UO Week of Research

Check out the amazing Creative Works from this year's undergraduate researchers!
UO Undergraduate Research Symposium YouTube

Lofanitani Aisea lwelek honk sa (Let's Kill It): Revitalizing Indigenous language & Exploding Settler Cows
Julianne Bodner Stories & Spaces: Updating Classic Plays for Modern Audiences Through Research-Based Ideas in Scenic Design
Jennifer Chaney Adapting artist Miriam Katin's Graphic Narrative Memoir into a stage play
Emily Chavez Romero Dreams That Cross Borders: A Short Documentary of the lived Undocumented-DACAmented experience.
Tabitha Ealy (Lane Community College) Unusual Tranquility: A Screen Dance Filmed With Horses
Amanda Henney Stories & Spaces: Updating Classic Plays for Modern Audiences Through Research-Based Ideas in Scenic
Sarah Levy Fifteen Minutes of Flame: History of Wildfire Portrayal in the Media 1990-Present
Norma"Noni" Lundy Continuing My Academic Journey; an e-Portfolio
Paul Quinn The effects of mining upon the environment and human communities.
Jonathan Sherpa Coping Mechanism (2021) for string trio
Marley Weedman Untitled (2020)
Katherine Wilson The Bicultural & Poetic Cinematic Voices of the 60's in the New Hollywood's Golden Age of the 70's

Hear from undergraduate researchers about their work through digital poster presentations, available on the UO Undergraduate Research Symposium YouTube Channel. Individual presentations will be released Monday, May 24 in the morning and will remain available directly on YouTube for you to access throughout the Week of Research and beyond.  Please consult the 2021 Symposium Program Book for Poster Presenters' full information, including presentation titles, abstracts, and faculty/graduate student mentors.

https://www.youtube.com/c/UOUndergraduateResearchSymposium

List of Poster Presenters:

Sofia Baldridge
Bridgette Bammann
Bailey Barrett
Brenna Barton
Sarah Beaudoin
Youri Benadjaoud
Lejla Biberic
Trevor Bissert
Hunter Blaylock
Leo Bordeaux
Madison Bozzo
Alex Bui
Mikala Capage
Anabel Chang
Noa Cohen
Rachel Couche
Isabel Crabtree
Isabelle Cullen
Daezhane Day
Sammy DiMinno
Sidney Evans
Jacob Evarts
Eugene Facer
Camerin Feagins
Karly Fear
Shannon Forsberg
Delaney Fossum
John Francis
Isabella Franke
Eleanor Froehlich
Delilah Galli
Anna Garrison
Taylor Ginieczki
Emma Glaunert
Aurora Godek
Georgia Greenblum
Matthew Grimm
Datlon Haffner
Alexander Halpren
Alexis Han
Zoë Haupt
Michelle Hernandez
Sarah Hill
Riley Hodges
Angelina Huber
Vincent Huynh-Watkina
Brittany Jeffery
Ireland Johnson
Tyra Judge
Sasha Kaplow
Lena Karam
Jade Kast
Natalie Kataoka
Jillian Kellett
Charlotte Klein
Jared Knofczynski
Sahana Krishna Kumaran
Rheata Kumala
Sean Kyne
Amelia Lawson
Emmalyn Leonard
Ryan Leriche
Phyllis Liao
Neva Lillis
Amanda Linskens
Rachel Lisle
Grace Liu
Julia Lo
Faith Longnight
Alma Lugtu
Jacqueline Luna
Riley Male
Hamish McAlpine
Remi McMullen
Liam McNamara
Angelica Mejia
Erika Moe
Chloe Moehling
Maryam Moghaddami
Riley Monsrud
Tillie Morris
Emma Mortland
Nicole Mullen
Anna Nguyen
Eloise Parish Mueller
Calvin Penkauskas
Sam Peters
Noah Pettinari
Sabrina Piccolo
Alli Powell
Andrea Quintanilla
Hossein Rajabzadeh
Giovanni Ricci
Lucy Roberts
Jenna Rudolph
Anna Sanchirico
Alyson Sato
Miles Saunders-Ruesz
Cian Savoy
Caitlin Scott
Ethan Scott
Karina Shah
Madeleine Smith
Kamryn Spease
Haley Speed
Liam Stone
Nathan Stovall
Nobuyuki Tamai
Jenika Taylor
Jennifer Thompson
Tillena Trebon
Kyle Trefny
Claire Trostel-Shaw
Manami Uptegrove
Edward Vinis
Hailey Volk
Jennifer Vuong
Erica Waldron
Natalie Walker
Maggie Wallace
Whitney Warth
Annie Weibezahn
Orion Wesson
Jessica Wilheim
Julia Williams
Julia Wolf
Sora Wyatt
MinChieh Yang
Joseph Ycaza
Albert Yim
Jiayi Yin
Shyla Yu
Lucy Zepeda
Sonja Zolnoski

Join us for the opening session for the Week of Research! Be sure to subscribe to both the UO Undergraduate Research Symposium and UO Office of the VP for Research and Innovation YouTube channels for updates throughout the week.

After graduating from the UO as a Physics and Mathematics double major and the school's third recipient of the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, Tamela Maciel earned a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Cambridge. Since 2014 she has worked as a physics writer, editor, and public engagement manager with organizations such as the American Physical Society (Washington DC), Springer Nature (UK), and the National Space Centre (UK). She has extensive experience in research project management, science writing, and science public engagement, with a particular focus on space. Currently, Tamela works as the Project and Communication Manager for an air quality research project led by University College Cork, in Ireland.

Tamela grew up in the hills near Grants Pass, Oregon, and has a passion for the wilderness, the mountains, and the sea. After ten years in the gentle countryside of middle England, she is delighted to now be based in the mountainous peninsulas of west cork, Ireland. She will share the opportunities and lessons from UO that prepared me for the past 10 years of research, science communication, love, and life abroad.

Andi Butts Exploring How Modern Female Poets Write About Abuse and Trauma (in a Culture that Demands Otherwise)
Trauma is a widespread and well-established phenomenon across the globe, yet there is a great deal of stigma associated with enduring and surviving it. This is particularly true when the trauma in question is the result of abuse. The world of poetry (and that of literature at large) are not immune to this stigma; indeed, writing about abuse and trauma in poetry is often regarded as self-indulgent and anti-intellectual—overly concerned with the poet’s emotional catharsis at the expense of intentional and skillful technique. My research is focused on subverting this notion by surveying how modern female poets, such as Lucille Clifton, Cindy Williams Gutiérrez, Emily Skaja, write about (and reconcile with) abuse and trauma in their work. In examining these writers’ poetry about abuse and trauma, I argue that these poets do not abandon their focus on craft in the pursuit of emotional catharsis but rather employ specific technical choices—including repetition and attention to the themes of time and memory—in order to convey the psyche-splitting and transformative nature of trauma. Moreover, I seek to highlight how the disdain of poetry about abuse and trauma is a result of misogyny and how, because of the patriarchy in which we live, writing about such subjects is an act of resistance and necessity.
 
Hailey O'Donnell Flowers by the Sea: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and the Misunderstood Young Women Who Carry Them
Few poets (few women) have legacies as storied and fraught with melodramatic tension as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. In popular culture, their admirers are coded in darkness––written off as “troubled” and overly pessimistic. This research project examines society’s shortcomings in remembering Plath and Sexton and offers a new vision for discussing their influence. I argue that these women should be recognized for the space they have created within the literary world (and the world at large) for women to examine an experience of womanhood marked by mental health concerns, feeling misunderstood, darkness, and general disillusionment with the expectations/demands of conventional femininity. I also posit that their true legacy is not the sum of their work or their cursed reputations––but rather, it is a spirit of subversive, honest creativity that lives within the young women whom their voices have inspired and assuaged. I reference my own journal entries from early adolescence as a primary source in illustrating how creative work can be distinctly cathartic for young women. My goal with this project is to reframe the greater meaning of Plath and Sexton’s lives to more accurately reflect the positive change they continue to prompt, and to consider how their stories can inform more nuanced and empathetic approaches to mental health in young women.

Amelia Hamerlynck Her body was a new and ancient rite': Contemporary Queer and Woman+ Poets Rewriting Ancient Greece  
"Hamburg, i love you but you deserve better" is a poem I wrote mostly in English but with occasional German words, cultural references, and grammatical constructions. I stylize an aspect of German grammar by only capitalizing nouns on the page. I almost didn't submit this piece for workshop because I was convinced it is far too personal for anyone to understand but me; however, I received a lot of positive feedback from my peers who felt as though the poem's singularity and strangeness is a strength, and that its emotional power transcends the need for literal understanding. The question of how and why one incorporates foreign language into English poetry is complex; I hardly think I have answered it here, and consequently I often wonder about this poem's chance of publication. However, the web of idiosyncrasies makes this poem one of my favorites to unpack and explain, which suits the cerebral context of a research symposium quite well. It is also designed to be read out loud, more so than any other piece I have written thus far. It has the wild energy of a free-verse poem but is written in verse. This is meant to produce a manic or hysterical quality in honor of the heartbreak and pain from which I wrote the piece, although the details of that heartbreak and pain remain somewhat vague in order to allow room for imagination.

Jack Dinovitz The Taxidermic Angel: The Patriarchal use of the Female Voice in Poetry
My project: Throughout history male poets have appropriated the voice of female characters to convey patriarchal ideologies to their readers. My LOI project helps to uncover the ways in which male poets have used these voices for their own gain and the voices of female poets in juxtaposition. To understand this further a created a thesis that would convey this research;
Male poets have used the female voice, depicting the Madonna Whore complex, in narrative poetry to promote patriarchal ideologies through three major lenses of women: biblical imagery, the cult of domesticity, and the death of women. Combining both the research of poetry across centuries and developing an understanding of the perception of female poets within the construct of a male dominated patriarchal literary field, I accumulated a vast variety of collections and essays to further understand the repercussions sexism has had on poetry. Through a understanding of male writers patriarchal ideologies we are able to understand the severity of the appropriation and silencing male poets have had on women in society. My research further shows the importance of teaching a variety of writers with diverse backgrounds and not just patriarchal white male poets. The research allows for a truth to be uncovered that has long been silenced in academia.

Anna Pearl Johnson Women in Flight: A Study of Feminist Liberation Through Poetic Expression
The United States' sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s has been argued as a time of liberated behaviors surrounding feelings, desires, and love, both of and for women. In many ways, the revolution acted as a lasting catalyst of communication: the verbal and written expression of feeling. Though for some, the era did the opposite, strengthening purity culture and repression of emotions. How then does poetry from the period demonstrate the flexibility and versatility of women's strong emotions, like rage or passion? What are the implications of how a woman expresses emotion? The final undertaking of the year-long Kidd Creative Writing Program at the University of Oregon, this analytic essay investigates the relationship between feminist liberation themes in poetry and the diverse ways such liberation is manifested through literary devices. By reviewing the poetry of Margaret Atwood, Eavan Boland, Erica Jong, and Audre Lorde I contend that close readings demonstrate that liberation in the written word is strongly tied to the author's sense of place and their subsequent sociological environment.
 
