Josiah DeSarro-Raynal

"'Red Star Over Good Earth: Individual American Experiences in China and the Cultural Construction of Contrasting Realities, 1931-1949"

Advisor: Dr. Hiroshi Kitamura

This honors thesis examines American perceptions and conceptions of China during the 1930s and 1940s, providing an intellectual history by synthesizing the experiences of Pearl Buck, the author; Edgar Snow, the journalist; and John Stewart Service, the foreign service officer. These three figures constitute a broad variety of experiences of Americans living in China. Through critical and intensive analysis of the observations of these knowledge-crafters, disparity and continuity can be determined throughout a broad American view of China. Buck's novels and other writings, Snow's reporting and books, and Service's official State Department reports paint a vivid, colorful set of images of China for different audiences of Americans. The portrayals of China and Chinese in each of these figures' observances are done so with determined purpose and intent; each writer had a precise audience for which they were writing, and various historical, cultural, and ideological contexts significantly shape their individual experiences. My study investigates these contexts in effort to examine the three figures as collectively responsible for genuine perceptions of China. The thesis features chapters on China in the American novel, political reporting on the Chinese Communist Party, and assessing Buck's, Snow's, and Service's findings products of circumstance and the figures themselves as producers of American knowledge. Summarily, this intellectual history speaks to broad ideas of cultural perception, exchange of ideas, and historical contextualism, or the historiographic focus on context.

Josiah Canon DeSarro-Raynal is a senior majoring in History in the Joint Degree Program between William & Mary and the University of St Andrews. His research interests focus on the intellectual and cultural history of modern China, alongside historiography and historical US-China relations. Josiah's thesis investigates American perceptions of China in the mid-twentieth century and their contexts. He also works in the US-China cohort of the Global Scholars Program at the Global Research Institute.

Andrew Jones

"'The Veteran President: Tariffs, Civil Rights, and War in the McKinley Years"

Advisor: Dr. Michael Butler

Initially conceiving my thesis, I approached it from the broad topic of U.S. foreign policy between the Civil War and WWI. I then began a brief study into the Presidents of this era and found William McKinley fascinating. He was the only president to serve in the enlisted ranks, yet he rose to major by the end of the war. After this, he began a modest political rise that led to his victory in the 1896 and 1900 Presidential elections. After settling on McKinley, I wanted to answer the question of how his service in the Civil War affected his worldview and, therefore, his policy. I initially tackled his decision to go to war with Spain in 1898. Here, I discovered the most significant and constant block to my research. McKinley was extremely private: he took face-to-face meetings, opposed employing a secretary, and never kept a journal. Therefore, my research on his thoughts involved documents written not by the president himself, but by those around him. Following this, I dove into his belief in protectionism, specifically the Tariff Act of 1890, and his decision-making around the 1898 annexation of Hawaii. My anticipated results are that the Civil War was the defining experience in McKinley’s life; the horrors and bloodshed he witnessed made him specifically care about humanitarian issues and created a desire to ensure American economic independence and protect national security. The implications of my thesis lie in its ability to contrast the veteran president with other leaders, namely ones who never experienced the true horrors of war.

Andrew Jones is a senior majoring in History and International Relations at the College of William & Mary. His research includes historical international events, focusing on the major individual actors. His thesis addresses the Presidency of William McKinley, namely how his Civil War service affected his policy.

Riley Neubauer

"''They must not forget that they are Jews': Jewish Soldiers in America's Civil War"

Advisor: Dr. Carol Sheriff

My thesis investigates the experiences of Jewish soldiers during the U.S. Civil War. My historical method diverges significantly from how previous scholars have dealt with Jewish soldiers during the period. There has yet to be a definitive comparative study between the experiences of Jewish Union and Confederate soldiers. This thesis seeks to rectify the gap in scholarship by focusing on the religious identities and experiences of the two groups of soldiers. Using letters, diaries, autobiographies, newspaper editorials, and other writings produced by soldiers, my thesis explores the question of what it meant for a soldier to be nationally, racially, religiously or culturally Jewish (self-identifiers that have all arisen from my research) and fighting on behalf of another nation? With the work of religious studies scholar Emile Durkheim, I argue that soldiers saw themselves as a part of a Jewish "clan" or peoplehood, which is how they balanced these two competing identities. This thesis proves that soldiers were both Jewish and American; each term holds with it a weight of nationality and importance, and neither can––nor will––overshadow the other. 

Riley Neubauer is a senior at William & Mary majoring in History with a certificate in Public History & Material Culture from the National Institute of American History and Democracy (NIAHD) and a minor in Judaic Studies. Her research areas include Public History, American Jewish History, the U.S. Civil War, and modern baseball. She is the Editor in Chief of the James Blair Historical Review at W&M, and she has published articles in the aforementioned fields. 

Benjamin Toyryla

"'America’s Covert Network and the Commandeering of Hungarian Refugee Youth of 1956"

Advisor: Dr. Brianna Nofil

Few Cold War refugee crises saw contingents of youth feature so prominently as in the Hungarian crisis of 1956-1957. Using original archival research, I argue that the American government and voluntary refugee agencies collaborated to “commandeer” the fate of Hungarian refugee youth to push them towards the achievement of various political and material goals. Whether using the language of religion to push for the absorption of unaccompanied minors and greater immigration reform, sponsoring the education of refugee students to reap an economic boon, or channeling covert funding to refugee student groups to undertake propaganda tours abroad, Hungarian refugee youth were appropriated by the American state in unique ways that point to the potency of youth as a strategic asset in a larger geopolitical struggle. I situate this project within the theoretical framework of Critical Refugee Studies, which conceptualizes refugees not only as a problem to be solved but as a group which makes legible broader problems of imperialism, human rights, displacement, and more. Refugee problems cannot be viewed in a vacuum, and as such the state is brought back into the fold to forge a wider narrative. This does not mean the agency of refugees is obfuscated; rather, it investigates how the state intervenes to limit or expand refugee agency as it sees fit. Investigating the ways in which American efforts to resettle Hungarian refugee youth fits into this framework will enrich scholarly understanding of the Hungarian crisis and complicate images of American humanitarianism in the early Cold War.

Benjamin Toyryla is a senior majoring in History at the College of William & Mary. His research areas include twentieth century political history, the global Cold War, and immigration history. His honors thesis addresses the "commandeering" of Hungarian refugee youth by the American state for geopolitical gain after the revolt in 1956. He has published his work in the James Blair Historical Review.

Jake Bole

"Structure and Dynamics of NO Chiral Alkane Complexes"

Advisor: Dr. Nathan Kidwell

Chirality, the handedness of a molecule, is an important property in chemical systems. A recently discovered outcome of this property has been the ability of chiral molecules to act as “spin filters” for electrons, a phenomenon known as chiral-induced spin selectivity. To date, this phenomenon has not been well characterized at the molecular level for the spin preferences of chiral compounds. In order to investigate the potential effects of this phenomenon in regards to radical electron’s spin, collision complexes of nitric oxide (NO) with chiral compounds were generated in a molecular beam and characterized with an array of laser-based experiments. Infrared action spectroscopy was used to characterize the fundamental vibrational modes coupled to the dissociation coordinate of the complex. Furthermore, velocity map imaging (VMI) experiments were performed to explore the dissociation dynamics of the complex by monitoring NO products following IR activation. Theoretical calculations were also carried out to compare the predicted structures and vibrational modes to the experimental results.

Jacob Bole is a senior at William and Mary majoring in chemistry and minoring in physics. His research areas include spectroscopy and molecular dynamics. His thesis focuses on the interplay of chirality, spin selectivity, and geometric phases in collision complexes composed of nitric oxide and a chiral molecule. Next year he plans to continue his academic career pursuing a PhD in chemistry.

Olivia Cassara

"Development of Dynamic Nuclear Polarization for Single-Sided Nuclear Magnetic Resonance"

Advisor: Dr. Tyler Meldrum

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a tool to determine molecular structure and dynamics using a strong magnetic field. This magnetic field creates different energy levels that atomic spins can occupy. The difference in the number of spins at each energy level determines the amount of polarization, and thus the detected signal. Typically, NMR instruments are expensive, require regular upkeep, restrict sample sizes to small tubes, and give low measurement signal. Single-sided NMR combats some limitations by allowing for larger sample sizes, at the expense of a larger magnetic field gradient which lowers measurement resolution. We aim to circumvent limitations by applying dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) techniques to single-sided NMR. DNP transfers the polarization from unpaired electrons to hydrogen nuclei, increasing the detected signal and sensitivity. DNP is dependent on factors related to microwave power, electron concentration, and inherent molecular characteristics. Construction of a DNP system that maintains the open geometry of single-sided NMR includes using alternative hardware to polarize electrons. Various experiments reveal a large dependency on power to adequately polarize samples, leading to further developments in probing thin, interfacial regions within a large field gradient. Future work involves investigating implications of DNP on single-sided NMR for material and biological applications.  

