Graduate Students

Jennifer Hackney, "“They rape us, they treat us like animals”: Handmaid animality and Commander brutality in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale" 

Advisor: Dr. Charles McGovern

Panel: GRAD5, Thursday, 10:45 AM  

Male dominance, a gender-based caste system, strict morality codes, women kept in a slavery of sexual violence, a color-coded structure of dress, and a slew of restrictions against women define the world of Gilead. This is the main setting of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a series based off Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name but updated to reflect modern advances and societal ills of the twenty-first century. The series takes place in a near-distant future in which the Puritanical elite have established a biblical rule of law. Low birthrates plague this dystopian world, and the theocracy of Gilead sees itself as a potential solution to this problem through the subjugation of fertile “handmaids” who are held in captivity, and not unlike cows in factory dairy farms, must endure a monthly “ceremony” where they are raped by their master commanders for the hope of impregnation. Methodologically, this essay combines visual and material culture analysis of handmaids’ dress, bondage, punishment, and carceral interiors with studies of animal abuses and factory farming, tracing how these relate to colonial occupations of animal and human bodies. By comparing the treatment of fictionalized handmaids to the treatment of actual animals, I illustrate how the imprisoned women of Gilead are treated as less than human – colonized subjects trapped like animals. This work illuminates how this show reverberates with and against current evangelical movements and their impact on government regulations relating to hierarchical perspectives of the gendered body – a twenty-first century scala naturae determining United States legislation. 

Jennifer Hackney is a second year Ph.D. student in American Studies at William & Mary. Her research interests exist at the intersection of decorative arts and film history, specifically focusing on the role that set decoration plays in affecting public perception of gender, race, and socioeconomics portrayed on screen. She holds a BFA from VCU (Set Design) and MA from GWU (Decorative Arts and Design History). 

Rachel Rosengarten Hunnicutt, "Cosmic Collectivism: Upton Sinclair’s Psychic Imaginary in the Lanny Budd Series" 

Advisor: Dr. Charles McGovern

Panel: Awards for Excellence, Friday, 10:15 AM 

Award Winner: Graduate A&S Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Humanities & Social Sciences

Throughout his career, the American muckraking author Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) read voraciously, wrote prodigiously, and maintained an interest in observing “the conventional thinker’s attitude toward a set of ideas that he does not wish to accept.” Perhaps best known for his socialist activism and industrial exposés, Sinclair actually penned these words in relation to Mental Radio, published in 1930 to summarize and share Sinclair and his wife Mary Craig’s telepathic experiments. Sinclair was a psychical researcher whose literary output frequently referenced psychic abilities, occult occurrences, and mediums. His commitment to the psychical culminated in his World’s End series, eleven books published between 1940 and 1953, following protagonist Lanny Budd. In this paper, I situate the series as part of Sinclair’s oeuvre and within the interwar literary tradition. I then turn to the fifth installment, Presidential Agent, to identify key narrative moments wherein the protagonist’s psychic research at once advances the plot, the reader’s understanding of political events, and Sinclair’s dual beliefs in socialism and the psychical. These moments are framed within contemporaneous attitudes towards the occult in the interwar period to demonstrate that Sinclair’s convictions, while perhaps outré to present-day readers, were actually quite common, if not mainstream, at the time of his writing. Informed by Sinclair’s own psychical experiences and drawing on Eric Kurlander’s concept of the “supernatural imaginary,” I argue that the author’s “psychic imaginary” emerges as an egalitarian one wherein questions about the supernatural and socialism co-exist productively during a period of mass social and political upheaval.

Rachel Rosengarten Hunnicutt is a second-year PhD student in American Studies at William and Mary. Her interests include US corporate culture, material culture, and museum studies; her current work considers the occult in design history. She holds a BA from Trinity College and an MA from The New School. She formerly served as cataloguer of the Donald Deskey Collection at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. 

Jay Jolles, "Airpods and The Aesthetics of Aural Enclosure" 

Advisor: Dr. Charles McGovern

Panel: GRAD2, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

While digital technologies are often mistaken for dematerialized objects, they are born out of and persist across inhuman temporalities. Due to planned obsolescence, the life cycle of most digital technologies is absurdly short but moves at a blistering place. Despite this, the intensive resource extraction processes that build these technologies, coupled with the long durée of their disintegration as toxic waste, means that they are pricey artifacts with enduring consequences. This talk offers a media geology and political ecology of the headphone, zeroing in on Apple’s signature Airpods and the ways in which they represent a telos in listening technologies, resulting in the almost complete enclosure of the aural commons. 

Jay Jolles is a PhD candidate in American Studies at William and Mary. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with interests in a wide range of fields including 20th and 21st century literature and culture, critical theory, comparative media studies, and musicology. Jay’s scholarly work has appeared in or is forthcoming from The Los Angeles Review of Books, U.S. Studies Online, and Comparative American Studies. He holds both a BA and an MA in English as well as an MS in Culture, Communication, and Media. 

Joseph Lawless, "Grindr and Queer Subjectivity in the Digicidal Interval" 

Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth M. Losh

Panel: GRAD2, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

Launched in 2009 as the first cellphone dating application designed primarily for queer men’s use, Grindr stands as a recognized leader in its industry and as a dense site of cultural meaning. Through its achievements of financial profit and social intelligibility, Grindr has come to be regarded as the exemplary expression of queer men’s digital-sexual subjectivity as well as the preeminent site of its transformation. Grindr’s role as a contemporary symbol of queer men’s sexuality has drawn significant scholarly attention, with particular interest in the question of whether and how Grindr may shape the coordinates of queer men’s desire. Ultimately, much of this scholarship remains mired in a fatigued debate about Grindr’s moral responsibility for its users’ behavior and, as a result, seldom interrogates why users maintain such fidelity to the application. In this paper I seek to address this unexamined gap, arguing that any account of queer men’s desire on Grindr must attend to the complex interactions between the application and its users. Drawing from Foucauldian theories of biopolitics and Afropessimist readings of Franz Fanon on subject formation, I frame the scene of interaction between Grindr users as driven by what I call the digicidal impulse, a compulsive restaging of the scene of recognition enabled by the technical affordances Grindr offers its users. It is this digicidal impulse that structures users’ investment in Grindr as a site premised on the near certainty of recognition’s failure, tying this failure to the psychic split of the subject as such.

Joseph F. Lawless is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at William & Mary. His research examines the ethics of desire and pleasure in the formation of sexual subjectivity, with his dissertation project paying particular attention to the role of digital spaces in its conceptual interrogation of the emergence of the subject. He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.Ed. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Matthew Borden, "Accumulations Research in the Late Woodland Potomac River Piedmont Region: Measuring Sedentariness and Settlement Population" 

Advisor: Dr. Martin Gallivan

Panel: GRAD2, Thursday, 10:45 AM

My research question is: what information can accumulations research provide about demography and population size of Native cultural groups in the Potomac River Valley? Accumulations research is a specific form of archaeological analysis that studies past populations by understanding how the evidence archaeologists find was originally deposited. For example, certain forms of data, especially the density and evenness of material, are correlated with the overall length (“use duration”) and seasonal movements (“residential stability”) of a group’s residence at an archaeological site. Furthermore, by combining the pottery from a site, an estimate of the rate that pottery was discarded over time, and the site’s use duration and residential stability data, it is possible to estimate the size of the population necessary to produce said pottery. For example, Dr. Martin Gallivan used this method to understand the societal trends that led to the rise of the Powhatan Chiefdom in the James River Valley immediately before European Colonization. My research focuses on five archaeological sites in the Potomac River Valley, which was home to several different cultural groups during the Late Woodland Period (A.D. 900 – 1600). The results provide new insight on how Native groups’ demography and internal organization varied over time and culture in this region. 

Matthew Borden is an M.A. student in the Anthropology Department at William and Mary. His interests include Pre-Contact archaeology, societal change, and political complexity. His Master’s thesis investigates the population size and demography of the multicultural Late Woodland Potomac River Piedmont. 

Jennifer Ellis, "Full of Potential: An Ethnographic Exploration of Urban Renewal, Racial Landscapes and Aspiration in Richmond, Virginia" 

Advisor: Dr. Michelle Lelièvre

Panel: GRAD9, Thursday, 2:15 PM 

As the nation’s second largest former slave market, the Confederate capital during the Civil War, and the site where protesters marched down Monument Avenue in response to police brutality in 2020, Richmond, Virginia, has a particularly grim racial history. In response, Richmond’s City Planning Commission developed Richmond 300—a policy guide for the city’s largest undertaking of urban renewal. My research explores the reciprocal relationship between such urban development and the people who regularly interact with the spatiality of cities to ask: What can the experiences of these inhabitants in Richmond, VA, tell us about how American cities plan inclusive futures while simultaneously trying to reconcile their violent pasts?

Instead of using traditional quantitative methods from urban geography and sociology, I approach the topic from an anthropological perspective, grounded in ethnographic fieldwork. I interviewed and observed individuals involved in urban development decision-making as well as many people who are directly affected by Richmond 300. Moreover, my project marries ethnography with archival research, surveys, and digital anthropology—a method that uses participation in online communities—to observe the public dialogue and perceptions of Richmond 300. 

This talk will highlight my ethnographic findings about the importance of Richmond’s urban potential, which informs how interlocutors engage with the city and its planning. My project has implications for understanding what happens when aspirational urban renewal projects take place in a city with historical structural inequalities—and thus explains how this knowledge can inform development in similar cities with ambitious development projects.

Jennifer Ellis is a seventh year Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at William & Mary. Her research areas include the anthropology of development, urban anthropology,  and postcolonial theory. Her dissertation fieldwork in Richmond, VA explores the reciprocal relationship between aspirational urban development projects and the people who regularly interact with the spatiality of cities. She holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. from William & Mary.

Claudia Escue, "Geospatial Analysis of Taro Production, Pre-Contact Carrying Capacities, and Population in Rurutu, French Polynesia" 

Advisor: Dr. Jennifer G. Kahn 

Panel: GRAD6, Thursday, 1:00 PM 

This study explores pre-contact wetland taro cultivation in Rurutu (Austral Islands, French Polynesia). Understanding the extent of these systems is critical for estimating pre-contact human population vis-a-vis carrying capacity, the ability to produce surplus, and socio-political dynamics. This project explores the pre-contact ecology and carrying capacity on Rurutu using Landsat imagery and geospatial suitability analysis to estimate the maximum extent of the island’s irrigation systems. A primary goal was to develop an intra-island comparison of probable annual yields of taro to model pre-contact carrying capacities and their distribution at the socio-political district scale. This model indicates the likely presence of 20 dormant taro systems on Rurutu and significant intra-district differences of taro production in the pre-contact era. We integrate our carrying capacity-based population model with previous house count-based population estimates to compare intra-island population distributions. As an Open chiefdom, variability between district productivity likely spurred, in part, the high incidence of warfare noted in oral traditions. The contraction of taro fields noted from the modern day to the pre-contact era likely speaks to intentional decisions by Rurutuan communities when faced with labor shortfalls due to introduced diseases and other destructive elements of European contact. This project’s findings provide preliminary data on pre-contact taro cultivation and establish a base for future research on Rurutuan agricultural systems in the past and present.

Claudia Escue is a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at William & Mary. Her research focuses on sustainable and resilient taro farming in Rurutu, Austral Islands, French Polynesia. She is interested in how traditional Rurutuan farming practices can inform efforts towards food security and sovereignty in the present in Oceania and beyond. Claudia received her M.A. in Anthropology from William & Mary in 2022.

Anu Karippal, "Human-Elephant Relations in South India; Of Haptic Sociality and Relational Ethics" 

Advisor: Dr. Richard Handler 

University of Virginia 

Panel: GRAD14, Friday, 9:00 AM 

Award Winner: Visiting Student Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Humanities & Social Sciences

In putting the anthropology of ethics and morality (Zigon 2007; Fassin 2008) to test in interspecies studies (Haraway 2008; Fuentes 2010), this paper probes into the moral-phenomenological milieu of human-elephant relations in Kerala, South India. While elephants have been an integral part of social life as war elephants, as divine beings, as laborers, and now as cosmopolitan figures of conservation, such intimate relations have come under scrutiny with the growing studies on elephant intelligence and debates in animal rights discourse, all of which delve into the ethicality of elephant captivity (Kulick, 2017). Such scientific and conservation discourses frame elephants as beings “truly” belonging in the wild, stripping them of their social history and thereby portraying human-elephant entanglement as a relation of violence. In juxtaposing such top-down, normative approaches to morality, the paper posits that an ethnographic inquiry into the ordinary yet extraordinary interactions between elephant caretakers and elephantsin Kerala offers an alternate interpretation of moral experience – grounded in phenomenological concerns beyond the defines of torture. While the moral concerns made by the activistic and scientific discourse are not abstract claims but grounded in concrete experiences, such totalizing perceptions shadow the ways through which humans and elephants are attuned with each other especially through the sensorium of touch in earning and giving trust, and the sense of recognition that elephants are understood to give humans. 

Anu Karippal is a first year Ph.D. student in the Anthropology department at the University of Virginia. Her research interests include interspecies studies, phenomenology, morality, and linguistic anthropology. For her doctoral research, she will address the phenomenological-linguistic forms of human-elephant communication in South India.

Olanrewaju Lasisi, "Written in Sherds, Carved by Pavements: Interpreting the Multiplex Functions of Pavements"

Advisor: Dr. Neil Norman

Panel: Awards for Excellence, Friday, 10:15 AM

Award Winner: GSAB Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Humanities & Social Sciences  

Potsherd Pavements found in the Bight of Benin, West Africa, are made by pinning and arranging pottery fragments to the ground to form a mosaic. They are interpreted as either sacred or quotidian floors. New evidence from recent archaeological excavations in two early Yoruba polities, Ile-Ife and Ijebu, showed that Potsherd Pavements were also sundials, naturalistic art objects, and cartographic maps. This paper presents these new findings and begins novel conversation in the areas of sub-Saharan African civilization that are yet to gain traction in global scholarship, particularly in archaeoastronomy/skyscape archaeology and indigenous cartography. 

Olanrewaju Lasisi is a seventh-year Doctoral candidate in the Anthropology department at William & Mary. His research examines the intersection of the built environment, the performance of ritual, and cultural astronomy in the practice of space and power politics in the Bight of Benin, West Africa. 

