Student Theses and Honors Collection
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Library, Information, & Technology Services (LITS) established the electronic Student Theses Collection in 2005. It contains over eight hundred e-honors theses created by MHC seniors from across the disciplines. By archiving your honors work in the Institutional Archive, you are contributing to the legacy of excellence in student scholarship at the College.
To submit an honors thesis to the collection, please start by reviewing the information found here.
Once you are ready to submit, click on the "Login" link within the "My Account" box on the lower right side of this page. Click on the MHC logo, and then enter your MHC username and password. You will be redirected back to the Institutional Archive homepage. Scroll down to the "My Account" box and click on "Submissions. Then choose "Student Theses Collection."
For questions about the Student Theses Collection, please contact Archives and Special Collections.
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Item Restricted The AAA+ ATPase ClpC-M Domain is a Secondary Interaction Site For the Sporulation-Specific Adaptor Protein MdfA in the Bacterium Bacillus SubtilisMorrison, Jade; Amy, CampProtein degradation is a tightly regulated mechanism in bacterial cells that ensures that the correct proteins are being degraded appropriately to avoid harmful consequences within the cell. ClpCP is an example of an AAA+ protease that facilitates proteolysis within bacterial cells through a degron tag or with the assistance of an adaptor protein. MdfA is a recently discovered sporulation-specific adaptor protein that interacts with ClpCP within the bacterium, Bacillus subtilis. Based on results from a previous study, it is speculated that MdfA interacts with the ClpC-M domain, corresponding with an AlphaFold Multimer structure that collaborators constructed. This study investigates whether the ClpC M-domain is a site of interaction for MdfA, which was tested by mutating the appropriate codon of residues located at the contact point between the M-domain and MdfA C-terminal domain. A series of bacterial two-hybrid assays has demonstrated that the M-domain is a potential interaction site and that the ClpC M-domain residues are more critical for MdfA than MecA. The results and a parallel study by a Camp lab member, Jen Butler, support the hypothesis that the M-domain is a secondary interaction site for MdfA.Item Open Access Effect of Tau Expression on Subperineurial Glia in Drosophila(2025-07-15) Newman, Birdy; Colodner, KenTauopathies, neurodegenerative disorders exhibiting symptoms such as dementia and motor deficits, are characterized by pathological aggregates of a microtubule-associated protein called tau. While prior research has focused largely on the ramifications of neuronal tau pathology, tau pathology also affects glial cells, a diverse group of non-neuronal cells that play key roles in the nervous system. Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) have been used to effectively model glial tauopathy. However, the specific effect of tau expression on subperineurial glia (SPG), a glial cell subtype involved in the fly’s blood-brain barrier and sleep patterns, remained unknown. This study transgenically expressed human tau in SPG to investigate how the presence of human tau affects SPG nuclear quantity and morphology in the fly brain. Tau was found to decrease the number of SPG nuclei in young male flies and decrease SPG nuclear sphericity in general. The newfound age- and sex-dependent toxicity of human tau to Drosophila SPG contributes to the growing base of knowledge about glial tauopathy that will lay the foundation for innovative tauopathy treatments.Item Restricted “For Canons Do”: Black Literary Production and the Canon’s Empire(2025-07-15) Morrison, Ainsley; Kristen, MayeAs Toni Morrison writes in “Unspeakable Things Unspoken,” “canon building is empire building.” The ever-present debate around the canon, which is to say over which texts are relevant, meaningful, and “great,” always carries high stakes. Understanding the Western literary canon as both a product and producer of empire, I consider the relationship of Black Literary Production to canon. Drawing on the work of Sylvia Wynter and Zakiyyah Jackson in addition to Toni Morrison, I argue that the canon seeks to reproduce beings that serve the interests of empire. By making “great” the texts that produce beings in service of empire, the canon becomes a vital mechanism for not only empire’s self-definition, but for the continual reproduction of the dominant modes of being. By seeking out the texts that the canon and canonical scholarship reject, condemn, or simply cannot accommodate, we are able to identify and name the features of texts that create and support empirical modes. More significantly, in these counter-canonical texts we necessarily find those features that reach towards