Emma Snyder Confessional Poetry, and the Liberation of the Invisibly Ill Poet
Where is the mind left when betrayed by the flesh? This project explores the origins of the confessional poetry movement, and how it has served to uplift the voices of chronically and/or invisibly ill poets. My essay will explore theory on defining the confessional poetic, as well as cover several recurring themes utilized in confessional poetry surrounding illness, including dualism, metaphors of imprisonment or isolation, and the juxtaposition of the beautiful and the grotesque. The body and its "oppression" remains a central theme throughout the paper, as the invisibly ill poet is left to construct a "new reality," asking themselves what comes next when forced to struggle against their own physical self.
 
Mia  Vance Here, There, and Back Again: the Greater Romantic Lyric in Modern Irish Migration Poetics
Poetics of place have had a longstanding home within traditional Irish poetry; Patrick Kavanagh, William Butler Yeats, and Seamus Heaney are just a few Irish poets to have pulled inspiration from their geographical, historical, linguistic, political, and personal spaces in their native Ireland. Arguably of equal prevalence are the migrations, both historical and modern, of Irish citizens to – and in recent decades, increasingly back from – various countries abroad (notably the United Kingdom and the United States). As an American poet of Irish-immigrant lineage, considering my own fascination with place-based poetics and the possibility of my own migration experience, have sought out a poetic form existing within the extant literary establishment whose structure might support the complexity of Irish [im/e]migration writing. Through a series of close-readings of a selection of works by the late great Irish and international poet Eavan Boland within the context of the Greater Romantic Lyric form, this presentation explores the relationship between the spatial, temporal, and philosophical movements of modern Irish [im/e]migration and the locality-based GRL formal structure – from here, to there, and back again.

Conner Hardwick Justifying the Written Word: Medium Specific Techniques that can’t be Adapted and What they Are
The book, or rather, writing in general, has long been considered the most fundamental storytelling medium in a post oral tradition culture. Every other medium—the younger, more modern ones like film and comics and video games—is defined by enthusiasts in the way they each differ from the base form of a written novel. They are all afforded storytelling possibilities beyond the common prose-filled page. A book is ‘standard’, and consequently boring to many, understood as, in a sense, the most limited medium. As a fan of these other mediums, and medium-specific features, I decided to approach written stories with the same mindset to find what a novel can deliver as an experience that can’t be imitated in another form. In this essay, I will draw upon the techniques used in several texts, from Jabberwocky to Benito Cereno to House of Leaves, in an effort to explore the capabilities of and minutiae distinct to the medium of the written word. The intent is to demonstrate experimental forms of writing and reexamine overlooked dynamics of reading to ascertain what is special about the particular, unique form of writing as a storytelling medium. There are experiences unique to this medium that simply cannot be done justice in another, and I intend show you what exactly those are.

Ava Blake The Art of Confessions Within Poetry: How They Reflect Society
Common morals influence pieces of art, we can see this in confessional poetry. Confessional poetry is a reflection of a society and it’s ideals because a confession implies aspects that are seen as taboo and have been built by society. Poetry is inherently a mirror or society and politics. Through looking at different confessional poetry we can see commonalities. There are also trends with when the poems when made. For example, during the 1950s, a time that's regarded as being very suppressive and with media getting rapidly more influential, confessional poetry took off. Even when there lacks a bluntly stated confession, different poetic shifts hold the same social cues. This perception has a hold on many facets of life. For example, international relations political science theories suggest that society perception and expectation is what lowers threatening actions. There're patterns, regardless of time period or poem subject, that show how society's perception has a strong hold on poetry. This creates bigger implications of how not just art is affected by the perception that our society and culture gives us but every aspect of our lives.
 
Anna Mills The Power of Voice and Reclaiming Your Own
The analysis of literature and representation of identities for marginalized folk and the certain tropes, stereotypes, notions of minstrelsy, and inauthentic voices that have curated over history from dominant social groups raises importance to the creative writing spaces and platform for poets with underrepresented and misrepresented identities to find their voice and create their own narrative. The form of persona in poetry functions by means of allowing the poet to “write what they know,” and by looking at the various ways these poets shape their narrative and voice through this poetic form, we can see the disruption of harmfully imposed perceptions placed upon themselves because of their identities and see how poetry carries and amplifies their voices through accurate and authentic representation. This form of expression will not only illuminate the self-empowerment or self-reclamation end result of these poets' work but also tend to the need for creative writing expression as a way to understand ourselves and build perception amongst one another from different identity groups.
 
Madeline Fehlman Trauma As Elegy
Elegy is a form of poetry that traditionally serves as a lament for the dead. This project investigates how poets across time use elegy to tell their stories of loss and personal trauma. I will examine elegies from different time periods, from traditional elegies to those from the modern and contemporary eras. I have found that while some common characteristics persist, elegies have evolved from serving as a tribute to lost loved ones into an expression of all forms of grief. Poets may use a variety of methods to tell their stories, but they all share the same goal: evoking universal emotions while writing about personal experiences. Achieving this goal turns poetry into a cathartic experience for both writers and readers alike.

Andrew Barron Queer Violence: the disembodied homosexual persona affected by the spiritual & existential
My project explores the queer identity of various contemporary poets, including Ocean Vuong, Christopher Soto, and Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, in conflict with the spiritual world through an existential lens. With these poets in mind, my own upbringing came into question. Raised Catholic, I prayed for acceptance. I prayed for understanding. I grew into the shoes of queer-fear: the inherited anxiety of not being accepted by my family, nor God. I was far too existential at such a young age. How does a child reconcile themselves to their beliefs? This raises the greater question: how are queer poets affected by existentialism and spirituality? Through the physicality of sex, these poets practice confessional writings, subverting sullen themes by creating a dramatized envisioning of queerness by disembodying their physical self onto the page, in lush energy and grounded violence. In this way, religion and existentialism affect how queerness is embodied through poetry, perpetuated by the oppression and moralistic division of Christianity. Through careful analysis and a reflection of my own homosexual writings, I believe poets have seen some truth to religion, to God, and the art of faith. Through homoerotic poetry, I feel tethered to God. My writing is masochistic, bridging the isolation of existentialism and the otherworldliness of spirituality with dismembered bodies and the erotic, emphasizing a direct link to art as religion, and desire as religious subversion.

Shannon Forsberg, Delaney Fossum, & Camerin Feagins
Environmental Analysis of Trail Development at Thurston Hills Natural Area

Eleanor Froehlich A Juvenile Aplodontid (Rodentia) Jaw From The John Day Formation of Oregon

Natalie Kataoka, Jenika Taylor & Joseph Ycaza Hendricks Forest Management Plan 2021

Amelia Lawson Prehistoric Mountain Beaver Identification from Eastern Oregon

Riley Male & Liam Stone The social cost of reproduction to female Lemur catta

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Trevor Bissert Differential Functional Connectivity of Anterior and Posterior Hippocampus

Alma Lugtu (Central Oregon Community College) Does Teaching Amortization Tables Affect Student Loan Repayment Choices? and Does Teaching Amortization Tables Online or Face-To-Face Make A Difference?

Erika Moe Content Overload And Its Effects On Learning

Nicole Mullen P4wC as an Effective Educational Pedagogy for BLM and COVID-19 discussions in K-12 Education.

Giovanni Ricci Adverse Childhood Experiences and Salivary Oxytocin in Mothers With a History of Substance Abuse

Jenna Rudolph Investigating the Benefits of Maternal Thiamine Supplementation for Infant Social Alertness 

Madeleine Smith Thinking About my Future While Sitting in Science Class: Future Thinking and Motivation to Learn

Jennifer Vuong Thinking About my Future While Sitting in Science Class: Future Thinking and Motivation to Learn

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Emily Duru The Representation of Black Womanhood in Paul Marshall’s /Daughters/
The inaccurate portrayal of Black women in literature works to further perpetuate stereotypes of Black women as caretakers, burden-carries, and “mammies”, without consideration of our individuality. It is especially important to keep these portrayals in mind when discussing the antebellum construction of race and gender. By examining the novel Daughters by author Paule Marshall, we can see how diverse representation is not only important, but vital when telling the stories of Black women. The presentation will explore the themes of sexuality, motherhood, the construction of body, and learned gender-dynamics. Theoretical texts on intersectionality and Black feminism, from activists and authors, such as Hazel V. Carby and Toni Morrison, will further contextualize the novel and provide insight into how Marshall manages to challenge stereotypes and reframe the role of Black women in American literature—and more largely, in the eyes of American readers as well.

Mary Green A Woman's Secret Language of Horror in The Tale of Genji
While most may not think of horror when they conjure images of Japanese women of the Heian court, Mursaki Shikibu’s iconic novel from the early 11th century, The Tale of Genji, contains threads of horror woven through both the original plot as well as in the numerous adaptations throughout the ages. Some such elements of horror include confinement, spirit possession, and an oedipal complex of the titular character which leads to the misfortune of a number of female characters. In this presentation of my Japanese Honors Thesis I argue that these elements of horror resonate in such a way with a female audience that it becomes like a secret language in which to communicate and commiserate. To do so, I have conducted close readings of both the Royal Tyler translation of the original text as well as the well-known manga adaption Asakiyumemishi by Waki Yamato. I also engage with previously published scholarly discourse surrounding this topic, such as a feminist re-reading of the original text by Komashaku Kimi and Tomiko Yoda, an interesting take on an infamous spirit possession scene as a means to female empowerment by Doris G. Bargen, and a look into a possibly intentional reference to Japanese horror already lying within the original text as explored by Takehiko Noguchi. In making my argument, I hope to expose and embrace the ways that women’s voices have been shared over time through the surprising mode of horror in The Tale of Genji.

Eugene Facer, Chloe Moehling & Claire Trostel-Shaw Immigrants and Foreigners in Japan: Their Role in Society and How They are Perceived
Our project is called The Role of Immigrants and Foreigners in Japanese Society and How they are Perceived. We research attitudes towards immigration in Japan and explore why people have a negative view of immigrants even though immigrants coming to Japan would benefit the country. We explore the many factors that surround immigration to Japan, such as Japan’s low birth rate, aging population, competitive workforce, and history of strict immigration policy. We also explore the challenges of foreigners assimilating into Japanese society, from its complex language and writing system to its many complicated societal rules, as well as racism experienced by foreigners. We use primary and secondary sources including statistical data to support our research on how negative attitudes towards foreigners and immigrants in Japan affect people living there who are not Japanese. The homogenous nature of Japanese society and the importance placed on collectivist culture has resulted in an emphasis on people living in Japan feeling like they have to conform to cultural standards. This can make living in Japan as a non-Japanese person difficult, because immigrants often feel like perpetual foreigners. We conclude that immigrants have a tremendously important role in Japanese society and that Japan must consider easing immigration restrictions to remain competitive in an ever-globalizing economy.