Olivia Cassara is a senior majoring in Chemistry and Economics at William & Mary. As a part of a physical chemistry lab on campus, she uses single-sided nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study molecular environments. Her thesis focuses on using properties of nuclear and electronic spins in tandem with instrumentation to enhance NMR signal.  

Kevin Su

"Crossing Laser Beams for Localized Electric Field Measurement"

Advisor: Dr. Irina Novikova

When atoms are placed in an external electric field, their energy levels will be shifted corresponding to the field strength. To measure the electric field, we can probe the energy shift by shooting two lasers tuned at right frequencies to the atoms and observe how much light gets absorbed. The two lasers are usually put in parallel and overlapped. This approach enables measurement with high precision, but lacks spatial resolution. To measure values of electric field at a specific point in space, we cross the two laser beams at non-zero angle. Rapid decline of precision is observed in this crossed-beam geometry comparing to standard geometry. Based on simulation results, we attribute signal deterioration to the thermal motion of atoms. However, such effect may be suppressed by adding another laser beam and crossing them in “star-like” geometry. We also explore another method to probe the energy level shift by observing the light reemitted by atoms after they absorb the laser light, which could achieve localized measurement with standard beam geometry. These results are useful for applications such as tracking electron beam in accelerators.

Kevin Su is a senior majoring in Physics and International Relations at William & Mary. His research focuses on optical experiments for quantum sensing. His thesis aims to build atomic sensor for localized measurement of electric field.

Jake Swery

"Manganese Catalysts for Artificial Photosynthesis and Green Energy"

Advisor: Dr. William McNamara

The United States's energy portfolio (as well as that of many other developed and developing countries) leans heavily towards fossil fuels and natural gasses. Renewable energy sources such as solar power, despite having existed for over a century, have not been prominent enough to mitigate the need for environmentally harmful energy sources due to solar panels being unable to store a large amount of the energy they absorb. Although research in this field is fairly new, metal-organic complexes have already been proven to store solar energy as chemical bonds such as hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas can then be used in hydrogen fuel cells with the byproduct of purified water. Metal complexes containing manganese have not been studied extensively in this field compared to those containing iron, but manganese's many stable oxidation states and role in natural photosynthesis make manganese an excellent candidate for hydrogen evolution. By examining complexes using earth-abundant metals such as iron and manganese with large chelating pyridine ligands, this project expands the scope of artificial photosynthesis and solar energy to make it cheaper and more accessible for everyone.

Jake Swery is a senior majoring in Chemistry and Theatre at William & Mary. His research focuses on inorganic and analytical chemistry, and his thesis focuses on electrochemical and photochemical catalysis. He has worked in the McNamara Lab since his freshman year of college.

Jonah Oxman

"'Application and Characterization of Didymosphenia geminata Based Materials "

Advisor: Dr. Hannes Schniepp

This manuscript outlines the production process, application, and characterization of Didymosphenia geminata (Didymo) based biomaterials. Our project outlines a chemical molding process to create samples that exhibit low thermal conductivity, high porosity, and low density. These properties allow the samples to adsorb oil and deflect heat, which are use cases typically absent from carbon-negative materials. We achieve a more sustainable approach when compared to conventional material production, which requires excessive amounts of CO2 and energy to produce. Along with material sample production, characterization of the extracellular matrix through spectroscopic methods and high resolution imaging provides insight into the chemical background of the novel material properties. 

Jonah Oxman is a Biology major and a Bioengineering minor in the Applied Science department from Fairfax, Virginia. His main area of focus is on protein structure and function, and he works in the Nano and Biomaterials lab developing and characterizing new environmentally friendly biomaterials.

Sarah Sakly

"'Dynamics of SynGAP/PSD-95 in Post-Synaptic Densities, The Kinetics of Disaggregation Versus Phase Separation"

Advisor: Dr. Greg Conradi Smith

The intricate interplay between SynGAP, PSD-95, and AMPA receptors within the post-synaptic density (PSD) underpins synaptic plasticity and signal transmission. This study investigates dynamic models of these proteins and their interactions, emphasizing the kinetics of their interactions. Additionally, our mathematical modeling explores the phenomenon of liquid-liquid-phase separation (LLPS) between SynGAP and PSD-95, providing insight into how LLPS may influence the kinetics of synaptic regulation.  These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic organization and their dysregulation in neurological disorders linked to SynGAP mutations. 

Sarah Sakly is a Neuroscience and Psychology double major from Williamsburg, VA. Her research area includes computational neuroscience, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Charlotte Visconsi

"'Liminal Spaniards: Expelled Moriscos as Foreigners in Law and Spaniards in Legal Practice"

Advisor: Dr. Lu Ann Homza

This research (a final paper estimated at 30,000 words) examines the unstudied case of a group of ecumenical captives – specifically Muslims, Jews, and Moriscos (Spanish Muslim converts and their descendants) who in 1610 were trafficked into the port of Alicante by the English captain William Garret. Visiting archives in Alicante, Madrid, and Valencia, I have gathered, transcribed, and translated manuscript sources to contextualize how Garret's victims, particularly the recently expelled Moriscos facing enslavement and destitution, defended themselves in court and understood their right to justice. Most broadly the paper examines what the whole case - the ambiguous identities of the participants, the legally questionable enslavement of Moriscos (ostensibly Christian subjects of the polycentric, Hispanic monarchies), and the willingness of some legal officials to rule in favor of an expelled minority – illustrate about the dynamic interplay of religion, commerce, and law in the southern Mediterranean at the turn of the 17th century? The thesis is relevant as a piece of historical scholarship that will introduce a new source, William Garret's transcribed trial, into the historiography; it is also significant, however, because it examines 17th century themes (i.e. the flow of migrants between Spain and North Africa and the connection between religion, race, and identity) that continue to be relevant today in the 21st century. 

Charlotte Visconsi is a History major from South Bend, IN and an aspiring social and legal historian of early modern Spain. She studies the 16th and 17th centuries with a special focus on the social and cultural histories of religious minorities, women, and other marginalized peoples in early modern Europe.

Shawna Alston

"Neo-Exodus: Utopia(-building) in Toni Morrison's Paradise"

Advisor: Dr. Alicia Andrzejewski

This project centers around Toni Morrison’s 1998 novel, Paradise and José Estaban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. I posit that Toni Morrison’s fiction is itself Utopian in execution. Modernism and Postmodernism are often discussed as periods in fiction where traditions were challenged in structure and content. Works like these provide us the opportunity to “surpass the limitations of an alienating presentness and [allow] one to see a different time and place” (Muñoz 5). Scholarship on Modernism provides entry into discussions on how race or gender or sexuality can and should be reimagined, but what I’m interested in is how modern fiction can entreat us to develop a new understanding of what the world is and what it could be, should we abandon our current structures, and especially the ways in which Toni Morrison does this.

Shawna Alston is a senior majoring in English and Africana Studies at William & Mary. Her research interests lie at the intersection of critical literary studies and abolitionist theory. Her thesis seeks to understand the ways in which Toni Morrison's 1998 novel, Paradise, entreats us to reimagine the world as we know it. 

Maeve Donahue

"Les Réalités Multiculturelles: A Comparison of Anti-racism in Béziers and Montpellier, France"

Advisor: Dr. Michael Leruth 

This project will compare and contrast anti-racist efforts in Montpellier and Béziers, France. Both of these cities are situated in the Occitanie region of France, yet they have very different political ideologies, population growth rates and development strategies. Montpellier as a city is very vocal about their efforts to be inclusive and embrace multiculturalism. Meanwhile, Béziers is a relatively smaller city that is well-known for having an extreme-right mayor. Overall, this project seeks to investigate how these differences correspond to anti-racist efforts in terms of visibility, effectiveness and acceptance.  This thesis covers an overview of racial hierarchies, political racism, and anti-racism in France at a national level. Next, it will look at specific activist groups and organizations and the role they play in their respective cities. Finally, this project will analyze the relationship between these activists and local governments. Overall, while stereotypes would hint that anti-racist activism would be more widespread in Montpellier, there is an extremely vibrant community of activists in both Montpellier and Béziers. The contrast lies in the preexisting conditions created by local politics and cultural institutions which dictate how these associations function and create change. In a broader context, it finds that the far-right is incompatible with activism and the two phenomena work against each other. During times where the government is dominated by far-right actors, the success or visibility of anti-racist activists will decrease. 

Maeve Donahue is a senior, majoring in International Relations and French & Francophone Studies. Her research areas include French politics, activism, and racial hierarchies. Her thesis addresses the role and visibility of anti-racist activism in Montpellier and Béziers, France, forming a comparative analysis of the two cities. In the past, she has published an op-ed with the Diplomatic Courier. 