alternative modes, modes that could fundamentally threaten the dominance of empire. My project examines three works belonging to Black writers—The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara, The Street by Ann Petry, and Corregidora by Gayl Jones—so as to identify how these works gesture towards the possibility of ways of being that are disappeared by the canon and by empire. To contextualize this practice, I read Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon as a symptom and product of canon and empire.Item Restricted The Effects of Repeated Heat Stress on Heat Shock Protein Induction in a Drosophila Melanogaster Model of Glial Tauopathy(2025-07-15) Tatusko, Tabitha; McMenimen, KathrynTauopathies are a family of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by hyperphosphorylated tau aggregate accumulation in neurons and glia. These disorders include prevalent diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobe dementia, and progressive supranuclear palsy. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are part of the chaperone machinery responsible for maintaining proper protein folding and clearance of aggregates. However, they are ineffective in preventing tau toxicity associated with these disease pathologies. Using a female Drosophila melanogaster model of glial tauopathy, this study broadened the established chaperone profile, illuminating novel differences in induction across the HSPs in response to glial tau and varied intensities and frequencies of heat stress. These findings are promising for understanding why the chaperone response differs between early- and late-onset tauopathies and suggest chaperones like HSP60 may be uniquely responsive to compounded stress. This study also supports emerging research demonstrating the unintended off-target effects of the GAL4 transgenic driver. Distinct and pervasive differences were observed in heat induction across the chaperones when comparing the non-transgenic and transgenic control groups.Item Restricted Queering Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing Through Education and Performance(2025-07-15) Pott, Talia; Tuleja, Noah; Rodgers, AmyThis thesis documents my directing process of Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. In it, I discuss literary criticism of the work, its relationship to the rest of the work in the canon, my directing process from start to finish, and a reflection thereof. A core theme of the work is a unique gender queerness I found in the characters of Beatrice and Benedick. I hope my submission contributes to further queer readings of Shakespeare, and a renewed interest in the importance of inclusive theater making. I wish to dedicate this thesis to the work of teachers throughout the world. You save lives and inspire students every day with your endless care and enthusiasm!Item Restricted Melancholic Haunting in Korean American Literature(2025-07-15) Li, Christina; Day, IykoDavid L. Eng and Shinhee Han’s “Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation: On the Social and Psychic Lives of Asian Americans” defines racial melancholia as a state of chronic and unresolved grief in which the Asian American subject grapples with a sense of loss but does not know the object that they have lost. Racial melancholia also encompasses racial dissociation, characterized by a disconnection from one’s racial identity and a fragmented sense of self resulting from racial loss. This thesis considers how Korean American literature extends Eng and Han’s provided paradigm of racial melancholia and dissociation transnationally to consider colonized subjects and colonial histories beyond the United States, specifically Japanese colonization of Korea. In tracing racial melancholia as a vestige of Japanese colonialism that is both transnational in scope and intergenerational in impact, I look at three literary texts — Pachinko (2017) by Min Jin Lee, A Gesture Life (1999) by Chang-Rae Lee, and “Yellow” (2001) by Don Lee. I position my analysis of these three texts in this particular order to trace the movement of racial melancholia across generations and countries. As with Pachinko, I focus on Noa whose family moves from Korea to raise him in Japan, then in A Gesture Life, Doc Hata who was born in Japan and moves to the United States, and finally with “Yellow,” Danny who is second-generation Korean American and belongs to the generation after colonization. I argue that not only is racial melancholia born and instilled into the Korean characters during the era of Japanese colonization but it is also an inherited condition that haunts the Korean diaspora. By analyzing racial melancholia in a transnational framework, this thesis proposes that the legacies of Japanese colonialism are reproduced and sustained through the structures of white supremacy.Item Open Access Exploring Optimization of Dextran Based Drug Delivery through Substitutional Investigation and Trigger