to start as a paralegal at an immigration law firm. Though How did your advisor help you develop your thesis the subject area of my thesis and immigration policy topic, conduct your research, and/or interpret your do not directly overlap, work being done in both results? immigration and education policy can create more I knew from sophomore year I wanted to work with equitable communities and country. Both policy Zach [Oberfield], as I think our research interests areas tie back to my concentration in peace, justice, and styles match up well. He recently released a book and human rights, as they both deal with human on charter schools, so I knew in terms of research rights’ intersection with the law. Issues of access matter he was the best professor to work with on and opportunity are found in both policy areas. an education policy thesis. Stylistically, I wanted to Long term I am considering law school, where I work with Zach because he gives direct and helpful would hope to work in the public interest, possibly feedback, sets clear expectations, works diligently education, for my career. with students to push for the best final product, and ultimately is a fun and kind person to work with.

Zach pushed me to take the time needed to pick the best case studies. My thesis was a policy analysis, so case selection was honestly the most important step in the entire process. Though it took a long time for me to settle on the four districts I analyzed, I’m sure it led to a better thesis in the end.

141

TALIA SCOTT

Major: Political Science Concentrations: Peace, Justice, and Human Rights, African and Africana Studies

142

143

TALIA SCOTT

The Emergence of a Prosecutorial Reform Movement Political science major Talia Scott ’19 knew that she wanted to study criminal justice reform in her senior thesis. As a peace, justice, and human rights concentrator, she had studied the ways in which the American criminal justice system’s aggressive sentencing can leave offenders disadvantaged for life, and so she wanted to study a growing reform movement that is the very antithesis of these “tough on crime” policies: prosecutorial reform.

Prosecutorial reform is a burgeoning legal movement led by prosecutors and district attorneys—the latter of which are largely elected officials—based on the fact that they make almost all of the important decisions regarding sentencing, from who is detained before their court date to what charges are filed. By making these decisions with compassion and privileging what is best for the individual and their community, these activists are providing accused people with opportunities as opposed to jail time.

Because many of the actors involved in this movement are elected officials, Scott’s thesis focused on the relationship between electability and the activist politics of prosecutorial reform movements.

“The presence of reform-minded district attorney candidates marked an important shift in American politics and the American criminal justice system overall,” said Scott. “This warranted the question at the core of my thesis: why do political candidates and challengers take reform-minded or progressive stances that diverge from the traditional stances and positions of their party?”

144

Scott arrived at this question after months of refinement with her thesis advisor, Associate Professor of Political Science Zachary Oberfield, but the process truly began during her summer internship with MDRC, a nonprofit education and social policy research organization. With MDRC, she studied organizations dedicated to eliminating the barriers to societal reentry for incarcerated parents, which helped her further understand the lifelong consequences of severe prison sentencing.

“My research at MDRC informed my understanding of some of the consequences of incarceration, especially for Black families, and my subsequent thesis topic addressed a way to tackle some of the structural problems in the U.S. criminal justice system,” said Scott, who also concentrated in Africana studies. “As a scholar and activist, I immediately saw how the prosecutorial reform movement was a byproduct of the work of the Black Lives Matter movement and felt committed to writing a thesis that continued to amplify the movement’s efforts for racial justice and criminal justice reform.”

What are the implications of your thesis research?

Most scholarship that seeks to explain the behavior of political candidates or elected officials generally focus on members of Congress or congressional candidates.

My thesis research contributes to this scholarship by expanding explanations of political behavior to include candidates and elected officials in municipal elections such as local district attorney elections. Furthermore, my thesis research significantly highlights the role of political candidates’ or elected official’s personal beliefs

and goals in driving behavior, which has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. My thesis highlights and posits that even though political candidates are expected to be responsive to their constituents and political parties, they may diverge due to internal cues that are important to them and reflective of their personal experiences, values, and self-interest. I hope my thesis research aids other researchers or academics who want to better understand candidate behavior as well as those who want to conceptualize the shifting nature of the U.S. criminal justice system amidst the emergence of progressive prosecutors. Moreover, I hope other researchers and academics see the value and importance of continuing to study the role of prosecutors and prosecutorial power in addition to generally studying district attorney elections.

What are your plans for the future and does your thesis have anything to do with helping to guide your future career path?

I am currently working as a corporate legal assistant at Cravath, Swaine, and Moore in New York with plans to attend law school in fall 2021. While working on my thesis I interned for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office under the leadership of Larry Krasner, and I think both experiences provided me with my “why” for law school. Through my thesis research, I learned about how the criminal justice system came to be so “tough on crime,” as well as how and why it was becoming more progressive, and I witnessed the power of progressive prosecutors committed to criminal justice reform. Most importantly, I witnessed how the criminal justice system failed so many individuals, especially individuals who look like me and members of my community or come from other minority backgrounds. As a result of my thesis research, I feel even more committed to fighting for a more fair and equitable criminal justice system whether it’s through my career or personal activism.

