Fourth Annual Honors Research Conference Sunday, April 26, 2026

Welcome to the Honors Research Conference digital program. Use this site to find the dates, times, and locations of Honors students presenting their work.

Overview of Schedule

Sunday, April 26, 2026

8:30-9:00am	Coffee & Light Breakfast
9:00am-12:20pm	First-Year Presentations
9:00am-12:20pm	Capstone Presentations Part I
12:45-1:45pm	Celebratory Lunch (RSVP required)
2:00-5:00pm	Challenge Course Presentations
2:00-5:00pm	Capstone Presentations Part II

First-Year Presentations

Reproductive Rights Law with Prof. Jessica Waters

9:00-10:00am in Kerwin 105

Exploring Litigation to Protect the Reproductive Rights of Incarcerated Women

Claudia Licht, Elli Karistinou, Sydney Dolger, Shelby Konosky

Reproductive rights in the US prison system have long been restricted, with women facing unsanitary conditions, a lack of menstrual products leading to dangers like toxic shock syndrome, and inhumane treatment surrounding pregnancy and birth. Female inmates have been shackled during pregnancy and endured post-partum trauma underneath the command of the US prison system. In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court ruled that the right to abortion was protected under the implicit right to privacy found in the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, a precedent that was overturned in 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson due to its shaky legal argument. Among those impacted by the decision, incarcerated women are especially vulnerable. In a post-Dobbs v. Jackson world, this project aims to provide legal arguments that better the reproductive rights of incarcerated women.

Reinforcing Patriarchal Norms Through Reproductive Health

Talia Ruzicka, Ava Pear, Pomai Chang

In the years following the Dobbs decision, efforts to curb reproductive health have been on the rise, with most efforts targeting women and people with a uterine system. Although patriarchal norms impact all humans regardless of gender, cisgender-heterosexual men have historically been held to lesser standards in reproductive health compared to women. Our presentation focuses on how persistent patriarchal norms prioritize traditional masculinity and place the burden of sexual health, contraception, and fertility on women and people with a uterine system. We will focus on how patriarchal norms are implanted in many youth who are not taught satisfactory sex education, which is later reinforced through unequal contraceptive access, and is cemented as the burden of fertility is absolved from cisgender men and solely placed on those who can become pregnant. Through focusing on the key areas of sex education, contraceptive access, and male fertility in cisgender-heterosexual couples, we will challenge the notion that reproductive health is not a universal concern and demonstrate how this misconception reinforces patriarchal norms in society.

Sperm Donation and its Relationship to Eugenics

Karthik Babu, Ainsley Hoover, Kitana Lord

This project aims to explore the industry of sperm donation in the United States and its expression of societal hierarchies. It examines racial disparities, the commercialization of sperm donation, demographics of sperm donors and recipients, and language to describe the effects of genetic preferences. This presentation finds that signs of eugenics appear in the field of artificial insemination as it pertains to sperm donation. We focus on the increased access that sperm donation offers for those who cannot conceive otherwise, including same-sex couples and single parents. By drawing on previous sperm donation research and legislation, we argue that, despite eugenics as a consequence of sperm donation, access to this type of reproduction should remain unrestricted.

Whose Story is Told?
Olivia Gamez, Abigail Naveh, Awrad Mousa

Pop culture both shapes and reflects societal attitudes toward reproductive rights. While Hollywood has historically stigmatized or ignored these topics, modern storytelling is moving away from this stigmatization and instead centering empowered experiences that highlight the necessity of reproductive care. This project examines how film and streaming platforms function as cultural spaces where controversial issues, such as access to abortion and state control of reproduction, are actively debated. It analyzes how these platforms have shaped public understanding of reproductive healthcare and reflected shifting attitudes about reproductive rights, especially in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson (2022). In the post-Dobbs era, pop culture does not just mirror these debates but is actively influencing public perception and protest symbolism. Through an analysis of films such as Dirty Dancing and Road to Ruins, we argue that entertainment media significantly shapes our generation's perception of reproductive healthcare, and exposes the gaps that still remain within it.

Arts in Action with Prof. Nancy Snider

9:00-10:00am in Kerwin 104

Principles of Protest Photojournalism: Impact in a Digital Age

Maya Heller, Hunter Jewett, Diana Huebl, Dean Licitra

This presentation is about the history of protest photojournalism, traditional photographic principals, famous and influential works of photography, as well as examining inherent bias in these mediums. We have applied our field research to a survey that examined how our own protest photographs evoked emotion in viewers, analyzing these emotions in connection to bias and perceptions. Finally, we connected how protest photography is an example of Arts in Action to understand how today’s digital media age impacts political and social justice opinions and perspectives for digital media consumers. The purpose of our presentation is to understand the influence of artistic principals on public opinions regarding current events.

Now on the Street: How Current Events are Told Through Street Art

Frances Blevins, Max Ralph, Boden Sorom

In this project we are exploring how street art, murals, and protest art often tell a different story from what the news is projecting as well as the relationship between the story and narrative that can be derived from street art and how the many stories street art tells relate to the facts of events that are happening both locally and nationally.

Through exploring various neighborhoods in D.C. and photographing pieces of street art and murals we find that art pieces often parallel an event that can be seen in the news. We compared the message that the art presents and how it compares to a specific perspective on a current issue. We also interviewed a local artist about her general inspiration for making art in D.C. as well as what her motives were when creating various pieces of community art.

Current events and street art are deeply intertwined, though the art seems to come from a variety of motives. For pieces related to contentious topics, there was more often a negative perspective taken than a positive. Murals are often more polished but also have a less progressive and controversial message whereas graffiti and smaller forms of art are typically “grittier” and “raw” and give voice to more militant expressions of activism.

Some neighborhoods still hold their unapologetic nature and fail to stay silent in uncertain times. Current fears over deportation, military spending, and gentrification, showcase the difference between these neighborhoods as well as their ability to speak out about these injustices.

The Word in the DMV

Kendal Henderson

Poetry is a form of expression that is often used in moments of revolution or revelation. Discovering how this is exemplified uniquely in the DMV is the goal of this project. The research concerns spoken word poetry, the impact of spoken word poetry on communities, and how that contributes to the fight against social injustice, both on a national and local level. By examining the impact of spoken word poetry in various DC communities and how that relates to the current societal unrest happening around the country the question becomes, "How does spoken word poetry performed at venues in the DMV contextualize societal unrest?". Visits to three different open mic venues resulted in interviews of performers and audience members that explored similarities and differences between the poetry communities in the three locations and then examined those communities in the context of societal unrest to highlight the role of poetry in activism.

The Sound of Resistance: DC Punk and Go-Go communities placed under pressure

Roumaysaa Naboulsi, Paisley Gibson, Christopher Guerrerio, Alex Varra

Music has long been a method of resistance and empowerment within the DC community, acting as a way for people to come together and celebrate their cultures. This musical expression is under threat by the current administration. By looking at community histories, policy enactments, and performing on-scene documentation of the punk and go-go communities here in DC, we can better understand how the current administration’s actions such as federal crackdowns, budget cuts, and minority targeting are affecting the wellbeing of these communities. In our research, we attempted to observe how federal actions were driving people in their participation in protest/resistance and how music played a role in these activities. Our primary means of gathering data was by conducting interviews with community members at live events. We found that music was acting as a strong centripetal force by bringing people together and providing a safe community of support and solace in the face of governmental oppression. Though the punk and go-go communities harbor different demographics, similar sentiments were shared between them on the nature of music as resistance and the importance of their communities.

Practically Utopia with Prof. Lindsey Green-Simms

10:10-11:10am in Kerwin 104

Suburbia as a Practical Utopia

Mahulome Gnonhossou, Phoenix Ferrera, Ella Ogbrun

In this presentation we will discuss the attributes that, when present, will help create a suburban utopia. We discuss the ways to transform suburbia with reflection on its pitfalls, and how it can turn into an equitable and accessible community model. One of the most prominent concerns of suburbia is the history of discriminatory practices towards African-Americans. The concept of utopia helps explain why people continue to value suburban life, and the progressive qualities that can be brought to suburban communities. The strengths of a utopian suburbia have the potential to uplift residents' quality of life by ensuring that they feel like they can thrive in their personal spaces. In our practical utopia model, we adapt the strengths of suburbia and strive for better, more desirable American suburban communities that bring the promise of community, inclusivity, and social connection. After researching suburbia, we landed on a few important topics such as diversity, walkability, safety, and third spaces as the key components to suburbia as a practical utopia.