Alexandria Mead, "Gender Relations in South Welsh Valleys Mining Communities during the Post-WW1 Era "

Advisor:  Dr. Moretti-Langholtz

Panel: GRAD14, Friday, 9:00 AM 

South Wales, from the mid-18th century to the late 20th century, was characterized by its relationship with industry, primarily coal and iron. The geographical landscape of the South Welsh Valleys, a series of small glacial valleys, dictated the lives of people living there and defined their movements on the landscape. The landscape restricted domestic activities and influenced the industrial action which took place in South Wales. 

This research explores women's lives in the South Welsh Valleys, who were navigating between the responsibilities of womanhood and the impacts of industrial action and power. Labor was highly regulated by gender after the 1842 Mines Act which barred women from working underground. Women are consequently left out of the literature despite the indirect assertion of power by the state and mine owners onto women’s time and work. Women in South Wales find themselves at a distinct crossroads between political activism, economic instability, class warfare, and competing identities as Wales defines its relationship with the United Kingdom. Focusing on three dates (1926, 1947, and 1984), using ethnographic and archival research, I trace changes in the domestic sphere and feminine ideals through the use of space, memory, and oral history. 

Alexandria Mead is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Anthropology at William and Mary. Her research area includes extractive industries, gender relations, and post-industrialism. Her dissertation topic explores South Welsh miners' wives from 1919-1985, specifically focusing on periods of economic stress in relation to industrial action. She holds a B.A. from UNC and an M.A. from UCL. 

Diogo Oliveira, "From the Revolta dos Males to Mozumbique Island: An anthropological approach to resistance and ‘Slave Rebellion’"

Advisor: Dr. Neil Norman 

Panel: GRAD12, Friday, 9:00 AM  

Slave Rebellion was an ever-present risk for slave traders and owners through-out the history of Atlantic Slave Trade. This danger was also a central concern for colonial administrators. New archaeological evidence from excavations on Mozambique Island suggest that colonial officials and traders deliberately constructed and utilized space in order to control and suppress the possibility of rebellion on land and sea. This paper will discuss how enslaved peoples were active agents that consistently sought to sabotage the powers and processes of slavery whenever possible. In other words: the history of the slave trade, is in fact a history of underlying resistance. 

Diogo Oliveira is a second year Phd student in Anthropology at W&M. Diogo's research is regionally and temporally focused on 15th century East Africa. As a Fulbright Scholar, Diogo spent one year in Mozambique conducting archaeological and ethnographic research. His dissertation expands on this previous work and hopes to continue efforts to engage local communities and institutions on preserving cultural heritage. 

Rebekah Planto, “Sometimes Clay…and Rocky Stones; and sometimes Marl”: Contextual analysis of building materials from the Bacon’s Castle site" 

Advisor: Dr. Audrey Horning 

Poster Session

Constructed between c. 1665 and 1675, “Bacon’s Castle” in Surry County, Virginia, is best known for its age and architecture, and for its capture in 1676 during the Rebellion that lent it its name. But it was first and foremost a plantation house, and a product of a pivotal period in the late 17th century when social and political-economic relations across the Chesapeake and wider Atlantic were in particular flux, characterized by pluralism as well as inequality that was increasingly structured by racist ideology, the legacies of which persist to this day. My research investigates the development of the plantation over the first hundred years of colonial occupation under the Allen family (ca. 1640s – 1740s). Focusing on intensive changes surrounding the construction of the brick house, the rebellion and its aftermath, and the Allens’ increasing exploitation of enslaved laborers, I use this case as a lens to examine the relationship between the plantation and its broader social context. This poster presents an analysis of building materials from the extant house and excavated contexts, considering both material attributes and distribution patterns. Discussion centers on the sociohistorical significance of their sometimes-surprising provenance and implications of the knowledges, practices, and choices they index. These findings come from multi-disciplinary research and collaboration, synthesizing data from geological testing with reassessments of previous archaeological and architectural evidence and new observations from recent field surveys. 

Rebekah Planto is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Anthropology, focusing on Historical Archaeology. Her research is broadly concerned with colonialism and European expansionism in the 16th-18th-century Atlantic world, and their lasting effects. Her dissertation investigates the changing material and social landscape and political economy of the "Bacon's Castle" plantation ca. 1640s-1740s, using this case study to examine the history and legacies of this tumultuous and consequential era in, and beyond the Chesapeake.

LaMarise Chardé Reid, "The Material World of Seventeenth-Century Mulberry Island" 

Advisor: Dr. Joseph Jones

Panel: GRAD12, Friday, 9:00 AM

Legacy collections are becoming an increasingly valuable source of information for researchers seeking to understand how colonialism and racial formation were constructed and materially manifested in the Atlantic World. Focusing on four previously excavated sites on Mulberry Island (today’s Ft. Eustis in Newport News, VA), I explore and document interactions among Africans, Indigenous, and European people in early modern Tidewater Virginia. Due to Newport News’ limited surviving seventeenth-century archival record, a finer-grain resolution of the cultural identities of many of the laborers at Mulberry Island is difficult. Mulberry Island is thus an ideal site for a study of early modern racialization that forces us to reconsider steady racial categories and how these are typically read in the material record. The sites were originally identified between 1984 and 1986 during a compliance archaeological survey conducted by Fort Eustis. Benefiting from nearly forty years of advances in early colonial Chesapeake archaeology, my reanalysis places several of the sites’ colonial occupations to earlier in the seventeenth century than originally interpreted. This collections-based research project offers a valuable opportunity to explore questions regarding the material lives of the indentured, tenant, and enslaved residents of Mulberry Island, and offer new insights into the transition from European indentured labor to enslaved African labor. In this paper, I will discuss the multiple lines of evidence to support the newly interpreted date range and understanding of Mulberry Island as a plural society.

L. Chardé Reid is a doctoral candidate in William & Mary’s Department of Anthropology specializing in historical archaeology. She is interested in the relationship between landscape, memory, and tangible and intangible cultural heritage in historically Black spaces. Her doctoral research investigates the relationship between archaeological knowledge production, race, memory, and restorative justice in Tidewater Virginia. 

Maia Wilson, "'An' some o' dem bones is mine': For Black Repatriation With Bioarchaeology, Archive, and Oral Histories & Traditions" 

Advisor: Dr. Michelle Lelièvre

Poster Session

This poster discusses the relationships of misplaced ancestors of perceived African ancestry and the Muscogee Nation's ancestral lands in Middle Georgia. These ancestors were excavated from Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park (OMNHP) almost 90 years ago (1930s and 1940s). They presently exist in a state of flux as they are held within the Smithsonian complex, considered unworthy of return for reburial. This preliminary historical archaeological project follows their afterlife in archives across three institutions over the 90 years that they have been disturbed from their journey. The objective here is to ask who and by what process can we investigate and decide contested identities of people who cannot self-advocate and how can we incorporate descendant-stakeholder oral histories and community wishes into how these misplaced ancestors are memorialized and treated? I develop their stories by utilizing the archaeological record, the documentary archive, and oral histories from descendant and stakeholder communities. The proposed project has broad relevance to anthropological archaeology studies of Black ancestor identities in the South and elsewhere in the US. Second, the project illustrates how identity is a dynamic and contested process past and present, particularly as it concerns current conversations of ancestry, descent, complex heritage management with diverse stakeholders, and repatriation practices. Writ large, I work to provide a framework for addressing African American stakeholder concerns over African American heritage. This in turn informs archaeology how to be engaged with African Diasporic communities in service to community repatriation aims in a manner scientifically founded.

Maia N. Wilson is a second year Ph.D. student in Anthropology at William & Mary. Her focus is historical African Diasporic archaeology, repatriation, and heritage management. Her dissertation, a continuation of her thesis, explores African Diaspora history at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park to reconnect Black descendants with their African ancestors. She holds a B.S. from Valdosta State and an M.A. from U of Idaho.

Walakulage Dona Avishi Shavindya Abeywickrama, "Direct Measurements of Surface Interactions between 2D Materials and Polymers" 

Advisor: Dr. Hannes C. Schneipp

Panel: GRAD8, Thursday, 1:00 PM 

2D materials as graphene and hBN (hexagonal boron nitride) and their derivatives are widely used in nanocomposites due the outstanding mechanical, thermal, and electric properties. Specially, hBN has become an interesting candidate as it features higher chemical and thermal stability while being an electrical insulator. The interfacial bonds in the nanocomposite should be strong to transfer these properties of the nanomaterials to the polymer. Several studies have been carried out to quantify the interfacial bond strength after producing the nanocomposites which is not feasible to test a wide range of polymers and derivatives of nanomaterials. Also, theoretical models and simulations use many assumptions and estimations that cause a deviation by a certain extent from the actual interface interactions. In this study, we present a simple method to directly measure the interactions between different types of polymers and graphene versus hBN using force spectroscopy (FS) technique. We use polymer colloidal probes which were fabricated in the lab to carry out force spectroscopy measurements on graphene and hBN. We have studied some of the widely used polymers for nanocomposites such as polystyrene, PMMA and epoxy. The attraction and adhesion between polymers and 2D materials were quantitatively studied. The results provide a direct and accurate comparison between graphene and hBN interactions with polymers. Finally, we predict the mechanisms of molecular interactions that could take place between the polymers and substrates.

Avishi Abeywickrama is a sixth year Ph.D. candidate in Applied Science at William & Mary. Her research areas include materials science and nanotechnology. Her dissertation addresses the interactions between 2D Materials and different interfaces. She holds a B.Sc. with Physics major from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Ben Skopic, "Self-strengthening tape junctions inspired by recluse spider webs" 

Advisor: Dr. Hannes C. Schneipp

Panel: GRAD1, Thursday, 9:30 AM 

Adhesive tapes are versatile and widely used yet lack adhesion strength due to their tendency to fail via peeling, a weak failure mode. A tape with surprising adhesive properties is the recluse spider’s 50 nm-thin silk ribbon. Junctions of these microscopic sticky tapes will remain intact even after the tape itself has broken. We modeled these natural tape–tape junctions and revealed two distinct failure modes, critically dependent on the two tapes’ intersection angle. One mode leads to regular, low-strength peeling failure, while the other causes the junction to self-strengthen, eliminating the inherent weakness in peeling. This self-strengthening mechanism locks the two tapes together, increasing the junction strength by 550% and allowing some junctions to remain intact the tape itself has broken. This impressive adhesive strength of tapes has never before been observed or predicted. We found that recluse spiders make their junctions under unique conditions such that all junctions fail in the locked, high-strength failure mode. We used this approach to make junctions with synthetic adhesive tapes that overcame the weak peeling failure.     

Ben Skopic is a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in the Applied Science Department at William & Mary. He researches spider webs and how to apply the structure of the natural material to synthetic materials. Ben completed his bachelors degree in Physics at William & Mary in 2019. 

Ashley Botkin, "From Chop Suey to General Tso's: Chinese Food as Agents of Diaspora" 

Virginia Commonwealth University 

Advisor: Dr. Tobias Wofford

Panel: GRAD6, Thursday, 1:00 PM 

Chinese food has been a part of the American culinary landscape since the arrival of the first Chinese immigrants in San Francisco in 1849. Chinese restaurants can be found everywhere - from large cities to small towns - despite the fact that Chinese Americans constitute a comparatively small percentage of the population. This essay examines the roots of the prevalence of Chinese food in America, its evolution and adaptation into a uniquely diasporic cuisine, and the way it acts as an agent of diaspora itself. What is American cuisine without Chinese food? What is America without the Chinese Diaspora? To unpack these questions, I will analyze Chinese food’s history and visual culture from a postcolonial and diasporic perspective. First, I will provide the sociopolitical history of Chinese immigration and Chinese food in the United States. I will then focus on two culinary case studies: chop suey and General Tso’s chicken. I will use the theoretical frameworks of Brent Hayes Edwards, who described the phenomenon of décalage, and John Peffer, who argued that objects are diasporic. Chinese food, as décalage, both highlights the linkage and separation between the homeland and the host country. Chinese food aids Chinese immigrants in appearing both assimilated and safe to American consumers while simultaneously maintaining their “exoticism.” Ultimately, this essay will reveal the ways in which Chinese food acts as more than a cuisine - it is an agent of diaspora with an impact akin to Chinese visual culture or Chinese immigrants themselves.

Ashley Botkin is a first year Master's candidate in Art History with a concentration in historical studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research interests include Majority World art, postcolonialism, and visual culture. She is currently exploring several topics for her qualifying paper, including the relationship between primitivism and modern art, as well as the boundaries of Diaspora studies. 

Joseph Di Liberto, "Full Metal Sparrow: Investigating Behavioral Adaptation to Environmental Lead (Pb) Contamination in a Commensal Passerine" 

Advisor: Dr. John Swaddle

Panel: GRAD7, Thursday, 1:00 PM 

Lead (Pb) is a pervasive, anthropogenic pollutant in many human-developed areas and is known to cause widespread negative effects across multiple aspects of organismal health. In the mining town of Broken Hill, NSW, Australia, a recently-established population of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) have shown divergent gene expressions that may allow this population to cope with the deleterious effects that the high levels of Pb pollution present in the town would otherwise incur. While recent physiological assessments done within this population have supported the genetic observations of adaptation to Pb, an assessment of more-encompassing behavioral responses had not yet been undertaken. In the summer of 2022, 600+ House Sparrows were caught in Broken Hill across a well-established soil Pb gradient, and a series of behavioral assays (Escape flight, in-hand aggression, and activity in a novel environment) were conducted to determine if Pb level in the local environment affected these birds’ responses. Despite growing evidence on shifts in avian behavior being influenced by heavy metal pollutants, we found little connection between Pb level and performance in our behavioral assays within the Broken Hill sparrow population. This result further supports the theory that this sparrow population is exhibiting adaptations in dealing with Pb pollution; novel for a terrestrial species. Future work will include an experimental dosing study among both these adapted sparrows and naïve sparrows that will be built up from methods a concurrent dosing study at WM will provide.

Joey Di Liberto is a 2nd-year Masters candidate in the Biology department at WM. A part of the Swaddle Lab, he currently studies the behavioral and physiological adaptations of urban bird species to human-induced stressors; namely heavy metals. His research areas of expertise include integrative biology, ecotoxicology, urban ecology, applied conservation, animal communication, and above all else, behavioral ecology.

Liz Elliott, "Egg Vibrations in Response to Parental Calls: Scrambled Eggs or Genuine Feedback?" 