Emma Glaunert The Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act: The Treatment of Alaskan Natives in Mental Health Policy
In the 21st century, racial and ethnic disparities have been at the forefront of social justice movements, and yet, it is important to interrogate these disparities across U.S. history. American Indians and Alaskan Native people have historically been treated differently in health care. The Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act (AMHEA) of 1956 serves as a case study for addressing access to mental health care services, especially for Native Alaskans. Prior to the passage of the AMHEA, Morningside Psychiatric Hospital in Portland, Oregon, offered inpatient mental health services for Alaskan Natives and other residents of the Pacific Northwest. In the first half of the 20th century, few psychiatric services were available in the then-territory of Alaska. In my thesis research, I analyze the AMHEA as a historical case study for mental health care for Native Alaskans, and for other racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. The primary research for my thesis comes from archival sources, including from UO Special Collections, and from interviews with key informants involved in the AMHEA legislation. Using these sources, my thesis assesses the impact of the AMHEA on the Alaskan Natives from the bill’s passage to the present. I use this case study to reflect on the types of mental health policies that could be used to remedy racial and ethnic disparities in mental health care in the U.S.

Riley Hodges & Emma Mortland Mission Trips in Mexico: Exploring the Ethics of Foreign Aid
This study seeks to explore the ethics of US foreign aid and the White Savior Complex by evaluating mission trips to Mexico. It seeks to address whether the majority of mission trips to Mexico provide the promised long-term solutions that benefit the community. In order to address this aim, our research focused on key features of successful foreign aid models and compared them to those of current mission trips to Mexico. We also explored the effects of current mission trips on local communities. Overall, this research pointed to the reality that the Mexico-based mission trips this study examined are often harmful to local communities. It illustrates the importance of improving the current mission trip structure and suggests concrete changes such increasing collaboration more with local communities, redirecting funds into the community, and properly educating mission leaders and participants. Our findings strongly suggest that there is a need to reevaluate the current foreign aid models in a way that focuses on creating long-term, community-based solutions. Even with good intentions, unethical foreign aid can be disempowering and detrimental to communities. Improving the existing approach to mission trips can support communities in need while effectively combatting and dismantling White Saviorism. This new model will provide for productive foreign aid, incorporate local communities in a dignified way, while allowing missionaries to reflect on internalized societal racism.

Cian Savoy Vehicles of Injustice: White Savior Complex in Latin America
The white savior complex has an unprecedented effect in our global society but not many people have looked at the vast consequences that occur from it nor the causes that created it in the first place. The classic white savior is someone from a developed country who visits a developing country using resources that the local community cannot utilize in their daily life. For example, a church mission trip based in California bringing paint and other materials to paint homes in the Mexican State of Oaxaca. While in the short term that community is able to have houses that are painted, in the long term they are now reliant on volunteers from an entirely different country. From a historical context the white savior complex has been an effect or a symptom of a larger problem. Throughout this project, the issues that will be discussed are American involvement in the developing region of Latin America and Mexico and how the modern White Savior Complex is a symptom of that involvement. Using reports from researchers around the world, the root cause of the white savior complex actually stems from the influence of developed countries upon developing countries. This project is important because it will be looking at the root cause of the white savior complex and hope to find reasonable solutions to these systemic problems in Latin America and Mexico. The solution to global problems might not be in the developing countries but in the already developed ones.

Michelle Hernandez Immune Dysregulation During the Progression of Osteoarthritis 
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic and progressive degenerative joint disease. OA is characterized by the progressive loss of articular cartilage, changes in the subchondral bone, and inflammation of the synovium tissue. Currently, there are no curative therapeutics available for the disease, only ones to help manage the pain. According to the CDC, OA is the most common joint disorder, with millions of adults in the United States suffering. To understand the immune response during the progression of OA, our research focuses on identifying systemic inflammatory biomarkers concurrent with the progression of the disease in a rat model of OA. In this study, we surgically destabilized the knee via medial meniscal transection (MMT), which ultimately resulted in a degeneration of the cartilage and other tissues of the knee. We measured circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines and immune cells via longitudinal blood draws and characterized joint degeneration metrics via microcomputed tomography. We employed linear and nonlinear multivariate regression techniques to identify immune biomarkers that were correlated with the surface roughness of the articular cartilage at the end point. Early pilot studies demonstrated feasibility of longitudinal monitoring of immune responses in the MMT model of OA. By correlating joint degeneration with systemic immune responses, we hope to identify early immune biomarkers that may be indicative of disease status. 
 
Ireland Johnson Design and Biocompatibility of Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels for Bone Regeneration 
Large bone defects and fractures caused by trauma or disease remain a serious challenge for orthopedic surgeons, and there is a need for more effective treatment strategies to repair injured bone. Bone autografts, a tissue graft from the same patient, are the ideal material to promote a healing response due to low host rejection; however, they can lead to donor site morbidity and are expensive to extract. To combat this problem, biomaterials, composed of the natural polymer hyaluronic acid (HA) can be used to deliver osteogenic (bone-forming) proteins that repair injured bone. This study describes the development of HA-based hydrogels for protein delivery for bone regeneration. HA hydrogels were formed by dynamic, covalent bonds between aldehyde functional groups on oxidized HA and HA functionalized with adipic acid hydrazide or carbohydrazide groups.  Hydrogels were seeded with 3T3 fibroblast cells expressing green fluorescent protein to evaluate cell compatibility. Live and dead cells were evaluated using green fluorescence from GFP and red fluorescence from ethidium homodimer, respectively. A combination of oxidized HA and HA-carbohydrazide at 2.5% (w/v) maintained high cell viability (82.3% for all time points) and encouraged a rate of cell growth that surpassed all other conditions. Future expansions of this project could lead to the use of HA hydrogels as a biomaterial that rivals the healing response of bone autografts. 
 
Sahana Krishna Kumaran Old Elastin Haploin sufficient Mice Have Impaired Memory, Motor Coordination and Endothelial Function 
Large arteries stiffen due to advancing age and they are associated with cognitive impairment. However, the direct effects of long-term large artery stiffness require further investigation. Therefore, we studied cognitive and cerebral artery function in a model of greater large artery stiffness, the elastin haploin sufficient (Eln+/-) mouse, at old age.
We examined old wildtype (Eln+/+, n=8, 25 mo), old Eln+/- (n=8, 25 mo), and young wildtype (YC, n=9, 7 mo) mice. Memory was tested through the Morris Water Maze (MWM) test and motor coordination was measured through the accelerating Rotarod test. Endothelial function was measured in ex vivo pressurized posterior cerebral arteries (PCAs) by dilation to acetylcholine (ACh).
In the MWM test, old Eln+/- mice crossed the target area fewer times than old Eln+/+ mice (p<0.05), indicating impaired spatial memory. In the accelerating Rotarod test, old Eln+/- mice stayed on the rod for less time than the old Eln+/+ and young mice (p<0.05), suggesting poor motor coordination. Maximal PCA dilation to ACh was lower in old Eln+/- mice compared to old Eln+/+ and young mice (p<0.01), indicating impaired endothelial function.
These results indicate that long-term exposure to large artery stiffness leads to impaired spatial memory, motor coordination, and cerebral artery endothelial function. Future research is needed to study the cellular mechanisms resulting from large artery stiffness. 


Albert Yim Wearable Microfluidic Colorimetric Sweat Sensors for Real-Time Personalized Hydration Monitoring                                                                                                                                            
Continuous, real-time sweat analysis is an underdeveloped field with promising applications ranging from clinical health care to athletic performance. Currently, microfluidic devices allow for noninvasive collection and storage of sweat but lack a method to record continuous sweat rates. Sweat rate and biomarker composition are highly variant between individuals, requiring a personalized hydration feedback approach. The biomarker variance is significantly attributed to sweat rate, making rate normalized biomarker concentrations indicative of performance metrics. A low-cost and passive method to record the continuous sweat rate would enable real-time sweat loss measurement and hydration feedback. This proposed project will develop methods to accomplish this through microfluidics and colorimetric reagents. The colorimetric reagent will provide color gradients for physiologically sweat rates ranging from 3 to 34 μL/hour for a collection area of r = 3 mm. Then benchtop studies will create the colorimetric system that is capable of visually quantifying the collected sweat rate in microfluidic devices. This will provide a future opportunity to develop a smartphone app for immediate analysis. Eventually, on-body trials will test the accuracy of the sweat sensor’s analyzed rate. Attaining continuous sweat rates will normalize biomarker concentrations which correlate to health and performance metrics and are highly coveted in the biomedical and sports science communities. 

Sarah Beaudoin Anion Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers for Dirty Water Splitting 

Lejla Biberic Charge state impact on protein gas phase structure simulated with molecular dynamics 

Phyllis Liao Development of a Nanohoop Rotaxane for Sensing Reactive Oxygen Species 

Amanda Linskens Molecular Origins of the Pair1 and Moonwalker Descending Neuron's Neural Circuitry in Drosophila 

Faith Longnight Using Kinetics to Study the Stabilization of Reactive Hydrosulfide by Supramolecular Receptors
 
Nathan Stovall The Molecular Design of a Metal-Oxide Supported Iridium Monolayer for Water Oxidation Catalysis 

Edward Vinis Isotopic Fractionations Produced During Direct Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide 

Jiayi Yin Isotopic Fractionations Produced During Direct Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Zoë Haupt, Maggie Wallace, Tillena Trebon, Orion Wesson The effect of production when learning to perceive and produce a novel sound contrast 
Previous research demonstrates that during simultaneous training of novel sound contrasts in both perception and production can disrupt rather than enhance perceptual learning. This indicates that although perception and production are assumed to be closely connected, these modalities may have a competitive relationship. In spite of this perceptual disruption, subjects trained in perception and production show gains in producing the distinction they were trained on, compared to perception-only training.
The current study examines how subjects learn to produce a new sound contrast after training in only perception or in perception and production. 30 native Spanish speakers were trained on an unfamiliar Basque sound contrast. The analysis of the post-test productions explored many phonetic dimensions of these tokens to determine how participants distinguished the sound categories. This analysis was compared across the two conditions to examine the relationship between production learning and perceptual learning.
The results are similar to previous studies in indicating a competitive relationship between production and perception. Additionally, the results indicate a generalizable improvement in the produced tokens for the production, but not a significant increase in the trained sound contrast, suggesting a more complex relationship between perception and production. These findings contribute to a better understanding of effective language learning practices. 
 
Sabrina Piccolo Effect of accent perception on the perception of professionalism 
This study explores how people’s perceptions of speakers’ accents may be related to their perceptions of speakers’ professional characteristics. In this study, 256 online participants listened to two speakers, one with an accent common for a native Spanish-speaker in Oregon and one with an accent common for a native monolingual English-speaker in Oregon, discussing Mexican history or marine biology. Each speaker was described as an expert or nonexpert in the topic. Participants then rated how they perceived the speaker’s professionalism, confidence, believability, knowledgeability and level of experience.
On average, participants rated the speaker with the English-speaking accent higher in professionalism and confidence than the speaker with the Spanish-speaking accent. However, participants tended to rate the speaker with a Spanish-speaking accent higher than the speaker with an English-speaking accent in knowledgeability and experience when the speaker was presented as a nonexpert discussing Mexican history. These results suggest ways that perceptions about accents can affect assumptions made about speakers. Considering that accent perception may influence perceptions of character traits that are prioritized in professional settings, these results highlight the importance of acknowledging and challenging those assumptions in situations where unjust perceptions of a speaker can result in biased and harmful decisions, such as in job interviews, education and courtrooms. 
  