How Did We Get Here? A Comparison of Right and Left Utopian Ideals

Finch Milsten, Luca Poth, Mattie Lupo, Shivani Pandya

Should healthcare be public or private? How should wealth inequality be dealt with? How should we deal with homelessness? This presentation examines the ways that right and left wing political ideals are enacted into policy and how that reflects each side’s vision of a utopian society. By analyzing different policy debates and utopian thinking, we can better develop an understanding of how we reached this incredibly polarized political atmosphere, and we can better evaluate whether or not we can achieve compromise. Our project, inspired by concepts in Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman and Utopia as a Method by Ruth Levitas, asks the question: Can we truly find a middle ground between two political extremes if even our idea of what a perfect society would look like is so divergent

The Myth of Green Capitalism

Hunter Emery, Michael Grzin, Evangeline Ko

This presentation examines the capacity of liberal capitalism to facilitate global decarbonization. Examines the impact of late-stage capitalism’s “wicked trinity” of economic stagnation, surplus humanity, and environmental degradation on climate policy. By looking at frameworks that work within the current system—such as “Climate Liberalism,” “Renewable Capitalism,” and “mesoeconomic” policy—capitalism can deliver some results; however, these results are often hampered by barriers within the current capitalist model. These approaches often fail to align with the “growth imperative” inherent to or structurally imposed on the capitalist order, while also overlooking the dominance of fossil fuel hegemony, which uses its corporate power to influence political systems. Furthermore, decoupling models often ignore the total impacts of carbon production, allowing an “imperial arrangement” to externalize environmental costs away from the capitalist core to the peripheral Global South. This is then concentrated by different utopian alternatives–specifically Energy Democracy, Degrowth, and Ecosocialism–which helps demonstrate that more than mere incremental reform is needed to facilitate decarbonization. We conclude that without decreasing corporate power and prioritizing the human well-being over GDP accumulation, society faces a stark choice: an ecosocialist transformation or a slide towards authoritarian neoliberalism.

Utopia in Film

Maya Kollapp Barany, Isaiah Hart, Lucas Brama

In a first-of-its-kind study quantitative study of utopian cinema , Isaiah, Maya, and Lucas will unpack several key aspects of utopian film. While dystopian film is often the subject of academic review, utopias are rarely featured. In our presentation we will discuss what a utopian film is, describe some trends in utopian Hollywood films since 1960, and discuss why they are so few and far between.

Forensic Chemistry and the Stories Evidence Tells with Prof. Shoaleh Dehghan

10:10-11:10am in Kerwin 105

Gender Norms and Serial Killers

Lily Posner, Anya Kane, Maggie Stephens

This presentation examines how gender norms have shaped the victimology of female serial killers in the United States over the past century. Focusing on historical shifts in gender roles, societal expectations, and persistent stereotypes about women as passive and nurturing, the study asks whether these norms influence how female serial killers select victims, carry out crimes, and avoid suspicion. Drawing on case studies such as Aileen Wuornos, as well as scholarly research on criminology, psychology, and gender bias, the presentation argues that female serial killers are not simply acting outside social expectations, but are often influenced by them. Their methods, target selection, and patterns of violence frequently reflect traditional gender roles, such as economic dependency or caregiving positions, which also help them evade detection. The findings suggest that gender norms play a significant role not only in shaping criminal behavior but also in how that behavior is perceived and investigated. This argument matters because it highlights the importance of considering gender bias in criminology, shifting the focus from individual pathology to broader social influences on crime.

How the CSI Effect Affects Jurors’ Verdicts

Leila Mammel, Tyler Gatof, Grace Weir, Ava Heineken.

Since the year 2000 the true crime genre has exploded in popularity, with dozens of shows raking in millions of fans. But the rise of true crime shows has brought into question whether TV might be blurring the lines between the sensational and reality. In a phenomenon dubbed the “CSI effect,” experts have raised concerns that the misrepresentation of forensics and law in true crime is giving jurors unrealistic expectations of forensic evidence. Our research project aims to determine how the true crime genre has caused the CSI effect, and to what extent it impacts jury decisions in murder trials.

Analyzing the Casey Anthony Case

Sterling Jorges, Nathan Hayes, Jesus Ramirez

This project examines how environmental factors impacted forensic chemistry strategies in the Casey Anthony case and also how those effects impacted and influenced the outcome of the trial. By analyzing key evidence such as the autopsy reports, expert testimonies, and chemical traces found in Casey Anthony’s car, the study explores how decomposition, heat, and time degraded physical evidence and forced investigators to rely on alternative scientific methods. Our results suggest that environmental conditions significantly complicated evidence collection and interpretation, ultimately contributing to reliance on circumstantial evidence. This case demonstrates how untested methodology and usage of the Frye standard can shape both forensic investigations and legal decisions, while also pushing the boundaries of forensic science and leading to stricter standards for evidence evaluation in future cases.

Daubert Standard and Forensic Drug Toxicology

Gia Binh Tran, Alex Zenit, Alejandra Lopez, Akshar Patel

Understanding how forensic evidence admission in court has evolved into having a new modern standard called the Daubert Standard. We analyze how the Daubert Standard came to have judges as “gatekeepers," its real-world applications, and also include the four key factors on which it is based. We also examine the origins and development of the Daubert Standard by analyzing key cases such as Daubert v. Merrell Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Joiner v. General Electric Co., and Kumho Tire Co., Ltd. v. Carmichael. The research on these cases reveals how the Daubert Standard created the role of judges as gatekeepers and the possible weaknesses it created. We analyzed the overall challenges of forensic drug toxicology due to the rapid evolution of illicit drugs and analytical limitations, complicating the identification process. Although Daubert has elevated the standard of toxicology practiced in the courtroom, it has implications for animal testing and the hypothesis-testing process, leading to the exclusion of forensic evidence.

Lithuania and National Identity with Prof. Jeff Romero Middents

11:20am-12:20pm in Kerwin 104

Power, Propaganda, and the People: Media in Hussein's Iraq and Soviet Lithuania

Joseph Albushies, Ellie Casias, Katherine Pollock

This research examines political media, propaganda, and rhetoric during Saddam Hussein’s regime, from 1979 until 2003. Soviet-era Lithuania and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq will be used to compare Western media with Eastern media. We hope to highlight how repressive systems of media, censorship, and propaganda kept these rulers in power, and how Western media plays a large role in national and worldwide perception of political conflict. To correlate our research to our Lithuania trip, we will interview the Belarusian students from the European Humanities University. We will ask them about their exposure to political rhetoric and propaganda growing up in Belarus and their exposure to Western media. We will begin our presentation by explaining the impact of experiential learning, followed by Soviet authoritarianism in Lithuania and Hussein’s rise to power and examples of Iraqi and Lithuanian censorship. We will then narrow down to Iraq and the religious connotation, flip back to Soviet media and perceived power, and finishing up with Lithuania’s national identity and the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime through media rhetoric. We will finish our presentation by explaining why it is relevant for our audience, and the students as researchers and members of the American University community.

Art as Voice: How Argentine Artists Immortalized the Disappeared

Avery Grossman, Leila Faber, Xitlali Naegele Ramirez

Our group is studying how Argentine civilians used the creative arts to shed light on abuses of human rights despite censorship during the Dirty War. The so-called “Dirty War” was a period of frequent military dictatorships in the 1970s and 80s. During this time, to question the regime too boldly could get one “disappeared.” To tackle our research question, we will examine case studies from Argentine literature, visual art, and music during this period to see how each artist used their respective medium as their voice to immortalize the stories of those who were targeted. We will also seek to compare Argentine art-as-protest to Lithuanian artist movements during the Soviet occupation.

Church vs. State: Religion under Authoritarianism

Quinn McKeever, Jonathan Bakay, Caroline Brucken

This project is centered on how religious institutions interact with authoritarian regimes. We will investigate this by examining Spain under the Francisco Franco regime (1936-1975), specifically on the relationship between Catholicism and fascism during this period in order to better understand how oppressive regimes can use religion in order to secure their power and how religious groups respond. We will be utilizing real-life examples from our trip to Lithuania in order to compare how religion was suppressed during the Soviet occupation and how Catholicism and religion as a whole were entirely banned. Lithuania provides a sharp contrast with Spain. In one country the authoritarian regime suppressed any religious belief, believing it could harm their authority, and in the other, the dominant religion was co-opted in order to secure their authority. Our presentation will begin with a section on how Spain was directly affected by the intersection of church and state, and will move into our research from Lithuania where the opposite occurred. In both cases, many people suffered under authoritarianism, and the goal of this project is to provide insight on how religion can play a role in this process.

To Build a "Fit and Healthy Nation": Italian Fascism in the Age of Mussolini

Ally Baumhardt, Samuel Elkon, Simon Ready-Miller

The goal of our research is to explore how the Italian population came to accept fascism under the dominion of Mussolini's regime and successive governments. From the beginning of fascist party's ambitions in 1916, to the subsequent electoral and social victories of the party, Mussolini had several initiatives which greatly appealed to the Italian populace by resolving handicapping issues in Italian society. We will begin with an examination of the party’s newspaper from the beginning of its movement to when it was an entrenched aspect of Italian society. Furthermore, Mussolini dedicated tremendous energy towards reshaping Italian culture and the people themselves through fascist themes, which permeated every level of Italian social life. Then we move to the overarching theme of the Italian government's actions and its control of the economy. How the government actually affected the most critical aspect of every citizen's life, the economy. Through these elements of government, they could control content, making it malleable and, in many cases, citizens fully bought into the fascist government’s vision of Italy.