Abigail Swanberg

"Diversity on DoG Street: The History of Black, Indigenous, and Queer Communities’ Representation in Museum Spaces on Duke of Gloucester Street"

Advisor: Dr. Julie Richter

Despite composing over fifty percent of the population in colonial era Williamsburg, marginalized communities are historically unrepresented in the textual content, artifacts, programming, and staffing of museum spaces along Duke of Gloucester (DoG) Street. This thesis, “Diversity on DoG Street: The History of Black, Indigenous, and Queer Communities’ Representation at Colonial Williamsburg and William & Mary’s Historic Campus (1920s-Today),” is a study in the current and historical state of marginalized communities’ representation, involvement, and inclusion in the museum field using Colonial Williamsburg and William & Mary’s Historic Campus as a case study. It aims to answer the question “How have marginalized communities, specifically Black, Indigenous, and Queer Communities, been portrayed in Colonial Williamsburg and on William & Mary’s Historic Campus?” using corporate archives, interviews with employees, online descriptions of programs, news articles, and secondary sources. “Diversity on DoG Street” also highlights how these marginalized communities have actively advocated for their own inclusion in museum programing, and the current state of representation in museums would not exist without that activism. 

Abigail Swanberg is a senior majoring in history and minoring in management and organizational leadership. She is a member of the Spotswood Society, Lemon Project Society, and she was the Oral History and Public Humanities Committee Chairs for the Toano Walking Tour Project. Her research areas include the American Civil War, Colonial America, and American civil rights history. Her thesis is rooted in museum, Africana, Indigenous, and gender & sexuality studies. 

Mia Carboni

"The Weight of Things: Inherited Objects and Gender in Alice Munro’s Fiction"

Advisor: Dr. Melanie Dawson

This thesis examines the role of the material world in Alice Munro’s short fiction, particularly as it relates to gender roles imposed on women and girls in mid-twentieth-century rural Southern Ontario. In analyzing a body of work, including two short stories from the 2001 collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: “Family Furnishings” and “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage,” the study employs a new-materialist framework, informed by Bill Brown’s definition of “Things” as more dynamic and personal than what we consider objects. It uses close textual analysis to explore the relationship between the dynamic role of material things, especially inherited material things, and Munro’s comments on the female body and women’s role in society. The findings suggest that inherited material objects convey inherited gendered expectations of domesticity, and their aggressive behavior in the text evokes a hostile domestic world, one in which relationships between mother and daughter figures are often strained. These findings come at a time when scholars are reckoning with how to read Alice Munro’s work following dark revelations about her family life. Given this context, this analysis sheds light on Munro’s portrayal of the complexities of female identity and domestic life. 

Mia Carboni is a senior pursuing an English major with a Creative Writing minor. Her research interests center on feminist literary criticism, gender and sexuality studies, and new materialism. For her thesis, she investigates the agency of material objects in literature, exploring how these objects influence identity, gender roles, and domestic environments. Mia's creative work, including poetry and non-fiction essays, has been featured in campus publications.

Ellen Downard

"'see the shaky future grow familiar': Pursuing the Unconscious in Life Studies (1959)"

Advisor: Dr. Henry Hart

Robert Lowell was a Pulitzer-Prize winning poet and one of the pioneers of the Confessional movement. He also was a notoriously unstable megalomaniac, who was institutionalized several times throughout his life for his manic-depressive behavior, now known as bipolar disorder. Lowell’s psychological plight, like the suffering of other confessional poets, was made public through his poetry. Life Studies (1959), specifically, encapsulates his neuroses in poems such as “Skunk Hour,” “Home After Three Months Away,” and “Memories of West Street and Lepke.” This work therefore seemed to confirm Sigmund Freud’s theory that great art emerges from deep neuroses. It is no surprise then that Lowell became the subject of much psychoanalytic criticism in the late 20th century. The mania and depression he (publicly) experienced combined with his notoriously troubled relationship with his family encouraged the psychoanalytic critics to excavate Lowell’s writing for “unconscious meaning.”  However, psychoanalytic criticism is perhaps not the most effective means through which Lowell’s poetry can be understood. In this thesis, I will contest that the “unconscious material” that many psychoanalytic critics point to in their research is not unconscious at all. I will also reject the theory of narcissistic fixation as it has been applied to Lowell and Life Studies, and will instead assert that our contemporary understanding of Lowell’s bipolar disorder, rather than narcissistic fixation, can deepen our reading of the work. Psychoanalytic theory can deepen our reading of Life Studies, but the payoff is limited when opposed with its methodological bizarreness. I hope my research can not only bring to light relevant criticism of psychoanalysis as a literary theory, but also can further our understanding of Lowell’s poetry in light of contemporary psychology.

Ellen Downard is a senior at W&M majoring in English. Her thesis studies the poet Robert Lowell and investigates the methodological shortcomings of psychoanalytic criticism as it was applied to his work. When not writing a paper, she enjoys writing poetry and music.

Anne Ryan Gareis

"Ingredients for Enlightenment: Food and the Path of Liberation"

Advisor: Dr. Mary Kirsh

This presentation will aim to explore the scriptural roots of Buddhist gastronomical practices. I will provide brief summaries of Dōgen's "Instructions for the Cook," as well as the Mahāyāna cannon's iconic texts, the Diamond Sūtra and the Heart Sūtra. By doing this, we will establish the scriptural basis of Buddhist philosophical reasoning and extrapolate this understanding towards modern Buddhist traditions. Specifically, this presentation will focus on the tradition of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and his Plum Village tradition. Providing an explanation of his revolutionary philosophical framework, interbeing, attendees will walk away with an understanding of Buddhist gastronomical practices as an ethical and spiritual practice aimed towards preservation of the environment and ones' spiritual enlightenment. 

Anne Ryan Gareis is a senior majoring in Religious Studies and English at William & Mary. Her research areas include contemporary Buddhist studies, environmental philosophies, and food studies. Her thesis addresses the intersection of Buddhist philosophy with gastronomical practices. She works at W&M's Wellness Center as a Wellness Ambassador and Yoga Instructor.

Jack Roehrick

"The Built Environment and Personality - Preferences for Place and Modes of Transportation"

Advisor: Dr. Xiaowen Xu Takkala

In the modern era, a rapidly growing body of research has come to light observing the relationship between psychological principles and the design of places we call home. Notably, authors have focused their research on personality and urban design. However, there still remain limitations in this collection of work. Importantly, much of the previous research has related the effect of varying types of urban spaces on personality, but not the inverse. While it is crucial to understand how a pre existing environment can sculpt an individual’s personality, it is just as important to understand how underlying personality traits can influence preferences towards urban, suburban, or rural living. The same approach can be applied to investigating the effect of underlying personality traits on preferences for modes of transportation. Therefore, the primary goal of this study is to observe this relationship, expanding the scope of personality-environmental psychology. To do so, participants completed key personality assessment exams to measure their underlying traits. Additionally, they were presented with six passages describing various built environments and three passages describing modes of transportation. For each passage, participants were asked a series of questions assessing their preference for and opinions towards each space. Results will likely show a correlation between extraversion and open mindedness towards a preference for urban environments and public transportation, and the inverse towards rural and more automobile-dominant environments.

Jack Roehrick is a senior majoring in Economics and Psychology at William & Mary. His research focuses include behavioral economics, community psychology, urban psychology, and urban design. His thesis observes the effect of underlying personality traits on preferences for various categories of built environment and modes of transportation. He has previously presented at undergraduate research symposiums and plans to further research urban design.

Courtney Maynard

"Learning Lyrics: A Graph-Driven Machine Learning Approach to Song Classification and Generation"

Advisor: Dr. Daniel Vasiliu

This thesis uses graph-based representations and machine-learning models to classify and generate song lyrics. Traditional text classification often uses a "bag-of-words" approach, where words are treated independently, losing important contextual relationships. Additionally, many models rely on a single mathematical representation, or embedding, of the data, limiting their ability to capture different aspects of meaning. These limitations are addressed by constructing a custom graph linking songs based on shared words. These connections are weighted using measures like TF-IDF, which highlights important words in a document relative to the entire dataset, and Pointwise Mutual Information (PMI), which identifies words that frequently appear together. This graph preserves global relationships between words and songs and is combined with BERT embeddings, a representation from a large language model that captures local word meanings within songs, in a novel graph neural network(GNN) architecture. First, the GNN classifies songs based solely on lyrics, and results indicate 35% accuracy in classifying songs by genre, outperforming simpler methods and random classification (20%). Then, it informs two transformer models, architectures for text generation, to produce new lyrics based on genre prompts. The quality of the generated songs, and thus the transformer efficacy, is evaluated by feeding them back into the GNN for analysis. This presentation will explore whether preserving faithful data representation of text structure improved neural network classification and transformer generation capabilities.