Tillena Trebon Effect of hesitation sound phonetic quality on perception of language fluency and accent 
Nonnative speech has different pausing patterns compared to native speech. There are two types of pauses: filled and unfilled. Unfilled pauses are silent. Speakers make sounds during filled pauses. Different languages use different sounds for filled pauses; this is described as phonetic quality. English speakers use “uh” and Spanish speakers use “eh” to hesitate. When the phonetic quality of a hesitation sound (henceforth “HS”) is consistent with the HS used by native speakers, the HS is native. HSs with phonetic quality inconsistent with a native speaker HS are non-native. Studies show that proficiency and speech community influence whether L2 speakers produce native or nonnative HSs. However, no study has investigated the perceptual consequences of using nonnative versus native HSs. This study investigates the effect of HS phonetic quality on perception of language fluency and accentedness. In Experiment 1, participants rate sentences for fluency and accent. In Experiment 2, participants listen to two sentences with different HSs and choose which sentence sounds more accented and more fluent. Experiment 1 results show that HS phonetic quality did not impact listener judgements about accentedness or fluency. However, in Experiment 2, listeners rated nonnative HSs less fluent and more accented. This project has important implications for how learners treat pausing when practicing their L2 and for understanding how listeners process pauses when listening to nonnative speech. 
 
Lucy Zepeda & Jacqueline Luna The Relation between Parent Competence and Parent-Child Interactions: A Consideration of Culture 
In the majority of research, parenting interventions have been conducted with a focus on Western populations. We aim to address this cultural gap by examining the relationship between parent-centered variables (parent stress, nurturance, limit-setting) and parent-child interactions. 
A sample of 116 caregiver-infant dyads (0-3 years) were recruited from a larger intervention study. Free play interactions between parent and child were recorded during home visits to observe “serve” and “return” behaviors. In this sample: 67% (n=78) films contained interactions in Spanish, and 33% (n=38) were recorded in English. Parents completed measures including the SEPTI, PSI, and PSOC. Films were coded using a detailed glossary and flowchart. Correlation analyses were used to evaluate associations between parenting scores on the parenting measures and parenting behaviors. 
We found differences in baseline associations between parent self-rated scores and observed behavioral interactions for English and Spanish-speaking families. In only Spanish speaking families, PSI was correlated with low reciprocity (r(78) = 0.272, p =0.016), and negatively correlated with higher reciprocity (r(78) = -0.255, p =0.24). In only English speaking families, SEPTI nurturance (r(38) = 0.336, p =0.039) and Discipline Limit setting (r(38) = 0.343, p =0.035) are significantly correlated with a lack of engagement between parent and child. Implications of these linguistic differences will be further discussed.

Brenna Barton Analyzing Letters to La Pirenaica as Migrant Narrative 
Francisco Franco’s regime and the aftermath of World War II marked a period of political repression and economic instability in Spain, causing thousands of Spaniards to migrate in search of freedom and work. Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, hundreds of thousands of Spanish transplants entered France’s labor market, where they were largely exploited due to the language barrier and their immigration status. These migrants also struggled to find community in the French countryside, so they formed their own via a clandestine radio station nicknamed La Pirenaica which transmitted anti-Franco propaganda. Migrants wrote letters to the station expressing political opinions and describing their time in France, many of which were read on air, creating solidarity among the station’s audience in Spain and abroad. This research investigates the migrants’ experience in their own words through the content of these letters. Through the stories in these letters of workplace exploitation, experiences with French labor unions, political speech, and the poverty that awaited the Spaniards in France, these migrants formed their own narratives of the decades under Franco’s regime which contradict the official story of prosperity. Immigrant voices tend to be forgotten by history, but it is vital to uncover a perspective on the migrant experience in this era directly from the pens of some of the most deeply impacted. 
 
Sammy DiMinno Pregnant Female Athletes and How They Are Framed in the Media  
The purpose of this research is to examine how female athletes are framed and covered in the media in regard to both pregnancy and motherhood. The media plays an important role in framing women’s sport and how the media covers female athletes, has an impact on the way the public views them. By conducting a limited case study approach analyzing the news and sports media coverage of four athletes: Serena Williams, Alysia Montaño, Joy Fawcett, and Candace Parker, I aim to answer my research questions regarding what the common patterns are and what the medica can do better moving forward. By also considering factors of race and gender, I aim to also propose guidelines for how the media can improve their coverage of how they frame pregnant female athletes. My findings indicated that the media commonly framed the athletes’ pregnancy as a career roadblock which further can lead to a type of comeback story. The media also commonly frames these athletes as either mothers, an athlete who is also a mother, or as a superwoman. Furthermore, this research contributes to the future of how the media should frame pregnant female athletes. There is still a fight for sex equality in sports and the media should continue to fight for pregnant female athletes and their representation in the media.  
 
Maryam Moghaddami War and Peace: The Influence of WWII on Noir Films' Femme Fatale 
Noir films have frequently been understood to reflect a societal malaise and as the femme fatale remains one of noir’s defining elements, this research project puts forth the argument that the femme fatale is the reaction of the film industry to the changing gender dynamic in society.
This project utilizes information from the post-war era to make a case for the condition and discontent of women then. The hypothesis that the femme fatale’s character and death is a result of male anxiety primarily builds on Alfred Adler’s theory of the inferiority complex and Laura Mulvey’s theory of female sexualization and male control. "Double Indemnity" (1944), "The Blue Dahlia" (1946), and "Out of the Past" (1947) are used to illustrate this argument.
WWII saw women stepping into traditionally male jobs which gave women more freedom outside of the domestic sphere, something they were hesitant to give up. Male concerns about the role of women gave rise to an inferiority complex that made its way to the big screen in the form of the femme fatale. In this manner, male filmmakers were able to project their fears and overcome them through the femme fatale’s death or subjugation.
This research presents an analysis of film as a product of a male-dominated film industry which reflects an androcentric perspective. Understanding films as being products of their makers can be used both to explain the prevalence of male narratives and make the case for more diversity within the industry as a whole. 
 
Anna Nguyen Exploring the Political and Cultural Underpinnings of Vietnamese American Conservatism 
The rise of Vietnamese American conservatism is not a new phenomenon, nor is it an unprecedented one. Long-standing assumptions of Asian Americans as an ethnic and political monolith continue to exist and critically hinder analyses of this demographic as a powerful voting bloc. To those who are unfamiliar with the political and cultural complexities surrounding Vietnamese American immigration, it may seem like their support for conservative figureheads like Donald Trump is unfounded. To gain a deeper comprehension of this issue, I consulted a wide breadth of existing scholarship on right-wing conservatism and the Vietnamese Catholic experience. I also had the opportunity to connect with three prominent figures in the Vietnamese American community to understand how their lived experiences shaped the development of their political views. My first interviewee, who has chosen to be identified as John Pham, articulates how his robust conservative outlook stems from his devotion to South Vietnam as an anti-communist nation. I then spoke to Rep. My-Linh Thai and Rep. Khanh Pham, who shared their insights on the rise and future of Vietnamese conservatism in an American context. These conversations enhanced the strength of my findings, which ultimately illustrate how anti-communism, cultural stoicism, and the refugee experience impact the nascence of conservative values in generations of Vietnamese Americans today. 
 
Erica Waldron Women in Film Noir: A Reflection of Postwar Society’s Evolving Gender Roles 
During WWII, American society experienced a momentous shift in gender roles as women stepped out of the domestic sphere and transitioned into the wartime economy. Following the war’s resolution, the government and sects of society alike pushed for a return to conventional gendered spaces. Within this period of widespread societal contention and disillusionment, the dark and fatalistic genre of film noir grew in popularity. My research analyzes noir films using cinema and cultural studies lenses to explore how postwar society viewed ideal gender roles and the evolving place of women. Close examinations of Gun Crazy, Out of the Past, and The Reckless Moment reveal that female characters’ interactions with narratives of crime, love and family reflect contemporaneous societal concerns about progressive gender roles. The tradition defying femme fatale mirrors postwar women engaging in the workforce. The manner in which they are punished in noir is reminiscent of societal backlash against the shift in gender roles. In contrast, femme attrapeés are engrossed in their familial duties, therefore reflecting the reversion to tradition desired by society. Even though film noir allows femme attrapeés to survive the films’ finales, the genre offers a denigrated depiction of this idealized lifestyle. Noir was originally popular in the mid 1900s, but its ability to capture and reflect on societal occurrences through the art of film remains critical today as society continues to evolve. 

Mikala Capage & Jacob Evarts Hunting for Prions: Propagating Putative Prion States in Budding Yeast 

Isabelle Cullen Active Olfactomotor Responses in Head-Fixed Mice 

John Francis The Relationship Between Cholinergic and Noradrenergic Activity and Behavioral State

Julia Lo Investigating the mechanisms of DNA repair in C. elegans 

Tillie Morris The effect of optogenetic suppression of gap detection in mice 

Noah Pettinari  Bacterial range expansion and the Fisher speed: a discrepancy in nutrient-rich media

Haley Speed Using Fluorescence Assays to Explore Kynurenine Pathway Regulation in Neurospora Crassa

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Emma Snyder The Body and its Gardens, a Creative Reading 
My poems "How to Hunt for Wild Garlic," "New Growth," and "Waking" are all part of the collection "The Body and its Gardens," an exploration in the similarities of the physical body and the natural world. The poem "How to Hunt for Wild Garlic" is a story of a poisoning and betrayal by one's lover, their body then interred to be made anew in the work "New Growth." Finally the reincarnation occurs in "Waking," where the narrator is then brought back to relearn to be human. "The Body and its Gardens" is an extended story throughout its works of grotesque rebirth, and the beauty and horror of becoming something less than human. It is a promise that you will return, but you will do so with termites in your ribs and mulch under your skin. 
 
Amelia Hamerlynck Hamburg, i love you but you deserve better: a poem by Amelia Hamerlynck  
Hamburg, i love you but you deserve better is a poem I wrote mostly in English but with occasional German words, cultural references, and grammatical constructions. I stylize an aspect of German grammar by only capitalizing nouns on the page. I almost didn't submit this piece for workshop because I was convinced it is far too personal for anyone to understand but me; however, I received a lot of positive feedback from my peers who felt as though the poem's singularity and strangeness is a strength, and that its emotional power transcends the need for literal understanding. The question of how and why one incorporates foreign language into English poetry is complex; I hardly think I have answered it here, and consequently I often wonder about this poem's chance of publication. However, the web of idiosyncrasies makes this poem one of my favorites to unpack and explain, which suits the cerebral context of a research symposium quite well. It is also designed to be read out loud, more so than any other piece I have written thus far. It has the wild energy of a free-verse poem but is written in verse. This is meant to produce a manic or hysterical quality in honor of the heartbreak and pain from which I wrote the piece, although the details of that heartbreak and pain remain somewhat vague in order to allow room for imagination.  
 
Mia Vance We Make Magnificence: Original Poems for Page and Stage 
Much of my poetry is inspired by place. When the flow of ideas slows to a drip, typically all it takes is a trip, a drive, or a walk in the woods to refill the inspiration reserves and get me back to the writing desk. This past year, however, has drastically limited the scope of my movement – to the grocery store, around the neighborhood, and the rare treat of a drive around town. In other words, the poems that have developed over the last thirteen months – especially those developed within the Kidd Creative Writing Workshop Series – have shifted from a rhetoric grounded in place to one of shelter-in-place. Throughout this extended abeyance, my poetic attention has shifted to more complicated meditations on home and heritage, distance and family, longing and loss. This selection of shelter-in-place poems is presented in the spirit of sharing those works which have rung the loudest bells of truth in me, with the hope that they may ring a bell in others. 
 