Modification(2025-07-15) Pollock-O'Dorisio, Natalia; Broaders, KyleThis work explores modified dextran as a drug delivery system from two angles. The first aims to provide an in-depth structural characterization of substitution affinity and heterogeneity of Ac-Dex. The second is an exploration of novel triggers to create an H2S sensitive solubility switching material. This work aims to provide two perspectives into methods of optimization of drug delivery systems based on the polysaccharide dextran. Acetal-modified dextran (Ac-Dex) is a solubility switching polymer. Historically it has been used to form nanoparticles which can encapsulate drugs for targeted release vaccine delivery. It is insoluble in water, but under acidic conditions the acetals hydrolyze, converting it into water soluble dextran. Ac-Dex is prepared through modification of dextran with 2-methoxypropene, generating a heterogeneously modified polymer. Each monomer subunit in dextran has three possible hydroxyls for modification; additionally, the acetals can be either cyclic or linear, meaning there are 12 different possible modifications per monomer. The different types of modification affect the degradation rate of the polymer. It would be ideal to understand the conditions that favor each type of modification so that a more homogenous polymer can be synthesized consistently. This study details the synthesis and use of 1,6-dimethyl glucose for use as a monomeric model compound for dextran, in which the methyl caps simulate the glycosidic bonds of a dextran backbone. We report here on progress toward measuring and synthetically controlling the distribution of acetal modifications on dextran in the formation of Ac-Dex. Modified dextran as a solubility switching polymer has shown promise with a variety of capping mechanisms. H2S has been found to act as a gasseotransmitter within the body. As such it is subject to upregulation in the body in response to certain disease states. It would be desirable to have a targeted delivery method available for H2S associated diseases. In an effort to create an H2S triggered solubility switching polymer based on dextran, an aryl azide was selected as a capping group. This group has shown efficacy in H2S sensing fluorophores and was therefore adopted as a capping group on dextran. This body of work reports on the synthesis and characterization of such a material, as well as its prospects for further adoption.Item Open Access Beyond Recognition: Reconsidering Equality Under a Liberal Rights Framework(2025-07-15) Ruelo, Blessie; Tucker, KennethThis thesis will aim to understand how the establishment and subsequent development of Western human rights frameworks as the solution to social inequality has catalyzed neoliberal hegemony within The United States. By conceptualizing individual sovereignty through civil liberties and the right to private property, how has the instrumentalization of human rights fostered the liberal dimensions of progressive thinking and action? Using Karl Marx’s distinction between political and human emancipation as a basis for this piece, I will analyze and historicize his critique of rights with the contradictions of “universal liberty” demonstrated by the struggle for rights-based recognition fought not only by the bourgeois but marginalized and colonial identities during The French Revolution and The Haitian Revolution. I will then evaluate the post-socialist shift in the 1960-70s where class politics were joined by the emerging language of cultural recognition, examining the rise of Critical Legal Studies as a contemporaneous school of jurisprudential thought to understand how the critique of rights have either been extended or resisted by legal scholars in the advent of postmodernism. With the decline of rights critique in the 1960s, civil rights, in combination with the politicization of identity and multicultural meritocracy, have been instrumentalized to further what Nancy Fraser describes as a hegemonic bloc within the liberal-left called “progressive neoliberalism”. Drawing from Fraser’s claim that “cultural domination [supplanted] exploitation as the fundamental injustice”, I explore how rights frameworks can be remodeled to bridge between political and class struggle within the increasingly fragmented political landscape of The United States.Item Open Access "Becoming European": Spain's Selective Historical Memory and National Identity(2025-07-15) Samiee, Ariana; Khory, Kavita; Romero-Díaz, NievesThe role of historical memory in the formation of national identities is well-documented. Historical memory is a continuous process by which societies piece aspects of the past together to devise a narrative that shapes identities and political action in the present. It lends nations the appearance of naturalness and continuity, creates perceived commonalities among those who identify or are identified as members of nations, and erases potentially divisive or