IDA
Mount Holyoke College Institutional Digital Archive
The Institutional Digital Archive (IDA) is a service that collects, preserves, and showcases the scholarly work of MHC's faculty and students. Some materials are restricted to the campus community and require an MHC login to access.
Communities in IDA
Select a community to browse its collections.
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
- This is an archive of United States immigration sanctuary policies that were passed from 2001-2014. The archive contains four main collections organized by policy type: Executive Orders; Ordinances; Policing Policies; and Resolutions. There are 234 policies in the archive. Welcome!
- This community houses data collected on campus as part of the Campus Living Laboratory Initiative. Data include those collected from environmental monitoring stations, as a result of faculty and student independent projects, or data collected in labs or other collection exercises. Datasets are presented with varying levels of access as described by the party responsible for uploading the data.
- Repositories for retaining data and scholarly research of the Mount Holyoke College faculty
- Repositories for retaining data, scholarly research, and academic output of Mount Holyoke College students
Recent Submissions
Bennie: A Revolt Against the Heterosexual Lesbian in American Cinema (A Satirical Horror Short)
Smith, Shelby; Montague, Elliot
This 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.
Investigating Connective Tissue Disorders in Drosophila melanogaster
Narin, Anna; Woodard, Craig
The 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.
Optimization of RNA display for genetic detection of bacterial RNA-protein interactions
Desmond, Erin; Berry, Katherine
Research 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.
Structured Insights or Preprocessing Artifacts? “Breaking Down” the Impact of Text Chunking Strategies on Topic Model Interpretability
Marcus, Becky; Gebre-Medhin, Benjamin
Computational 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.
The molecular characterization of KH-domain proteins in pathogenic gastric bacteria
(2025-07-09) Lett, Nay Won; Berry, Katherine