Advisor: Dr. John Swaddle

Panel: GRAD5, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

Birds are able to talk to their babies even when they are just embryos in the egg, but the question remains: do those babies talk back? Studies in zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttate) have identified a unique, heat-induced parental call that, when played to their eggs, leads to the development of hatchlings that are better-equipped to handle the heat. However, little is known about how those embryos are able to detect and respond to the calls of their parents. Here, I test whether embryos respond to zebra finch “heat calls” by measuring changes in their vibrations. Are we able to discern distinct changes in vibrations when eggs are exposed to heat calls, or is just scrambled eggs? If so, how do changes in the volume or structure of these unique calls affect the likelihood for this response? This project aims to answer these questions—not only to enhance our understanding of embryonic perception, but to also explore the potential for embryos to “talk” back.

Liz Elliott is a second year Master's student in Biology at William & Mary. Her research interests include animal behavior, sensory ecology, and science communication. Her thesis addresses the potential for communication between parent birds and their developing offspring in the egg. She has a B.A. from Bard College in New York.

Casey Hensen, "Hybridization as a tool for rapid adaptation in Virginia Asclepias" 

Advisor: Dr. Joshua Puzey

Poster Session

Hybridization, the mixing of genes from genetically dissimilar species, may be the solution for quickly adapting to human-engendered climate change. Here, we describe the ecologically important milkweed hybrid system of Asclepias exaltata and Asclepias syriaca. In the open disturbed patches, A. syriaca thrives whereas A. exaltata typically remains under the canopy of the forest. Strangely, near A. syriaca, distinct intermediate phenotypes between the two species have been observed. This phenomenon raises the question: can hybridization aid in a plant's tolerance to light? 

Here, we surveyed native populations of milkweed in the Virginia Appalachians. This included sites at Shenandoah National Park (SNP) and Cole Mountain (SLG). To investigate the effect of hybridization on light tolerance, we used a portable photosynthesis system to measure both assimilation (photosynthesis) and transpiration (stomatal conductance) across Qin levels (0-1800 µmol/m2/s) at SNP. A secondary experiment modeled data from SLG and SNP, where assimilation and transpiration were measured at Qin 1000. Our findings suggest that hybrids can show an intermediate tolerance to light, possibly enabling A. exaltata-like individuals to adapt to the open canopy. 

These results have important implications for plant adaptation to climate change. As plants are unable to migrate quickly, they are particularly vulnerable to environmental disruptions. The hybridization and introgression observed in our study suggest that plants can develop intermediate physiological responses, enabling them to better adapt to changing light conditions. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate the adaptive potential of hybridization in plants and highlight its importance in facilitating their response to environmental changes.

Casey Hensen is a second-year master's student in Biology at the College of William and Mary. She has broad interests in ecology and conservation. Her research focuses on milkweed hybridization and how it facilitates adaptation to sudden disturbances in habitat, such as deforestation and climate change. She holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Northern Arizona University with a certificate in Wildlife Ecology and Management.  

Patrick Lynch, "Disentangling Directed Dispersal: Seed Traits and Squirrel Caching Decisions" 

Advisor: Dr. Harmony Dalgleish

Panel: GRAD5, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

Nearly half of all tree species rely on animals to disperse their seeds. However, the complex and sometimes obscure factors which drive the interaction between trees and their dispersers are still not fully understood. The eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is one such important seed disperser in the temperate, deciduous forests of North America. Previous research has shown that squirrels preferentially bury larger, higher value seeds further from the parent tree. Additionally, to minimize conspecific pilferage, squirrels may cache higher value seeds in more open locations where the risk of predation is higher. Although the squirrel is making these decisions to protect its cache these choices potentially improve the success of the seed as well. It is our hypothesis that shade intolerant trees, by selecting for valuable seed traits, are directing the dispersal of their seeds to be cached in sunnier, more favorable locations. To determine the relationship between seed value and shade tolerance we grew 9 species of broadleaf trees in the William and Mary greenhouse during the Summer of 2022. Each species was divided into three shade treatments (2%, 20%, and 100% sunlight) and grown for up to 14 weeks. Shade tolerance was determined by measuring survivorship, morphological and physiological growth traits, and the plasticity of those traits among treatments. To support our hypothesis we predict that species with larger, and therefore more valuable, seeds will be less shade tolerant than those with smaller seeds.

Patrick is completing the second year of his M.S. degree in the biology department at William and Mary. His thesis is concerned with directed dispersal of hard-seeded trees by grey squirrels. He is interested in broad topics of ecology with prior work ranging from alpine phenology in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to sage grouse habitat surveys in Nevada. 

Monique Metza, "Bats & Rockreation: Pseudogymnoascus destructans at Devils Tower National Monument & Recreation as a Potential Vector" 

Advisor: Dr. John Swaddle

Poster Session

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease that causes mass mortality in North American hibernating bat species through a fungal pathogen called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, Pd. Humans, via travel and recreation, and bats, via hibernation and migration, have spread and continue to spread this disease west since its arrival to New York in 2006. WNS was recently found on two bats at Devils Tower National Monument (DTNM) in Wyoming. In addition to DTNM having suitable rocky features for bats to roost, it is also a popular location for visitors to hike, scramble, and rock climb. Use of both humans and bats could create the potential for these recreational activities to contribute to the spread of Pd, which is a relationship that has yet to be studied. In this project, I will assess the presence of Pd within the environment at DTNM, and the impact that rock climbing and scrambling may have on the spread of the disease. This research intends to help land managers implement methods to protect future bat populations by reducing the risk of spreading WNS through anthropogenic recreation. Alternatively, this research could prevent unnecessary closures to recreators if it is found that recreators do not contribute to the spread.

Monique Metza is a first year graduate student in the Biology Department at William & Mary. She has been studying bats for four years with the National Park Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. Currently, her research is focusing on the potential for recreational activities to contribute to the spread of White-nose Syndrome, a disease caused by a fungal pathogen that has killed over five million bats in North America. 

Ivan Munkres, "Microbial communities in nectar may be critical for sexual reproduction in Asclepias syriaca" 

Advisor: Dr. Harmony Dalgleish

Poster Session 

Plants rely on mutualisms with microorganisms to maintain their health and reproductive fitness. Soil microbes and endophytic fungi alike can reduce biotic and abiotic stressors in exchange for nutrients. But the role of the microbiome within floral nectar has not been well-studied. These bacteria and yeasts are specialized to thrive in an ephemeral, low-nutrient environment, and can affect pollinator preference by changing nectar chemistry. However, no direct links to plant fitness have been established yet.

Milkweed (Asclepias spp.) pollination differs from most other angiosperms in that their pollen grains are tightly packaged into a pollinium, or pollen packet, that can only generate when submerged in its floral nectar. A previous study suggests that an optimal nectar sucrose concentration exists where this germination is most successful. We re-tested this with the addition of glucose and fructose, relevant products of microbial inversion of sucrose. We also performed a field experiment to see how sugar levels within inoculated and uninoculated Asclepias nectar differ. Nectar with abundant microbial communities had significantly lower sucrose concentrations than less-colonized nectar, and this concentration matched the optimum germination concentration. Therefore, I suggest that microbial inoculation of nectar may be required for pollinium germination, and therefore sexual reproduction, in Asclepias. To further explore this potential direct link between the nectar microbiome and plant fitness, we will investigate the structure of these communities and how individual microbial taxa act upon their environments.

Ivan Munkres is a second year M.S. student in Biology. He studies plant-pollinator-microbe interactions using milkweed as a model system. He is broadly yet deeply interested in the natural world, and he holds a B.S. in Biochemistry with a minor in Ecology from UC Davis.

Olivia Smith, "Towards an Understanding of Restoring Eastern Coastal Plain Forests" 

Advisor: Dr. Martha Case

Poster Session

Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer) have seen an exponential increase in population size over the last century in North America due to increased land management practices and the elimination of natural predators. This has caused increased herbivory on preferred species which shifts plant community structure and composition. The main objective of this study is to determine if the presence of deer has affected above-ground vascular plant diversity and richness in the upland areas of the College Woods over time.  To understand the effect of deer on plant communities, 16 (10 x 10 m)  deer exclosures and paired controls were erected in 2014. Data was collected three times a year for the last seven years. Data included the species identity, counts, and size classes of all individuals in the plots. Field observations and preliminary analyses suggest that the vegetation is struggling to return and, if it does, it is not reaching subsequent size classes. Our results show a change of forest community makeup with time being a significant factor in change of species richness. We will also begin to unravel the abiotic factors influencing vegetation. To do this, I will examine the contributions of light, soil, and moisture parameters. The potential of our forests to recover to prior levels of biodiversity in the absence of deer overabundance may be on the order of decades if at all. The results of this study could foster local awareness to the problem and encourage appropriate management to mitigate the damage of a very special woods.

Olivia Smith is a second year Master's candidate in Biology at William & Mary. Her interests include plant-animal interactions, community ecology, and botany. Her Thesis addresses how the presence of deer is affecting patterns of plant richness, diversity, and abundance in the College Woods using a four-year exclosure experiment. Her ultimate aim is to inform local agencies on proper management strategies.  

Mindy Spence, "Is Diversity Dammed? An Assessment of How Dams Impact Fish Biodiversity Within the Virginia Peninsula Using eDNA"

Advisor: Dr. James Skelton

Poster Session 

Anthropogenic activities are the leading cause to biodiversity decline worldwide. It has been well documented that large dams disrupt dispersal and alter local habitat often leading to less diverse aquatic systems. Yet, it is not well known how numerous smaller dams impact fish communities in estuary systems where dispersal is a critical to the ecosystem, or how dams affect beta diversity variation in species composition across sites. Here we used eDNA (environmental DNA) to assess the alpha, beta, and gamma diversity of fish species within the Virginia Peninsula in the lower Chesapeake Bay to compare patterns of diversity between sites with an undammed connection to the estuary to diversity within dammed sites. Water samples were collected from 35 total sites, 16 undammed creeks and 19 dams. 75 species of fish were documented. Undammed sites had significantly higher alpha diversity by about 7 species per site compared to dammed sites, meaning more species were found in undammed sites. Multivariate analysis showed that dams altered the species composition of fish communities. Furthermore, beta dispersion testing of beta diversity showed undammed sites have higher variability in species from site to site. Dammed sites showed similar species composition when compared to one another. Gamma diversity across the landscape showed an average of 49 species in dammed sites compared to an average of 68 species in undammed sites. These results suggest that even small dams can disrupt dispersal in estuary networks leading to a loss of biodiversity across the landscape. 

Mindy Spence is a second year Master's student in Biology at William & Mary. Prior to her Master's degree study Mindy received two undergraduate degrees from Penn State in Psychology and Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology. She was a mental health/drug & alcohol social worker for 10 years. Mindy has a broad interest in environmental science, biodiversity, climate change, and aquatic ecology. She is currently researching how anthropogenic activities such as dams impact biodiversity in estuary ecosystems using environmental DNA. 

John Davis, "Photochemistry and Infrared Activated Dynamics of Gas Phase Systems" 

Advisor: Dr. Nathanial Kidwell

Co-Authors: R. Nessier

Panel: GRAD3, Thursday, 10:45 AM

Earth’s climate is warming as a result of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), from fossil fuel combustion. However, anthropogenic emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gases, such as methane, nitric oxide (NO) and ozone-depleting substances, contribute significantly to global warming. Greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as methane and NO, alter Earth’s climate by absorbing energy in the lower atmosphere and re-emitting it. Thus, the influence of an emitted GHG on future climate is estimated from its ability to absorb available infrared radiation and its persistence to the atmosphere. Today, there is a gap in knowledge about how the formation of GHG complexes affects their individual reactivity and global warming capabilities. By utilizing laser-based techniques, we can characterize and rigorously investigate these GHG atmospheric complexes. We have leveraged these laser-based tools to obtain an understanding of how differing wavelengths of infrared radiation affect the underlying chemistry of gaseous NO and methane complexes. 

John Davis is a second year M.S. student in Chemistry at William & Mary. He has a broad interest in physical chemistry, especially in laser-based applications. Under the advisement of Dr. Nathanial Kidwell, John's dissertation addresses the photochemistry of molecules prevalent in the atmosphere and combustion. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Washington and Lee University. 

Jesse Derringer, "High-Throughput Screen of Organic Molecules to Disrupt Bacterial Communication in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa"

Advisor: Dr. Isabelle Taylor 

Poster Session   

Award Winner: Carl J. Strikwerda Award for Excellence in the Natural & Computational Sciences 

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a species of bacteria that causes dangerous infections in immunocompromised individuals and persons with cystic fibrosis. Healthcare providers have difficulty treating P. aeruginosa infections due to its resistance to many antibiotics. P. aeruginosa relies on inter-cellular communication to coordinate infectious behavior among its populations. This chemical communication process is called quorum sensing. Disrupting quorum sensing is an exciting prospect for the potential treatment of P. aeruginosa infections because it would represent a new avenue for antibiotic development. It is known that two proteins, PqsE and RhlR, must interact to initiate behaviors associated with quorum sensing, such as the production of toxins. My research focuses on screening hundreds of molecules to find which ones interrupt the PqsE:RhlR interaction. Using a model system that measures activity of PqsE and RhlR in the form of bioluminescence, I will measure the effectiveness of chemical inhibitors at blocking the PqsE:RhlR complex from forming. After narrowing the starting library down to a few molecules of interest, further experimentation will be carried out to confirm the action of potential inhibitors. We anticipate that disrupting the PqsE:RhlR interaction will leave P. aeruginosa unable to synchronize infective behavior, leaving it vulnerable to further treatment. 

Jesse Derringer is a first-year MS student in the Chemistry Department at William & Mary. His research sits on the edge of chemistry and molecular biology, studying the bacterial communication process called quorum sensing. While looking for a new, communication-disrupting antibiotic treatment for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, he also seeks to understand the molecular behavior of two proteins required for translating bacterial communications into infection. 

Grace DeSalvo, "Environment and Power Dependence of Blinking-Based Multiplexing: Optimizing A New Tool for Multicolor Single-Molecule Imaging"

Advisor: Dr. Kristin Wustholz

Co-Authors: S. Haile; E. Smith 

Panel: Awards for Excellence, Friday, 10:15 AM

Award Winner: W&M Interdisciplinary Award for Excellence in Research

Multicolor super-resolution imaging is a powerful technique for visualizing biological structures with unprecedented resolution. However, in order to differentiate various fluorophores, they must exhibit distinct emission spectra. This requirement restricts the set of available probes and adds to experimental demands. To overcome these issues, the Wustholz lab developed blinking-based multiplexing (BBM), a novel method for differentiating spectrally-overlapped emitters such as rhodamine 6G (R6G) and CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QD) based solely on their characteristic blinking behavior. We recently demonstrated BBM to be effective on a glass substrate at ~1 μW excitation power, but the impact of imaging conditions on classification accuracy are unknown. Here, we investigate the impact of local environment and excitation power on BBM performance for QD and R6G emitters in a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix and on glass, respectively. We demonstrate BBM as a viable technique for classifying single emitters in biological settings using PVA as a model environment and demonstrate that excitation power can be tuned to optimize classification accuracy. Collectively, these experiments demonstrate the viability of BBM to broader applications in multicolor super-resolved biological imaging. 