embarrassing parts of history. Global communications, international movements to redress past harms, and political actors’ longstanding tendency to define nations in comparison and opposition to one another mean that historical memory, national identities, and nationalism are increasingly shaped by transnational phenomena. This thesis focuses on the role of historical memory in contemporary constructions of Spain’s national identity, specifically in relation to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship (1939-1975), Muslim rule over the Iberian Peninsula (711-1492), and Spain’s place in European institutions. Spanish politicians, activists, and intellectuals generally express admiration for supranational concepts of “Europe” and European institutions. Some define “Europe” in civic terms by invoking political ideals such as democracy, human rights, and antifascism. Spain diverged from this understanding of “Europe” through the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship. Others define “Europe” ethnically by imagining it as homogeneously white and Christian, but Spain is different from its European neighbors because of medieval Muslim rule. I argue that various individuals and institutions in Spain have employed historical memory to portray their nation as “European” in spite of its past disjunctures from “Europe.” My analysis is informed by a wide range of primary sources in English and Spanish, such as newspapers, polls, legislation, and oral histories; a rich literature on nationalism and the history and contemporary politics of Spain and Europe; and visits to historical sites, monuments, and memorials in Spain.Item Restricted In the Absence of Belonging: Rethinking Sovereignty and Legal Subjecthood in the Interwar Crisis of Statelessness, 1919–1939(2025-07-15) Fan, Xinran; King, Jeremy“In the Absence of Belonging: Rethinking Sovereignty and Legal Subjecthood in the Interwar Crisis of Statelessness, 1919–1939” examines six imaginations generated by mass statelessness in the two decades after World War I. By contextualizing them, I highlight how perceptions of state sovereignty and legal belonging varied in the interwar era. Although states claimed the inviolability of sovereignty (i.e., supreme jurisdiction over their territories and members), understandings about the modern state and subjecthood were under constant debate in the 1920s and 1930s. Attempting to eliminate the statelessness crisis, League of Nations officials, civil servants, and stateless persons adapted previous imperial experiences of layered, hierarchical belongings to the interwar reality. This project challenges scholarly literature that describes the interwar era as a postimperial moment in which nation-states exercised exclusionary policies against national others, rendering thousands of persons stateless. A transition in that direction was perhaps underway, but it was neither predetermined nor unchallenged. Archival materials, including administrative and judicial records, were collected from the National Archives at Kew (the United Kingdom), the League of Nations Archives website, the Shanghai Archives, and the Library of Congress.Item Restricted Bennie: A Revolt Against the Heterosexual Lesbian in American Cinema (A Satirical Horror Short)Smith, Shelby; Montague, ElliotThis thesis explores the intersection of queer feminist theory, monstrosity in the horror genre, and industry experience through the creation of Bennie, a satirical horror short that critiques the misrepresentation of lesbian identity in mainstream cinema. Drawing on influences such as Barbara Hammer’s experimental lesbian aesthetics, the essay reflects on the author's development as a filmmaker at Mount Holyoke College, supported by immersive experiences at Cannes, Sundance, and on a professional film set. In addition to Hammer’s work, the film explores what it means to be a monster—particularly through a queer lens—and how monstrosity can be reclaimed as a symbol of resistance, transformation, and identity. Through the lens of Bennie, the essay challenges the "heterosexual lesbian" trope perpetuated by male-directed films and reclaims horror as a vehicle for queer expression and resistance. Blending narrative and avant-garde elements, Bennie subverts traditional slasher tropes and centers on queer protagonists who resist harmful representation and erasure. The production also served as a collaborative mentorship model, offering over 40 students experiential learning opportunities. Ultimately, the essay advocates for queer-led filmmaking as a means of visibility, solidarity, and cultural change in the face of ongoing political and representational challenges.Item Restricted Investigating Connective Tissue Disorders in Drosophila melanogaster(2025-07-09) Narin, Anna; Woodard, CraigThe Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a wide classification of tissue and joint connectivity disorders, with symptoms primarily