Courtney Maynard is a senior majoring in Data Science and minoring in Math at William & Mary. Her research areas include satellite imagery for human development, natural language processing applications in law and digital humanities contexts, and machine learning explainability. Her thesis investigates unique graph-based representations of lyrical (song) data and architectures of graph neural networks for classifying and generating textual data.

Colin Murphy

"Exploring Disease Susceptibility in Bottlenose Dolphins with Machine Learning Approaches"

Advisor: Dr. Randolph Chambers

It is important to include disease susceptibility and disease spread patterns in the construction of a complete picture of bottlenose dolphin health. Disease susceptibility varies as a function of age, sex, behavior, and environment. To this end, skin markings such as lesions and scars can be used as proxies for disease susceptibility in dolphins; skin lesions are often associated with the presentation of underlying disease, and tooth rake marks can serve as an indicator for targeted aggression and are thus associated with immunodepression. However, the data processing required to identify lesions and scars from photographs of dolphins is labor intensive, thus inhibiting important and timely analyses This research applies a recently developed machine learning tool to rapidly process a backlog of photographic data from the Potomac Chesapeake Dolphin Project, identifying skin lesions and rake mark scars on individual dolphins,  and identifying trends associated with environmental factors (e.g. temperature and salinity) and demographic factors (e.g. age, sex, and ecotype). We anticipate that skin lesion prevalence will vary with the environmental factors (specifically expecting increases in prevalence with decreases in salinity), and we also anticipate that rake mark scars will associate more closely with demographic factors.

Colin Murphy is a senior majoring in Biology and minoring in Marine Science at William & Mary. His research areas include wildlife monitoring, machine learning, and ecology. His thesis addresses wildlife monitoring and disease susceptibility in dolphins. He has published his past research in Ecological Informatics.

Aaron Ostenfeld

"Benchmarking Computer Learning Characterization of NOvA Test Beam Detection Events"

Advisor: Dr. Patricia L. Vahle

Previous work done by the research team at the NOvA Test Beam experiment has developed a neural network for the purpose of identifying the types of subatomic particles found in their particle detectors. However, the network’s accuracy has yet to be tested, and that is the focus of my research. My analysis of the network's performance uses  determines the types of particles found by the Test Beam detector based on their masses and compares them to the predictions made by the neural network. Initial results suggest that the network over-counts pions and under-counts protons and electrons. Future work plans to refine the data analysis and investigate the cause of these incorrect classifications with the goal of better understanding how the network opperates and informing how it could be improved. A well-functioning neural capable of accurately determining particle species from Test Beam data would be of great use for streamlining work in particle physics and facilitating future discoveries in the field.

Aaron Ostenfeld is a senior at William & Mary majoring in Physics and Music. His thesis seeks to address hurdles in particle physics research through refining tools and methods used in the field. His research is done in collaboration with the NOvA experiment group at Fermilab, a national laboratory based in Batavia, Illinois.  He hails from Fairfax, Virginia. 

Robert Coleman

"'The Ground Moved:' Reconstructing the Holocaust in Zhytomyr, Ukraine"

Advisor: Dr. Frederick Corney

During the Holocaust, the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine was best known for being a strategic headquarters for Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. It was the center of the Nazis' imperialist ambitions in Ukraine, exemplified by the brief existence of the "Hegewald" Volkdeutsche colony. However, while existing scholarship has predominantly focused on how the Nazis implemented genocide in this region and their colonialist endeavors, this research seeks to amplify the voices, experiences, and stories of Jews and witnesses, whose experiences have often been overlooked. It aims to provide a social history of the Holocaust in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, highlighting issues such as everyday life, gender, survival, and memory. It argues that testimonies from the Holocaust in Zhytomyr provide important social and affective dimensions to understandings of Nazi imperialism and the Holocaust in this region. Ultimately, this project advocates for more extensive research on the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, underscores the importance of integrating this history into Holocaust education, illustrates the significance of affective and social dimensions of the Holocaust, and emphasizes the value of testimony in Holocaust research.

Robert Coleman is a senior studying History and Judaic Studies at William & Mary. His research interests include Holocaust and genocide studies, Modern European Jewish History, memory studies, gender & sexuality, and antisemitism. His thesis addresses daily life, gender, survival, and "ordinary" perspectives and experiences during the Holocaust in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. He has published three articles on the Holocaust, antisemitism, and Japanese concentration camps during World War II.

Jason Du

"The Myth of Hegemony: The Role of Buffer States in the Habsburg Empire's Decline as a Great Power in Italy and Germany 1815-1866"

Advisor: Dr. Tuska Benes

My research examines the role of intermediary powers, or "buffer states," in the decline of the Habsburg Empire as a Great Power. Scholars like Wess Mitchell and Paul Schroeder argue that Austria had a unique grand strategy centered on securing key allies and maintaining buffer states against more powerful adversaries like France, Prussia, and Russia. Building on these assertions, I explore whether Austrian diplomacy after the Congress of Vienna aligned with its strategic interest in preserving buffer states and whether losing them contributed to its military defeats in the Second Italian War of Independence (1859) and the Austro-Prussian War (1866). I analyze Austria’s strategy and diplomacy in Italy and Germany, two regions that were Austria's top priorities after the Congress of Vienna. Italian buffer states like Piedmont-Sardinia and the Papal States, along with German states such as Bavaria, Württemberg, and Saxony, “shielded” Austria from foreign aggression. Examining primary sources, from diplomatic correspondence to battle reports, I find that Austria's strategic and diplomatic goals were misaligned: it sought both hegemony—dictating smaller states' affairs through military interventions—and their support as buffer states. This contradiction, exacerbated by Austria’s weak military strength and geographic vulnerabilities, led to its defeats. The Habsburg case illustrates that a Great Power must avoid overextension in pursuit of hegemony, especially to prevent diplomatic isolation resulting from overly aggressive diplomacy.

Jason Du is a senior majoring in History and International Relations. His research interests include diplomatic, transnational and military history, as well as grand strategy and great power politics. His thesis addresses the role of buffer states in the decline of the Habsburg Empire as a Great Power. Jason has published a book chapter on maneuver warfare in the book "A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future Force" with the US Army War College. 

Keryn Harris

"Party, Piety, and the Press: The Church of England and Baptist Churches of London in the British Public Sphere, 1715-1750"

Advisor: Dr. Nicholas Popper

This paper explores how the British public sphere in the eighteenth century exemplifies the dynamics of party politics in parliament, dissent from the Anglican Church, and the development of the London Baptist community. Many scholars define the public sphere as a platform for social and political discourse, in which the exchange of ideas generates a distinct set of public values and prompts institutional change. This thesis demonstrates the complex relationship between the Baptist Churches of London and the Anglican Church through their use of the press to further their respective theological and political agendas. During the Hanoverian Succession, parliament and the monarchy wished to unite subjects under Anglican values as Britain worked to solidify itself as a Protestant empire. This paper, therefore, analyzes how the public sphere operated as an extension of this effort toward unification while reconciling with dissenting Protestants to embrace tolerance.

Keryn Harris is a senior majoring in History and Government at William & Mary. Her research areas include religious history, political theory, and diplomacy. Her thesis addresses dissent and party politics in the British public sphere. She is pursuing graduate studies in the field of intellectual history and international politics.

Giorgianna Heiko

"How Anzia Yezierska Creates the New Jewish Woman--a Working-Class, Immigrant, and Jewish Variant of the Dominant New Woman"

Advisor: Dr. Francesca Sawaya

In the early 1900s, author Anzia Yezierska indicates that there exists the New Woman of the “new” world and her necessary counterpart, the Jewish woman of the “old” world. When these Jewish immigrants, escaping poverty and persecution in the old world, came to find a better life in the new world, the new woman and the old woman met. Anzia Yezierska was one of these working-class Jewish immigrants of the old world. As she explored the new world, however, she began to explore New Woman values and combine principles of her Jewish heritage with those values. Subsequently, she began to write several novels and short stories that portrayed her experiences and commentaries, especially regarding the collision of the old woman and the new. In Yezierska’s 1923 novel Salome of the Tenements and 1925 novel Bread Givers, her heroines, Sonya Vrunsky and Sara Smolinsky, reject certain aspects of their tradition and culture that do not allow them to achieve the particular New Woman ideals to which they aspire. Opposite their traditions, however, they find that “the New Woman ideal is actually allied quite closely to the assimilationist ethos of a larger anti-Semitic American culture” (Sawaya 99). Although Sonya has rejected certain aspects of her background, the anti-Semitism of America that is part also of the American New Woman causes her to realize that she cannot and desires not to eschew all her Jewish values. Instead, she recognizes that some Jewish values and traits, that are intrinsically ingrained in her, align well with the woman Sonya desires to emulate. Hence, Yezierska, through the mouthpiece of Sonya, redefines her version of the New Woman, developing her version of what some scholars call “The New Jewish Woman” (Rich 158).