Grace DeSalvo is a first-year M.S. candidate in the Chemistry Department at William & Mary. Her research involves the study of fluorescent dyes and nanoscale emitters using laser spectroscopy. She is currently investigating the blinking dynamics of various emitters embedded in polymer matrix for applications in biological imaging. Grace holds a B.S. in Chemistry from William & Mary.

Lyndi Kiple, "Watching Paint Dry: Probing the Molecular Behavior of Acrylic Paint via Single-Sided NMR" 

Advisor: Dr. Tyler Meldrum

Panel: GRAD1, Thursday, 9:30 AM

Award Winner: Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Natural & Computational Sciences

Artists’ acrylic paints have been used for less than a century, and thus, much remains to be understood about their properties. My research examines the molecular properties of acrylic polymers in paint as a system of interest to art conservation. Specifically, the study aims to probe local molecular environments of acrylic polymers as a function of pigment concentration. Single-sided nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) offers a non-invasive and non-destructive means of analysis by utilizing inherent magnetic properties of a material. This technique measures behaviors, such as relaxation and self-diffusion, which provide insight to molecular mobility and local environments within paint samples. Our results revealed two local polymer environments in acrylic paint. Relaxation at these sites in dry paint was unchanged at different pigment concentrations. However, in wet paint, relaxation behavior did reveal a concentration dependence, suggesting chemical exchange occurs between the two molecular environments as paint dries. This study contributes to fundamental knowledge about the chemistry of acrylic paints that can inform the development of safe and effective conservation treatments. 

Lyndi Kiple is a second-year master’s student in chemistry at William & Mary. Her personal mission is to utilize the power of science to protect cultural heritage and preserve history. She is also passionate about science communication and enhancing public scientific literacy. She holds a B.A. in chemistry with a minor in art history and certificate in museum studies from the University of Iowa. 

Wuwei Li, "Infection Prevention and Treatment Based on Controlled Release of Nitric Oxide" 

Virginia Commonwealth University 

Advisor: Dr. Xuewei Wang

Co-Authors: Y. Yang; H. Zhao

Panel: GRAD16, Friday, 1:30 PM 

Biofilms (clusters of free bacteria) are responsible for a significant proportion of infections and are often resistant to antibiotics, leading to high morbidity and mortality rates. However, there are limited options for preventing and treating biofilm infections. Nitric oxide (NO)-releasing chemical compounds have shown promise as anti-infective agents, but their effectiveness has been limited by uncontrolled release, resulting in either insufficient or excessive doses in different situations.

Our study aimed to address this limitation by developing methods for precisely controlling NO release for use in anti-infective applications. Specifically, we embedded NO-releasing compounds into a 3D-printed silicone matrix, allowing for customized medical devices such as airway stents. By controlling the size and shape of the drug particle through recrystallization, we were able to further regulate NO release from solid forms. We also screened host molecules to encapsulate and slow down drug degradation in aqueous solutions, leading to several NO-releasing solution formulations that can be infused into intravascular catheters and urinary catheters to reduce the risk of catheter-related infections.

Our findings have important implications for improving the treatment and management of biofilm infections. By controlling NO release, we provide safer and more effective approaches to protect medical devices from bacterial colonization.

Wuwei Li is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Chemical Biology program at Virginia Commonwealth University, specializing in controlled release of nitric oxide compounds. With three first-author publications in this area, she is now exploring the commercialization of her research findings for clinical applications.

Collin MacDonald, "Health Explorer: Towards Fine-grain mHealth Data Accessibility" 

Advisor: Dr. Gang Zhou

Poster Session

Every year more and more personal health data is collected and stored on mobile and wearable devices. This data is often fragmented and disorganized, having been collected by multiple devices and mobile applications independently. While applications such as Apple Health (on iOS devices) and Google Fit (on Android devices) are used to unify and manage this data, much of the collected data remains inaccessible for users to explore on their own. For users who have detailed questions about their mobile health data, existing applications are insufficient. To address this limitation, we developed Health Explorer. Health Explorer is an iOS application built around a robust query and visualization system that supports fine-grain access to over 100 types of health data stored in Apple Health and Apple Fitness. With Health Explorer, users can explore their own health data in their own way via highly configurable queries which return informative statistics (both descriptive and predictive) as well as data-driven visualizations. Through an athletics-focused Pilot Study potential user questions and corresponding results are presented and the types of insights that Health Explorer can provide are discussed. Furthermore, we explore other potential use cases for Health Explorer across different domains such as long-term health trends and medical research.

Collin MacDonald is a first year MS/PhD student in the Computer Science Department at William & Mary. His current interests include mobile and ubiquitous computing, computer networking, and software engineering. He is currently exploring how health data collected from mobile and wearable devices can be analyzed for greater insights.

Syed Rizvi, "Double Auction-Based Smart Parking (DASP): A Smart Parking System using Internet of Things for Smart City" 

Old Dominion University 

Advisor: Dr. Sephan Olariu

Co-Author: S. Zehra

Panel: GRAD4, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

By exploiting the ubiquitous nature of Internet of Things (IoT) technology in smart cities, we propose a Double Auction-based Smart Parking (DASP) system for drivers as well as public and private Parking Facility Providers (PFP). In order to improve parking space allocation, the new idea in this paper is to incorporate double auction with highly influential factors such as type of customer and parking, drivers’ and PFP’s preferences. DASP leverages real-time demand based pricing of parking spots, thus charging demand-based price to drivers while providing higher revenue to PFPs. The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of double auction through sophisticated software agents that are capable of quickly and seamlessly performing tasks such as parking lookup, negotiation, pricing, and reservation. Simulation results show that the proposed scalable and interactive agents of DASP enables efficient processing of a vast amount of data, providing cost savings in terms of time and fuel for drivers looking for parking, ultimately lowering traffic congestion, and improving usability of public and private parking facilities.

For the past two decades, Mr. Rizvi has worked as a scientist and NASA contractor in Hampton, VA. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Old Dominion University and previously served as faculty in three Engineering Universities in India for nearly four years. Mr. Rizvi is the author of a textbook on Microcontroller Programming and has published several book chapters, articles in archival journals, and conference proceedings. His research interests include embedded systems, vehicular ad-hoc networks, wireless networks, GIS, and web apps.

Anna Schmedding, "CNNProtector: Pinpointing Vulnerabilities in Convoluntional Neural Networks and Enabling Software-Level Protection" 

Advisor: Dr. Evgenia Smirni

Co-Authors: L. Yang; A. Jog 

Panel: GRAD2, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

Convolutional and deep neural networks (CNN/DNNs) are being incorporated into many image-based tasks across a variety of domains. Some of these tasks are real-world safety critical tasks such as object detection and lane line detection for self-driving cars. These applications have strict safety requirements and must be able guarantee the reliable operation of the network. Current safety mechanisms (e.g., replication of data/computation) may provide high resilience, however, these can degrade the performance of the networks significantly. To this end, we perform a detailed software characterization of the networks and determine important parts from the reliability stand-point. Interestingly, these important parts are only a small part of the network (e.g., critical weights determined by weight pruning techniques) and a selective triplication of these parts is enough for high reliability without affecting runtime. Our mechanism, CNNProtector, is able to provide software engineers the capability to identify critical neural network components and protect them in software so as to expect high end-to-end reliability and ultra low runtime degradation.

Anna Schmedding is a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in the Computer Science department at William & Mary under the supervision of Professor Evgenia Smirni. Her research interests include reliability and performance of neural networks, autonomous vehicles and GPUs.

Heather Switzer, "Sketched Rayleigh-Ritz for Computing Many Eigenpairs" 

Advisor: Dr. Andreas Stathopoulos

Panel: GRAD4, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

The accuracy of Krylov-based iterative methods for symmetric eigenvalue problems such as Lanczos or Davidson relies on the maintained orthogonality of the Krylov basis. In theory, methods like Lanczos should guarantee orthogonality using just a three-term recurrence. In practice however, once eigenvector approximations start appearing in the basis orthogonality deteriorates leading to a slow down or stagnation of convergence. The Rayleigh-Ritz method is used to find these approximated eigenpairs and their residuals. This deterioration results in the need for reorthogonalization of the basis the time of which becomes a bottleneck especially when a large number of eigenpairs are required. Recently, it was proposed to use sketching combined with Rayleigh-Ritz as a way to save on the number of computations needed to approximate eigenpairs. As long as the condition number of the basis is less than 1/(machine eps), sketching will result in no loss of accuracy compared to the nonsketched version. When looking for just a small number of eigenpairs techniques like JDQMR and GD+k perform effectively the same as sketched Rayleigh-Ritz, but there is potential for sketched Rayleigh-Ritz to show improvement in performance when searching for a large number of eigenpairs. In this work, we explore how sketched Rayleigh-Ritz performs when combined with both Lanzcos and Davidson Krylov methods when compared to their non-sketched counterparts.

Heather Switzer is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate studying Computer Science at William & Mary. Her main research areas include preconditioning methods for iterative systems, eigenvalues problems, matrix decomposition, and Lattice QCD applications. She received her B.S. from Longwood University in 2018, where she majored in both Computer Science and Mathematics. In 2020, she received her M.S. in Computer Science with a specialization in Computational Science from William & Mary.

Jindi Wu, "Scalable Quantum Convolutional Neural Networks for Edge Computing" 

Advisor: Dr. Qun Li

Panel: GRAD11, Thursday, 2:15 PM 

Quantum computing is a promising computing method based on quantum mechanics for exponential speedup. Quantum machine learning is to develop a quantum neural network (QNN) with trainable parameters that can capture patterns from training data and then make decisions for unseen data with high accuracy. However, current quantum computers have a limited number of qubits (quantum bits), constraining the scale of QNN and preventing QNN from processing high-dimensional data. To solve this problem, we propose a scalable framework to build a large-scale QNN by distributing it across multiple quantum computers. Our evaluation shows that our approach, which can use all the qubits on multiple quantum machines, significantly improves the performance of a QCNN model.

Jindi Wu is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the computer science department at William & Mary. Her current study focuses on quantum machine learning that uses quantum neural networks to capture data patterns and utilize the model to make decisions on unseen data, as well as quantum error mitigation that performs post-processing on the noisy quantum computer's outcomes to obtain a useful result.

Susan Zehra, "A Novel Framework to Identify Fake Messaging in Vehicular Networks" 

Old Dominion University

Advisor: Dr. Stephen Olariu

Co-Author: S. Rizvi

Panel: GRAD4, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

A vehicular network is predominantly a Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET). In VANET, the content of the message being transmitted can have an impact on drivers’ behavior. This may change the network topology and security may be threatened if a malicious user alters the message. The success of VANET heavily relies on the correctness of messages. Fake messages can not only harm the affected vehicles, they can also create distrust to the entire VANET technology, thus adversely affecting its acceptance. Human and machine inefficiency to distinguish between true and false facts exposes fake news as a threat to logical truth, traffic safety, human lives, and credibility in VANET technology. In this paper, we present a novel framework that efficiently identifies fake messaging in VANET. All messages are divided into two categories - urgent and non-urgent. Both are handled by the systems using a decentralized priority queue. The priority queue consists of a network of trusted Road Side Units (RSUs) that communicate with relevant vehicles to serve as referees for authenticating, analyzing, and broadcasting their decision about fake messages. Simulation results show that the framework is scalable, and that it can efficiently identify fake messaging in VANET. The proposed framework can also provide secure communications while guaranteeing the QoS requirements of safety related VANET applications.

Susan Zehra is a Ph.D. candidate in the CS department at ODU, Norfolk. She also serves as a lecturer in the same department. Previously, she worked as an instructor at a private university in Hampton, Virginia for five years. Susan holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from JMI (India) and an M.S. in Electronics Engineering from Norfolk State University, Norfolk. Her research interests revolve around vehicular networks, cryptography, and cybersecurity.

Kelsey Dunn, "Effects of a Video Based Intervention on Job Interview Skills for Youth with Autism" 

Advisor: Dr. Yaoxing Xu

Virginia Commonwealth University

Panel: GRAD15, Friday, 1:30 PM

I conducted a multiple-probe-across-participants design to examine the impact of a video-based intervention on interview skills of youth with autism. First, I conducted a systematic literature review of interview interventions. Results were used to guide the development of this study’s measure and procedures. Finding that previous literature relied on rubric measures to rate interview skill behaviors, I developed and piloted a primary measure for examining direct speech production. Using transcripts and video analysis, this study captures the construct of interview skills using both quantity (frequency of relevant/irrelevant c-units) and quality (interview skills rubric score). The intervention consisted of direct instruction, video modeling, self-video modeling, self-reflection, and role play. I recruited four youths with autism and incorporated their career aspirations to individualize the intervention and provide greater incentive. Additionally, I recruited two local business owners in the participants chosen field (i.e., the food industry) to interview participants during the generalization session. Results demonstrate a functional relation between the introduction of the intervention package and increases in interview skills. The three participants who agreed to participate in the generalization interview maintained interview skills with local business owners. Results from this study add scientific knowledge on systematically scoring direct speech production and highlight the importance of individualizing interview interventions. Directions for future research and the implications of these findings for practice and policy will be discussed.

Kelsey Dunn recently completed her dissertation defense at Virginia Commonwealth University in December. Prior to her Ph.D. in Special Education and Disability Policy, Kelsey received her Masters in K-12 Special Education at William and Mary. She is currently is the Director of Education at The Next Move Program in Richmond, VA. Next Move is a non-profit that provides job training and supported employment to young adults with developmental disabilities. Kelsey's research interests include transition, social skills, and inclusive workplace practices. 

Aíne Norris, "From First of May to Clown Alley: Examining the Circus Lexicon as a Community of Practice" 

Old Dominion University

Advisor: Dr. Dan Richards & Dr. Bridget Anderson

Panel: GRAD7, Thursday, 1:00 PM 

For over 100 years, the American circus has used a distinctive lexicon of words and phrases to demonstrate membership and belonging within its insider community. This study analyzes the circus lexicon as a community of practice, a sociolinguistic framework that aligns linguistic behavior and identity through membership and shared experience. This framework helps to contextualize questions about the significant ways in which circus persons use a unified, nonstandard lexicon to demonstrate membership in their traditionally closed community, create a shared social identity, and enforce gatekeeping.