manifesting as extended joint flexibility and reduced motor coordination. EDS primarily impacts collagenous tissues, though the exact impact and tissues affected varies among subtypes. For example, classical EDS (cEDS) impacts type I collagen, whereas Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (vEDS) impacts type III. Other varieties of EDS impact connective tissues via a more indirect method. The rare spondylocheirodysplastic subtype (SCD‐EDS / spEDS) impacts the production of a metal ion transporter protein (Xiao and Zhou, 2018). This protein is tasked with the influx of Fe(II) into the ER/golgi, and the efflux of Zn(II) ions into the cytosol (Calap-Quintana et al., 2017). Impacted synthesis of the transporter protein results in a two-factor effect: a build-up of Zn(II) in and a decrease of Fe(II) in the golgi. The Zn(II) ions interfere with the enzymatic activity of Lysyl hydroxylases, which use iron as a cofactor to facilitate a post-translational hydroxylation of lysine residues during collagen synthesis. Hydroxylysine and lysine both contribute to the stabilization of the collagen triple helix through bond networks on the alpha-chain (Eyre, Weis, & Rai, 2019). However, hydroxylysine is more effective due to its additional bonding opportunities. Collagen stability is important for structural support, especially as a component of more complex structures such as basement membranes. Basement membranes are support structures that contribute to the integrity and organization of connective tissues. Collagen type IV is a large component of basement membranes, and malformations in its structure have been linked to EDS subtypes. These malformations can be induced a number of ways, including the method utilized below. In this experiment, I attempted to trigger the development of EDS-like symptoms by reducing Fe(II) availability and therefore causing underhydroxylation of lysine residues, resulting in decreased connective tissue stability. This was done using the competitive relationship between zinc and iron for absorption in the small intestine /midgut, where the excess of one can lead to a deficit of the other (Bettedi et al., 2011). Excess zinc was added by supplementing three different quantities of ZnCl2 into D. melanogaster food. The goal was to reduce Fe(II) availability, therefore weaken the structure of collagen by decreasing the amount of hydroxylysine residues. Post-eclosion, experimental progeny were tested for motor discoordination behavior using flight and climbing assays. Zinc concentration in tissues was quantified using a colorimetric analysis as well. Initial motor assay results suggested positive correlation in failure rates and Zn food concentrations, however further data analysis provided conflicting and inconsistent results.Item Restricted Optimization of RNA display for genetic detection of bacterial RNA-protein interactions(2025-07-09) Desmond, Erin; Berry, KatherineResearch on bacterial virulence has revealed the importance of small RNAs (sRNAs), which assist in bacterial gene regulation through interactions with untranslated regions (UTRs) of messenger RNAs (mRNAs). These interactions, often facilitated by RNA-chaperone proteins, are involved in bacterial growth, stress responses, and virulence, making it important to understand their molecular mechanisms. One promising approach to dissecting the mechanisms of bacterial RNA-protein interactions is a bacterial three-hybrid (B3H) assay developed by our laboratory. This system detects these interactions inside living E. coli cells by connecting the strength of RNA-protein interaction to the expression of a reporter gene. Previous studies demonstrate the B3H assay’s potential to detect interactions between many sRNAs and 3’UTRs with the RNA-chaperone proteins Hfq and ProQ. Still, new constructs are needed to examine interactions with certain classes of RNAs, such as 5’UTRs. Previous work has shown that an exogenous terminator provided to 5'UTR-containing bait constructs causes a detrimental background signal in the B3H. To increase control over how RNAs are expressed and presented within the cell, we are designing novel constructs to provide control over the display of 5'UTRs and prevent background signal. I have focused on affording post-transcriptional control over the RNA bait construct by introducing modifications that would remove the terminator sequence hypothesized to be responsible for background interaction. In this work, I demonstrated that a modified bait RNA construct that contains a self-cleaving ribozyme is capable of decreasing background signal in the B3H assay. Modification of the RNA bait construct to contain a ribozyme enables us to examine what ribozyme classes are capable of cleaving in vivo, as well as mRNA degradation after post-transcriptional processing. While results indicate the ribozyme-modified RNA bait construct is effective in reducing background signal interaction when no 5’UTR is present