Ultimately, the prosecutorial reform movement provided Scott with a hope-filled answer to her core research question: by studying how and why district attorney candidates diverge from traditional party stances, she discovered a wealth of activist politicians whose candidacy and work stem from the fundamental belief that compassion is the most fruitful way to combat crime.

“My biggest takeaway from this project is that elected officials or political candidates do act in ways that advance their own beliefs and interests independent of the desires of constituents and political parties, contrary to popular opinion about what motivates their behavior or actions,” she said. “Overall, I learned that the prosecutorial reform movement is the result of a growing shift away from the standard law-and-order or ‘tough on crime’ approach that has plagued the U.S. criminal justice system.”

Awards Jonathan Mohrig 1986 Memorial Prize The PJHR Award for Ethical Action The Valentin Y. Mudimbe Award for Excellence in Africana Studies

Activities Include Black Students League Co-Head, Special Events Committee for Students Co-Head, Event Intern in the Student Life Office, Questbridge, Multicultural Scholars Program, Lunt Cafe Research funded by:

145

RACHEL WOLFSON Major: Sociology Minor: History of Art

146

147

RACHEL WOLFSON

Boutique Fitness Studios Become a One-Stop Shop for the Modern Healthy Woman: A Study of the Reproduction of Gender Through Exercise

Boutique fitness studios are all the rage—just ask sociology major and softball player Rachel Wolfson ’19, who used her thesis as an opportunity to explore how burgeoning fitness trends help construct gender, class, and community.

“Being a female student-athlete at Haverford, as well as a sociology major, I found myself thinking critically about what it meant to be an active, healthy, athletic woman,” said Wolfson. “The contemporary moment is characterized by pushes for equality, so I wanted to examine how standards and practices for exercise and fitness manifest differently for women.”

To investigate the relationship between fitness and gender, Wolfson honed in on boutique fitness studios as spaces where notions of fitness, health, and gender are constantly interwoven. These studios—like the indoor cycling studio SoulCycle, for example—are usually small, single-purpose fitness outlets that host classes led by fitness instructors who escort their students through their workout. Oftentimes, these studios market themselves towards women, so Wolfson set out to determine how boutique fitness studios reflect and construct a specific type of femininity.

148

“I specifically looked at how boutique fitness studios market their spaces and practices for women,” she said. “I also examined how the boutique fitness instructor prescribes and guides women through a more holistic and palatable kind of fitness in order to generate a community.”

Wolfson was guided through the thesis process by her adviser, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Shelly Ronen. Ronen aided Wolfson by helping her investigate one corner of modern femininity and then interpolate this investigation into a broader history of feminist discourse.

“She was extremely helpful throughout the process of designing, analyzing, and writing my thesis,” said Wolfson. “She asked specific questions that urged me to think critically about what I was asking, how I was asking questions, and why I was asking certain questions.”

Ultimately, Wolfson’s thesis was an opportunity for her to investigate the multidimensional currents of gender, health, and consumerism at work in the boutique fitness industry. By studying how gender and healthfulness inform one another, she developed

an intimate perspective on an industry that deals in both: “My thesis allowed me to analyze notions of feminine fitness and why exercise is still highly gendered in a moment in time where there is an emphasis to practice gender equality.�

What are your plans for the future and did your thesis have anything to do with guiding your future career path?

I have accepted a job at a private equity company in Philadelphia after graduation. I think my sociology and liberal arts background has taught me how to ask a question, develop quality research, and create arguments that are grounded in theory and diligent research. I think these skill sets, as well as a collaborative approach to working on projects, will directly help me in my new role.

support throughout the process and I definitely could not have created the final product without her. I am so grateful for my time at Haverford and have loved being able to grow and develop personally in this community. Haverford has allowed me to develop a confidence in my voice. I believe that Haverford fosters a holistic kind of growth both academically and personally that has granted me a wonderful four years and allowed me to feel at home at Haverford.

Activities Include Varsity Softball Tour Guide, Host, and Senior Interviewer for the Admission Office

What do you want us to know about you, your work, or your time at Haverford?

I really appreciated the opportunity to create an academic piece of writing that focuses on a contemporary topic that interested me and pertained to my experience and life at Haverford. The boutique fitness industry is a growing industry and the studios serve as a site where health, exercise, community practice, body image, and femininity converge.

Writing this thesis sparked a lot of reflection and made me think critically in how I interact with this community. Professor Ronen was an unbelievable 149

150