Generations of Fascism: Venezuelan Media Control

Zada Barker, Olivia Koegel, Lillian Koss

Our research looks at how Venezuelan national identity among younger generations has changed during the transition from Hugo Chávez to Nicolás Maduro, focusing on the role of media, including news, social media, and protest through art. During Chávez’s presidency, state-controlled media (specifically his own created and produced news programing) and government messaging played a major role in shaping a unified national identity centered on the Bolivarian Revolution. However, under Maduro, increasing censorship and a lack of trust in traditional news have pushed many young people toward social media as a primary source of information and expression. At the same time, protest through art—such as murals, performances, and online content—has become an important way for youth to respond to political and social issues which we will relate back to art protests we learned about while in Lithuania. These shifts suggest that national identity is no longer shaped mainly by the state, but instead is being redefined by younger generations in more personal, critical, and creative ways.

Capstone Presentations Part I

Presenters and Rooms, 9:00am-12:15pm

Jolie Abdo, 10:40am, Kerwin 101

Emma Alizadeh-Dolce, 11:00am, Kerwin 101

Marisa Alvarez, 10:40am, Kerwin 103

Jillian Augustine, 9:20am, Kerwin 101

Devon Benaroya, 10:00am, Kerwin 107

Tarumbidzwa Chirume, 9:40am, Kerwin 103

Alisun Coldiron, 11:00am, Kerwin 103

Grace Dehner, 11:40am, Kerwin 101

Daniel Domsky, 10:20-11:35am, Kerwin 107

Benjamin Doncov, 10:20-11:35am, Kerwin 107

Aidan Dowell, 10:20am, Kerwin 101

Sage Duarte, 12:00pm, Kerwin 101

Kevin Farmer, 11:40am, Kerwin 103

Aidan Ford, 10:20-11:35am, Kerwin 107

Anna Geibler, 10:20am, Kerwin 103

Melia Hawthorne Klingler, 9:00am, Kerwin 101

Moss Lempieri, 10:20-11:35am, Kerwin 107

Chloe Mazenko, 10:00am, Kerwin 101

Jack Meikrantz, 10:20-11:35am, Kerwin 107

Nolan Menanno, 12:00pm, Kerwin 103

Eryn Mikulicz, 9:00am, Kerwin 103

Cade Miller, 12:00pm, Kerwin 107

Jules Montanez, 9:00am, Kerwin 107

Gavin Outlaw, 9:20am, Kerwin 103

Jen Robinson, 9:20am, Kerwin 107

Savannah-Rae Snyder, 11:20am, Kerwin 103

George Stefanov, 11:40am, Kerwin 107

Liv Tracy, 10:00am, Kerwin 103

Annalise Vezina, 11:20am, Kerwin 101

Hannah Viana, 9:40am, Kerwin 101

Capstone Project Titles and Descriptions

9:00-9:15am

Activists or Insurgents? The Role of Women in the Baloch Uprising

Melia Hawthorne Klingler

This paper examines how women in Balochistan, Pakistan navigate their roles in both violent and peaceful political resistance movements. Drawing on a narrative analysis of statements made by female suicide bombers affiliated with the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and female activist leaders within the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), this research explores women's motivations for political engagement and the ways in which gender shapes their participation. Findings reveal that while both groups cite anger at Pakistani state oppression and a desire to serve their people, their motivations diverge in important ways. Female insurgents frame their involvement in terms of liberation and gender equality, seeking to challenge traditional perceptions of women and recruit others to their cause. Female activists, by contrast, are largely driven by personal experiences of enforced disappearances of family members, which serve as entry points into broader rights-based advocacy. Despite these differences, both groups demonstrate that women's participation in the Baloch movement has produced meaningful, if unintended, forms of female empowerment. This research contributes to an underdeveloped body of literature on gender and the Baloch insurgency, complicates dominant narratives that cast women primarily as victims of conflict, and offers insights relevant to gendered approaches in peace-building efforts in the region.

The Gender Gap in Leisure Time: An Analysis of the Bargaining Theory of Time Use

Eryn Mikulicz

Since the mid-twentieth century, the U.S. labor force has transformed itself from nearly exclusively male to nearly evenly split between men and women. Similar trends have occurred in developed economies across the globe. Men are no longer primarily responsible for income generation in many households; but are women, who are now contributing paid labor alongside their male partners, no longer primarily responsible for unpaid labor? Using time diary data from the Multinational Time Use Survey, this study conducts four Ordinary Least Squares regressions to analyze differences in both total and pure leisure time across gender and household income structures. Results suggest that women primary-earners experience the least amount of leisure time relative to male primary-earners, and men’s leisure time is less elastic to their income level. This calls into question the bargaining theory of time use, providing evidence that time is allocated irrationally by gender within heterosexual couples.

China-U.S. Great Power Rivalry in Venezuela: The Race for Influence and Containment within Latin America and the Caribbean

Jules Montañez

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is emerging as a pivotal battleground for the escalation of the great power rivalry between the United States and China. With China’s increasing economic and political influence and presence within the region, the United States fears the erosion of its soft power in its own “backyard”. In order to avoid categorizing all of Latin America together, this research will focus on the case study of Venezuela due to the country's continuous relevance to both China and the United States. Currently, China is Venezuela’s largest trading partner and with the recent maritime attacks on Venezuelan suspected narcotic ships by the U.S. in international waters, Venezuela has emerged as a flashpoint for these escalating tensions. Through this case study, this research will examine US-China-Venezuela relations from a neo-realist perspective and apply it to the broader great power competition between US-China.

9:20-9:35am

Modern Methods of Mobilization: A Comparative Analysis on the Impact of Organizing Mindset on Black Civic Engagement

Jillian Augustine

The Black Church represents a powerful, organized, nationwide network with a history of civic engagement for African Americans, but has the Black Church declined in political efficacy since the Civil Rights movement, and is it still a worthwhile campaign target for Democrats? Through a comparison of Black voter engagement in Mississippi and Alabama, the effect of different sources of mobilization can be identified. These states are similar in many ways but showed drastically different Black Civic Engagement in 2020 and 2022. This paper hypothesizes: when comparing states, those utilizing modern, nonconventional efforts to target Black voters will have higher Black Civic Engagement than those relying solely on the Black Church of the Civil Rights Movement to target Black voters.

Negotiating Positive Prospects - Prospect Theory & Treaty Negotiation Analysis

Gavin Outlaw

Without being in the room where negotiations happen, understanding and evaluating the decision process in treaty negotiations is often a difficult task. Understanding why certain parties are willing to negotiate or not negotiate certain points & the undertaking of certain risks is a field ripe for academic analysis. A particular theoretical perspective worth examining is evaluating treaty negotiations through the lens of prospect theory in understanding why certain states are willing to negotiate and others are not. This paper seeks to test whether this theory, primarily geared towards Behavioral Economics, can translate to a particular field of International Relations. As a test, this paper applies prospect theory to the SALT-I treaty negotiations from 1969 through 1972. This paper finds that while there are merits in the use of the theory in evaluating treaty decision making, there are shortcomings in the theory being used as a comparative tool between actors.

No Information Submitted

Jen Robinson

9:40-9:55am

How True Crime Media Influences Perceptions of Serial Killers

Hannah Viana

The goal of my research is to determine if a relationship exists between true crime media consumption and (1) desensitization to violent crimes and (2) sympathy toward serial killers. True crime media has become increasingly popular, raising questions about its psychological effects on audiences. Previous research shows that repeated exposure to violent content can reduce emotional responsiveness, and narrative framing can influence viewers' moral judgments of perpetrators. This study applies cultivation theory and desensitization theories to true crime consumption -- an area with limited empirical research. I hypothesize that individuals with higher true crime consumption will exhibit (1) greater desensitization to violent crimes and (2) increased sympathy toward serial killers. Using regression analysis, I find statistically significant support for the first hypothesis. The analysis found no statistically significant relationship between true crime consumption or any control variables and levels of sympathy toward serial killers. The results of this study suggest that true crime media can affect viewers' emotional processing, underscording the importance of discussing how this media is produced and consumed.

Farm to Table: The Effect of Women’s Land Ownership on Women's Nutrition

Tarumbidzwa Chirume

This Small-n Single Case Study explores the role of women's landownership in Zimbabwe on their food security levels and the subsequent effect of food security on women's nutritional outcomes. This study explores women's land tenure security in the context of the implementation of the country's most significant land reform policy to date: the Fast Track Land Reform of 2001. Hence, this study uses a mixed methodological framework in which interviews with women landowners are secondarily sourced, and quantitative data is collected on women's food security and the prevalence of undernourishment as a proxy variable to explore the effect of the prevalence of women's anemia, which is selected as this study's indicator for nutritional outcomes. Acknowledging the limitations of the availability of data, this study explores the confounding contextual factors on women's landownership and nutrition and highlights a path forward for future researchers in the field.