The study analyzes a sample of oral history recordings from former performers to demonstrate patterns which confirm circus as a community of practice based on the use of a shared lexicon for insider audiences. To understand and compare sociolinguistic variation within the community of practice, the study also analyzes available language samples for outsider audiences from the same speakers, noting patterns where similar anecdotes are expressed without lexical use. 

The study uses sociolinguistic data to align circus with a community of practice, wherein the social construct is defined by membership, lexicon, and shared experience. Overall, the study is a preliminary analysis to both affirm the circus lexicon as an important, untapped area of study and as a foundation for future examination.

Aíne Norris is a second year Ph.D. student in English at Old Dominion University. Her research areas include American and cultural studies, historical lore, and circus studies. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University and serves on the graduate advisory board for the Pop Culture Association and as a trustee for the Circus Historical Society.

Jessica Brabble, "Perceptions of Performance: Evolving Media Portrayals of Black Sideshow Performers, 1852-1950" 

Advisor: Dr. Melvin P. Ely 

Panel: GRAD7, Thursday, 1:00 PM

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, American entertainment often centered around Black disability and stereotypes. Sideshows in particular skyrocketed in popularity; how these shows were advertised to the public varied greatly. Conjoined twins Millie and Christine McKoy were portrayed as “lady-like,” “clever,” and “companionable” as they traveled on the sideshow circuit in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Decades later, albino brothers George and Willie Muse—also known as Eko and Iko—were portrayed as “alien” and as coming “from a peculiar race of people whose bodies are covered with wool.” 

Using the McKoys and Muses as case studies, this paper will analyze what evolving media portrayals of African American entertainers can tell us about shifting cultural attitudes. I argue that the differing portrayals of the McKoys and the Muses are, at least in part, a result of growing support of eugenics and an increasingly negative view of physical difference at the beginning of the twentieth century. While it would be easy to simply view the McKoys’ portrayals as “positive” and that of the Muses as “negative,” I show that evolving perceptions of race, disability, and eugenics complicated the ways that African American sideshow performers were advertised to the public. The lives of the McKoys and Muses give us a lens with which to view shifts in attitudes about race and disability in America.

Jessica Brabble is a second year Ph.D. student in the History Department at William & Mary. Her research areas include the American south, popular culture, eugenics, and disability. She is particularly interested in researching the use of bodies as spectacle and entertainment at agricultural fairs in the South. She holds BAs from North Carolina Wesleyan College and an MA from Virginia Tech. 

Timothy Case, "Making Americans and Re-Making America: Teaching and Remembering the Civil War in Federal Indian Boarding Schools" 

Advisor: Dr. Melvin P. Ely 

Panel: GRAD9, Thursday, 2:15 PM 

Scholars who study late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century federal Indian education policies have appropriately situated debates about assimilation and citizenship within research on changes in American society such as urbanization, industrialization, and new immigration. This paper places Indian boarding school curriculum and the adoption of Memorial Day celebrations on and off boarding school campuses within an equally important turn-of-the-century conversation about race and American identity: the politics of reconciliation, sectional re-union, and the conflict over whose memories of the Civil War should be remembered and forgotten. The development of Indian boarding schools as the government’s primary tool for assimilating Indian children—a period ranging roughly from the end of Reconstruction through World War I—occurred simultaneously with national debates about what it meant to be a loyal American and efforts to forge a shared national identity among a sectionally divided and socially fragmented population. Indian school curriculum and publications, and Indian students’ participation and performance in rituals of American patriotism like Memorial Day constructed a memory of the Civil War grounded in sectional reunion at a time when these memories were both highly politicized and integral to conversations about the meaning of American identity and citizenship. Just as a white memory of the war grounded in sectional reunion was accomplished by the silencing of emancipationist counter-memories, so too did Indian Boarding school curricula and performances in Civil War commemorations accomplish an America that acknowledged Indian patriotism through the construction of Indian war memories on white terms. 

Tim Case is a third year PhD Candidate in the History department at William & Mary. His research interests include Civil War memory and the memory of emancipation with a specific focus on the intersection of memory, race, and space. He is particularly interested in late nineteenth and early twentieth century commemorative traditions and the role of cemeteries as sites of contestation and politics. 

G. Jasper Conner, "Race and the Failed Promise of Vocational Rehabilitation for Blind Workers in the Segregated South" 

Advisor: Dr. Melvin P. Ely 

Panel: GRAD15, Friday, 1:30 PM

After the passage of the Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Law in 1920, vocational rehabilitation for disabled civilians was organized on a national scale. The rehabilitation of disabled veterans has received significant scholarly attention, but vocational rehabilitation of ordinary workers remains understudied in histories of labor, disability, and medicine. While vocational rehabilitation promised to render broken bodies productive, this prospect remained elusive for most disabled people. This was especially true for disabled African Americans in the segregated South. Programs aimed at training disabled workers were administered by state agencies which operated with a large degree of autonomy from the federal government. Using the records of Southern agencies involved with vocational rehabilitation, I argue that Southern states adopted an unstated policy of extending medical services and cash aid to disabled African Americans while reserving vocational education programs for white men. Vocational rehabilitation officials chose to exclude Black workers from rehabilitation programs for two reasons. Prevailing notions about Black inferiority led rehabilitationists to underestimate the capabilities of potential trainees. Further, in the Southern economy, many jobs which they might be trained for were reserved for white workers. Using the records of Southern agencies dedicated to rehabilitating blind workers, I argue that this policy ensured that most Black disabled workers in the segregated South were forced to subsist from meager welfare payments, confining them to a position of dependence which in turn reinforced white ideas about Black inferiority.

Jasper works on the history of disabled African Americans in the modern U.S. South. Combining archival research with oral history, his work uncovers the lived experiences of Black disabled people at residential schools, at work, and in the community. His work is informed by the birth of his second child, who is Deaf. Jasper is on the Board of Directors of the Disability History Association. Jasper's article "Blind and Deaf Together: Cross-Disability Community at Virginia’s Residential School for Black Disabled Youth" appears in the January issue of Disability Studies Quarterly. 

Marie Pellissier, "Cooking the Books: The Williamsburg Art of Cookery, Authenticity, and Accuracy at Colonial Williamsburg"

Advisor: Dr. Karin Wulf  

Panel: GRAD6, Thursday, 1:00 PM 

Award Winner: Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Humanities & Social Sciences, Honorable Mention

In the author’s note at the end of the Williamsburg Art of Cookery, a souvenir cookbook published by Colonial Williamsburg in 1938, author Helen Bullock wrote, “this volume will Average no more Errors and Miscalculations than Authenticity demands.” Bullock, a pioneering food historian, was one of Colonial Williamsburg’s first staff researchers, and The Williamsburg Art of Cookery is one of her enduring legacies. This paper uses Bullock’s cookbook as a case study in Colonial Williamsburg’s early attempts to navigate the difference between historical authenticity and historical accuracy. The two concepts, while connected, are distinct: historical accuracy is objective, based in facts supported by primary source documents, while historical authenticity lies in the eye of the beholder. The Williamsburg Art of Cookery sought to engage visitors with the past in a tangible way, through their interaction with and consumption of food. Bullock’s book promised visitors an objectively authentic experience: the materiality of the book was modeled after a cookbook printed in Williamsburg in 1742 and promised the reader that the recipes inside were also historically authentic. And yet, many of the recipes were not entirely accurate: most of them dated from the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, not the eighteenth. Analyzing this text offers insights into how Colonial Williamsburg used food as part of its effort to construct the eighteenth century in the twentieth, highlights the contribution of female scholars to the museum’s early development, and helps to show how the museum navigated between historical accuracy and authenticity in its early years. 

Marie Pellissier is a fifth year PhD candidate in the History department at William & Mary. She is a public historian and digital humanist. Her dissertation research focuses on the intersection of food history and historical memory in Williamsburg, Virginia. She holds a B.A. from Boston College, an M.A. in Public History from Loyola University Chicago, and an M.A. in History from William & Mary. 

Kathleen Telling, "Accomplished to Good Order: Religious Discipline, Household Authority, and Southern Quakers in the Long Eighteenth Century" 

Advisor: Dr. Karin Wulf 

Panel: GRAD9, Thursday, 2:15 PM 

This paper examines how religion shaped household authority, marital relations, and childrearing amongst Southern Quakers in the long eighteenth century. This piece, taken from my dissertation on gender, family, and Quakers in the Carolinas and Virginia from 1680-1800, deals specifically with the impact religion—in this case, Quakerism—had on gendered expectations of authority and discipline, and builds on recent scholarship which has destabilized conventional understandings of the public/private binary and expanded the definition of “household” in the eighteenth century.  

The British North American household was an essential part of the colonial project, communicating ideals of English superiority by enforcing colonial values of male patriarchal authority and women’s jurisdiction over the private home. Moreover, the marital household was symbolic of English imperial authority, as the husband was sovereign over his wife in the same manner that king was sovereign over his subjects. However, Quaker beliefs in the spirituality authority of women and communal religious life challenged this household model. Often, the Meeting (the religious center of Quaker life) acted as a family unit in and of itself, providing care and disciplinary guidance in equal measure.  

By looking closely at religion’s impact on Quaker households in the South, we not only gain a better understanding of household relations and family life in early America, but we all also arrive at a fuller picture of the diverse religious and gender landscapes that shaped the early South.

Katy Telling is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at William & Mary. Her research areas include histories of early American religions, gender and the family, and the early American South. Her dissertation examines the intersection of household authority and religious discipline amongst Quakers in the Long Eighteenth-Century Carolinas and Virginia. She holds a B.A. in History and French from the University of Texas at Austin and a M.A. in History from William & Mary. In addition to her studies, Telling serves as a coordinator for the Omohundro Institute's "Octo" webpage. 

Yaicha Ocampo, "Understanding Nonnative English Speakers’ Experiences in Healthcare Encounters" 

Old Dominion University 

Advisor: Dr. Staci Defibaugh

Panel: GRAD11, Thursday, 2:15 PM   

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) launched the Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication in August 2021 to address the gap in health literacy and health equity. One of the key principles for health equity is community engagement (CDC, 2021), which can be done through interviews with local community members to understand community knowledge, needs, priorities and influences. For this project, a total of six nonnative English speakers were interviewed about their experiences with the local healthcare system. Speakers were also asked about their native healthcare experiences to understand cultural differences that influence patient-provider encounters. Using semi-structured interviews allowed participants’ stories to emerge with limited interviewer intervention. Using narrative analysis (Creswell & Poth, 2017), interviews were transcribed and coded into themes that illustrate an array of individual experiences that contribute to poor treatment in the local healthcare system. Emergent themes include dismissal of patient knowledge and experience, lack of provider-patient collaboration in treatment, time constrained appointments and the responsibility of knowledge being placed on the patient instead of the doctor. Understanding experiences that are identified as poor treatment is a crucial step in creating improvements for local community members. Themes in this study can be used to create health literacy topics for classrooms and language programs, to improve on the dissemination of health information and give providers insight on situations where a miscommunication can occur.

Yaicha Ocampo is a second year M.A. student in the Applied Linguistics program at Old Dominion University. She is concentrating in Sociolinguistics as well as Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. 

Lauren Alvaro, "Changing Foundation Species in Chesapeake Bay: Implications for Faunal Communities of two Dominant Seagrass Species" 

Virginia Institute of Marine Science 

Advisor: Dr. Chris Patrick

Co-Author: M. Hensel

Panel: GRAD14, Friday, 9:00 AM 

Foundation species, such as seagrasses, provide many ecosystem functions in coastal habitats and support diverse food webs. Environmental changes and anthropogenic activities are strongly impacting coastal ecosystems globally. When these changes cause shifts in foundation species, whole food webs can be transformed. Thus, there is a need to understand how these changes are affecting coastal ecosystems. Seagrass meadows in the Chesapeake Bay are an ideal study system for studying these impacts, because a shift in the dominant foundation species of two structurally different seagrasses is occurring in the lower bay. Due to rising water temperatures over the last few decades, the once-dominant species, Zostera marina, has been declining, while Ruppia maritima has been expanding on large spatial scales. To understand how the structure and function of faunal communities differ between Z. marina and R. maritima meadows, we performed quantitative surveys on epifaunal, nektonic, and infaunal communities associated with these species. Preliminary results indicate that Z. marina meadows had higher diversity and richness of epifauna while R. maritima meadows had a higher total abundance of individuals. Nekton also had a higher total abundance in Z. marina meadows compared to R. maritima meadows. Overall, this study advances our understanding of how the shift occurring in the lower Chesapeake Bay impacts the food web and serves as a case study for predicting how changes in the identity of foundation species may affect community structure in other estuaries. 

Lauren Alvaro is a third-year Master's student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary. She holds a B.S. in Marine Science from Florida Gulf Coast University. Broadly, she is interested in the health of coastal ecosystems and estuarine ecology. Currently, she is investigating how a shift in dominant seagrass species alters faunal biodiversity in the lower Chesapeake Bay.  

Mara Walters, "Impacts of Microplastics on the Growth and Activity of the Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacterium Nitrosospira sp. AV" 

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Advisor: Dr. Bongkeun Song

Poster Session

Microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment and their toxicity has been reported in a diverse array of organisms. Among these organisms are the microbes responsible for the processes that govern the nitrogen (N) cycle. Within the N cycle processes, nitrification is a key pathway converting ammonium to nitrite and then nitrate which is essential for nutrient bioavailability and denitrification in various environments. A previous study has shown that microplastics can affect the nitrification activities of sedimentary microbial communities. However, it is unclear which specific nitrifying microbes are being negatively impacted by exposure to microplastics. Additionally, it is unclear whether UV-weathered microplastics will affect nitrifying microbes differently than non-UV-weathered (“pristine”) microplastics. To begin to answer these outstanding questions, we conducted an exposure experiment with cultures of the ammonia-oxidizing bacterium Nitrosospira sp. AV over the course of five days. Pristine or UV-weathered microplastics composed of polyethylene (PE), polylactic acid (PLA), polyurethane foam (PUF), or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were added to cultures at a concentration of 1 mg/mL. Changes in concentrations of nitrite and nitrate were measured over time to determine impacts on nitrification rates. Our results suggest that impacts of microplastics on nitrification vary by polymer type and with UV-weathering. Overall, this study confirms that microplastics can affect microbial N cycling and indicates the plastic polymer types of greatest concern for nitrifying microbes.