Giorgianna Heiko is a senior majoring in English at William & Mary. She co-founded the Liberal Students League and is active in main stage Theater productions at W&M--she played Juliet in Romeo & Juliet and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her research areas include New Womanhood, Jewish American studies, and working-class immigrant studies. 

Che Cheng

"Feng Zikai: The Miniature of the Formation of Modern Chinese Manhua"

Advisor: Dr. Xin Conan-Wu

The term “Manhua” first came into use in China in the late nineteenth century, deriving from its Japanese usage referring to both comics and cartoons. The formation of Chinese Manhua came along with a sense of humor in Chinese paintings which can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, and refined itself when modern artists developed the objects of satire and created their unique styles in vogue. Feng Zikai (1898-1975) was deemed as the leading figure of Manhua artists in the early twentieth century. As one of the first generations to mature in their artistic style in Manhua, he learned the spirit of humor from past Chinese paintings and the techniques from Western cartoons. His career path was very much a microcosm of Chinese Manhua genesis, whose development can be studied by dissecting Feng’s artistic pursuits at different periods. This research addresses the evolution of Feng’s visual language as a result of cultural integration, dissecting both Eastern and Western techniques and ideologies reflected by his work. His experience of studying abroad in Japan and converting to Buddhism is of interest to learn his philosophy on Manhua creation. The research analyzes a series of manuscripts of artists, including Feng Zikai, Chen Shizeng (1876-1923), and Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934), and delves into the literature and academic work of Feng his own. The interview transcript of conversations between the author and contemporary Manhua artists in China is included to study the legacy of Feng. Exploring the universality and particularity of Feng’s work compared to his contemporaries, the research reviews the contribution of Feng to the development of modern Chinese Manhua and other fields of art.

Che "Charles" Cheng is a senior majoring in Art History and Economics at William & Mary. He specializes in Chinese art and architecture. His primary research interests concern issues of visual and material culture in traditional Chinese painting. His thesis addresses the formation of manhua in modern China. 

Eric Huang

"The Aesthetics of Liberation: The Status of Art Within Capitalism"

Advisor: Dr. Timothy Costelloe

In my paper I examine the commodification of art in late-stage capitalism by looking at relevant literature in the Frankfurt School of critical theory, especially Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin. The question I have is whether mass culture, popular art, etc are a progressive force as Benjamin argues or a suppressive one as Adorno suggests. I also investigate the loss of a certain disinterested, distanced aesthetic attitude in modernity; it seems that art has become "closer," more usable, and  more political in the digital age when anybody can make, say, a meme. My research connects the current situation of popular art with Benjamin's ideas about the loss of a certain spirituality or "aura" in reproducible art (e.g. photography and film), as opposed to the art of the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods.  Ultimately I argue that the reproducibility of art in the modern digital age has endowed it with radical possibilities to agitate the masses.

Eric Huang is a senior majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Mathematics at W&M. He is particularly interested in aesthetic and critical theory. He is a co-leader of the W&M Philosophy Club and runs a Marxist reading group that meets in Blair on Saturdays. His thesis is about the status of art within a capitalist society. 

Abby Johnson

"Not Just a Period Face: The Depth of Keira Knightley’s Defiant Acting Career"

Advisor: Dr. Timothy Barnard

For my Film and Media Studies Honors Thesis, I want to analyze and contextualize‬ Keira Knightley's acting career by separating it into three separate chapters. The first chapter will‬ focus on the beginning of her career and her contribution to‬‭ films like The Pirates of the Caribbean: The‬ Curse of the Black Pearl‬‭ (2003)‬‭ and Bend It Like Beckham (2002). The second chapter focuses on the collaboration of film director Joe Wright and Knightley‬ on three period film literary adaptations the two worked on together:‬‭ Pride & Prejudice‬‭ (2005),‬ Atonement‬‭ (2007)‬‭,‬‭ and‬‭ Anna Karenina‬‭ (2012). Although this collaboration is well-praised and beneficial for both actress and director, the implications of the period drama constricted Knightley into a metaphorical corset, resulting in typecasted period roles. In Anna Karenina and Atonement, the male author‬ punishes the female, resulting in inherently non-feminist works, but because of the collaboration‬ between Knightley and Wright, the association of women's struggles to a post-modern world, makes‬ a compelling social commentary on how women are perceived in society, and how they are often‬ punished for engaging in them. Despite Knightley's successes in period dramas, she has stated she much prefers to see herself as a tomboy. In Chapter 3, she has fully gained her tomboy autonomy, choosing the films most compelling to her, like Colette (2018) and Begin Again (2013). In these films, Knightley is pushing the boundaries of her career, resulting in a diverse filmography that should not be watered down to period films. 

Abby Johnson is a senior majoring in Film and Media Studies and English at William & Mary. Interested in period dramas and feminist film theory, her thesis discusses the defiant career of British actress Keira Knightley and its changes as she finds her voice.

Ellie Madigan

"Experimental Art of the French Enlightenment: Testing the Arts and Sciences Through Pygmalion-esque Stories"

Advisor: Dr. Giulia Pacini

In Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s seminal Discours sur les arts et les sciences, the philosopher argued that the arts directly opposed any notions of progress, as creativity would create a hierarchy and eventually destroy attempts at equality. A study of Pygmalion-esque works of the late eighteenth century, however, reveals the opposite to be true. As Enlightenment-era “artists” began to test the powers of the arts and sciences, they created a novel genre of experimental art that dared to question whether art was capable of embodying progressiveness, of ensuring happiness or fulfillment, and of (re)producing life. While works from the mid-eighteenth century focused on submission, perfectibility, and the creation of art, pieces from several decades later instead emphasized functionality and biology, all part of a grand shift from portrayals of the “ideal” art form as a flawless statue, to a practical machine. Such a transformation of the ideal through a constant interrogation of the arts and sciences thus reveals a country in turmoil–a country craving self-improvement to such an extent that experimentation came to dominate contemporary literature. Through a study of works ranging from André-François Deslandes’ Pigmalion (1741), Rousseau’s seminal Émile (1762), and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1813), the thesis interrogates the experimental representations of art in the French tradition, and how artists' questions of progress revealed a society headed toward a transformational Revolution. 

Ellie Madigan is a senior double majoring in Economics and French & Francophone Studies. Her research areas focus on literature, the Francophone world, and philosophy. Her thesis addresses French representations of experimental art in the second half of the eighteenth century. She received a Charles Center Honors Fellowship over the summer of 2024 and is ecstatic to share her research in more detail with you all!

Abner Joseph

"OxA’s Capacity to Attenuate Attentional Deficits Caused by Alpha-2 Agonist, Clonidine"

Advisor: Dr. Joshua Burk

This project explores the attentional impact of intranasal administration of Orexin A after clonidine administration. Attentional processes were tested with support of the Sustained Attention Task (SAT). Orexin A is an agonist of the orexin-1-receptor, implicated in the improvement of an organism’s attentional processing (Zajo et al., 2016). Contrarily, clonidine, an alpha-2-agonist impairs the function of the locus coeruleus, resulting in attentional deficits in rats (Bushnell et al., 1997). However, Orexin A can excite the locus coeruleus, increasing the basal firing of the structure which may lead to restoration of cognitive abilities such as attention (Hagan et al., 1999). The experiment hypothesizes that SAT measures such as the number of hits will decrease while increasing the number of false alarms and reaction time. The aforementioned data extrapolation is consistent with locus coeruleus related attentional impairment of rats, as examined with the SAT apparatus. However, the intranasal administration of OxA is hypothesized to attenuate these attentional deficits and reinstate the normal functioning of rat attentional ability. Hence, intranasal OxA administration will lead to an increase in the number of hits and decrease false alarms and reaction time (Bushnell et al., 1997). This reinvigoration of locus coeruleus functionality with OxA is clinically advantageous, as this further implicates OxA as an effective attentional therapeutic, leading to its desirability to be studied in translational research for conditions such as Alzheimer's (Zajo et al., 2016; Orlando et al., 2023).

Abner Joseph is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Biochemistry at the College of William and Mary. His research areas include selective attention, attentional processing, and neurodegeneration. His thesis addresses Orexin A's (OxA) therapeutic benefit to treat attentional impairments in rats.