10:00-10:15am

Maternal Mortality Crisis: Confronting The United States Violation of Women’s Rights

Chloe Mazenko

The persistent maternal health disparities and maternal mortality crisis in the United States expose the stark contradiction between the ideal of American exceptionalism and the reality of a nation that fails to protect the lives of its own mothers. The heart of American nationalism rests on the assumption that they lead the world in innovation, liberty, and quality of life. Yet, beneath this myth of American exceptionalism self-image lies the truth of the preventable, and worsening crisis of maternal health in the United States. This contradiction becomes clear with the shocking fact that the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations. Even worse, the maternal mortality crisis is deeply intertwined with systemic racism and inequities. This research confronts the United States failures to protect mothers and identifies changes we must implement to create a more accountable, evidence-based system focused on preventing maternal deaths and ensuring safer pregnancies and postpartum care.

Country Branding and Outreach of Finland in the United States

Liv Tracy

FinnOff!: Diplomacy on Ice is a strategic country branding and outreach initiative designed to strengthen Finland–United States relations through sports diplomacy, cultural exchange, and public engagement. Centered in Michigan, the program leverages Finland’s strong hockey identity and regional diaspora ties to promote Finland as a reliable, innovative, and collaborative partner. The initiative integrates political, academic, and cultural programming, including ambassador-led panels, university discussions on security and transatlantic relations, and interactive fan experiences at major sporting events. Partnerships with local institutions, media outlets, and Finnish-affiliated organizations enhance visibility and community engagement. A targeted communications strategy and defined key performance indicators, such as event attendance, media reach, and cultural participation, ensure measurable impact. By combining diplomacy with accessible cultural touchpoints like hockey and Finnish products, FinnOff! creates a flexible and scalable model for modern public diplomacy, fostering bilateral connections while elevating Finland’s national brand among diverse American audiences.

Collaging Queer Liberation: DIY Publications as Radical Vehicles for Queer Cultural Capital

Devon Benaroya

Over the past decade, animosity toward queer people has been stoked by conservative fearmongering and legitimized by revoking queer liberties. Like other minoritized groups, the queer community is forced to look inward for existing strengths and resistance strategies. Queer people have a long history of documenting ourselves, and in this project, I propose that the queer legacy of creating DIY publications is an underexamined well of cultural wealth. Tara Yosso’s Cultural Wealth Model, along with Summer Melody Pennell’s addition of transgressive capital, serve as frameworks for how zines can contribute to the acquisition and generation of queer cultural capital. I analyze three zines: On Being Hard Femme (a perzine), Mutate #3 (a collaborative publication), and A Quick Guide to Transgender Healthcare Information in Davis, CA (an informational publication) to demonstrate how zines platform multiple forms of queer capital and how to accrue it. As accessible vehicles for capital, I encourage the creation of zines within queer liberation efforts, especially in the face of rising challenges to freedom of gender and sexuality expression.

10:20-10:35am

Political Embodiments: The Portrayal of Nahua Amerindians in Ludovico Buti’s Uffizi Armeria Tondo (1588)

Aidan Dowell

The relationship between Medici Florence and pre-Columbian Mexico remains little studied in art historical scholarship. However, the complex depiction of Amerindians throughout the armeria ceiling fresco in the Uffizi urges us to reconsider Florence’s understanding of indigenous America in the turn of the seventeenth century. This talk investigates the Florentine Codex as the primary inspiration for both Ferdinando de Medici’s commission of the armeria fresco, and Ludovico Buti’s artistic inspiration for the fresco. In conjunction with a greater emphasis on the ameria's central tondo, which depicts an imagined grand procession of Amerindians, this research refutes the the prior art historical analysis of this fresco as an image of conquest of the new world. Instead, it finds that Buti’s work symbolically imbues this image with notions of civility, European sensibility, and the preeminence of antiquity. Together, it posits Buti’s portrayal of Amerindians as not just an object of conquest, but as a prototype for the peaceful, idyllic, and ancient rule that the Medici sought to embody in Florence. In doing so, a superficial claim to archeological historicity is transmuted into a familial political ideology.

Entertainment or Exploitation?: True Crime Podcasts and Victim's Families

Anna Geibler

This capstone examines the ethical implications of true crime podcasts by centering the perspectives of victims’ families, an often overlooked group in existing research. Using a qualitative comparative content analysis, the study analyzes transcripts from popular true crime podcasts alongside publicly available statements from victims’ family members. Both sources are evaluated through an ethics of care framework, which emphasizes vulnerability, relational responsibility, and the minimization of harm. Findings reveal a tension between storytelling practices that prioritize audience engagement, such as sensationalism, speculation, and crime-centered framing, and the lived experiences of families, who frequently report emotional distress, lack of consent, and misrepresentation. However, some families also acknowledge benefits, including increased awareness and advocacy. Overall, the study demonstrates that while true crime podcasts can provide social value, they often fall short of ethical responsibility. The project concludes that more care-centered storytelling practices are necessary to balance entertainment with accountability to those most affected.

10:20-11:35am

U.S. State Department Diplomacy Lab: Policy Recommendations for the 2026 USMCA Review

Moss Lempieri, Aidan Ford, Jack Meikrantz, Ben Doncov, Daniel Domsky

Looking ahead to the 2026 Joint Review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) this summer, this project analyzed pressing trade and national security issues concerning the North American continent. Following the guidelines of the U.S. Department of State, we formed four sub-groups to focus on specific issues, namely: critical minerals, digital trade, agriculture, and security/counter-narcotics. To develop these sections, we engaged in interviews with experts, tracked the ever-evolving modern political and international relations world, and developed numerous recommendations delivered directly to contacts at the State Department. Our efforts culminated in a 15-page paper centered around our policy recommendations, as well as a presentation at the State Department later this month.

10:40-10:55am

How Authoritarianism Reshapes Judiciaries: Russia, Hungary, and the United States

Jolie Abdo

A nation’s law can be used as a shield or a weapon, and courts are the deciding factor in whether the law binds regimes or can rule through it. Authoritarian rulers have learned that the most effective way to consolidate power is to reshape institutions slowly before dismantling them outright. This study explores how executive authoritarianism transforms a state's judicial processes and what lessons can be drawn from such patterns. Courts can turn from legal institutions to political battlegrounds where authoritarian power struggles play out. Modern authoritarianism does not abolish courts, but weaponizes them. They use legal procedure, judicial appointments, and institutional redesign to stunt oversight and maintain an image of legality. By examining how leaders in Hungary and Russia have altered judicial functions to expand executive power, this study identifies standard mechanisms that enable legal systems to be co-opted without being eradicated.

Models of dissosicative identity disorder

Marisa Alvarez

The field of psychology has a complex and often troubling history, marked by unethical experiments, misdiagnosis, and the mistreatment of Black and Brown individuals. Additionally, definitions of mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have shifted over time, reflecting changing cultural and scientific perspectives. Recently, dissociative identity disorder (DID) has gained renewed public attention, particularly during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when individuals on social media shared experiences of “shifting” between alters. This surge in visibility sparked debate about the legitimacy of the disorder, echoing earlier controversies such as those surrounding the case of Sybil. Despite its longstanding inclusion in multiple editions of the DSM, the causes of DID remain uncertain. Scholars continue to explore competing explanations, including the trauma-based model, the fantasy model, and the sociocultural model, each offering different insights into how the disorder develops and is understood.

11:00-11:15am

Mohammad Mossadeq, The ‘Good Muslim’ Becomes The Enemy: A Turning Point In American Power Relations With The Middle East

Emma Alizadeh-Dolce

The 1953 U.S.- and British-backed coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq signified a crucial turning point in American constructions of the “good” versus “bad” Muslim leader in foreign policy discourse. While anti-Muslim narratives in the United States are often associated with the post-9/11 era, this research shows that such binaries were already embedded in Cold War policymaking. Drawing on declassified CIA and MI6 documents, U.S. diplomatic correspondence, media coverage, and translated Iranian newspaper sources, this research examines how Mossadeq shifted from a respected democratic nationalist to a perceived Communist threat after nationalizing Iran’s oil industry and challenging Western economic control. By comparing Truman administration diplomacy with Eisenhower-era interventionism, this research contends that Mossadeq’s removal was driven less by anti-Communist fears than by his challenge to British and American strategic dominance. The coup institutionalized a framework that influenced American perceptions of Muslim leadership across the Middle East for decades.