Sarah Kline The Green Kingdom": A Short Story by Sarah Kline 
“The Green Kingdom” tells the story of a family of three – the daughter Amara, Mother Francis, and Grandmother Betha – in their struggles to love and connect with one another through their fundamental lifestyle differences. Amara, the daughter and narrator, reunites her estranged mother with her grandmother again, forcing them both to face their disagreements and stare forgiveness and understanding straight in the eyes. Through this, they are asked to confront their own demons and anger. Amara stands her ground to provide a center of balance between these two characters, commentating on lessons that nature provides around us specifically as taught by trees. “The Green Kingdom” asks questions of love, what it means to live and care for one another, while addressing the cycles of life and the way nature seeks to connect us all. 

Jack Dinovitz forever, forever A Poem by Jack Lindsay Dinovitz
I wrote this poem titled “forever, forever” about falling in love on a train. How the body and soul of the person can be so inspiring you must write a poem to capture the moment you met them. When the main character falls in love with another man he slowly becomes enthralled by the many ideas and many life times he pictures between the two of them. I researched Greek mythology, time zones between Italy and France, different flowers and monuments in both countries and much more. This poem is dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, my younger self, and the love that may be lost to us because historians were to scared to write about it.

Madeline Fehlman To the girl I saw in my dreams last night
This poem captures the magical quality of dreams. The speaker is longing to reunite with the illusive girl from her dreams and wonders about her existence.

Ava Blake I’m Not Sorry I’m Sick // And The King Declares Zugzwng
For this poetry reading I’m going to read “I’m Not Sorry I’m Sick :: I’m Sorry My Ma Saw Me”. This poem was inspired by the 7-foot tall concrete samurai statue my dad bought. I will also be reading “Starting Our 23rd Life Together” which was created from a prompt to go to a location you’ve never been before and write a poem. I went to a Catholic Church because I was raised Catholic and always wondered if I would ever go back to church.

Andrew Barron One More Thing

Rachel Conner 100 Years of Malaria Prevalence in Zanzibar, East Africa
This project presents and interprets 100 years of malaria prevalence data from the island of Zanzibar. Malaria control measures have been present in Zanzibar for over a century, and the island has been the site of a great deal of scientific hope and expectation. However, more than once, Zanzibaris have suffered epidemics of rebound malaria that were a direct result of international efforts to reduce malaria that failed. This project seeks to find and interpret available archival materials to construct a full history of malaria prevalence and control in Zanzibar. This project sources archival materials from the World Health Organization and Zanzibar National Archives, among others. All available prevalence data was extracted and compiled, and community-based surveys of children under 5 were selected as a marker of overall prevalence. Results indicate that in many cases, large-scale attempts to control malaria have initially been very successful, with rates decreasing as much as 80% in less than a decade. However, many projects begin with the goal of eradication, and even low rates of malaria may be perceived as a failure, leading to project termination. It is essential to use the historical record to understand the full picture of malaria control and understand how and when measures have been effective or ineffective. This better understanding of history isn’t just relevant for understanding the past—it is essential to future decisions regarding malaria control and prevention.

Jackson Valentine The Relationship Between Vehicle Emissions and Asthma
The project's purpose was to find and draw a connection between airborne particle pollution and asthma rates in the United States. Data was gathered primarily from online sources such as articles published by the CDC and EPA. This data was compared with overall asthma data to infer a cumulative influence on asthma rates. Data specific to asthma and vehicular particulates was limited, but a plethora of data highlighted the harmful effects of particulate matter from similar sources. There was an increase in asthma rates for people located near roadways and big cities where elevated levels of vehicular pollutants were produced. The research results concluded that vehicle emissions directly correlate to overall asthma rates across the United States and that direct exposure to particulates should be minimized whenever possible. Long-term solutions could include the mainstream adoption of electric vehicles as an alternative to combustion engines. Furthermore, increasing distances to roadways whenever possible.

Jennifer Beltran, Juliette Coia, Vi Nguyen, Jennifer Vuong Racism as a Public Health Crisis 
Health inequity, caused by systematic disparities between communities, results in poor health outcomes and decreased quality of life among certain groups of people within a population. It is accredited to social determinants of health, life stressors, or other social factors present in one’s environment such as transportation, housing, etc. In the U.S., BIPOC individuals report higher levels of negative experiences with health outcomes compared to other social groups. Contributing to these disparities in Oregon are the state’s historically deep-rooted racism and structural inequalities. Our project investigates racial and ethnic health disparities in Oregon, including those that have impacted BIPOC communities during the Coronavirus pandemic. Using available secondary data sources (e.g., at Oregon Health Authority), and focusing on population-level health indictors (e.g., chronic disease morbidity, self-perceived health ratings, and COVID health outcomes), we document these racial and ethnic disparities in health. Additionally, we use qualitative data from primary data sources (interviews and questionnaires), with Lane County residents to further examine the impact of racial discrimination on lived experiences of health. Our study highlights how experiences with racism put the BIPOC community at a health disadvantage. We aim to publicize these disparities through shared infographics in hopes of alleviating this burden for BIPOC individuals by sharing ideas for public action.

Caroline Doyle Weight-Related Teasing Associated with Loneliness and Depressive Symptoms in Rural Oregon Children 
Weight-related teasing (WRT) is a prevalent and pervasive consequence of weight stigma. Experiences with WRT in childhood contribute to adverse long-term physical and mental health outcomes. However, few studies have examined how WRT is associated with psychological well-being in youth, particularly those living in rural communities. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between WRT with depressive symptoms and loneliness in rural Oregon youth. It was hypothesized that higher composite scores including both frequency of and distress related to WRT would be significantly and positively associated with depressive symptoms and loneliness in children. Further, it was hypothesized that gender and body appreciation would moderate these associations, such that the association would be exacerbated among girls and buffered among those with high levels of appreciation for their body. 75 children living in rural Oregon completed fasting anthropometric measurements and surveys measuring demographic information, WRT frequency and distress, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and body appreciation. WRT was significantly and positively associated with loneliness but not with depressive symptoms. Neither gender nor body appreciation moderated these associations. Independently, body appreciation was significantly and inversely related with both depressive and loneliness. These data support ongoing efforts to intervene with and reduce WRT, and promote youth body appreciation.

Mikala Capage, Rachel Conner, Dimitra Fellman, Marlee Odell, Idil Osman Rebound and Resurgent Malaria Globally: Explanations and Under-estimations via a Meta-Review 
Over the past century considerable efforts have been put forth to eliminate malaria. Such attempts have proved fragile, with many gains and successes followed by a resurgence of malaria cases. In 2012, Cohen et al. published the first systematic review of malaria resurgence events globally, and concluded that most failures were the result of pull-backs in funding for elimination programs. While this publication was an excellent first step, it provides a narrow scope and definition of resurgence that fails to capture potential events or address the ethical implications of resurgence. This research both replicates and expands on Cohen et al.’s work by providing a more nuanced investigation of the concepts, causes and consequences of resurgence. This meta-review added social science and primary archival sources, broadened Cohen et al.'s definition of resurgence, including events reported for only one year, and discuss ethical implications of resurgence. Our preliminary results captured 117 resurgences over 160 years. Our work also found that terms used to describe resurgence are not clearly delineated in malaria literature, descriptions of resurgences are often vague, and causes of resurgence are not as straight-forward or categorical as they appear in the work of Cohen et al. These findings call for expanded research into resurgence, as well as how it is conceptualized and reported.

Paola Sanchez (Visiting McNair Scholar, Boston College) Evaluating the Impact of Climate Change and water scarcity on Chronic Kidney Disease in El Salvador 
In rural communities of El Salvador and Guatemala, poverty lies rampant. The majority of the population in such communities rely on farming in order to provide for themselves and their family. Recently, a lot of attention has garnered around a perplexing problem- an increase in the prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology that is affecting farmers and rural workers in a disproportionate amount. This problem can have grave implications on the economic and social life of El Salvador. Similarly, the rural communities most at risk for such renal insufficiency in Guatemala are indigenous people who suffer from the adverse effects of climate change and water privatization that prevents them from accessing their own resources.
This study will analyze some of the most interesting hypotheses regarding the rise in Chronic Kidney Diseases in El Salvador and Guatemala- namely, climate change and water scarcity in rural areas. By synthesizing these two hypotheses, the research will be able to provide justification for the new phenomenon of “climate refugees.” Because climate change plays a huge role on immigration, analyzing its impact on Global Health is key to understanding the magnitude of the effects that Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology can have on these vulnerable communities.

Jyhreh Johnson Quantifying Cranial Shape Change with Age in Adult Modern Humans 
Skeletal ontogenetic changes in shape have been closely examined and researched in modern humans during the prenatal to subadult stages of development. However cranial shape changes during adulthood are less notable and studied. This thesis used 35 three-dimensional landmarks from 13 cranial specimens of known age to estimate shape changes associated with age. Since research on this topic is less well known I hypothesized that the human cranium does undergo shape change during adulthood and that these changes will provide more information on cranial ontogeny. Three-dimensional surface models of the superior and inferior portions of crania were created by photogrammetry using Agisoft Photoscan. Geomagic Control was used to unite these parts into a single 3D model of each specimen. The 35 craniometric landmarks were digitized using Landmark Editor. The landmarks were superimposed through a Generalized Procrustes Analysis in MorphoJ. Variations due to size, position, and orientation were removed from the data leaving the variable of shape for each specimen. The resulting 13 configurations of Procrustes coordinates were regressed against chronological age. Results of the regression analysis demonstrated a correlation between cranial shape with age. Age has a subtle effect on cranial shape that accounts for approximately 5.7% of shape variance. Though minimal, as the cranium ages the position of the zygomaxillare anterior narrows resulting in a hollowed look to the facial region.

Sydney Balderston Student Responses to Climate Change: Determinants of Participation in Collective Action 
My research uses in-depth interview research with undergraduate students at the University of Oregon to understand why the amount of public concern about the climate crisis is not reflected in the amount of collective action to address the issue. To gain insight into the factors that determine whether a concerned student becomes activated to address climate change collectively, my research focuses on 20 students who are deeply concerned about climate change and see it as an urgent threat.  I recruited two subgroups within this population of concerned students. The first 10 students I refer to as active and are currently involved in collective action to address climate change and were recruited through their group, club, organization, or movement. The second group of 10 students I refer to as inactive because they have not been mobilized to take action beyond the individual level. I argue that the application of general sociological theories around movement mobilization is insufficient for understanding the current state of inaction around an issue as dynamic as climate change. Whether students translate their concern into collective action is dependent on their comfortability in activist spaces, perception of climate activism, their view of their role is within the crisis and how likely they think climate change will be contained.Insights from this research and additional studies using the experiences of concerned Americans could be utilized to activate more to the fight. 