in the construct, for the application of detecting a broader range of RNA-protein interactions, it was imperative to determine if the presence of a ribozyme disrupted established 5’UTR-protein interactions. My results suggest that a ribozyme in the context of the RNA bait construct cleaves in vivo and does not disrupt 5’UTR-protein interactions. These constructs should greatly improve the scope of RNA-protein interactions that can be studied using the B3H assay.Item Open Access Structured Insights or Preprocessing Artifacts? “Breaking Down” the Impact of Text Chunking Strategies on Topic Model Interpretability(2025-07-09) Marcus, Becky; Gebre-Medhin, BenjaminComputational text analysis (CTA) has become an essential tool for sociologists seeking to extract cultural meaning from texts, particularly with the increased digitization of historical text corpora. Structural Topic Modeling (STM) is a popular exploratory tool for highlighting latent themes in text that warrant further investigation, but with new tools come new challenges for reliability and validity. Most researchers will adhere to the text preprocessing methods suggested in prominent CTA literature, though with some variability in the size of the text chunk, word tokenization, and vocabulary simplifying and filtering. These decisions are often made somewhat uncritically as part of an established methodological procedure yet have the potential to yield markedly different topics and interpretations. Supplementing existing literature on preprocessing strategies for topic models, this study takes a mixed-methods data science approach to evaluate the effect that text unit size has on topic content and prevalence. It analyzes a corpus of presidential addresses from meetings of the American Economic Association from 1888-2022 and includes meeting year as a topic prevalence covariate. Contributing to a larger research effort on social science presidential addresses, this study not only uncovers preliminary patterns in institutional and academic discourse over time but also discusses how text chunking can be aligned with different empirical questions.Item Restricted The molecular characterization of KH-domain proteins in pathogenic gastric bacteria(2025-07-09) Lett, Nay Won; Berry, KatherineItem Open Access What's In a Seed: Considering the Importance of Seedstock and Land Quality in Securing Power in The Colonial Chesapeake Region(2025-07-09) Lancaster, Tessa Hanley; Lauret, SavoyNicotiana tabacum, the species from which all commercial tobacco is derived, was central to the success of early English settlements in the Chesapeake region. Their success would require and accelerate the displacement of Indigenous people from their homelands and the establishment of commercial slavery in North America on a massive scale. During the peak growth of tobacco in the Chesapeake, two strains dominated the market: Sweet-Scented and Oronoco. Current research on Sweet-Scented and Oronoco tobacco has focused on delineating the regions in which each strain could grow based on soil type; however, the research so far ignores the dynamic, evolving nature of N. tabacum as a species. Originating in South America, N. tabacum spread across the colonial world, and its relocation would expose the plant to new selective pressures in each locale. Different populations of tobacco could and would have come in contact with each other depending on how and where seeds were purchased and introduced to the Chesapeake. Therefore, it is also important to consider the evidence that genetic differences between Sweet-Scented and Oronoco tobacco were a major factor in their differentiation. I have used a combination of historiography, primary source analysis, sediment mapping, and a modern biological perspective to create a better understanding of genetic influences on colonial tobacco strains. This work contributes to our collective understanding of what factors enabled specific planters to amass the economic and political power to displace Indigenous populations and institute commercial slavery on a large scale.Item Open Access The Effect of Glial Tau Expression and Traumatic Brain Injury on Heat Shock Protein Expression(2025-07-09) Baako, Ann Kabuki; Colodner, KennethRecent studies examining the brains of footballers and boxers have shown that successive, low-impact traumatic injuries to the head lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a tauopathy characterized by the aggregation of misfolded Tau both in neuronal and glial cells. Glial cells play a crucial role in overall brain health, but the effect of glial Tau aggregation in CTE, as in other tauopathies, remains unclear. In this project, we used a Drosophila model of human glial tauopathy to investigate the effect of both glial Tau expression and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) on the expression of two Heat Shock Proteins (Hsps). Hsps are a class of molecular chaperones that prevent the