Testing Cosmological Inference on Non-Linear Scales with FLAMINGO

Alisun Coldiron

This research project built off of Dr. Johannes U. Lange’s work surrounding invisible matter in our universe, known as dark matter. Pockets of dark matter, called halos, are where galaxies form. Since we cannot see dark matter, astronomers often use simulated data of the universe to investigate relationships between dark matter halos and galaxies. This project used simulation data called FLAMINGO to analyze the formation of galaxies based on properties of their respective dark matter halos. Many universe simulations are gravity-only, meaning they only contain properties of dark matter, not galaxies. However, FLAMINGO includes both halo and galaxy properties, allowing us to make connections between the two. Using Python, I created numerous programs exploring properties of the data and then incorporating neural networks, which learn from example datasets of halos and galaxies. After training with example data, the networks use inputted halo-only data to make predictions about the types of galaxies that will form. The process of refining the neural networks was tedious, but changing certain parameters enabled the networks to make the most accurate predictions possible. Finally, I created data visualizations to illustrate the FLAMINGO data and compare it to neural network predictions. In the future, my research will be used as part of a project that uses trained neural networks to make predictions about other gravity-only simulations. This is an important step in understanding the properties of dark matter and energy, and it will ultimately allow us to improve our understanding of the universe as a whole.

11:20-11:35am

L'Année 1942: The Holocaust and the Catholic Church in France

Annalise Vézina

In 1942, Toulouse Archbishop Jules-Géraud Saliège delivered a sermon whose sentiments had never been expressed by a high-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. Horrified by the recent deportations of Jews carried out in France, Saliège encouraged the public to regard these individuals as members of a family rather than an unidentified mass of outsiders. That summer - particularly after Paris' first public roundup of Jews on 16 and 17 July - anti-Jewish policy could have accelerated in France, but it did not. This is due to what French citizens witnessed around them, as their neighbors were forcibly removed from their homes and carted away to unknown destinations. This thesis demonstrates that Catholics' responses to the roundup reflect a shift in public opinion, as certain leaders chose to speak out during this moral moment, further influencing a change in national sentiment. Yet this emotional shift did not translate into a coordinated rescue movement in France spearheaded by Catholics.

Israel Palestine Negotiations: Jerusalem as a Model

Savannah-Rae Snyder

No abstract submitted.

10:40-11:55am

Drawing the Line on Statehood: Kosovo and the Politics of Recognition in Africa

Grace Dehner

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and has since secured recognition from more than 110 states, yet it remains without universal recognition as a sovereign state. This project examines why African states have not responded to Kosovo in the same way through a comparative study of Kenya, which recognized Kosovo in 2025, and South Africa, which remains a non-recognizer. Using in-depth theory-testing process-tracing, it evaluates four possible mechanisms: external alignment, targeted Kosovan engagement, territorial integrity concerns, and Serbian counter-mobilization. The evidence suggests that recognizer states are more likely where Kosovan diplomats secure access to senior decision-makers and bring the issue into national foreign-policy conversations, while non-recognizer states are more likely where Kosovo is understood as a precedent-setting challenge to sovereignty and where Serbian diplomacy reinforces that interpretation. Thus, African responses to Kosovo are best explained by the balance between diplomatic pressure for recognition and the constraints favoring non-recognition.

Mitigating Harm on the Internet: A Multistakeholder Analysis of ICANN's 2024RA/RAA Amendments Addressing DNS Abuse

Kevin Farmer

URGENT OVERDUE TOLL PAYMENT. If you have ever received a message resembling this, you have been targeted by phishing. The internet is made up of several interlocking technical infrastructures that are not controlled by any one organization or state. One such multistakeholder organization is called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which oversees several key contracts governing the Domain Name System (DNS) making the technical nature of the internet comprehensible. Due to the global nature of the internet, it is very difficult to regulate particularly to take down harm such as DNS Abuse (phishing, malware, botnets, pharming, and spam). In 2024, ICANN approved a series of amendments to its contracts that placed additional obligations on registrars and registries to mitigate reported DNS Abuse; however, in the past ICANN has come under criticism for its murky definition of multistakeholder that critics claim it uses to justify reaching beyond its mandate. This paper will examine the approval process of the 2024 RA/RAA DNS Abuse amendments through a multistakeholder lens. This paper in its analysis proposes the 3i's scale (involvement, interest, impact) to evaluate multistakeholder policy processes particularly those undertaken in the name of internet governance.

Building a Nuclear Future on a Radioactive Ground: The Evolution of the Kazakhstani Government's Nuclear Narratives

George Stefanov

What can a state gain by downplaying its victim narratives? Reconciling traumatic histories with contemporary modernization goals is a challenge faced by many states, provoking questions about state building and memory politics. In October 2024, Kazakhstan held a referendum on constructing its first nuclear power plant (NPP). 71% voted in favor. This outcome is surprising given Kazakhstan’s traumatic and complex history in the nuclear sphere. This project seeks to analyze how the Kazakhstani government’s nuclear narratives have evolved since independence, in order to understand how such public support became possible. Kazakhstan had two potential paths: continue being a nuclear victim or become a nuclear victor. This project argues that Kazakhstan deliberately shifted its narrative to downplay victimhood and emphasize modernization. By utilizing the qualitative data analysis software NVivo, this project shows that this shift is not solely for strategic political gains, but also ideational and reflects deeper state-building strategies.

12:00-12:15pm

One Man’s Trash is a College Student’s Treasure: Analyzing Gen Z College Students’ Consumption of Second Hand Clothes and the Effect of Social Media Hauls on Their Second-Hand Clothing Consumption Habits

Sage Duarte

Fast fashion is at the heart of the clothing waste epidemic, with Gen-Z being its primary consumers. Social media also has given rise to fast fashion through things such as ads and hauls. A common conception is that the solution to this is to shop second-hand to slow down clothes waste. However, literature seems to have tensions between suggesting that thrifting is the new solution to fast fashion, and suggesting that thrifting emulates the same cycles as fast fashion because of its low prices, so what is the truth? This study seeks to find Gen-Z college students' thrifting consumption habits and whether social media thrift hauls impact these consumption habits to find out whether or not thrifting is a sustainable alternative to fast fashion through the lenses of Theory of Consumption Values and Social Learning Theory. This study uses qualitative data from online interviews with five participants across the nation to see how Gen-Z college students shop second-hand, and whether they are impacted through social media hauls.

Spatial Predictors of Urban Tree Mortality in Baltimore

Nolan Menanno

Extreme heat affects people and wildlife and is becoming increasingly common due to climate change. Effects of extreme heat are prevalent in urban areas where forest restoration and tree planting are important nature-based solutions for mitigating urban heat island effects. Tree planting initiatives work to increase canopy cover in urban areas, and tree survival is important for ensuring cooling outcomes of planting. In this study, we used tree monitoring data from Baltimore Tree Trust to estimate survival probabilities of planted trees after approximately two years as a function of planting method and spatial environmental variables. Survival probability varied substantially across species and as a function of container type, land surface temperature, and weather conditions. Understanding how tree survival varies across site contexts and species can help inform decision making and increase impacts of tree planting initiatives.

The Strength of Spirit: Confederate Martial Values in the American Civil War

Cade Miller

There is a wealth of media surrounding the American Civil War, both popular and scholarly. The majority of public-facing Civil War media- movies, biographies, even public school modules- tend to focus on the war through the lens of individuals, painting its events as being moved by the will of titans such as Lincoln or Lee. The “Lost Cause Myth” of the heroic Confederacy is particularly egregious in this individualistic point of view, displaying the Confederacy as a nation of knightly heroes tragically brought down by forces outside their control. This project modifies that point of view, retaining focus on individuals, but also applying cultural context to them. It examines the martial values of antebellum wealthy white Southerners- in other words, what they thought a good man and a good soldier looked like- before going on to study how Confederate military men strove to live up to this ideal during the war, as well as the consequences of adhering so firmly to this one particular vision of war and the warrior.

Challenge Course Presentations

2:00-3:00pm in Kerwin 104, 105, and 107

Reducing Loneliness in College-Age Individuals Through Sociality Dynamics

Carina Parsons, River Jordan Pugh, Alexis Mercado, Tianyao Li

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nabina Liebow

Room: Kerwin 105

This study, centered around the overarching theme of loneliness among college students, places a particular focus on the student population at American University. In exploring loneliness within this community, through the lenses of social behavior patterns such as reciprocation, endurance, and proactivity, biological mechanisms including HPA axis dysregulation and pro-inflammatory immune activity that link chronic isolation to measurable physiological stress, financial health factors such as familial support and the burden of self-managed expenses during the transition from high school to college, and a mathematical model of group dynamics applied to survey responses from 43 questions that help to explicate why some students form meaningful connections while others experience persistent isolation (while acknowledging the differing sociopolitical and economic contexts that these students come from), we aim to communicate a near-holistic portrait of loneliness as a group-level phenomenon shaped by the distribution of sociality traits rather than individual misfortune or financial strain alone.