Olivia Farnham Compounding Precarity: COVID-19 and the New Hazards of Low-Wage Work in the University Setting 
As the coronavirus spread in the early months of 2020, low-wage workers on college campuses experienced an unprecedented transformation of work conditions that has resulted in continual uncertainty and increased risk. During the first three months of 2021, I conducted twenty semi-structured interviews with classified staff and student-workers employed through four different universities in the United States to ask: What does it mean to be a low-wage worker on a college campus in the context of a global health crisis? Based on this data, I find that COVID-19 has heightened the preexistent precarity of low-wage workers who are experiencing this in three key ways: 1) confusion surrounding paid sick leave options, 2) anxiety as a background condition of work, and 3) the conversion of these conditions into the new normal. To conclude, I center workers’ voices in appeals for the future, including the need for transparent dissemination of COVID-related information, the recognition of their lived experiences and inclusion of their voices in the production of workplace policy, and a return to normalcy. Even under normal circumstances these workers are forced into impossible choices, and a year into the pandemic this position has only been intensified. In order to mitigate the vulnerability of low-wage workers, we need to recognize that these circumstances go beyond the scope of the current moment and will endure if the structural inequalities of low-wage work are not addressed. 


Alyssa Taylor Covid-19 and Teletherapy: Environment, Access and Efficacy 
COVID-19 has had an impact on individual mental health and the structure of how mental health treatment is offered. The objective of this research was to understand the extent that environment played in patient access and experiences with remote therapy models. This research was conducted through a one-time, five to ten-minute survey that contained open-ended as well as multiple choice questions. Respondents had attended therapy or wished to attend in the past year. About sixty-five percent were female identifying, and a majority had been seeing a therapist at some point prior to COVID. Most respondents had insurance that covered behavioral health and a majority of that came from a Medicare expansion program or was through an employer. The biggest barrier for people still looking for therapy in 2020/21 was a lack of therapists accepting new patients and provider bios that were not comprehensive or lacking in personality. All respondents from both groups were open about therapy with at least someone in their lives. In terms of the environmental impacts of teletherapy, a majority of respondents attended therapy in their bedrooms to avoid other members of their households, some took walks, some found ways to meet with their therapist outdoors. The major concerns were privacy, technological issues and inability to read body language. Despite a majority of respondents preferring in-person treatment, the overall consensus was that teletherapy should remain an option post-pandemic. 


Madi Vann Countries Beyond Bars: A Cross-National Comparison of Methods of Incarceration 
The culture of incarceration in the United States has long been rooted in punitive practices intended to punish incarcerated persons rather than to rehabilitate these populations in preparation for re-entry into society upon release. Alongside the high recidivism rates among prison populations, the United States is long overdue for an overhaul in prison practices, specifically pertaining to punitive practices of incarceration. Using the incarceration model of the Netherlands as an exploratory country of comparison, this research delves into varying methods of incarceration and criminal sanctions, primarily centered on rehabilitative measures of incarceration. While rehabilitative methods of incarceration assist in some aspects of post-release aid, it is through areas of community support outside of the criminal justice system that occur prior to incarceration that this research shows an effective reduction of recidivism and crime rates. By looking at alternate examples of incarceration in relation to published rates of recidivism in each country, this research works to call into question the efficacy of incarceration measures as a whole in easing prisoner reentry into society. 

Bita Habashi The Representation of Middle Eastern Women Novelists in High School Curricula 

Kira Seretan Split Diminutives: A Study of Truncation Patterns in American English Speakers with Varying Linguistic Backgrounds

Maya Ward Section 1557: Cultural Implications of the ACA for Transgender Persons 

Starla Chambrose A History of Muscular Dystrophy: The Biosocial Nature of Disease

Cassie Cole A Culture to Call Home: Cultural Gatekeeping in the Vietnamese Community 

Abigail Kellems American Women Driving Classical Music and Environmentalism Forward in the Twenty-First Century 

Sabrina Piccolo Effect of accent perception on the perception of professionalism

Jude Stone Racial Influence on Trans-femme Murder Convictions 

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Parker Morris Designer Catalysts: The Role of Sterics on Nickel Catalyzed Allylbenzene Isomerization
Synthetic chemistry is vital to manufacturing daily household products such as perfumes, food additives, and synthetic materials. The chemical industry manufactures chemical products on the million tons scale yearly and developing energy efficient ways to create these materials is an important area of study for organic and inorganic chemists. One approach to increasing reaction efficiency is through the use of a metal catalyst. Unfortunately, some of the most successful metal catalysts are derived from precious metals such as platinum, palladium, iridium, or ruthenium. Nickel is a cheap, earth abundant alternative to the precious metal counterparts.  This project saw the synthesis of four nickel-based n-heterocyclic carbene complexes to be used in catalytic isomerization reactions. The primary goal of the study was to determine the role of ligand sterics on product distribution and kinetics in the isomerization of allylbenzene via nickel catalysis. Contrary to hypotheses, it was determined that with larger steric incumbrance, the rate of reaction increased as did overall yield. Additionally, synthetic routes to reach these complexes were established starting from cheap and available starting materials.  

Lillian Payne Inducing Photo-accessible Metal States in Zirconium Metal Organic Frameworks 
Photocatalysis, the acceleration of a photoreaction in the presence of a catalyst, is utilized in many famous industrial processes such as water splitting, water purification, and CO2 conversion. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are desirable for photocatalytic applications. To effectively preform photocatalytic transformations, long exciton lifetimes are needed. Ti(IV) MOFs have provided these long exciton lifetimes through ligand to metal charge transfer and metal-localized proton coupled electron transfer (PCET), but similarly structured Zr(IV) MOFs show less stable ligand to ligand excitations. This difference can be attributed to the lack of photoaccessible metal states at the conduction band edge in Zr(IV) MOFs. We show here that destabilizing the linker orbitals through removal of aromaticity gives access to metal states and allows stable excitations through a Zr(IV)/Zr(III) redox couple upon PCET.  


Haley Rice Exploring Oxaliplatin Derivatives Through Modification of the 3,4 Position 
Platinum anti-cancer compounds have been in clinical use for over 40 years and are used in around 20% of cancer regimes today. Despite their long use, the widespread binding activity for the three FDA approved platinum drugs, cisplatin, oxaliplatin and carboplatin, has not been well studied. The mechanism of action for cisplatin is through DNA damage response, however, it was recently discovered that oxaliplatin’s mechanism of action is through ribosome biogenesis stress, also referred to as nucleolar stress. Previous research in the DeRose lab has established structural characteristics necessary for platinum compounds to cause nucleolar stress, including hydrophobicity, steric bulk, and directionality. To determine what biomolecules are interacting with these platinum compounds, we aim to create an azide incorporated oxaliplatin mimic which can be used to pull down biomolecules. Here we investigate the 3,4 position of the cyclohexane ring of oxaliplatin to determine the window of tolerance in which an azide could be incorporated on the scaffold. We synthesize oxaliplatin derivatives with varying groups in the axial and equatorial position and determine whether these derivatives cause nucleolar stress using an nucleophosmin (NPM1) relocalization assay in non small cell lung cancer. Better understanding the targets of oxaliplatin may illuminate the specific biomolecules binding to platinum which can be used to better design new platinum compounds for use in cancer treatments. 


Stacey Andreeva Structural changes in organic-inorganic hybrid materials dictated by bond dynamics 
Dynamic chemical bonding is responsible for the basic mechanism of crystallization for many material systems because erroneous bond formation can be corrected through facile reversal until the material settles into the most favorable crystalline phase. A particularly important class of crystalline materials that emerge from this dynamic process are metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). For the past two decades, MOFs have been viewed as rigid structures, but we propose that even after formation, MOFs contain metal-ligand bonds that remain dynamic such that the crystalline structure contains mixtures of partially tight and loose arrangements. We hypothesize that metal-linker bonds are especially dynamic, and with variable-temperature diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (VT-DRIFTS) aided by ab initio plane wave density functional theory, we demonstrate that similar evidence for melting behavior in zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) – reversible metal-linker bonding driven by specific vibrational modes – can be observed for other classes of MOFs by monitoring the redshifts of stretches coupled to metal-linker modes. We present general evidence that challenges the common perception of MOF metal-linker bonds being static. Insight into their labile nature would provide a predictive model of their growth mechanism and inspire important applications such as the use of MOF for self-healing membranes. 

Bianca Benitez Incorporating Qualitative Data Into Parent Intervention Clinical Research
Introduction
Qualitative data and methodology must continue to be incorporated into clinical research in order to create equal evaluations of caregiving in parent intervention. This is significant because it affects the validity of the data gathered from parent intervention in clinical research. This review will highlight why these methods work and why they are needed, by analyzing various pieces of literature that have created a qualitative approach for Spanish speaking families when a measure is created with an English speaking family.
Methods
All articles have been selected because they have incorporated qualitative methods in their studies involving English and Spanish speaking families, and have shared the pros and cons of doing so. The articles selected will be compared to one another, based on their approaches of incorporating qualitative methods in their studies. The way their approaches affect Spanish speaking families versus English speaking families will also be compared. Whichever kinds of qualitative methods were most effective according to the studies, based on the ability to provide the strongest validity in evaluation, will be left.
Conclusion
Based on the comparisons made, the most effective study and their approach will be named. The significance of incorporating qualitative methods in parent intervention with English and Spanish speaking families reflects in the data.


Desiree Casanova Finding a Correlation Between Adolescent Drug Abuse and Adult Memory Recall Deficits
Many studies have been done involving the long term effects that drug abuse has on memory recall, but it is still not well understood how and if the brain heals from prolonged usage during critical developmental periods. If we can understand some of these long term consequences better, we can develop early intervention systems and make young people aware that the consequences of drug use may last for many years even after the drug use has ended. First, we need to explore the relationship between adolescent drug use and the decay of memory recall as a sober adult. In this study, participants are going to be asked about their perception of their memory recall skills, followed by their drug use history that occurred (or did not occur) in adolescents. After data collection is completed we will be able to correlate a composite measure of drug use with a composite measure of subjective memory ability and also compare these correlates to different demographic populations. It is hypothesized that those with more drug exposure in their teenage years will perceive their memory recall skills to be worse than those who hadn’t. The data from this study can be used in future research as a starting place to further investigate long term cognitive deficits after drug exposure in adolescents.

Skyler Cservak, Mollie Markey, Brianna Burrell-Lewis and Sierra Raines, Restoring Connections: Reconnecting Young Minds to Place in a Virtual Setting
Children today are more plugged into technological devices and less connected to the natural world than ever before which rings even more true in the midst of a pandemic. The Restoring Connections Project, in collaboration with Mount Pisgah Arboretum, Adams Elementary, and the University of Oregon’s Environmental Leadership Program, aims to help elementary students form personal bonds to natural places by introducing children to local nature elements. Utilizing the standards set by the North American Association for Environmental Education, our team created 15, 30-minute lessons filled with story-telling and participatory activities. Over the course of five weeks, we have joined 14 hybrid and remote classrooms visiting once a week, varying from 8-25 kindergarteners, first, and second graders. Students have developed scientific literacy, greater ecological awareness, and personal investment in our community’s conservation efforts by the end of the lesson. Throughout the last five years, Restoring Connections has found that integrating a transdisciplinary, place-based, and equitable learning environment into the classroom nurtured lasting connections with local nature, fostered stewardship, and redefined the wonders of nature for students. In an era where technology is prevalent, restoring students' connection to the land through environmental education encourages them to become stewards and create strong and beneficial relationships with their local environment.