Mara Walters is a second year Master's student in the Biological Sciences Department at VIMS. Her research focuses on how microplastic pollution and plastic additives impact aquatic organisms, particularly marine microbes and oysters. She is passionate about inspiring others to be better environmental stewards through effective science communication. Mara earned her B.S. in Biology in 2018 from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

Molly Joyce, "Virtuosity from Disability: Discovering how the disabled performer develops virtuosity unique to oneself" 

University of Virginia 

Advisor: Dr. JoVia Armstrong

Panel: GRAD15, Friday, 1:30 PM 

As a disabled composer and performer, I have found limited definitions of virtuosity existing. These understandings are based on specific skills rather and understood as fast, impressive embodiment grounded in ability rather than disability. I seek to cultivate virtuosity learned from disabled dancers, expanding upon my collaborations with dance and seeking to bring those processes to my musical practice. Dance is the most developed discipline in disability arts, with activity worldwide since the 1980s. Music is arguably the least developed, particularly due to the specific physical requirements of common musical instruments.

I utilize examples from disabled dancers Marc Brew and Kayla Hamilton. Both dancers offer unique perspectives on approaching and executing virtuosity from disability, specifically Brew with the physical acquirement of disability and Hamilton with vision impairment and questioning ocular importance. This conveys how virtuosity from disability is critical in moving virtuosity towards more inclusive and exciting potentials.

Molly Joyce is a first-year PhD candidate in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia. She has been deemed one of the “most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome” by The Washington Post. Her work is concerned with disability as a creative source, and has studied Juilliard, Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Yale, and City University of New York. 

Robert Behary, "Rydberg Raman Ramsey EIT" 

Advisor: Dr. Irina Novikova

Co-Authors: E. Mikhailov; A. Gill; A. Buikema 

Poster Session 

A Rydberg state is an atomic state of the atom where an electron is pushed far away from the nucleus. When the electron is far away from the nucleus of the atom, this state is useful for detecting electric fields, and has potential application of being used as an “atomic antenna”. To achieve this state, the atoms are exposed to the correct frequency of light. A blue laser and a red laser are used to probe the atoms in a small glass container with Rubidium in it called a vapor cell. Atoms absorb the light as the beam crosses the vapor cell, and the light that makes it through can be detected by a device that measures light called a photodiode to measure the absorption curve of the atoms. When the correct frequencies are reached to excite the atom to the Rydberg state there will be a peak in the absorption curve, and this is known as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The width of this peak limits the sensitivity of detectors, so we propose a way to theoretically reduce this peak using a Ramsey interrogation method. A Ramsey interrogation involves preparing the atoms in the Rydberg state, turning off the light so that the atomic state will change, and then turning the light back on to probe the atoms. We have been modeling this experiment theoretically, and experimentally testing this with a Ramsey sequence made of two sets of overlapped beams separated in space, and a single set of overlapped beams pulsed in time. The theoretical work shows that there is a peak that is narrower than the standard EIT peak which could be used to enhance detectors.

Rob Behary is a third year Ph.D. candidate in Physics at William & Mary. His research currently focuses on Rydberg electrometry, a way to measure electric fields with a specific state of the atom. He holds a B.S. from Duquesne University, and an M.S. from William & Mary.

Tangereen Claringbold, "Quirks of QCD: Twist-2 Operatos on the Lattice" 

Advisor: Dr. Chris Monahan

Panel: GRAD13, Friday, 9:00 Am 

Quarks and gluons, the fundamental particles that lie at the heart of our everyday matter, are described by Quantum Chromodynamics, or QCD. One of the challenges of QCD is that there aren't always analytical solutions, meaning that we must rely on numerical approximations. Unfortunately, not all aspects of QCD can be simulated on a computer. For example, Deep Inelastic Scattering, one of the experimental processes used to investigate the structure of matter, cannot be directly calculated using numerical methods. I have studied a numerical formulation of the Twist-2 Operators, a set of mathematical tools that show up in calculations of Deep Inelastic Scattering to try to formulate a new approach in numerical simulations.

Tangereen Velveteen Bailey Claringbold is a seventh year Ph.D. candidate in Physics, specializing in theoretical nuclear physics. Their research is in lattice perturbation theory, which really just means that they do a lot of integrals. Tangereen has a B.S. in math and physics from University of Portland and a M.S. in physics from William & Mary.

Nicolas DeStefano, "Imaging Electron Beams Using Atomic Magnetometers" 

Advisor: Dr. Irina Novikova 

Co-Authors: E. Mikhailov; S. Aubin; T. Averett; S. Zhang; A. Camsonne; G. Park

Poster Session

We develop a non-invasive approach to image electron beam current density and obtain its profile in 2 (and eventually 3) dimensions by analyzing the electron beam effect on the quantum state of surrounding atomic vapor. Specifically, we can measure the magnetic field of the moving electrons through nonlinear magneto-optical polarization rotation produced by the Rb atoms. By imaging the components of the optical field's polarization via cameras, we successfully detected characteristic signatures of the electron beam and extracted basic electron beam characteristics, such as its position, width, and current density. Potentially, such approach can produce a three-dimensional images of the beam by illuminating the interaction region from two orthogonal directions. While the immediate motivation for the project is its implementation as a high energy particle beam diagnostic tool for use at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, this approach to charged particle detection may have broad range of applications in nuclear, accelerator, and cosmic ray physics.

Nic DeStefano is a fourth year William & Mary graduate student enrolled in the PhD program in physics, and has a B.S. in physics from Old Dominion University. Nic is part of a unique collaboration between William and Mary atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) and nuclear physicists with the interest of applying AMO physics technology for use in nuclear experiments to improve upon current experimental methods of measurement.

Noah Donald, "Asymptotic safety and gauged baryon number" 

Advisor: Dr. Christopher Carone

Co-Authors: J. Boos; M. Musser

Panel: GRAD13, Friday, 9:00 AM 

We propose a new model of particle physics which extends the Standard Model by including a set of new heavy fermions, a new gauge symmetry which preserves baryon number, and an additional heavy scalar boson to ultimately break this symmetry at the TeV scale. After taking into account gravitational effects above the Planck scale, we study the ultraviolet fixed points of this theory and determine a subset of the model’s parameter space at the TeV scale which renders the theory asymptotically safe. Asymptotic safety is a framework in which theories can be validly extrapolated to infinitely high energy scales. The requirement of asymptotic safety restricts the parameter space yielding a more predictive model. For a representative choice of parameters, we comment on the resulting phenomenology.

Noah Donald is a third year Ph.D. candidate in Physics at William & Mary. His research specialization is in high energy theory and he has additional interest in both general relativity and differential geometry. He is currently exploring quantum fields in the context of causal set theory, an approach to quantum gravity. 

Kate Evans, "The Tracking System and Kinematics Measurement for the MOLLER Experiment at Jefferson Laboratory" 

Advisor: Dr. David Armstrong

Panel: GRAD8, Thursday, 1:00 PM 

MOLLER (Measurement Of a Lepton-Lepton Electroweak Reaction) is a parity-violating experiment set to start running in Jefferson Laboratory's experimental Hall A in 2025. The parity-violating asymmetry of Moller scattered electrons, A_PV, will be measured and used to probe the weak charge of the electron, Q_W^e, to never before seen levels of precision. At tree level, the overall factor that correlates Q_W^e to A_PV is called the kinematic factor, A, and is dependent on the incoming beam energy and center of mass scattering angle of the electron. A vital component of MOLLER will be its tracking system which will be used for kinematics measurements and will allow us to determine the kinematic factor.

Calibration of our tracking system and verification of our kinematics must be completed in order to calculate Q_W^e to the desired level of precision. The ongoing effort to prepare for this involves using Monte Carlo based Geant-4 simulations to optimize the design of our tracking system. This talk will overview the design of the tracking system, with specific emphasis on the upstream region of the system, and the plan for our kinematics measurement.

Kate Evans is a fourth year Ph.D. student in Physics at William & Mary. Her research focuses on the ongoing and upcoming nuclear physics experiments at Jefferson Laboratory for which she is able to help with simulation design, hardware installation and maintenance, and data analysis. She has a B.S. in Comprehensive Physics and a B.A. in Latin from University of Washington and hopes to complete her Ph.D. by 2026.

Charris Gabaldon, "Single-pixel Imaging with Full Wavefront Reconstruction via Homodyne Detection" 

Advisor: Dr. Eugeniy Mikhailov

Co-Authors: S. Cuozzo; P. Barge; Z. Niu; L. Cohen 

Panel: GRAD1, Thursday, 9:30 AM 

Collecting clean data are an important aspect of science research. Part of accumulating usable datasets involves strengthening notable signals while decreasing excess noise. However, the classical world only allows improvements to a certain extent. Noise levels can continue to be reduced if quantum physics techniques are employed. We are able to achieve reduced noise by “squeezing” light. Squeezed light parallels Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle such that certainty in one area can be improved, but consequently less will be known in another. The area with more certainty results in lower noise, and potentially cleaner data. However, the physical makeup of this squeezed light is unknown. Determining what signals are present in the light is a prerequisite to fully taking advantage of the reduced noise levels. This requires some method to look at, or image the light and determine its composition. We combine known imaging reconstruction techniques to recreate a three-dimensional picture of the squeezed light. Through this process we determine this imaging technique is functional and potentially useful to image biological samples that may be sensitive to certain amounts of light. Using this simple reconstruction method, we observe the squeezed light under different conditions to determine what types of signals are present. This effort is ongoing and preliminary results indicate that there is currently excess heat that can disrupt the squeezing process.

Charris Gabaldon is a third year Ph.D. candidate in Physics and William & Mary. Her research area is experimental quantum optics. She is currently working on a quantum imaging project in which she explores the modes present in squeezed light. She holds a B.S. in Physics from California State University and a Masters in Physics from William & Mary.

Lydia Lorenti, "Hunting for Hadrons: In Search of One of the Proton and Neutron’s Many Distant Cousins" 

Advisor: Dr. Justin Stevens

Panel: GRAD10, Thursday, 2:15 PM 

The proton and neutron are only the two most commonly known members of a group of particles called hadrons.  A hadron is made of two other kinds of particles; quarks and gluons, the latter of which hold the quarks together. Different hadrons have different properties, and by studying them, hadronic physicists learn more about the underlying dynamics that form them all. Since the majority of visible matter is in atomic nuclei, which is composed of hadrons, learning about hadrons means learning about the fundamental nature of matter. My colleagues and I are searching for new and unconventional hadrons at Jefferson Lab by hitting a proton target with a photon beam, which produces many types of hadrons. The goal of my research is to determine the maximum possible value of a particular quantity that indicates how likely it is for this reaction to produce one particular hadron which has recently been observed in other experiments. I analyze mass distributions in which signals for particles appear as peaks. The value I obtain for this quantity will indicate the maximum possible signal for this hadron that we can expect in our experiment, which will guide further studies. This result will also serve as a test of a mathematical prediction of the same quantity.

Lydia Lorenti is a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in the Physics Department at William & Mary. Her subfield of interest is experimental hadronic physics. She conducts research with the GlueX experiment at Jefferson Lab, which aims to identify and study unconventional hadrons in order to gain a greater understanding of the fundamental Strong Interaction.

Jarred Loughran, "Investigation of Curvature Pinch Transport in the DIII-D Tokamak" 

Advisor: Dr. Saskia Mordijck 

Co-Authors: R. Chaban; T. Osborne

Poster Session 

Fusion reactors require a high density plasma within the device in order to produce sufficient fusion, but a low density near the edge in order to protect the reactor. One way to achieve this is by operating with an “Edge Pedestal” region where the density of the plasma increases greatly over a short distance. The shape of the density profile can be modeled by considering the balance between ionization, which adds particles to the plasma, and transport, the movement of particles through outward diffusion and inward convection. The goal of our research is to explore the dependence of particle transport on various factors. One way to explore the relative strengths of diffusion and convection is to modulate the plasma with puffs of gas from the edge and track the amplitude and phase of the modulation as it propagates inward. This method requires knowledge of the ionization rates at a given position, and a new instrument has been installed to measure ionization in the pedestal. This allows us to model the pedestal shapes from given profiles of diffusion and convection strengths with ionization included, compare to experiment, and then optimize our transport model to fit the experimental pedestal. We have conducted experiments where we hold other parameters consistent but vary the pitch of the magnetic field lines. We then use our optimization method to explore the dependence of the inward transport on field line pitch, a phenomenon called the “Curvature Pinch.” Preliminary results are supportive of the existence of the curvature pinch in our experiments, and future development of this method can explore the dependence of transport on other parameters, and help develop predictive transport models. This will allow the creation of steeper pedestals, which will allow future fusion reactors to operate with a greater volume of high-density plasma for a given machine size.

Jarred Loughran is a second year PhD student in the Physics Department at W&M.  His field of interest is plasma physics, and how we can improve our understanding of complicated plasma dynamics in order to help move towards using nuclear fusion for electricity production. His current work focuses on the role particle transport plays in shaping the edge pedestal of high-confinement regimes in tokamak fusion reactors. 

William Miyahira, "AC Zeeman Trapping of Neutral Atoms for Atom Interferometry" 

Advisor: Dr. Seth Aubin

Co-Authors: S. Aubin

Panel: GRAD3, Thursday, 10:45 AM

We present on our work in the trapping and manipulation of ultra-cold neutral atoms using AC Zeeman (ACZ) potentials produced on a micro-magnetic chip trap. This scheme uses RF and microwave AC currents in atom chip traces to produce minima in circularly polarized magnetic near-fields to confine atoms in a spin-specific trap. ACZ potentials have applications in quantum gates, studying 1D many-body physics, and atom interferometry for precision measurements of fundamental physics, which is of primary interest to our lab. Our atom chip design utilizes parallel microstrip transmission lines to generate traps through the overlapping near-fields of neighboring traces. Axial confinement is achieved through a microwave lattice using the ACZ or AC Stark effect. The lattice also provides the ability to translate the atoms along the chip traces for various interferometry schemes. For efficient broadband coupling of microwaves from a standard SMA cable to the micro-fabricated chip traces, we have developed a tapered microstrip wedge interface which we present simulation and prototype work. To produce the phase-controlled microwaves necessary for AC Zeeman trapping we construct a low phase-noise source based on IQ modulation with relative phase control between channels. Additionally, we experimentally investigate the suppression of potential roughness resulting from defects in the chip traces in ACZ traps compared to traditional DC chip traps. This work is supported by NSF, VSGC, DTRA, and VMEC.