Immigration and Assimilation: A Sociological Study

Bre Jimenez, Ngolela Omekongo, Anna Palumbo, Jadyn Ninan

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Claudine Kuradusenge-McLeod

Room: Kerwin 104

This study centered around the overarching theme of Immigration patterns to the United States, places a particular focus on Haitian and Mexican immigrant communities. In exploring immigration patterns amongst these communities, through the lenses of generational shifts in policy, trends in psychology that affect the notion of push and pull factors, sociological theories such as Segmented Assimilation Theory which provide theoretical backing regarding how communities navigate assimilation and acculturation, and personal testimonies that help to explicate why and how individuals and families might make the choice to migrate (while acknowledging the differing sociopolitical contexts that these individuals come from), we aim to communicate near-holistic portraits of Haitian and Mexican immigration vis-à-vis the United States.

Analyzing the Impact of the CHIPS Act Pre and Post Trump

Benjamin Haswell, Amani Flener, Ryan Bedi

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Omékongo Dibinga

Room: Kerwin 107

The battle for the future of global economic dominance has begun. Global hegemons are risking their economic development plans, hedging all of their bets into the future of AI and semiconductors. The US, whose status as the sole hegemon has seen a decline due in no small part to the increasing domestic partisanship in its government, passed the bipartisan CHIPS Act, aimed at bringing dominance in terms of both research and production in these new industries. However, partisanship has yet again played a role in this policy. Under Biden we saw a focus more on granting large tax cuts, funding, and other incentives offered that would then be paid off by a slow but progressive tax hike once the industries were up and running in the US. Under Trump, we have seen what has been called a more venture capital-based approach, where the administration has focused on obtaining a direct return on investment in exchange for the funding. For our research, we analyzed the differences between these two policies, in terms of both goals and actual impact. To do this we relied on examining available short-term labor statistics from the times each Presidents’ version was active, and analyzed the rhetoric used by officials under both administrations to determine what they viewed was the ideal outcome, then compared the two overall. We hope that our project will offer some insight as to how the future of AI and the CHIPS act will play out in the US.

The State of American Museums

Sydnee Patak, Sophie Bradecich, Lydia Cho, Asha Dalal, Elaina Sherman

Faculty Mentor: Professor Scott Talan

Room: Kerwin Kerwin 107

Museums, specifically art museums, are vital in preserving and defining both American and human culture. They are a pinnacle of preservation and remembrance. But who defines what fits into these cultural displays? Who owns them and who influences them? Our research examines the complex answers to these questions and delves deeper into the structure of funding for private versus public museums, the impact of political rhetoric and excecutive orders, and representation in the sort of art displayed. Using a combination of historical and modern timelines, sources and examples, we aim to highlight the inherent relationship between American museums and our modern society.

The Purple Line and Langley Park: Impacts on Immigrant Communities and Local Businesses

Giselle Kiernan, Maya Manchester, Teresa Salazar, Zara Riffer

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Carolyn Gallaher

Room: Kerwin 104

The development of the new Purple Line marks a major expansion of public transportation in the Washington, DC metro system. The Purple Line will run from east to west, connecting Bethesda to New Carrollton. Connecting communities such as Langley Park, Takoma Park, and Silver Spring, the line will serve individuals primarily in Maryland. As the line approaches its completion in 2027, our study asks: In what ways does the development of the Purple Line impact businesses and immigrant communities in Langley Park? How should these be addressed upon the Purple Line's completion in 2027? While existing scholars have analyzed gentrification and public transit in other contexts, researchers have yet to examine the impact of the Purple Line on the Langley Park community. Through a series of qualitative interviews in the field and expert discussions, our research displays the ways in which the Purple Line has already affected, and will continue to impact, the Langley Park community.

So You Think You Know AU Sustainability: Examining Student Perceptions of American University Food Sustainability

Katherine Borek, Sydney Plesco, Claudia Myers, Monette Chang, Audrey Lin

Faculty Mentor: Professor Sauleh Siddiqui

Room: Kerwin 105

American University (AU) is often known as a leading institution in sustainability, having ranked second in the Princeton Review’s Top 50 Green Colleges List. While there have been previous surveys conducted to examine the student body’s perception of and engagement with AU’s zero-waste and carbon-neutrality initiatives—a crucial aspect of campus sustainability—this data is relatively outdated and covers an all-encompassing approach to sustainability. This study, conducted in Spring 2026, focuses specifically on food sustainability practices at AU, and how existing resources may impact student perception of this subject. We utilize a quantitative survey that includes questions related to the following practices at AU: composting and proper waste sorting resources, AU’s partnership with Airlie Farm, and sustainability-related student organizations. Based on the 169 responses that we received, we conclude that individual actions and engagement with campus resources impact how students perceive food sustainability at AU, perhaps more than the actual resources available. We also found that most students feel that they are already sustainable and are somewhat unwilling to get more involved with campus food sustainability. Our findings indicate both strengths and gaps in AU’s current food sustainability practices and strategies to engage the student body, to which we recommend that AU promote and emphasize related student organizations, individual actions, and local businesses.

3:00-4:00pm in Kerwin 104 and 105

Popular Music and Popular Culture: An Exploration of Protest in the Mainstream

Eric Steinberg, Yana Patel, Eric Guajardo, Lilly Barnett, Kayin Robbins

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Omékongo Dibinga

Room: Kerwin 104

Art is inherently political, and popular music is no exception, whether it’s perceived or not. We can see this in the Trump era, but it’s nothing new. The genres of rock and hip hop offer a plethora of examples of artists critiquing social and political issues through song, dating back over half a century. However, these messages are not always received by the general public, and the music can sometimes be co-opted to serve the opposite point of view. There are many cases of rock music advocating a liberal point of view that have been used by conservative candidates, or hip hop music criticizing economic disenfranchisement becoming commercialized. Through our research, we examine how effective various songs are at conveying their messages, how these songs are used in modern times, and how artists respond when their songs are misrepresented.

Bridging the Gap: Elucidating the Complexities of the Equitable Access Program for DC Schools

Sierra Gray, Molly Baker, Lauren Livengood, Preeya Trivedi

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stephen Vassallo

Room: Kerwin 105

The Equitable Access Program is an initiative within the DC public school lottery that aims to expand educational opportunities for at-risk students and increase socioeconomic diversity in DC Public (DCPS) and Public Charter (DCPCS) schools. The program gives at-risk students additional considerations when applying through the My School lottery, bettering their chances of matching with their school of choice. Given the program’s recent implementation, there is minimal literature available for parents and students, leaving families in need without access to important information that could impact their students’ futures. To fill this gap, we have examined student data and conducted interviews with government organizations, DCPS and DCPCS officials, and parents involved in the program. In an effort to enhance the reach of the Equitable Access program, we have created an educational magazine that explains all relevant information in a digestible format for parents. We have published this magazine online and hope that it will help families support their students’ educations across the District.

Period Poverty Behind Bars: Access to Menstrual Health Care for Incarcerated Women in the United States

Sela Quinones, Sofia Hasan, Grayden Miller

Faculty Mentor: Professor Anna Kaplan

Room: Kerwin 105

What does period health care accessibility look like across the United States for incarcerated women, and how can it be improved through existing laws and organizations? Our research uses real stories from incarcerated women, period poverty data, nonprofit contributions, and relevant legislation to answer this.

Analyzing the affects of Cartel and Narco Trafficking activity in rural Latin America

Alec Hennessy, Theodore Headlee, Alexandra Munoz, Everett Hose, Jamie Chansen

Faculty Mentor: Professor Jeffrey Middents

Room: Kerwin 104

This journal hopes to analyze the affects on rural hispanic communities of cartel and narcotics activities. A key factor in this is the lack of state institutions in many rural communities that encourages and helps cartels to takeover these communities. Across Latin America but especially in the two examples of Mexico and Colombia cartels use government neglect as a tool to offer opportunities to members of a community if they accept and become compliant in narcotrafficking. As for dealing with local security forces they often use targeted bribes, kidnapping and assassinations in order to ensure compliance. Our journal hopes to examine the overall affects of this infiltration and look at examples of additional variables like armed political groups or resistance potential in other cultural or religious institutions.

4:00-5:00pm in Kerwin 104 and 105

Where We Are Now: The Effects of Biased Drug Portrayals in the Media

Teddy Carr, Ava DiGiacomo, Fatuma Mussa, Cameron Robertson, Rian Russell

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stacie St. Louis

Room: Kerwin 104

The criminal justice system has been shown to disproportionately affect communities of color, Black and brown defendants suffering the most due to bias and systemic racism, even when additional factors such as previous offenses and severity of the crime are controlled for. Over time, racial inequities around drug offenses have become one of the most discussed subjects in criminal justice. However, although some research looks at the War on Drugs or Opioid Crisis independently, there is a gap in the research for exploring media coverage, namely newspapers, news segments, and popular media like movies and television, for those two events, as well as the current landscape for drug offenders today. We chose to explore this topic by conducting interviews with academics in various fields, including media, communications, and law, as well as talking to various non-profit organizations in the D.C. area that help with prevention of overdoses and reintegration of previously incarcerated individuals. Our work culminates into a documentary, using the visuals we found in our research, the interviews we conducted, and archival footage, allowing viewers a direct glimpse into how media portrayal of drug offenders has changed over time due to who is perceived as the average drug user and the individuals in control of the media, and how this portrayal affects decisions such as detainment, sentencing, and parole, impacting defendants and their families, as well as the lack of media representation for some communities, leading to the lack of resources and awareness for those individuals and families.