Cat Luna Pick Me Up - A Study on Time Management in Nontraditional Students with Children During COVID-19 
The purpose of this research is to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted University of Oregon undergraduate students' time management behavior and examine the differences in time management behaviors between these student populations. Participants completed the Time Management Behaviors Scale as well as basic demographic questions to determine if they were traditional, nontraditional, or a student with children. We expect to see significant differences between these student populations and their time management behaviors during Covid-19, specifically on the subscale measuring the ability to prioritize and set goals. We also expect to find significant differences between student populations on another subscale of the Time Management Behaviors Scale measuring the mechanics of time management. The results that we expect to find suggest that students who manage multiple responsibilities and life-roles while attending college have increased abilities in undertaking additional time management responsibilities outside of their role as a student. In addition, these expected results could also indicate that nontraditional students and students with children are better at recognizing and establishing goals as well as putting mechanisms into place to better accomplish goals such as creating to-do lists or making and maintaining schedules. This study contributes to the literature, offering insight into the overall academic experience of nontraditional undergraduate students.

Jared Knofczynski A Multi-Task Weak Supervision Framework for Internet Measurements 
The ability of machine learning (ML) systems to identify patterns in data is of growing importance to researchers in all fields, especially in the domain of Internet measurements. As our reliance on the Internet continues to grow, ML solutions to networking problems continue to be invaluable in ensuring the sustained performance of networked systems around the globe. One key issue network researchers face is a lack of labeled training data, particularly at scale. Traditional labeling strategies are less effective in this domain, as labeling network data often requires significant domain expertise that crowdsourced labeling resources do not possess, and the vast quantities of data make large-scale manual annotation infeasible. Additionally, many ML applications require multiple tasks to operate effectively, resulting in the multiplicative growth of training times as the number of tasks increases, but the lack of information sharing between tasks means that potentially useful information may be discarded if deemed irrelevant for the task at hand, when it could be useful to another model training on the same dataset. Given these challenges, we propose ARISE, a multi-task framework capable of leveraging weak supervision strategies in the form of labeling functions to label vast quantities of network data while sharing information between tasks to decrease training times, improve classification accuracy, and reduce the influence of hidden biases found within sets of training data. 

Riley Monsrud Determining Physical Characteristics of the Asteroid 572 Rebekka through Analysis of its Lightcurve 
Here we present observations of the asteroid 572 Rebekka that were obtained in August 2020 at Pine Mountain Observatory (PMO). The target was observed with the 0.35m Robbins telescope at PMO, using a Sloan g’ filter, for a total of 6 hours over two nights. The observations produced 436 images of the target which were then analyzed to produce a “lightcurve” of the asteroid. Through photometric analysis of the lightcurve, we have produced a 3-dimensional model of the asteroid which is presented here. Using the programs MPO Canopus (MPO) and Aperture Photometry Tool (APT), photometric estimates of the asteroid’s brightness over time are plotted in order to extract the rotation period as well as the shape of the target. To calibrate this data, we compare the asteroid to multiple stars of constant brightness within the same image. This process, known as “relative photometry”, allows us to remove atmospheric effects due to air quality, light pollution, and changing air mass. An estimate for the change in magnitude due to air mass, commonly known as the extinction coefficient, is also made. These findings give confidence in PMO’s ability to provide research-grade data and serves as an exercise in analyzing and reducing large sets of data. As a collaboration with Kobe University in Japan, this is a continuing project that looks to familiarize students with data analysis, calibration, and astronomical concepts. 

Lucy Roberts Quantifying Glacial Melt and Movement Using Remote Sensing in Greenland's Sermilik Fjord 
In Greenland’s fjords, large icebergs have been shown to be an indicator of oceanic circulation. However, previous reports published by Dr. Dave Sutherland’s Ocean and Ice group concluded that there is large variation of these flow systems seasonally and interannually. Providing reliable analysis of fjordic flow regimes in a specific fjord requires long-term data in order to mitigate annual fluctuations. Working along with Dr. Sutherland, I have been updating previously published research (2014 Article: “Quantifying flow regimes in a Greenland glacial fjord using iceberg drifters”) that used a very limited dataset.
I have been working with Dr. Sutherland to take these GPS data spanning 2012-2019. The previous publication used 10 GPS units from 2012 and 2013 to interpret iceberg motion in the context of mean fjord circulation. In aggregating eight years’ worth of data, we will be able to analyze information from >30 GPS devices to inform questions of recirculation and in-/out- fjord variations in velocity as they relate to flow variability, while mitigating noise from annual fluctuations. As large conduits of freshwater, the movement of icebergs and their interactions with the surrounding oceans are increasingly important when analyzing the impacts of global ocean warming. This project can provide the analysis needed to create and run more accurate models of fjord circulation and the ultimate fate of freshwater delivery from Greenland. 

Nobuyuki Tamai Coordinated observations of asteroids by Pine Mountain and Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatories 
Coordinated broadband photometric measurements of the asteroid 665 Sabine were obtained in August 2020 from the Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory (NHAO) and Pine Mountain Observatory (PMO) using a 0.6 meter telescope (NHAO) and the 0.35m Robbins telescope at PMO. 665 Sabine has a rotational period of 4.294 hours, semi-major axis of 3.14 AU, and diameter of ~51km. In total, these observations produced 180 images from PMO, and 280 images from NHAO. These 460 images of the target were then analyzed to produce a “lightcurve” of the asteroid, where photometric estimates of the asteroid’s brightness over time are plotted in order to extract the rotation period as well as the shape of the target. At most locations, 665 Sabine cannot be tracked for more than two rotations. Continuous observation of rotating asteroids over several rotation cycles is necessary for determination of basic asteroid properties - such as the shape, surface properties, and rotation period. To obtain continuous coverage of an asteroid for more than two rotation cycles, multiple observing sites (separated by ~6 h in longitude) are needed. As a collaboration, NHAO and PMO work together to obtain data on asteroids that span several rotation periods. NHAO is operated by the University of Hyogo and located in Sayo, Japan (lat ~ 35 N, long ~ 134 E). PMO is operated by the University of Oregon and located near Bend, Oregon, (lat ~ 44 N, long ~ 121 W).

Anastasia Browning Leveraging Evidence-Based Messaging to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 
With cases of COVID-19 still surging in America, and vaccines still inaccessible or undesired by many, one of our primary defenses against this deadly virus remains to mitigate its spread on an individual level. Official messaging targeting appropriate mitigation procedures is critical for reducing virus transmission. This study assessed whether approach-versus-avoidance message framing and goal-orientation affect individual's intentions to use mitigation procedures. To test this, 832 subjects were randomly assigned to view mitigation messaging with either approach or avoidance framing, and either self-protective or altruistic goal-orientation. Kruskal-Wallis tests revealed a significant effect of goal-orientation, suggesting that altruistic (over self-protective) goal-orientations in COVID-19 health messaging lead to stronger intentions to follow mitigation procedures. No significant effect of approach or avoidance framing was found on individual intentions to follow mitigation procedures. These results suggest an immediate need to address the framing of our public health messages. By adjusting goal-orientation, we can leverage our official communications as a prevention tool to protect at-risk populations from contracting COVID-19.  


Mackenzie Hudler Media Framing of Second-Wave Feminist & Civil Rights Protest Groups at the 1968 Miss America Pageant 
This study analyzes various media framing techniques and information biases used within mass media coverage of two protests that occurred at the 1968 Miss America Pageant: The Miss Black America Pageant and the women’s liberation protest led by the New York Radical Women. A qualitative content analysis of 10 news articles from American mass media outlets such as the New York Times and LIFE Magazine will be conducted to critically analyze how framing techniques were used to strategically position these protest groups and their respective movements within public opinion, as well as how these portrayals differed from reality and other media depictions, such as the Up Against the Wall, Ms. America documentary. Ultimately, journalists from mass media publications used three main information biases and specific framing techniques to not only portray a victim-based narrative in which Miss America symbolized a “victim” being “attacked” by angry/radical protest groups, but also to diffuse and purposefully ignore any kind of overlap between the two protest groups, thus portraying a narrative surrounding the events that transpired in September of 1968 that also lacks intersectionality.  


Payton Lommers Matt and Diederik -- White Saviors of the Gobi Desert 
NAADAM’s advertisements claim that their cashmere is sourced sustainably and ethically. When I first saw these advertisements I thought the worst thing they were doing was virtue signaling. However, after investigating the claims made in their videos, I discovered that in reality NAADAM has been and continues to engage in misleading and problematic business practices. The founders of NAADAM Cashmere -Matthew Scanlan and Diederik Rijsemus- are exploiting the people of Bayangovi Soum in Mongolia for their own personal gain, illustrating a larger problem within the clothing and textile industry. In order to either prove or refute the claims made by NAADAM in these advertisements, I consulted sources including documentation provided by NAADAM, interviews with individuals linked to NAADAM’s business, the Instagram account of the current CEO and co-owner Matt Scanlan, the Foreign Trade Association, various statistical analysis websites, Oxford dictionaries, documentaries about the relevant regions in Mongolia, National reports produced by Mongolia, the CFDA, and even a Senior Manager at Patagonia. The conclusion I came to is that NAADAM is overstating their commitment to social and environmental integrity. By extension, my findings also imply a wider issue with the fashion industry and the global manufacturing industry. Many American and European companies outsource labour to countries in Asia where lab 


Carolyn Roderique Media and Science: A Case Study of CTE 
Conditions of reporting have changed with the 24-hour news cycle, and less specialization has created concerns of accuracy.  This project looks into CTE and many of the misinformation represented in its reporting. It will look at issues like scientific biases, framing, and context that was left out. This project was created with a mix of scientific, academic and even a legal source to get a full picture of what the media was missing and why. Many of the inaccuracies and misinformation were a mix of reporter’s own biases, framing, frequency. Not only were inaccuracies part of the issue with the reporting, but the “walk it off” culture in American contact sports or the contracts that encourage players to hide their injuries. This could also be applied and examined in the larger context of reporting on science. 


Shuxi Wu Television Adaptation in the Age of Media Convergence in China 
This article introduces the ‘intellectual property show’ concept currently inciting heated discussions among Chinese media studies scholars into English-language academia. Intellectual property show, a Chinese term generally referring to television shows adapted from internet fiction (and to a secondary extent, video games), explicitly suggests an adaptation form and logic particular to an environment characterized by converging media and digital transformations of cultural production. Using the 2019 Chinese hit show All is Well, adapted from an internet novel with the same name, I approach intellectual property show as a media artefact situated at the volatile convergence of political demand, business interest, and new media affordances through adopting an integrative approach to contemporary adaptations in China. By attending to both the material context of production and the media text itself, I join the current exploration in adaptation studies for methods that answer the why and how of adaptation. 