Marco Stettler

"Presynaptic Action of Opioids in the preBötzinger Complex "

Advisor: Dr. Christopher A. Del Negro

Opioid drugs claim the lives of tens of thousands of people each year. The primary cause of death due to opioid drugs is respiratory depression, which occurs when opioid drugs bind receptors expressed on neurons belonging to a brainstem site called the preBötzinger Complex (preBötC) that generates the rhythm for breath. Yet, the mechanism by which opioids act upon preBötC neurons is poorly understood. Excitatory neurotransmission is known to be crucial for the ordinary functioning of the preBötC, so we asked the question: Do opioid drugs dampen excitatory neurotransmitter release? To answer this question, we made whole-cell patch-clamp recordings and monitored synaptic input and how it changed in the presence of opioid drugs. We find that opioid drugs do, in fact, dampen excitatory neurotransmitter release.

Marco Stettler is a fourth-year undergraduate student interested in neuroscience. He currently researches the neurobiology of breathing. His focus is how neurons within the brain generate the rhythm for breathing and how opioid drugs act upon those neurons to depress breathing. 

Nivedha Vaidy

"The Role of Osgin1 in Anterior-Posterior Neural Axis Plasticity of Xenopus laevis"

Advisor: Dr. Margaret Saha

Osgin1 is an oxidative stress growth inhibitor that has been characterized for its cytoprotective, tumor suppressive, and de-differentiating roles. The Osgin1 gene is expressed from the gastrula stage of embryonic development in Xenopus laevis (the African Clawed Frog). In a previous transcriptome RNA-Sequencing analysis of anterior-posterior neural axis plasticity in X. laevis embryos, Osgin1 was enriched during healing of transplanted and rotated neuroectodermal tissue, suggesting a potential role for Osgin1 in neural plasticity. In order to uncover the role of Osgin1 in plasticity of X. laevis, the neuroectoderm was physical perturbed via a transplantation of the anterior-posterior neural axis from a host into a donor embryo. Then, an in situ hybridization was performed to measure spatiotemporal Osgin1 expression patterns in the control and transplant conditions. Anticipated results are that Osgin1 expression increased in embryos that were perturbed at mid gastrula compared to non-perturbed embryos but Osgin1 expression was not significantly different in embryos that were perturbed at late gastrula compared to non-perturbed embryos. Moreover, ISH reveals that Osgin1 expression is localized to the adult kidney, liver, and testis during gastrula and additionally the neural axis during organogenesis. The results suggest that Osgin1 is involved in plasticity of the anterior-posterior neural axis following neuroectoderm transplantation, and specifically the period of plasticity occurs between the mid to late gastrula stage, suggesting the potential for Osgin1 in neuroplasticity. 

Nivedha Vaidy is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in CAMS Mathematical Biology at William and Mary. Her areas of interest in research are developmental biology and cancer biology, as well as public health. Her thesis focuses on the oxidative stress pathway in development. 

Ruby Aufderheide

"The Intersection of Sexual Orientation and Race Stereotypes"

Advisor: Dr. Cheryl Dickter

With queerness and feminism equated with whiteness and racial movements focused on men, Black lesbians suffer from an erasure of experience (Nash, 2008). The current study utilizes an intersectional perspective to examine racial and sexual stereotypes as applied to Black and White lesbians and Black and White straight women.  This work examines how the social categorization of race and sexuality culminates in unique stereotypes that may have implications for the discrimination they experience. With Remedios et al. 's (2011) methodology applied, a database of faces will be shown wherein participants will identify both the sexuality and race of each face and apply the Facet Model (Abele et al., 2016) within the framework of agency and communion. Stereotype activation will be analyzed with a 2 (Target race: Black, White) x 2 (Target sexuality: lesbian, straight) repeated measures ANOVA. I hypothesize that the findings will yield an intersectional pattern wherein White and Black lesbians will be stereotyped higher in competence and agency than straight White and Black women, with Black lesbians being stereotyped the lowest in warmth and communion out of the four groups.

Ruby Aufderheide is a senior majoring in Psychology with an interest in Gender Studies at William & Mary. Her research studies intersectionality, applying it to Social Psychology and Stereotypes of Black Lesbians. 

Brian Des Roches

"Effects of Language and Imagined Contact on Bias Against Autistic Individuals"

Advisor: Dr. Cheryl Dickter

Person-first language, wherein a person with a condition is referred to in a way that separates the individual from the condition (for example: “person with schizophrenia” as opposed to “schizophrenic person”) is generally considered by professionals and advocacy groups alike to be a less stigmatizing way to refer to neurodiverse individuals. However, autism activists are more likely to support identity-first language over person-first language in reference to autistic people. Because person-first language aims to separate the condition from the individual, autistic proponents of identity-first language argue that person-first language, in relation to autism, implies that autistic identity is a shameful disability that can or should be removed. There has been a lot of writing on what type of language people prefer, but barely any research on whether person-first or identity-first language impacts a person’s perception of autistic people. This study seeks to expand on the limited body of research on the effects of person-first and identity-first language on perceptions of autistic individuals using imagined contact exercises. The imagined contact hypothesis holds that mentally simulating a positive encounter with a member of an outgroup can lead to a more positive perception of said group. This study is the latest in a series of imagined contact studies from William & Mary’s Autism Lab. The results of this study have not yet been examined.

Brian Des Roches is a senior majoring in Psychological Sciences and English at William & Mary. His current research areas include Autism and Social Psychology. His thesis addresses the effects of language and labeling on perceptions of autistic individuals.

Anastasia Dubrovina

"Two Languages, One Story: Exploring How Bilingualism Shapes Personal Memories"

Advisor: Dr. Rachel Varra

This study explores how speaking multiple languages can shape the way people remember and describe personal experiences. We investigate whether bilingual speakers recall the same event differently in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages, focusing on clarity, organization, and emotional impact. We also examine whether switching between languages affects how stories are told. To address these questions, we asked bilingual participants to recall significant life events in both L1 and L2, then analyzed these narratives for coherence and emotional depth. Monolingual participants served as a comparison group, describing their memories in one language. To measure how deeply participants become immersed in their own thoughts, we used a psychological scale called “absorption.” Our results suggest that bilingual individuals do not always produce clearer or more detailed memories in their first language. Switching languages sometimes prompted a more deliberate reconstruction of the memory, leading to higher coherence scores, although L1 memories often felt more emotionally vivid. These findings describe the relationship between language, emotion, and self-perception, suggesting that bilingualism can offer a unique lens on how we form and reshape our personal identities. By shedding light on how language influences memory, this work may inform counseling approaches for multilingual clients and guide teaching methods in diverse classrooms. 

Anastasia Dubrovina is a senior majoring in Psychology and Linguistic Anthropology. Her research areas include cognition, personhood and bilingualism. 

Lulu King

"Investigating Individual Differences in the Resonant Frequency Response to Binaural Beats and the Link to Personality and Autism"

Advisor: Dr. Paul Kieffaber

A notable characteristic of oscillatory systems is their tendency to demonstrate resonance; that is, they oscillate with greater amplitude at a particular resonance frequency. There is evidence that there are individual differences in neural resonance and that identifying those resonance frequencies can be used to tailor and subsequently boost the effects of auditory entrainment on cognitive functions. Prior research also suggests that some clinical populations, like those higher on the autism spectrum, may demonstrate resonance at different frequencies than those who are lower on the autism spectrum. The present study used binaural beats, an auditory phenomenon that occurs when two pure tones of slightly different frequencies are presented separately to the left and right ears, to drive neural entrainment at frequencies between 1Hz and 50Hz, increasing in 1Hz increments and randomly presented while EEG was recorded from 32 sensors. Participants also completed the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) and the Big Five Inventory-2 Short Form (BFI-2-S) personality questionnaire. Preliminary results indicate that individuals whose neural resonance profile includes higher peak entrainment frequencies in the alpha range scored significantly lower on the Aloof subscale of the BAPQ and significantly higher on the Agreeableness subscale of the BFI-2-S. These results are interpreted to support the hypothesis that neural resonance profiling could be used in the development of biomarkers associated with both normal and pathological sensory, perceptual, and cognitive functions.

Lulu King is a senior at William & Mary, double majoring in psychology and applied mathematics. Her thesis explores the individual differences in how people respond to auditory stimuli and examines the connection between these responses, personality traits, and autism spectrum disorder. She is especially passionate about psychology and neuroscience research that can be translated into real-world applications for clinical populations.