William Miyahira is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Physics Department at William & Mary. His research focuses on developing a microwave atom chip for atom interferometry experiments with ultra-cold atoms. He holds a bachelor's degree in Physics and Math from the University of Puget Sound.

Mikkie Musser, "Asymptotically Safe Dark Matter With Gauged Baryon Number" 

Advisor: Dr. Christopher Carone 

Co-Authors: J. Boos; N. Donald

Panel: GRAD13, Friday, 9:00 AM 

We build on a previously published model of particle physics to include dark matter. Included in our model is a particle that allows for mixing between dark matter and regular matter particles. By requiring that the theory remain valid when extrapolated to infinitely high energy scales, we are able to place limits on the dark matter parameter space. We find that our model fits the measured density of dark matter in the universe and is consistent with experimental searches.

Mikkie Musser is a third year Ph.D. candidate in Physics at William & Mary. Her research area is high energy theory. She holds a B.S. from UW and a M.S. from William & Mary.

Ziqi Niu, "Pseudo-APT symmetry with Four-Wave Mixing in hot Rubidium atoms" 

Advisor: Dr. Irina B. Novikova

Co-Authors: S. Du; J. Wen; C. Zhang; M. Du

Poster Session

Hamiltonian, in a simplified perspective, can be described as the “mark of energy” of a physical system. We also have a series of operations such as displacement, rotation, spatially flip or simply let the time flow. The total energy should be conserved when above mentioned operations applies, and requires the Hamiltonian to be unchanged under spatial flip and time evolution, with the jargon “Parity-Time Symmetry”. Similar descriptions can describe the energy of a classical system, such as a pendulum, or as small as a single electron. In this work, we have extended this concept to an optical system, describing how light interacts with atoms, with a slightly but very similar “Anti-Parity-TiME Symmetry”. The “fake-Hamiltonian” is not an actual Hamiltonian describing the energy, but describes the photons/light field in our system being absorbed and generated. In our case, we have two correlated optical fields being generated at the same time, and the “fake-Hamiltonian” describes their relative intensity. But unlike energy, which is strictly conserved and thus has to be real, our “fake-Hamiltonian” can have an “imaginary energy”. At the point that it started to become imaginary, we saw the sharp increase of relative intensity for the two correlated fields, making it an ideal quantum detector. We theoretically modeled the system, and experimental results have reasonable agreement. 

Ziqi Niu is a fourth year Ph.D candidate in the Physics Department at William & Mary. His research focus on quantum property of light generated from nonlinear effects within alkali atoms. He holds a B.S. from Bucknell University, a M.S from College of William & Mary.

Felipe Ortega-Gama, "Measurement devices for the shortest-lived particles" 

Advisor: Dr. Jozef Dudek

Panel: GRAD10, Thursday, 2:15 PM 

The field of hadron spectroscopy studies the particles involved in the strong nuclear interactions, like the protons and the neutrons. It is expected that the properties of hadrons are explained by the theory of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), so that solving the theory to compare to experimental data is one of the priorities of the field. My research interest focuses on combining QCD with external probes, like electromagnetic interactions, that can be used to unambiguously describe the internal structure of hadrons. However, there is no known analytic solutions to the equations of QCD in the hadronic energy region. Instead, numerical methods have been devised to solve the theory. This comes with its own set of challenges, particularly when studying short-lived particles that decay in time scales of 10^{-24} s, these particles receive the name of resonances. For instance, the numerical implementation restricts the theory to a finite volume, where multiparticle states can only form at a discrete set of energies, as opposed to the experimental situation where, up to detector resolution, there is a continuum of energies. A model-independent formalism is needed to relate the discrete energies to the interaction rates that can be measured experimentally, where resonances arise as interaction rate enhancements. I will describe the current work I am involved with of adding external probes to this formalism in order to access structural information of hadrons directly from the theory of QCD.

Felipe Ortega Gama is a fifth year Ph.D candidate in the Physics Department at William & Mary. His research focuses on the properties and interactions among the subatomic particles called hadrons. He focuses on particles that are difficult to study directly experimentally given their short lifetime, but that impact other measurable quantities that are needed to understand the limits of subatomic theories. He holds a B.Sc. from the Tec de Monterrey in Mexico, and a M.Sc. from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Kevin Scheuer, "What's So Exotic About a Meson?" 

Advisor: Dr. Justin Stevens

Panel: GRAD8, Thursday, 1:00 PM 

The Standard Model of particle physics, more specifically the strong nuclear force, provides us with predictions for how fundamental particles coalesce to form what we observe experimentally as hadrons, such as protons and neutrons. Those components are objects known as quarks, which can generally combine to give us 3-quark particles (baryons) or quark-antiquark particles (mesons). There exist though, a class of “exotic” mesons with properties unforeseen by the traditional model containing only quarks. The strong nuclear force helps to explain how gluons, the “glue” with which quarks combine to form hadrons, contribute towards those unforeseen properties. The Gluonic Excitation, or GlueX experiment at Jefferson Lab in Newport News Virginia seeks to obtain experimental evidence of these exotic mesons. A beam of photons interacting with a proton target has the potential to produce events involving exotic mesons such as the π1(1600). In reality billions of events are produced, so high performance computing clusters are used to sift through the data of photon-proton interactions to find the events of interest. Tools such as amplitude analyses can break down the data into its individual contributions, or amplitudes, which are characterized by unique values known as quantum numbers. If potential π1(1600) events are found using these tools, they can provide comparison for analyses of other decay paths and give experimental evidence to build better theoretical models. Even if these events are not seen, it will produce constraints for future searches at GlueX and the study of mesons at other facilities.

Kevin Scheuer is a third year Ph.D. candidate studying experimental nuclear physics at William & Mary. Their research explores the strong nuclear force of the Standard Model or more specifically how exotic mesons are produced via photoproduction, and is conducted at the Jefferson Lab particle accelerator.

Jozef Trokan-Tenorio, "Recent Neutrino Oscillation Results From the NOvA Experiment" 

Advisor: Dr. Patricia Vahle

Panel: GRAD3, Thursday, 10:45 AM 

Neutrinos are the most abundant massive particle in the universe, but we still know little about them compared to other fundamental particles like the electron or photon. Accordingly, there has been a large focus in high energy physics towards understanding neutrinos, in particular their phenomena of oscillation. Neutrino oscillation is a process by which the neutrino can change between 3 different types (called flavors) as it travels at close to light speed. The NOvA experiment seeks to understand this phenomena using a two-detector scheme, along with the high energy NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. The first detector is placed at the source of the beam at Fermilab, and measures the neutrinos immediately after they are produced. The neutrinos then travel through the earth, 810km north, to the second larger detector where they are measured again after oscillating. Doing this we can extract parameters which tell us details about the neutrinos, like which is the heaviest, or how the different flavors mix as they propagate. These precise measurements in turn could help us answer even more pressing questions such as “why do we live in a matter-dominated universe?” I will give an overview of how the experiment works and present recent measurements by NOvA of the parameters that govern neutrino oscillations. I will then look ahead to how my work could help us reclaim lost neutrinos in our experiment. 

Jozef Trokan-Tenorio is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the Physics Department at William and Mary. He conducts research into neutrinos (a fundamental particle) and their property of oscillation, with the NOvA experiment based at Fermilab. He holds a B.S. in Physics, Astronomy, and Math from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.S. in Physics from William & Mary. 

Ezekiel Wertz, "The neutron Two-Photon Exchange experiment at Jefferson Lab" 

Advisor: Dr. David Armstrong

Panel: GRAD10, Thursday, 2:30 PM 

In nuclear physics the neutron and proton (collectively called nucleons) serve as building blocks for all nuclei. The nucleon structure and its general properties: magnetic moment, size, mass, and electromagnetic form factors are of fundamental scientific interest. The electromagnetic form factors are essential to understanding the electric charge and magnetization distributions of the quarks in the nucleon. The neutron Two-Photon Exchange (nTPE) experiment in Hall A, which uses the 12 GeV electron accelerator at Jefferson Lab and is the part of the Super BigBite Spectrometer (SBS) program, will provide the first measurement of the two-photon exchange contribution in elastic electron-neutron scattering from a deuterium target. The two-photon exchange contribution to e-N elastic scattering will be extracted by measuring the ratio(neutron/proton) of quasi-elastic yields at a single momentum transfer, but at two different beam energies (and electron scattering angles). The experiment was performed using the BigBite Spectrometer which detects the scattered electrons, and the Super BigBite Spectrometer which detects the scattered nucleons using a large aperture dipole magnet and hadron calorimeter. The scope of this talk will be an overview of the physics goals for the nTPE experiment and a status report on the data analysis.

Ezekiel Wertz is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the Physics Department at William & Mary. His research areas include the nucleon elastic electromagnetic form factors, nucleon structure, parity-violating electron scattering. He holds a B.S. in Physics from Lebanon Valley College and an M.S. from William & Mary. Ezekiel is originally from Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

Mona Al-Bizri, "Examining the Relationship Between Early Life Stress and Repetitive Negative Thinking on Executive Control Under Stress" 

Advisor: Dr. Meghan Quinn

Poster Session

The World Mental Health Survey (2010) found that 38% of respondents reported experiencing at least one major stressor during childhood (Kessler et al., 2010). Exposure to childhood stressors is thought to impact how individuals respond to everyday stressors experienced later in life, which in turn influence the risk for depression and anxiety. Of course, not everyone who experiences childhood stressors will experience such outcomes in adulthood. The tendency to dwell on negative thoughts and experiences (i.e., repetitive negative thinking) may explain why individuals with a history of childhood stress will have altered responding to stressors later in life. The aim of this study is to examine how early life stress and repetitive negative thinking interact to predict responses to acute stressors in adulthood. Specifically, this study will examine executive control, top-down, goal-directed cognitive processes, in response to stress. Executive control is essential for daily functioning, has been linked to disorders like depression and anxiety, and is impacted by acute stress exposure. To test this idea, participants were randomly assigned to complete a laboratory-based stress induction or a control version of this task. Executive control was measured following the stress induction/control task. Participants also completed self-report measures of repetitive negative thinking and childhood stress. I hypothesize that following the stress induction, higher levels of early life stress and greater engagement in repetitive negative thinking will predict poorer executive control performance. Due to the prevalence of early life stress, it is important to examine who may be vulnerable to its associated negative outcomes. 

Mona Al-Bizri is a first-year M.S. candidate in Psychological Sciences at William & Mary. Her research interests include cytokine reactivity, the effects of stress on the brain, post-traumatic stress, anxiety disorders, and perseverative cognition. She hopes to pursue her Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Mona holds a B.S. in psychology, with honors, from James Madison University. 

Victoria Chentsova, "Exploring Perceptions of Self-Stigma of Substance Use, Alcohol Use, and Marijuana Use " 

Advisor: Dr. Adrian Bravo

Co-Authors: Stimulant Norms and Prevalence (SNAP) Study Team

Panel: GRAD16, Friday, 1:30 PM 

While research has examined the effects of stigma towards individuals with substance use disorders, with a focus on treatment outcomes, few studies have examined the relationship between self-stigma and general engagement in substance use. Objective: The present study examined whether concern around the stigma of developing a SUD relates to less alcohol and marijuana use and problems. Method:Participants (n=2,243) were college students recruited from seven universities across the U.S. to participate in an online survey about substance use and completed a measure on self-stigma, further broken into self-esteem stigma and self-efficacy stigma. Participants were categorized by lifetime substance use practices and last 30-day substance use practices (No Substance, Alcohol Only, Marijuana Only, Alcohol and Marijuana). 

Results: Results indicated no significant differences in stigma scores across individuals with different life-time substance use. Results indicated significant differences between stigma scores and last-30 day substance use where self-esteem stigma in the No Substance group (M=19.06) was significantly higher than all other groups (M<17.67,F=9.79, p<.001). Similarly, self-efficacy stigma in the No Substance group (M=19.96) or Only Alcohol group (M=19.85) was significantly higher than the Alcohol and Marijuana group M=19.10, F=6.03,p<.001). Correlation analyses reveal significant negative associations between stigma and substance use including frequency, quantity, consequences, and disorder scores. 

Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that for emerging adults who consume alcohol and marijuana, those who perceived that having an SUD would negatively impact their self-esteem and their self-efficacy, were less likely to use alcohol and marijuana.

Victoria O. Chentsova is a second year Master of Science (MS) student in the Experimental Psychology program at William & Mary. Her research spans topics across clinical, personality, social psychology, and psychopharmacology, with a particular interest in substance use, affect, and motivation. Her MS thesis addresses the relationship between expectations of stigmatization for substance use disorder (SUD) and substance use behaviors in college students engaging in substance use at a pre-clinical level (i.e. no diagnosed SUD). She holds a B.A. from Williams College in Philosophy and Psychology.

Madison Colby, "Faces of Substance Use: A Reverse Correlation Analysis of Perceptions" 

Advisor: Dr. Paul kieffaber

Poster Session 

Substance use can be a polarizing subject in the US. While seemingly ubiquitous in modern, American settings where alcohol is commonly used as a social lubricant and cannabis is quickly climbing the legislative ladder into societal acceptance, there still exists a deep-seeded negative connotation around the use of substances. Currently, there is a wealth of research on the perceived moral character of people with substance use disorders. Studies consistently corroborate perceptions of violence, distrust, personal failings, and weakness.What is not clear at this time, however, is if the mental representations of a substance user varies on the basis of racial and gender stereotypes. How much does stereotype-consistent thinking and implicit bias impact these differential treatments and outcomes for those who struggle with SUD? This study uses the data-driven technique reverse correlation analysis to create visual proxies of the mental representations of alcohol and cannabis users and nonusers. Participants (N=86) rated the generated facial images across gender, ethnicity, and personality traits to create profiles of how substance users are perceived in comparison to nonusers. We found alcohol and cannabis images were rated as significantly more masculine, less trustworthy, and less warm than their inverse non-user images. We discuss the potential ramifications these implicit biases may hold in connection to the legal response to substance use and disparate access to healthcare services

Madison Colby is a 2nd year master's student in Psychological Sciences at William & Mary. She is a research coordinator in the cognitive psychophysiology lab where she works on EEG studies in visuomotor adaptation, task-switch modeling, and perceptual analyses.