All Aboard the Nationalism Express!: research on nationalism and autocratic trends in every continent

Adán Mandelbaum, Benjamin Cañizares, Miles Roy

Faculty Director: Dr. Andrew Demshuk

Room: Kerwin 105

The world seems to be changing faster than ever in recent history. Global affairs have become unpredictable, and the order that kept everything together, built from the ruins of World War II, seems to be crumbling. Nationalism, a current born amidst (and some even state before) the rise of the nation-state as the dominant political entity, is gaining a lot of strength amongst the general populace, pushed by leaders who resemble the Strong Men we had seen disappear at the turn of the century. We want to understand how these currents, seemingly outdated, have come to dominate international politics and undermine the Liberal International Order, maybe even causing its demise, and attempt to predict how these trends will reshape the international, interconnected world we live in today.

US Correctional Facilities; Cost, Conditions, Recidivism & Public opinion

Noah Hirsch, Fiona Murphy, Andrew Pachetti

Faculty Mentor: Professor Jason Fabrikant

Room: Kerwin 105

The US corrections system is designed to punish, rehabilitate, and prevent inmates from reoffending; however, the cost and conditions of corrections facilities make these intentions difficult to affect change on. In this project, we look into the living conditions inside corrections facilities and how they affect inmates, the effectiveness of these facilities at reducing recidivism through programs like the First Step Act, and the cost of public and private prisons and how the funds used for incarceration don’t benefit individuals when they are in jail or when they are released. We tie in public opinion, through interviews we conducted in Washington, DC and New York City, and analyze how these opinions align or contradict the research we conducted with existing literature. The US corrections system is flawed, and our intention with this project is to understand these issues and discuss changes that could take steps in a beneficial direction.

The AI Reckoning: Is there a bubble? How do we know?

Maya Silverstein, Stephanie Lobodanescu, Katelyn Miller, Micaela Villa Garcia, Eowyn Ream

Faculty Mentor: Professor Ioannis Spyridopoulos

Room: Kerwin 104

This presentation covers a question that has been circulating headlines for the past few months: are we in the middle of an AI Bubble? In an attempt to find an answer, we must first understand what a bubble is, what previous bubbles have looked like, and what the indicators of a bubble might be. By examining past bubbles like the dot com boom and the railroad mania frenzy, we can begin to understand what a bubble is: essentially an overinvestment in some brand of stock, generally a new technonolgy, that (eventually) cannot make returns on these investments. Through understanding what a bubble is, signs of what to look for become more and more clear: expansive infrastructure build out, lots of hype in the media, and massive investments being some of the tell tale signs. This research, though, leads us to a complex and confusing understanding that, while existing within a bubble, you generally cannot claim that you are in a bubble. Massive investment and expesnive infrastructure doesn't become a bubble until companies are no longer able to make dividends, and until that happens, a bubble doesn't exactly exist. We can predict a bubble, we can guess that the bubble will burst, but no one can (at least with any certainty) claim the bubble exists. Through a seires of different case studies, this paper and presentation examines different AI startups (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and Perplexity), attempting to take a lens to their investments and investors in order to make our best guess about a bubbles existance. With the conclusion that we predict a bubbles existance, but can say nothing for sure, the research may lead to an unsatisfying answer, but opens the door to new understandings about the economic situation unfolding around us.

Capstone Presentations Part II

Presenters and Rooms, 2:00-5:00pm

Anabelle Finegan, 2:40pm, Kerwin 103

Daniela Gerardi, 2:00pm, Kerwin 101

Mia Kimm, 2:00pm, Kerwin 103

Julia Lewis, 3:20pm, Kerwin 101

Alvin Li, 4:40pm, Kerwin 101

Kera McCarthy, 2:20pm, Kerwin 201

Michelle Miramontes, 2:20pm, Kerwin 101

Elle Nathan, 3:00pm, Kerwin 101

Tara Parsa, 4:40pm, Kerwin 103

Hannah Peterson, 2:00pm, Kerwin 201

Silvia Postigo Marcos, 2:40pm, Kerwin 101

Krithika Sambamurthy, 2:20pm, Kerwin 103

Will Shister, 3:00pm, Kerwin 101

Lily Witczak, 2:40pm, Kerwin 201

Capstone Project Titles and Descriptions

2:00-2:15pm

Sovereignty in the Subsoil: Indigenous Rights and the Legal Regulation of Mining in Northwest Brazil

Daniela Gerardi

This research explores a wicked problem facing Brazilian leadership and constituents alike, which is the ever-increasing mining of critical rare minerals in the Brazilian Amazon and Northwest region. With escalating tensions to protect Indigenous populations and the Amazon forests, conflict arises since government actors are pushing to continue mining critical rare minerals which are essential to Brazil’s economy and national security. Wicked problems are complex and persistent because they are evolving social or cultural issues that are difficult or impossible to solve due to incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements. Highlighting the presidencies of current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and former president Jair Bolsonaro, this research will situate the case study for niobium, commonly used for sustainable infrastructure, in Brazil’s imperial history to understand the wicked problems that negatively affect the environment and Indigenous populations in the Brazilian Amazon and Northwest region. Utilizing process tracing and a comparative policy analysis for the case study of the critical rare mineral niobium, this research produces policy recommendations for the Brazilian Workers’ Party to create longlasting mining policies and resolve this wicked problem over time.

Precedent as Power: Neo-Colonialism in International Criminal Law

Mia Kimm

The relationship between international criminal law (ICL) and neo-colonialism has become an increasingly prominent area of critical scholarship. While ICL is often framed as a neutral system of accountability for atrocities, many critics argue that it operates within and reinforces global structures of inequality rooted in colonialism. Dominating this perspective is a body of literature that situates ICL within the context of global capitalism. Meanwhile, the roles of precedent and legal frameworks remain a largely unmapped territory in international legal research. This project examines how the overdependence on judicial precedent in international criminal law reproduces neo-colonial hierarchies. It argues that precedent functions not merely as a stabilizing legal mechanism but as an instrument of structural inequality. Three interconnected mechanisms are idenitifed through which this dynamic operates: selective prosecution and geographic bias, the imposition of Western legal norms, and institutional power hierarchies. Through analysis of landmark cases, this research demonstrates how early African-focused jurisprudence has created self-reinforcing prosecutorial patterns, how Western legal doctrines are universalized through citation practices, and how geopolitically powerful states shape - while simultaneously evading - international criminal accountability.

Do Medical-Based Expert Systems Give Biased Diagnosis Given a User's Sex?

Hannah Peterson

According the National Institute of Health, women experience a larger amount of time between symptom onset and diagnosis of a disease than men do for most diseases (2023). Delayed diagnosis and under diagnosis poses a public health threat to those who are missed, as the longer a disease goes untreated, the more a patient is susceptible to worsening symptoms and negative impacts to their health. Expert systems are AI-powered software that are meant to mimic human “expert” decision making, including medical professionals. Essentially, while they are limited in interactive capabilities, it is used by professionals to provide advice and develop solutions in appropriate settings. While useful, expert systems being utilized in a medical setting require professional stan- dards. Women being grossly under and misdiagnosed by professionals suggests that this misrepresentation could be relayed to expert systems. As expert systems are programmed and trained by the same experts making these mistakes, I wondered if expert systems had a similar misdiagnosis rate as human experts do. I analyzed two systems utilized by medical professionals based on four gender groups and four diseases, inputting relative symptoms per gender looking for a specific diagnosis and analyzing the output by these systems. The results of my experiment reported statistical significance and visual disparity between male and female diagnosis. Further, the data shows a possible secondary discovery, with differences in diagnosis types, favoring mental illness related diagnosis for women far more than reported for men.

2:20-2:35pm

The Chili Queens & the Making of the Mexican-American Woman

Michelle Miramontes

The Chili Queens were a group of Mexican and Mexican-American women who sold traditional Mexican dishes at stands in the open-air plazas of San Antonio, Texas from the 1880s to the 1940s and were amongst the first to bring Mexican food to the United States. As ethnic women in a public space serving food Anglo-Americans would not have been familiar with, they garnered significant media attention and were made into a tourist attraction. However, the media also framed them in a highly racialized and gendered way- overtly sexual, dirty, and deviant, as I argue, and thus provided the justification for city officials to completely shut down their businesses in 1943 over public health concerns. With that, by introducing this new cuisine and through their non-traditional displays of femininity, I claim that the Chili Queens challenged gender norms in a way that came to define what it means to be a Mexican-American woman in the eyes of the American public.