Karly Fear Computational Modeling of BMP-2 Affibodies 

Nora Kearns An orthogonal system for the continuous directed evolution of genes in vivo 

Philip Nosler Investigating a role for HSF-1 in the formation of heat-induced DNA damage in developing sperm 

Deanna Plunkett Neonatal inflammation increases adult vulnerability to subsequent inflammatory stimuli 

Sunny Zhang Magnetoelastic Sensors for Real-Time Tracking of MSC Growth 

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Anna Brown Assessing and promoting pollinator diversity in a hazelnut orchard using cover crops 

Yalin Li Does the nutritional state of jellyfish vary with season along the Pacific Northwest coast? 

Natalie Lehrbach, Rachael Maloney, Wally McAllister, Eloise Navarro, Olivia Zajac,  Bird Nerds: Uniting Elementary School Students in Oregon and Mexico through Shared Migratory Birds 

Rachel Peterson The influence of ephemeral ice mélange on Rink Isbræ Fjord circulation

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Kelby Beyer, Isabella Kinser, Hannah Motta, Alissa Richbourg, & Caroline Taylor
Ecological Design: Designing a Pollinator-Supportive Native Garden on Campus 

Tristan Hanna, Jin Prunuske, & Isabella Tritto 
 Physical Education & Recreation student incentive program to increase well-being 


William Berg, Dino Giakoumis, Michaela Manson & Emma Wenck 
Duck Buddy Program App to be Proposed to Physical Education and Recreation 


Ty Clayton, Spencer Hudson, Maya Lieberman, Eoin Penney, & Carly Zamudio
Thrive ARC’s Knowledge of UO Wellness Resources Compared to First-year Students Living on Campus

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Rose Gibian, Audra McNamee, Page Biersdorff, Chloe DaMommio, & Isabel Lopez 
Science/Comics Interdisciplinary Research Program

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Emily Cook Intraspecific variation in Sandburg bluegrass (Poa secunda)’s resistance to annual grass invasion
 
Isabella Garcia (Visiting McNair Scholar, Sul Ross University) The Reproductive Investment of Native Versus Invasive Cane Toads (Rhinella marina)
 
Audrey Landes What Killed Red Protein Genes in White Blooded Antarctic Icefish?

Lukas MacMillen Condition Dependent Recombination in Drosophila melanogaster: Assays & Implications

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Dimitra Fellman Testing Oregon's COVID-19 Response: Approaches and Outcomes to Diagnostic Testing

Anika Graack Comparison and Analysis of Spanish Translations of COVID-19 Public Health Resources

Issabell Melz, Sarah Peasley, & Annalise Sacamano COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Inequality: Local Partnership for Global Change

Natalie Schnoor How Covid-19 Closure Affected Blood Pressure and Functional Capacity at PeaceHealth's Cardiac Rehab

Remi McMullen Covid-19 Shed Light on Conditions Faced by Unhoused

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Adriann Bechtle & Rheata Kumala
Museum of Stolen Land: Problematizing American Colonialism Through Architectural Design

Camden Apsay, Georgia Dowling, Erika Eden, Courtney Kaltenbach & Marianne Powell
Oral Histories of the Oregon Holiday Farm Fire: Understanding Place, People, and Community

Kit Foreman
Witness: Stories of Survival From the American Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Epidemic

Mason Leavitt 
A Cultural Memory Tour & Workshop of Alton Baker Park: Race, History, and Power in Public Spaces

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Leah Burian Voices Along the Path: Jewish Roots in “Dum Pater Familias” of the Codex Calixtinus

Alisha Davison The Research Behind Costume Design

Natalie North The Oldest Known Piece of Notated Music: A Synthesis of Sumerian through Babylonian Music Theory

Carleigh Ocon Embodied Youth: The Typology of David and Goliath as a Mode of Self-Portraiture

Japi Panganiban Rain, Mercury and Corruption: Environmental Issues Portrayed Within Japanese Cinema

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Tyler Christenson An Affordable Search for Dark Matter -- The ForwArd Search ExpeRiment in a Nutshell

Chester Mantel Magnetic Moments of Baryons in Theories of Strongly Interacting Dark Matter

Laura Nosler Sensitivity to Decays of Long-Lived Dark Photons at the International Linear Collider

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Ben Backen Predicting Stock Market Fluctuations Based on Reddit Data

Genevieve Dorrell Using Remote Sensing Data and a Convolutional Neural Network to Predict Wildfire Severity

Myles Nelson Predicting the Metabolic Cost of Level-Ground Walking from Gait Speed and Prosthesis Stiffness

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Paula Costal Lagarde FEMINICIDE IN THE FACE OF DEMOCRACY- Policy Implementation Gap in Mexico

Emily Hunt Whiteness on Mission (trips): Analyzing Voluntourism as a Racial Project

Aysa Klocke EVALUATING THE SUCCESS OF OREGON’S NORWEGIAN-INSPIRED PRISON REFORM

Raimy Khalife-Hamdan Burkinabè President Kaboré’s Approach to Counterterrorism: Peace in the Land of Upright People?

Raimy Khalife-Hamdan Women Without Walls: Countering Violent Extremism in Nigeria

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Gemma Fucigna & Andrew Newbold The Laboratory for Architecture and Building - Uniting academics, ecological design, and community
With the increasing rate of climate change, it is critical to recognize and combat the fact that buildings account for close to 50% of CO2 emissions in the United States. Architectural design plays a crucial role in reducing carbon impacts. The Laboratory for Architecture and Building (LAB) is a proposed architectural research school in Eugene, Oregon that will focus on teaching and advancing building science research. The LAB provides an educational research hub for ecological building practices, while serving as an example for sustainability, that fosters engagement with the community. Researchers conducted systems research, site studies, and calculations for an urban site located at the base of Skinner’s Butte just north of downtown. This comprehensive design process resulted in a building proposal that is net-zero energy, cultivates food, harvests and recycles wastewater, engages with the community, and provides design research facilities, all on the 1.1 acre lot. The LAB stands as a learning opportunity to be implemented in communities beyond Eugene. The innovative design strategies unite education, research, and community in a building that showcases cutting edge ecological design.
 
Sedonah Breech What are the limits of our interior spaces? Designing offices during a pandemic
Interior Architecture is used as a tool to provide safe and healthy environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project sought to design office spaces located in Seattle, Washington in the historic Maritime Building. The design highlighted the importance of community engagement through a 2,000 square foot public access space, connected to the main 1,500 square foot office space. The client, RSTUDIO06 Architects, provided an extensive list of expectations and deadlines in the form of a document called a "program". The program was fulfilled through the use of office client interviews, material studies, space planning and square foot calculations, weekly design tests and experiments reviewed by peers and instructors, and a final analysis by the client. The result is a community space focused around the historic significance of Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct elevated freeway, forming an interactive Viaduct Informational Center. The RSTUDIO06 office connected to this public space applies a theme of biophilic (nature focused conditions) design that provides a safe and productive working environment during COVID-19. The space combines aspects of materiality, high and low seating conditions, variety in furniture and enclosed spaces, and the use of UV rays and passive ventilation. The research conducted to produce the design for RSTUDIO06 highlights the influence of interior spaces on the emotional and physical reactions of users' productivity and health during an ongoing pandemic.

Jillian Kellett Capitol Hill Arts Alliance: A Center for Visual and Performing Artists in the Wake of the Pandemic
Countless industries have been negatively affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, but one that has yet to make a comeback is the arts industry. The arts industry is one of America’s three key economic sectors, but COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 laid off 2.7 million arts workers (Washington Post). Since large museums and performance venues are unable to adapt for social distancing, many professionals including singers, actors, dancers, fine artists, and musicians are out of work and face uncertainty about their futures. This project offers a building program that promotes cross-pollination between disciplines and flexible exhibition spaces that accommodate social distancing. Through precedent studies and primary research, a building site was chosen and redesigned to implement solutions that addressed key research questions.
The Capitol Hill Arts Alliance is a proposed adaptive reuse project in Seattle, WA that provides safe spaces for visual and performing artists to continue creating, exhibiting, collaborating during the pandemic. The program and design address three main issues: the financial impact on artists as the industry remains closed, the closure’s effects on the local community and culture, and the need to integrate flexible architectural elements to transform space for social distancing. Though the future is still uncertain for many arts workers, this project explores design principles that address specific obstacles people in the arts industry face during the pandemic.

Marin Nagle Exploring the Impacts of Biophilic Design on Occupants' Behavior and Health
The majority of human evolution has been spent in nature, gaining sustenance from the environment. Only recently in the timeline of human evolution have we shifted to spending most of our time indoors in an artificial environment. Nowadays, on average, people spend over 90% of their time indoors. This then can lead to diminished mental and physical health and well-being. As technology has advanced, we have gathered more quantifiable data showing that occupants have both a positive physiological and physiological response by introducing elements of biophilic design. This paper begins to take a closer look at visual connections to nature as well as biomorphic forms by instituting a novel approach brought on by the pandemic in collecting more quantifiable data through self-reported 360 image surveys as well as behavioral analysis software to see the effects of implementing these two different biophilic elements. In preliminary survey studies, in general, participants found scenes with multiple biophilic design elements at play more preferable than scenes with one or none. Participants also found the scenes with visual connections to nature and implemented nature more calming and restorative than those with biomorphic forms and patterns. Participants who viewed the control room with no biophilic design elements reported feeling the most anxious. Further studies are required to determine if participants' self-reported responses will match their physiological responses.
 

MacKenzie Brumbaugh Breaking Barriers: Exploring Female Athletes in the Age of Social Media
 
Danielle Desmet How Hookup Culture at the University of Oregon Has Changed in Response to COVID-19

Gracia Dodds Queer Identity as the Litmus Test for Better Consent

Claire Francis The Effects of Imprisonment on Previously-Incarcerated Fathers and the Family Unit

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Isabelle Cullen Active Olfactomotor Responses in Head-Fixed Mice

Alyssa Fuentez Comparison of V1 Activity Between Mice Raised In Enriched Versus Standard Housing Conditions

Katherine Kaylegian Decoding the Role of the Auditory Cortex During Prey Capture Behavior In Laboratory Mice

Amanda Linskens Molecular Origins of the Pair1 and Moonwalker Descending Neuron's Neural Circuitry in Drosophila

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book

Zoe Haupt Predictable vowel intrusion in Jilim: A preliminary phonetic study

Jaidan McLean Spatial Relations in Southern Californian English vs. Pacific Northwestern English

Liam McNamara Rhetoric in the Creation of a New Major at the University of Oregon

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Rachel Hur Inferring Binary Black Hole Merger Properties from Contaminated Gravitational Waves Signals

Noah Kruss Evading instabilities in spring-mass chains with time-modulated stiffnesses

Nicole Wales Correlations Between Neighboring Minima in Jamming

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book 

Kristen Adams State Legislature Walkouts & their Causes: Why Some States have a History of Quorum Walkouts     

Odalis Aguilar-Aguilar The Forgotten Stories of Human Rights Violations within the US

Bailey Adams Police Killings: An Exploration of Black American Perception of Police

Alexie Malone An Introduction to Political Polarization Through Human Biases and Game Theory

Marie-Rose Tonguino Impacts of Economic Conditions on Hate Crimes in The United States

Full presenter abstracts are available in the 2021 Symposium Program Book