Molly Goldberg, "Understanding Lay Strategies for Finding Inspiration" 

Advisor: Dr. Todd Thrash

Poster Session 

Background: Inspiration has been found to facilitate momentary and long term well-being, mood, and fulfillment (Thrash, 2021). However, inspiration is notoriously difficult to control, and little is known about what can be done to facilitate it. Objective: The aim of this study is to understand lay strategies for finding inspiration by developing a scheme for categorizing inspiration strategies. Method: Qualitative data were collected from 2,658 individuals from six English-speaking countries. Participants were asked what they do to increase the odds of getting inspired. Responses are being analyzed qualitatively, and a categorization scheme will be developed. 

Results: Consistent with selection theory and cultural evolution perspectives on inspiration (Thrash, 2021), preliminary results suggest that strategies may be categorized according to whether they target blind variation, selection, or retention processes. Conclusion: The results of this study will guide future theory and research, including interventions to increase inspiration and its positive consequences.

Molly Goldberg is a first year M.S. student in the Psychological Sciences Department at William and Mary. Her research interests include inspiration, spirituality, and extremism. She earned her B.A. in psychology from Christopher Newport University. 

Jonah Hickman, "Coping Flexibility, Depression, and Anxiety: An Exploration of How We Dynamically Deal With Negative Emotions" 

Advisor: Dr. Meghan E. Quinn

Poster Session

Coping flexibility refers to our ability to adjust and react to strong emotions in a diverse set of ways (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Since its ideological inception, this skill has been associated with lower levels of depression (Kato, 2021), anxiety (Fresco et al., 2006), and other psychological ailments (Jones et al., 2019). While the results of these studies are promising, they have methodological limitations. These limitations include significant time delays in emotion measurement (Van Boven et al., 2007), use of unidimensional stimuli to elicit emotion (Kurdi et al., 2017), and behaviorally rigid experimental conditions (Dhaka & Kashyap, 2017). This study sought to reaffirm the previously established relationship between coping flexibility, depression, and anxiety with a research design of greater ecological validity. This was done through a novel laboratory task including negative video stimuli, non-compulsory participant behavior, and active emotion detection (N = 144; Mage = 19.2). We hypothesized that those with the most emotional improvement following flexible coping behaviors would have lower levels of depression and anxiety symptoms (IDAS-II; Watson et al., 2012). If our hypotheses are supported, our study will further cement the importance of flexibly regulating negative emotions. Furthermore, it will open a new avenue of research on coping flexibility utilizing methodology that is both more closely aligned with how emotions are regulated in daily life and more predictive of outcomes like depression and anxiety. 

Jonah Hickman is a first-year master's student in the Psychological Sciences department at William & Mary. Influenced by his undergraduate and post-baccalaureate education at Utah State University and the University of Utah, his interests include suicide, emotion dysregulation, and coping flexibility. Advised by Dr. Quinn, they are working on two projects assessing 1) emotion regulation flexibility and 2) underreporting of suicidal thoughts in college students. 

Skylar Raynor, "Characteristics of Friendship Stability and Dissolution in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study" 

Advisor: Dr. Janice Zeman

Poster Session 

Close friendships become particularly salient in early adolescence, influencing adolescent well-being (Bukowski et al., 2020). Although changes in close friendships are common, little research has examined friendship stability and dissolution (i.e., the ending of friendships; Flannery & Smith, 2021), particularly over time during adolescence.

In our research, 202 adolescents described their relationship with their close friend at two time periods separated by two years. At the second time point, 169 adolescents reported on their friendship from the first time point and completed a questionnaire asking about various qualities of the friendship (e.g., help and guidance, conflict resolution). Adolescents described their friend as being their very best friend, best friend, good friend, or friend. Results indicated that 29.0% of friendship dyads remained the same, 33.1% had a minor downgrade (e.g., good friend to friend), 21.3% had a major downgrade/no longer friends, and 16.6% had an upgrade (e.g., friend to good friend). “Very best friend” and “best friend” dyads were most vulnerable to a minor downgrade. The most common reason for downgrade/dissolution was a gradual drifting apart (45.9%); less than 10% of friendships ended due to conflict.

These findings indicate that friendship change in adolescence seems to be common but is related to a gradual drifting apart rather than prior characterizations as ending in conflict and/or betrayal. More research needs to examine friendships in adolescence as these relationships lay the groundwork for adult relationships.

Skylar Shea Raynor is a first year M.S. student in the Psychological Sciences Department at William & Mary. Her research interests are centered around social and emotional development in childhood and adolescence. She is particularly interested in how close relationships (e.g., friendships, parent-child relationships) relate to emotional and psychological well-being. 

Autumn Scarborough, "System justifying & founder ownership beliefs in relation to attitudes toward social movements" 

Advisor: Dr. Xiaowen Xu

Panel: GRAD12, Friday, 9:00 AM 

Whenever there is collective action advocating for social change, there are also counter protests to maintain the status quo. It is essential to understand the psychological mechanisms that help explain how people perceive, and why they participate in collective action. Two relevant psychological theories are founder ownership (FO) and system justification (SJ). FO relates to the belief that both the land and power belong to a nation’s founders. SJ beliefs are motivated by justifying the existing status quo. The current work examined how FO and SJ beliefs related to people’s attitudes toward different forms of collective action. Participants (N = 608) completed measures of FO beliefs, SJ beliefs, general political orientation, and attitudes toward different social movements. We found that even after controlling for demographics and general political orientation, people higher in FO and SJ beliefs still held more negative attitudes toward social movements that challenge the status quo, e.g., BLM, women’s rights march, etc. The present findings highlight two important psychological processes that help explain why some people are more or less likely to support social change. 

Autumn Scarborough is a second year master’s student in the experimental psychology program at William & Mary. Her research interests center around social justice topics such as police brutality and collective action. Since social media plays an integral role in collective action today and the widespread dissemination of police brutality incidents, she is also interested in the influence of social media on behaviors, attitudes, and mental health. Her thesis examines how exposure to police brutality videos influences people.  

Madison Schulte, "Parent-Child Reports During Middle Childhood: Attachment Security and Life Stress as Predictors for Informant Discrepancies"

Advisor: Dr. Madelyn Labella

Co-Author: S. Bourne

Poster Session 

Children spend significant time at home with their caregiver, suggesting caregivers are well-situated to report on child behavior. However, when both children and parents report on children’s mental health symptoms, inconsistencies - termed informant discrepancies - often arise (De Los Reyes & Kazdin, 2004). Multiple aspects of parent-child relationships may predict disagreement across parent-child reports (Yeguez & Sibley, 2016). For example, increased stress levels in the home may impact the level of disagreement between informants (Wee, 2020). Few studies examine the role that attachment security plays in discrepant parent-child reports. The current study addresses limitations in the literature by examining both stress-related and attachment-related predictors of informant discrepancies in parent-child reports of child symptoms during structured psychiatric interviews. Participants include 10 year olds with and without a history of child welfare involvement and their primary caregivers. We anticipate that family stress (i.e., history of child welfare involvement, more cumulative life stress, and more parental psychopathology) will be associated with larger informant discrepancies. In contrast, we expect that parent-child attachment (i.e., parental participation in an attachment-based parenting intervention, higher perceived attachment security at age nine, and higher placement of the primary caregiver in an hierarchy of attachment relationships at age 10) will be associated with smaller discrepancies. If insecure attachment and higher life stress are associated with greater parent-child disagreement, this information may help clinicians make more informed decisions about diagnosis and treatment planning, especially among children exposed to maltreatment-related risk.

Madison Schulte is a first year Master student in Psychological Sciences at William and Mary. Her research interests include emotion regulation in the context of a child’s environment (e.g., life stress, parenting behaviors) and parent-child relationships. They are currently addressing discrepant views in parent and child reports on mental health symptoms in the context of maltreatment-related risk. 

Emma Stephenson, "The Relationship Between Cardiac Interoception and Art" 

Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Stevens

Poster Session 

Interoception is the perception of the body’s internal signals to stimuli. The present exploratory study compares subjective (sub.) ratings of interoceptive awareness (IAw) and interoceptive accuracy (IAcc) to objective (obj.) heart rate (HR) in the presence of art. We hypothesize that the presence of art improves cardiac interoception, and that greater appreciation for aesthetics relates to greater cardiac interoception.

Sub. IAw is assessed with the BPQ-SF and sub. IAcc with the IAS. To measure obj. IAw and IAcc, a wearable device records HR. A smartphone app developed in JavaScript for Bluetooth communication with the device prompts participants to answer two questions randomly in intervals: “Is your heart beating faster than usual?” and “Are you confident about your answer?” Aesthetic appreciation is assessed with the Aesthetic Appreciation Scale. In part one, the participant freely explores the Muscarelle Museum for 40 minutes; the device measures HR. An Android phone with the app is provided to randomly prompt the individual five times, once each interval, to answer the two questions described. In part two, the participant answers the three questionnaires.

We anticipate a regression to show aesthetic appreciation explains variance in interoception, a bivariate correlation to show a positive relationship between time in the gallery and IAcc, and a Chi-Square to show dependence between time in the gallery and IAw. This study may reveal that past studies fail to explain the multi-dimensionality of interoception. Further, if art alters perception of the body, art can strengthen inclinations to make healthier choices.

Emma Stephenson is a first year M.S. student in the Psychological Sciences Department at W&M. Her research interests include cognition, perception, interoception, and aesthetic experience. She is currently studying how perception can be informed through tactile information, as well as how we perceive our body’s internal signals, such as heart rate.

Daniel Valerio Montero, "Watch What You Eat: Do Environmental, Animal Welfare, and Personal Health Media Appeals Impact Meat Intake? " 

Advisor: Dr. Catherine Forestell

Poster Session 

Previous research has demonstrated that providing people with information about how meat intake impacts the environment, animal welfare, or personal health, reduces their intentions to eat meat. Nevertheless, there are individual differences in participants’ responsiveness to this information likely because there are a variety of personal characteristics and attitudes that may affect people’s responsiveness to these informational appeals. The goal of this study was to replicate and extend previous research by examining the extent to which individual characteristics, such as meat attachment, social dominance orientation, and concern for the environment and health moderate the effects of the informational appeals. To achieve this goal, 309 participants completed an online survey in which three groups were first presented with a video appeal that provided information about the effects of meat production and intake on the environment, animal welfare, or personal health and a fourth group viewed a control video about college debt. This manipulation was followed by measurement of a variety of personal characteristics. A second goal of the study was to determine whether intentions to reduce meat intake predicted students’ meat consumption over the subsequent week and what barriers people typically face when attempting to reduce meat consumption. Using qualitative methods, participants were interviewed one week after completing the survey about whether they attempted to reduce their meat consumption and if so, what barriers affected their ability to change their behavior. Data are currently under analysis. 

Daniel Valerio Montero is a second-year student in the M.S. program for Psychological Sciences at William & Mary. His thesis explores the influence of documentary media and individual attitudes on intentions to consume less meat. More broadly, he wishes to pursue research on community-level clinical interventions among Hispanic and other marginalized populations. 

Hannah Garfinkel, "Addressing Charity Care in Virginia" 

Advisor: Dr. Paul Manna & Dr. Rebecca Latourell 

Co-Presenters: J. Grabo, J. Hundley, M. DeCosse

Poster Session 

This research project seeks to understand the implications of modifying the definition of charity care under Virginia Certificate of Public Need (COPN) laws to encompass uninsured individuals earning between 200-300% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). Current law defines charity care as free hospital services provided to the uninsured living below 200% FPL. Virginia Medicaid expansion expanded eligibility to those living below 138% FPL, meaning that only individuals falling between 138%-200% FPL are ineligible for government insurance programs and are guaranteed access to charity care. 

While a minority of charitable care clinics in Virginia do serve populations above 200% FPL, they are not required to by law, and most are unable to provide secondary or tertiary care, leaving a critical care gap among vulnerable citizens. Our findings suggest that expanding eligibility for receiving charity care would allow 89,900 additional households guaranteed access to health care. 

Stakeholder analysis of various interviews revealed that powerful influences have conflicting interests and complex viewpoints about altering the current law, emphasizing a need for compromise and collaboration among stakeholders.

Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative findings, this report offers three possible policy alternatives that address charity care provision in Virginia. Policymakers should carefully consider how revising the definition of charity care, increasing regulation, and requiring negotiation could impact involved stakeholders.

Hannah Garfinkel, Julia Grabo, Jennifer Hundley and Maggie DeCosse are all second-year Masters of Public Policy students at William & Mary, and proud alumni of W&M for their undergraduate degrees as well. They have research interests related to public health care provision. Their project, “Addressing Charity Care in Virginia” was conducted at the request of their client, the Lackey Clinic, in fulfillment of the Public Policy capstone requirement.   

Brittany Acors, "Creed and Crisis: Lived Religious Responses to the U.S. Polio Epidemic" 

University of Virginia

Advisor: Dr. Matthew Hedstrom

Panel: GRAD16, Friday, 1:30 PM 

Award Winner: Visiting Student Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Humanities & Social Sciences

When faced with a crisis, how do religious people respond? Research on this question has focused primarily on environmentalism, the Holocaust, and the Civil Rights movement. Less attention has been given to twentieth-century disease crises and their influence on individuals rather than society and social movements. My presentation explores the effect of polio epidemics in the U.S. on the lived religious experience of survivors and their caretakers. By engaging with polio memoirs and oral histories, this project analyzes the way people from a variety of religious backgrounds drew on their beliefs to withstand the crisis, how the crisis in turn affected their beliefs, and what rituals and actions individuals engaged in to prevent, endure, and flourish during and beyond the polio epidemics of the early twentieth century.

The stories in this presentation capture the different beliefs and actions people draw upon in response to a medical crisis. From a man who became an Episcopal priest following his conversion during his polio experience; to a woman who engaged in lively conversations in her journal with the biblical Job, the paragon of needless suffering; to a boy who decided that receiving last rights was the final straw in his journey with Catholicism, polio survivors represent the vibrancy and variety of American religion. Through their stories and others, this project seeks to improve understanding of the intersection of medicine and religion, and what one can teach us about the other in the cultural moment of polio crises in the U.S.

Brittany Acors is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, where she also earned a Master's in Public Health and an M.A. in Religious Studies. Brittany's research focuses on the intersection of religion, medicine, and disability in the United States. Her dissertation explores religious responses to the polio epidemics and vaccines of the early twentieth century, particularly from a lived religious perspective. She holds a B.A. in Biology and Religious Studies from the College of William & Mary.