aggregation of misfolded proteins, and the formation of Tau tangles suggests a deficit in this chaperone system. We have found that Hsp23 and Hsp70 levels attenuate with aging. Moreover, the presence of glial Tau in 3-day-old flies similarly results in a decline in Hsp levels. TBI also leads to a reduction in Hsp70 levels in young flies that do not express glial Tau, while Hsp levels in older flies were resistant to TBI-induced changes. Our results indicate that the Hsp chaperone system is indeed affected by TBI and compromised in tauopathies; the Hsp chaperone system represents a pathological pathway that may be targeted in an attempt to combat tauopathies.Item Open Access Connections in Conversation: Dialogue Rooted in Equity(2025-07-08) Delamere, Katherine; Gebre-Medhin, BenjaminThis thesis analyzes filmed dialogues that center interracial and intergroup understanding through small group communication. This research seeks to deepen understandings of structures and power dynamics in communication networks at the intersection of social network analysis, communication analysis, and restorative justice principles. Examining seven filmed dialogues, including five intergroup identity-based dialogues and two restorative justice circles, through computational techniques to analyze the transcripts using social network analysis, centrality measures, and sentiment analysis, this research illuminates the relationship between communication, dialogic connection, and social power structures. This research finds that these filmed identity-based intergroup dialogues center the narratives and emotional arcs of the white participants, and, more often than not, use the participants of color as educators instead of equally included participants. Further, this research finds that white participants often expressed higher sentiment scores than participants of color, and that their sentiment scores followed how positively or negatively they felt about their place in a racialized society. By centering the emotional and educational stories and arcs of understanding of the white participants, these filmed intergroup identity-based dialogues reinforce the very racial injustices that they claim to work toward dismantling.Item Restricted Tracing Anxieties: American Missionary Schools in Turkey and the Figure of the Spy(2025-07-08) Yildiz, Gunes; Watson, Matthew C.Approximately 450 American missionary schools were established between the nineteenth century and the Ottoman Empire’s collapse. Currently, only five of them exist in the form of high schools and universities in the Republic of Turkey. During the reign of Sultan Abdülhamit (1876-1909), these schools were tightly controlled by the “Yıldız Intelligence Organization.” This led to the closure of many schools and the deportation of some missionaries on the grounds that they participated in spy work or instigated minority uprisings. Rumors and conspiracy theories about existing missionary schools persist today. In my research over the summer of 2024, I traced past and present anxieties, particularly those relating to accusations of espionage, through archival research, ethnographic interviews, and fieldwork. In this thesis, rather than proving or disproving such theories and allegations, I aim to examine how the figure of the spy has been socially constructed in the Turkish context.Item Open Access Effects of Climate Change Factors on Hypericum perforatum Presence in New England(2025-07-08) Gerbi, Elizabeth; Hoopes, MarthaABSTRACT Climate change effects throughout the globe cause increased ecosystem disturbance risk from invasive species. Common St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a forb native to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, and considered an invasive weed in the northwestern United States. H. perforatum is present in New England, but appears to be non-invasive. Climate change is highly affecting New England temperatures and precipitation variability, which could have a species-dependent effect on invasives, either facilitating or discouraging invasion. As climate change alters New England climate and ecosystems, the shift in conditions could facilitate H. perforatum growth, possibly spurring invasion in New England. This research examines changes in temperature and water availability on H. perforatum both alone and combined with competition and disturbance. Water availability was the most important factor in H. perforatum germination in this study. Increased temperature facilitated germination when combined with consistent water availability but inhibited germination when combined with variable watering. Disturbance and competition both led to low germination and survival rates although a combination of consistent water and heat increased both. The current climate conditions in New England appear favorable for H. perforatum invasion, but non-climate factors likely best explain the current lack of H. perforatum invasion.