Abdallah Hussein

"'Ethnic Divisions and Alliance Decay: Understanding the Breakdown of Pakistan’s Relationship With the Taliban"

Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Kaplow 

Why do alliances between states and violent non-state actors (VNSAs) fall apart? My research explores how ethnic divisions can deepen mistrust and accelerate the breakdown of these alliances, even when both sides share strategic goals. Using the relationship between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban as a case study, I examine how ethnic identity—specifically the Pashtun identity of the Taliban and the Punjabi dominance of Pakistan’s military—complicated Pakistan’s efforts to control its longtime proxy. To investigate this question, I use process tracing to analyze key turning points in the Pakistan-Taliban relationship, drawing from historical records, expert analysis, and existing theories on ethnic cohesion and alliance politics. My research suggests that when a state and a VNSA face a commitment problem—where neither side can trust the other to uphold agreements—ethnic divisions make cooperation even harder by reinforcing internal solidarity within the VNSA and limiting the state’s ability to exert influence. These findings contribute to broader discussions on international security by highlighting the challenges states face when using ethnic-based militant groups as proxies. Understanding how ethnic identity shapes alliance dynamics can provide insights into other conflicts where states attempt to control VNSAs, such as Iraq’s struggles with Kurdish militias, the fragmentation of alliances in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the ongoing war in Sudan between the SAF and RSF.

Abdallah Hussein is a senior majoring in International Relations and minoring in Arabic Language and Literature. His research areas include security studies and ethnic conflict. His thesis examines the breakdown of state-VNSA alliances, focusing on the Pakistan-Taliban relationship and the role of ethnic dynamics in alliance deterioration.

Daniel Kalish

"'Existential Risk: American and Chinese AI Safety Policy "

Advisor: Dr. Stephen Hanson

The AI safety community is an international amalgamation of scientists, academics and researchers who believe that AI poses an existential risk to humanity. They share normative and causal beliefs, notions of validity, and a common policy enterprise, attributes which fits them into the definition of an epistemic community, coined by Peter Haas. This framing is valuable as it is their shared epistemological principles which ground this community and lead them to their conclusions. This paper compares the AI safety epistemic communities in the United States and China and finds that, although there are important differences, both communities view catastrophic risk from AI through similar lenses and have pushed for similar policy proposals. It also finds that while both countries’ governments have acknowledged the AI safety community’s concerns, neither has implemented significant policies in this direction. This author argues that the primary reason for this is great power competition.  

Daniel Kalish is a senior majoring in Government and Philosophy at William and Mary. His research areas include technology policy, international relations, and political philosophy. His thesis addresses American and Chinese artificial intelligence policy. 

Rachel Oduntan

"'Managing Resource Wealth: A Study of Fiscal Linkages in Africa and the Global South"

Advisor: Dr. Admasu Shiferaw

Resource-rich countries often face the paradox of slower economic growth or economic decline despite abundant natural resource wealth, a phenomenon known as the natural resource curse. This thesis examines how a proposed mechanism to “undo” the natural resource curse, known as fiscal linkages, affects the adverse economic effects of resource dependence. Fiscal linkages refer to the connections between a country’s natural resource wealth and its fiscal policies, including revenue and expenditure, which are crucial in shaping a country’s ability to leverage resource revenues for sustainable economic development. Using panel data from 2000 to 2021, the study compares a sample of resource-rich African countries with resource-rich countries from the Global South and resource-poor African countries to assess whether African countries with a higher resource dependence face a unique challenge in managing fiscal policy, achieving long-term economic stability and creating sustainable economic development. The study also tests if differences in reaching these goals between the three groups of countries exist due to certain macroeconomic and political factors, thus providing a useful empirical insight on effectively leveraging resource wealth to achieve structural change and promote economic development.

Rachel Oduntan is a senior double majoring in Economics and Public Policy at William & Mary. Her research areas include development economics with a focus on African economic development, macroeconomic policy and empirical policy analysis. Her thesis addresses the role of fiscal policy in addressing the economic effects of natural resource wealth in Africa and the Global South. She has worked as a Research Assistant in the Digital Inclusion & Governance Lab at the Global Research Institute.

Elijah Tsai

"'Back to Business: The Return of Chilean Authoritarian Elite to Economic Power Underneath Democracy"

Advisor: Dr. Mark Deming

During his 17 year tenure as dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet elevated nearly 140 elites to cabinet positions. They were rewarded with status, wealth, and power so long as they remained loyal. Many of these cabinet members were newly elevated economic elites who led major changes to Chile's society for their own benefit, such as in the economy or education. Albertus 2019 found that it was more common for these former cabinet ministers to return to economic and political power than to be punished prompting the question: why? Focusing in on economic elites, I argue that justice and democratization efforts of the time both had a blind spot for holding economic elite accountable. Transitional Justice during the time heavily prioritized civil and political rights violations over economic malpractice or exploitation. Unless economic elite were specifically connected to a violent disappearance, they were unaffected by transitional justice efforts. Further, the liberal free market reform underneath Pinochet is compatible and internationally celebrated as a core pillar of democracy. However, the failure to hold authoritarian economic elite accountable also represents a failure to dismantle a primary part of Pinochet's authoritarian machinery, one that continued into democracy. To tell this story, I utilize original data on cabinet ministers following their life story from their entry into office to 2024.

Elijah Tsai is a Global Scholar, and Senior at William and Mary studying Government currently in his third year as a researcher at the International Justice Lab. He has worked as a policy intern for Amnesty International on issues such as women's rights and the right to asylum as well as at La Comisión Provincial de La Memoria in Argentina as part of their Committee Against Torture. He plans to pursue a career in Policy and Political Science. 

Samantha Fidler

"Sacred Bodies, Sinful Lives: Gender, Holiness, and Gruesome Deaths in Late Antique Harlot Hagiography"

Advisor: Dr. Philip Daileader

The study of hagiography (saint's biographies), the body, and gender in late antiquity is of significant value. Late Antiquity gives insight into the Christian Church as it developed its power, experimenting with and subsequently solidified its socio-cultural characteristics and doctrinal positions. Holy men practiced asceticism, quelling bodily appetites to achieve spiritual purification, leading them to deprive themselves of earthly comforts - sleep, food, sex, and material possessions. Far from being grim narratives, hagiographers often depicted male ascetics delighting in heavenly comforts - the sweet smell of sainthood, the divine food of the soul, etc. - which masculinized the practice of asceticism and its divine sensations. A collection of four ‘Harlot’ hagiographies emerged during this period. Unusual subjects for sainthood, these unscrupulous characters  undergo extreme privation in graphic detail. These stories seek to conceptualize how it was possible to be both holy and feminine in an era in which to be feminine was to be venereal, gluttonous, and excessively corporeal. The somewhat oxymoronic notion of a holy harlot serves as a synecdoche for the larger project of female Christianity, as it was understood by male biographers with institutional church power. This project looks at these four hagiographies, as well as the larger collection of contemporaneous life writing, to analyze themes, structures, and polemical purposes of these strange texts. How was holiness conceived of by Late Antique hagiographers, and was that conception changed by the gender and sexuality of their subjects? What purpose, if any, do the graphic-depictions of harlot saints' lives serve? How did hagiographers reconcile the sinful sexuality of harlots with the chaste, modest ideals of Christian femininity? 

Samantha Fidler is a senior in the Joint Degree Program, majoring in history with a minor in philosophy. Their thesis explores depictions of gender, sexuality, the body, and death in Late Antique biographies. Her work specifically looks at the harlot saints of the Eastern Roman World - Saint Thaïs, Saint Maria the Niece of Abraham, Saint Mary of Egypt, and Saint Pelagia of Antioch. 

Ben Frogel

"Human Flourishing and the Halakhic Life"

Advisor: Dr. Randi Rashkover

My thesis explores the ways in which an intervention in Jewish legal thought could foster a comparative project analyzing how different anthropologies--that is, conceptions of human nature and thus how humans are to flourish-- are “vested” in Jewish and Christian forms of life. While 20th-century Jewish thought possesses considerable resources to articulate a philosophical anthropology, such a project has been conducted in the shadow of R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik's project. My work explores the ways in which R. Soloveitchik's axiological, formalist conception of Jewish law (halakha) renders Jewish philosophical anthropology unable to make non-arbitrary claims, before constructing a parallel account rooted in a non formalist conception of halakha. The thesis will culminate by contrasting this account of philosophical anthropology with that of Catholic philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. 

Ben Frogel is a senior majoring in Philosophy at William & Mary. His research focuses on Jewish ethics and on the relationship between theology, law, and philosophy. His thesis proposes the necessity of a view of human flourishing for successful legal interpretation, and of law for successful arguments about human flourishing. His work has been published in the William & Mary Judaic Studies Review and The Lehrhaus. 

Maia Tindall

"Athletic Agōn and Heroic Veneration: Panhellenic Games as Manifestations of Hero Cult in Ancient Greece"

Advisor: Dr. Jess Paga

This thesis explores the four Panhellenic games as ritualized expressions of hero cult in ancient Greece.  These games, the most well-known of which were the Olympic Games, were recurring competitions with athletic, poetic, and artistic aspects, held at four major Panhellenic sanctuaries — that is, religious sanctuaries open to all Greeks.  Through a series of case studies, each focusing on one of these sites — Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and Isthmia — this thesis examines the role of hero-cult in the development, mythologies, and practices of these games.  While these sanctuaries are traditionally studied as centers of elite competition and political diplomacy, this study reframes them within the broader religious landscape of Greek hero worship.  Drawing from literary sources, epigraphy, and archaeological evidence, it argues that the agonistic — competitive — framework of these games was deeply intertwined with the ritual veneration of mortal, heroic figures, who played a key role in the development of the Panhellenic values in unique ways at each of these sites.