Radical Evil, Social Death, and Denial: Reassessing Transitional Justice in Post-War Germany and Post-Franco Spain

Krithika Sambamurthy

This presentation evaluates the effectiveness of trials as transitional justice mechanisms by addressing the societal and moral harms caused by mass atrocities through a comparison of post–World War II Germany and post-Franco Spain. While the Nuremberg Trials established foundational principles of international criminal law, their focus on prosecuting elite perpetrators and reliance on documentary evidence limited opportunities for victim-centered accountability and broader societal reconciliation. In contrast, Spain’s “Pact of Forgetting” prioritized political stability over legal and historical accountability, suppressing public recognition of Francoist violence and prolonging generational trauma. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Ruti Teitel, Claudia Card, Orlando Patterson, and Stanley Cohen, this presentation argues that both legalistic justice and enforced silence failed to fully confront the legacies of radical evil, social death, and denial. Ultimately, it demonstrates that trials alone are insufficient to repair the moral and cultural damage of mass atrocities and that effective transitional justice requires a context-specific combination of legal and non-legal mechanisms.

Saving Chinatown: An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Case Study on Philadelphia’s Chinatown and the “Save Chinatown Movement”

Kera McCarthy

Since their conception, Chinatowns have been rich cultural centers and providers of refuge and livelihood for Chinese Americans. But, as metropolitan America grew, so did threats of erasure via gentrification, development, and/or relocation of community spaces. This study focuses on Philadelphia Chinatown’s (Philly Chinatown) fight for preservation– primarily during the “Save Chinatown Movement” of 2023-2025. The study documents and examines activism efforts to protect Philly Chinatown through two major subquestions: sociologically, how community involvement shaped and was shaped by the movement; and linguistically, what significance there is in the physical remnants of the movement. At the time of the study, Philadelphia was actively experiencing the movement aftermath– the remnants lingering in signage, clothes, and conversation around Chinatown. This produced a unique, and most importantly, temporary, sociolinguistic environment to investigate. To do so, a linguistic landscape was taken and interviews were conducted with youth activists, community organizers, and local business owners/residents about their role in the movement and community, and what Chinatown means to them. Results explore themes of role, drive, purpose, and impact in the movement and its aftermath, to define how the movement gained power and its significance for the future.

2:40-2:55pm

Silvia Postigo Marcos

No information submitted

U.S. State Department Diplomacy Lab: Recomendations for 2027 AGOA Renewal

Anabelle Finegan

Commissioned by the U.S. Department of State’s Economic Bureau, this capstone project proposes a comprehensive modernization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). As the program faces expiration in 2026, our research identifies critical structural failures, including inconsistent eligibility reviews and low program utilization. We advocate for a proposed 'AGOA 2.0,' which shifts from a development-centric model to a reciprocal partnership to satisfy contemporary political and economic demands.

Key recommendations include aligning rules of origin with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), expanding eligibility to North Africa, and incentivizing in-country critical mineral processing to counter China’s expanding regional influence. By securing a 15-to-20-year renewal, this framework provides the stability necessary for long-term private investment, ensuring the U.S. remains a competitive partner while fostering sustainable African industrialization and supply chain diversification.

When Memory Lies: Eyewitness Testimony and the Risk of Wrongful Convictions

Lily Witczak

This paper examines the reliability and fairness of eyewitness testimony in legal decision-making, given the malleability of human memory and the influence of interrogation practices. Drawing on the Wright, Wade, and Watson study, it argues that delay and repetition significantly increase the persuasiveness of false evidence, leading individuals to form inaccurate memories and even false confessions. Supporting research on memory distortion and police interrogation techniques further demonstrates the risks of relying on such evidence. The paper concludes that current legal practices overestimate the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and calls for reforms to reduce wrongful convictions and improve the integrity of the justice system.

3:00-3:15pm

Media, Politics, & Public Understanding of Renewable Energy in California & Texas

Elle Nathan

This research examines how political environments and media framing shape public understanding of renewable energy in two of the United States’ most influential energy states: California and Texas. Despite both states possessing significant renewable energy capacity, their political landscapes contrast sharply, leading to different policy priorities and public narratives. California’s climate-forward governance promotes renewable energy as essential to environmental and economic progress, while Texas’s market-oriented, fossil fuel–aligned leadership often frames renewables in terms of reliability and economic trade-offs. These political differences are further amplified through media coverage, which selectively frames key policies and events such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 Texas Power Crisis. Media outlets and platforms strengthen partisan interpretations, contributing to polarized public perceptions of renewable energy. As a result, understanding of energy systems becomes politicized rather than grounded in technical or scientific knowledge. To address this gap, this project proposes the integration of a standardized K–12 energy literacy curriculum focused on renewable energy, media literacy, and a green economy. This approach aims to reduce misinformation, depoliticize scientific knowledge, and better equip future generations to engage in informed energy policy discussions.

3:20-3:35pm

Black Communities as Sacrifice Zones: An Examination of Industrial Siting and Community Voice

Julia Lewis

Despite legal mechanisms that prevent discrimination on the basis of race, black communities in the United States face disproportionate proximity to industrial facilities. These communities are treated as “sacrifice zones” condemned to toxic exposure and air pollution due to historical zoning and racialized land-use practices. A wealth of literature identifies correlation between residential segregation and areas with heavy industrial production. However, there has been little research into the factors that influence decisions on where to situate industrial facilities. Thus, the primary research question of this study asks, "why is industrial siting approved in some neighborhoods and not in others?” Using a case study approach, this research analyzes the siting decisions of three waste facilities in the U.S. that control for a range of variables typically impacting industrial site permitting. Preliminary analysis indicates that black civic activism has generally been ignored by planning officials while similar activism by white communities has had more impact on the planning and permitting process.

Income Inequality and Far-Right Extremism: Electoral Success in Proportional Representation Systems

Tara Parsa

This study examines whether income inequality is associated with the electoral success of far-right extremist parties in proportional representation (PR) systems across the European Union. While existing research highlights the role of electoral system design and cultural backlash, less attention has been given to how inequality shapes support for far-right parties in contexts where electoral rules make obtaining formal political representation more feasible. Using a cross-national dataset of parliamentary elections across EU countries between 2015 and 2023, the analysis explores the relationship between far-right vote share and the Gini coefficient. Drawing on theories of economic grievance, the study considers how inequality may influence political behavior alongside institutional factors such as electoral rules that lower barriers to entry for smaller parties. By focusing specifically on inequality, this research contributes to broader debates about the drivers of far-right support in contemporary democratic systems across Europe.

3:40-3:55pm

The Impact of Default Mode Network (DMN) Modulation on Outcomes in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

Will Shister

Albert Hoffman’s discovery of LSD (and its psychoactive properties) in 1943 led to widespread investigation of the psychedelics as potential therapeutic agents in the treatment of a host of psychiatric disorders. However, this research soon came to a halt (particularly in the U.S.) due to myriad sociopolitical factors. In addition to being tied up with the Counter Culture movements of the 1960s, the psychedelics endured further stigmatization via the enactment of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) of 1970, which assigned them to the “Schedule 1” class of compounds (i.e., substances with high abuse liability with no accepted medical use). Recently though, thanks to the continued advocacy from various political groups and gradual regulatory shifts in federal policy, research on the therapeutic efficacy of the psychedelics has resurfaced. Though various hypotheses exist on the mechanisms by which the psychedelics may exert their clinical effects, this project will explore one in particular: the modulation of the Default Mode Network (DMN), a collective of brain areas (namely those of the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex) implicated in self-referential processing (i.e., self-judgment, rumination, future thinking, autobiographical memory).

4:00-4:15pm

The Success of Repression: Analyzing the effect of State Repression on Authoritarian Regime Survival

Alvin Li

Authoritarian regimes routinely employ repression to suppress popular mobilization, yet the relationship between repressive tactics and regime survival remains contested in the existing literature. This paper investigates whether state repression prolongs authoritarian rule and, if so, what conditions make repression an effective survival tool. Drawing on Frugé's dataset on repressive agent defections combined with Geddes, Wright, and Frantz's Autocratic Breakdown and Regime Transitions dataset, I use OLS regression on 108 autocratic countries from 1976 to 2007 to test hypotheses linking regime duration to repression, military capacity, military will, and regime type. Contrary to much of the existing literature, I find that repression has a negative effect on regime survival, but that when repression is employed, it is most successful in regimes with well-funded militaries, substantial foreign backing, and armed forces structurally dependent on the regime. These findings suggest that autocrats have little incentive to repress, but that when they do, regime durability hinges on the capacity and loyalty of military elites rather than the nature of the opposition they face.

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