Maia Tindall is a senior majoring in Finance and Classical Studies, with a concentration in Archaeology. She has conducted on-site research in Greece, and was the Data and Geospatial Specialist at the Morgantina Agora Valley Project in Sicily. Her classics research areas include the religions and mythologies of the ancient world, with a particular focus on ancestral veneration and hero worship. Her thesis concentrates on Panhellenic and regional identities, and their interaction with hero-cult.

Chloe Williams 

"Porous Boundaries: Roman, Jewish, and Christian Burial Practices in Rome in the Second through Fourth Centuries CE"

Advisor: Dr. Michael Daise

This project is a comparison of early Roman, Jewish and Christian burial practices with a view to their relationship with corresponding mythologies. How did the followers of each religion living in Rome in the fourth through second centuries bury their dead? Do those burial practices reflect beliefs about an afterlife? If so, do those indications coincide with the mythologies of each religion about afterlife? What effect, if any, did these beliefs have on burial practices? How do the burial practices of each religion relate to each other?  The project began by visiting relevant sites in Rome and proceeds by examining primary archaeological and literary sources more closely. It includes reading the history and the afterlife theology of each group to understand the mindset of the group under study. These findings allow us to better understand the peoples under study and the relationship between beliefs and lived religion.

Chloe Williams is a senior majoring in Religious Studies and minoring in Classical Civilization at William & Mary. Her research areas include Second Temple and Late Antique Judaism, the Roman transition between republic and empire, and the birth of Christianity. Her thesis compares burial practices and afterlife beliefs in second through fourth centuries CE Rome of Jews, Christians, and pagans.

Sarah Patterson

"Methylation Dynamics in Helicobacter pylori: Exploring the Effects of Epigenetics on Adaptation and Virulence Genes Under Acidic Stress"

Advisor: Dr. Mark H. Forsyth

Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium that infects over half of the global population, residing in the stomach and contributing to diseases such as  gastric cancer, peptic ulcers, and potentially Type 2 diabetes. Despite the harsh acidic conditions of the stomach, H. pylori can survive for decades, making it a significant public health concern. My research investigates how H. pylori adapts to these challenging conditions, focusing specifically on changes in its DNA that regulate important genes involved in infection and survival. One of the ways H. pylori controls gene expression is through a process called DNA methylation. This process acts like a switch, turning genes on or off, depending on environmental conditions. In this study, I examined patterns of DNA methylation in H. pylori grown under different pH levels—normal (pH 7) and acidic (pH 5)—to understand how methylation influences the bacterium’s ability to survive and cause disease. I also compared normal H. pylori strains to mutants missing a key gene (arsS) responsible for sensing and responding to stomach acidity. Preliminary findings suggest that specific regions of the H. pylori genome become hypomethylated, or less methylated, when exposed to acidic conditions. These regions may be linked to genes involved in the bacterium’s ability to infect and damage stomach cells. My research could help uncover new targets for therapies that disrupt these survival strategies, potentially leading to better treatments for diseases linked to H. pylori infection.

Sarah Patterson is a senior majoring in computational and applied mathematics and statistics on a mathematical biology track, with a minor in biochemistry. Her research areas include computational biology, methylomics, and microbiology. Her thesis focuses on Helicobacter pylori's complex methylome, with 6-8 times more restriction modification systems than other prokaryotes. She is currently writing this project for publication.

Sreeram Pillai

"A Pythonic Implementation of Sensitive Nucleotide Sequence Alignment for Non-Coding Regions of DNA"

Advisor: Dr. Margaret Saha

One of the main ways the function and character of a novel gene is investigated is by nucleotide sequence alignment: The new gene is aligned with a data bank of known genes to identify regions of commonality, known as homologous regions. The process of finding the ideal alignment can become quite complex, and is further complicated if the regions of interest do not code for proteins, but rather serve as regulatory regions. Regulatory regions, including the regions upstream or downstream the gene, tend to be less conserved among species, hence require sensitive alignment algorithms to be found. In vertebrate research the primary tool for this purpose is mVISTA, and although it is still functional, it is poorly maintained. Additionally, mVISTA is written in Perl, a legacy language, and has not been ported over to Python. My project consisted of rebuilding mVISTA’s sensitive alignment algorithms from scratch in Python. I rewrote the ChAining Of Seeds (CHAOS) local alignment algorithm and the Shuffle - LAGAN global alignment algorithm as part of a “glocal” pipeline. With the algorithms in Python, a researcher interested in the regulatory nature of a certain gene can process alignments natively without having to submit and wait on results from mVISTA. Additionally, the alignment results can be immediately used in combination with common bioinformatics packages in Python, like BioPython, to accomplish tasks like building a phylogenetic tree.

Sreeram Pillai is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Mathematics. His research areas include comparative genomics, bioinformatics, and neural development. His thesis presents a new implementation of an integral alignment tool in genomics. He plans to pursue a career in medicine and research.

Marcus Royster

"An Analysis of the Tweety Gene Family Members 1 and 3 and Their Role During Neural Development in Xenopus laevis"

Advisor: Dr. Margaret Saha

This project explores the roles of tweety genes 1 and 3 (ttyh1, ttyh3) in developing the Xenopus laevis nervous system. There has been little investigation into the function of these genes, although ttyh1 is thought to play a role in regulating neural progenitor cells. To decipher this complex regulation, overexpression and knockout embryos of ttyh1 and ttyh3 were created. To accomplish overexpression, vectors containing ttyh1 and ttyh3 gene cDNA were designed to produce capped mRNA. Gene knockout was accomplished by identifying target sequences in the tweety gene coding regions and designing CRISPR Cas9 sgRNAs used to guide a Cas9 protein to knock out both genes at these sites. This CRISPR system was tested in an in vitro cleavage assay confirming specific targeting of the tweety genes. Overexpression and knockout constructs were microinjected into X. laevis embryos at the two-cell stage to induce perturbation of tweety function. Mutation efficiency was assessed using TIDE (Tracking of Indels by DEcomposition) analysis, and further downstream transcriptomic analysis was conducted via in situ hybridization (ISH) and RNA sequencing. Embryos fixed after injection with ttyh3 or ttyh1 mRNA to induce overexpression were observed to develop an abnormal morphology. ISH results showed overexpression of ttyh1 altered expression of Neural Beta Tubulin (NBT), a marker for postmitotic neurons, and SRY-box 2 (Sox2), a marker for neural progenitor cells, following perturbation. These results suggest both tweety genes play a role in regulating neural development and differentiation.

Marcus Royster is a senior premed student majoring in Neuroscience. His research areas include neural development and phage biology. His thesis addresses the role of the tweety gene family during neural development. He has published his research in the Biomolecules and The American Society for Microbiology journals.

Caden Sanko

"Expanding the Toolkit of Translation-Independent Genetic Parts in Synthetic Biology"

Advisor: Dr. Margaret Saha

Synthetic biology (SynBio) aims to engineer living organisms for applications in industry, medicine, and environmental health. Central to SynBio is the concept of genetic circuits, DNA sequences fabricated from standardized biological parts to perform specific functions. Traditionally, these circuits rely on translation, the biochemical process of synthesizing proteins from mRNA. However, translation independent logic presents a promising alternative paradigm for engineering genetic circuits that are less burdensome to their hosts and more tractable for analysis with mathematical models. One relevant approach uses antisense RNA-mediated transcriptional attenuation, where small RNAs halt transcription by binding to attenuation sites on nascent RNA transcripts. Engineered orthogonal (mutually non-interfering) antisense-attenuator pairs have enabled RNA-only genetic circuits. However, RNA-based inhibitors of transcription remain scarce compared to their protein counterparts, in part because only one natural antisense-attenuator pair, from the S. aureus plasmid pT181, has been thoroughly investigated for this purpose. This project aims to expand translation-independent genetic parts by developing orthogonal RNA inhibitors of transcription based on an alternative antisense RNA, designated CI, from the Enterobacteria phage satellite P4. This project uses insights gained from bioinformatic analysis of putative CI orthologs as well as computational RNA structure prediction to design multiple site directed mutagenesis regimes for efficient exploration of the CI design space.

Caden Sanko is a Senior majoring in Computational and Applied Mathematics and Statistics (CAMS) as well as Public Policy. His research areas include synthetic, RNA, and phage biology. His previous work includes contributions to William and Mary’s 2024 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition project, which placed in the top ten globally in October of 2024.